NDSU's football opponent can pile up points, but coach would prefer to see better "D"

By Jeff Kolpack

October 13, 2010 at 11:00 PM

It's all about scoring at Illinois State, which has a prolific offense and a defense that has given up points like a high school 9-man football team.

It's not the style of second-year head coach Brock Spack, who grew up in a tough, physical Big Ten Conference environment that placed an emphasis on defense.

"I don't like it at all," Spack said. "We're really struggling to find ourselves. I'm a defensive coach by trade and I'd rather play good defense."

The Redbirds are 3-3 heading into its homecoming game against North Dakota State. They threw a complete defensive effort in one game - a 24-14 win at South Dakota State. Otherwise, it's been a virtual free-for-all, giving up an average of 45.8 points.

The latest was a shocking 59-24 loss to Indiana State last Saturday.

"We were balanced," said Indiana State head coach Trent Miles. "We sprinkled in some passing and took some shots, ran a controlled passing game and that's about it."

That doesn't bode well for the Redbirds. NDSU emphasizes a balanced attack with its power running game and play-action passing philosophy.

"They're back to their usual ways," Spack said.

The Redbirds would just like to get back to the usual way of playing defense. It just may take time.

Two freshmen are starting, but Spack said seven see regular duty. Three other starters are sophomores.

"It's difficult for us to do a lot of things schematically because we're not very experienced," he said. "We're really struggling to find ourselves ... so we've gone back to the drawing board."

To address it, Spack said the emphasis in recruiting is speed on defense. A former assistant at Purdue, he said a priority when he took the ISU job was to fix the defense.

"When I was in the (Western Athletic Conference), everybody put their fast guys on offense and just hung on and slowed them down defensively," Spack said. "In the Big Ten, the best athletes play defense and that has to be the mindset here. When we came in here, we didn't have fast players defensively and we have to try and improve that."

Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack can be heard on the Saturday Morning Sports Show, 9-11 a.m. on WDAY-AM (970). He can be reached at (701) 241-5546.

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.