Spoo faces a familiar foe in Spack
After 25 years as a collegiate coach, Brock Spack finally earned his shot as head coach, and his return starts in a pretty recognizable place.
Spack – who leads Illinois State for the first time today at 7 p.m. in its season opener against the Panthers – is quite familiar with the Eastern football program, and with Panthers head coach Bob Spoo.
Because while Spack enters tonight’s game as a first-year head coach, he and Spoo go much further back.
“Coach Spoo recruited me at Purdue and we’ve had a long-standing relationship since then,” said Spack, who later went on to spend four years on the Eastern sidelines as Spoo’s assistant coach in charge of linebackers, the defensive line and recruiting.
Spack played college football at Purdue during Spoo’s tenure as assistant coach with the Boilermakers.
After Spack graduated from Purdue he came to Eastern to earn his master’s degree. It was at that time Spoo was hired at Eastern and began his 23-year (and counting) reign as head coach.
“He’s a great young man. I’m proud to have had him on my staff,” Spoo said during Tuesday’s Ohio Valley Conference teleconference. “It’s nice to know that people who have worked for you have succeeded in this profession and gone on to bigger and better things.”
Spack, who hasn’t been back to the campus since leaving for Purdue in 1990, said his return is ‘ironic.’
“This was my first stop and my big break into coaching,” said Spack, who takes over a Redbirds squad that finished 3-8 last season. “It’s bittersweet in a lot of ways. I haven’t been back there since I left. I’ve come close to coming over, but something has always come up.”
Spack said even as an assistant at Purdue, he always felt nerves going into the first game of the season and today will be no different. He said the fact that his Redbirds have a brand new offense that Eastern coaches aren’t able to fully prepare for has both its advantages and disadvantages.
“We’ve never run the offense in a live game, so that’s a disadvantage,” Spack said. “With offense, it’s all about timing and it’s hard to simulate a live football game. But there’s still a little advantage since they haven’t seen us.”
This year’s Redbirds feature sophomore, quarterback Drew Kiel, who served as Illinois State’s backup a year ago. The Redbirds also return senior running back Geno Blow, who ran for 704 yards and scored seven touchdowns a year ago, and senior wide receiver Eyad Salem, a First Team All-Valley selection a year ago after compiling 843 yards and eight receiving touchdowns.
Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.
