A strange season for Illinois State football — and NFL draft hopeful Drew Himmelman — takes another turn: An abrupt ending after 4 games

NFL offensive line prospect Drew Himmelman’s unusual senior season took another twist Sunday afternoon.

Himmelman and his Illinois State teammates had just finished watching film of their game against Western Illinois — the fourth game of a season that was pushed to the spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic — when coach Brock Spack called them to the football field.

With four games remaining, Spack called off the Redbirds season because he felt depth issues, most notably on the defensive line, threatened the health of his players and potentially the shape of the 2021 fall season.

There had been rumors around the Redbirds about such a possibility, Himmelman said, but players still were disappointed. And for Himmelman, who decided to play in the delayed season in lieu of traditional draft preparation, absorbing such an announcement was emotional.

“I was very surprised,” he said by phone Wednesday. “It was kind of overwhelming because obviously you don’t want your last college season to end like that. And it’s just such a weird situation in general, so definitely a lot of feelings.

“I guess through this whole pandemic, one lesson we’ve all learned is never take anything for granted.”

The 6-foot-10, 325-pound Himmelman, a left tackle from Geneseo, Ill., was the rare draft prospect who played the FCS spring season, which in full runs close to the April 29-May 1 draft. ISU safety Christian Uphoff, who with Himmelman received an invitation to the canceled NFL scouting combine, opted out of the season. Defensive lineman Romeo McKnight, another draft prospect, transferred to Charlotte so he could play in the fall.

After an All-America season in 2019, Himmelman believed showing NFL teams his strength and the improvements he’s trying to make in quickness and agility during games was his best bet. Along with the combine, the East-West Shrine Bowl to which he received an invitation was canceled, and he skipped testing at ISU’s March 17 pro day because he hadn’t been training for it, doing only measurements and position drills instead.

So Spack’s decision, which has had a mixed reception on social media, initiated a big change of plans.

‘I don’t know what they want us to do’

One day after he gave his team the news, Spack told reporters on a video conference call he was “heartbroken” over ending the season early but said it would be irresponsible to continue because of health concerns.

Spack said the team had 34 fewer players than it did in the fall for various reasons, including seniors such as McKnight and Uphoff deciding to move on.

Spack, who has been ISU’s coach since 2009, said the Redbirds were five deep at each of their three defensive line positions in the fall, but because of departures and injuries, they now are without all five of their defensive tackles, their top three defensive ends and three nose guards. The Pantagraph wrote of Spack’s concerns about the depth on the line in January, well before the season started.

Among the most notable absences are McKnight and Steven Podkulski, who had a career-ending neck injury in the fall. Jakob Thomas suffered a knee injury in November. Jason Lewan (foot), Jude Okolo (concussion), D’Marco Cross (knee) and Luke McCall (hip) were injured during the season, and John Ridgeway was playing through a hand/thumb injury, according to an ISU official.

Those absences were limiting the defensive line rotation in games.

“It’s not like baseball where you can bring a center fielder in to play shortstop or a right fielder to go pitch a few innings,” Spack said. “This is 300-pound men, and you might be taking on 650 pounds on a double team and you’ve got a guy who is whacking your outside knee because clipping is legal at the line of scrimmage. This is serious.

“This is a tough position to learn, to get ready for, to be strong enough to play. It takes a long time to develop these kids, and when you get wiped out like that, there’s no way you can bring somebody else in that hasn’t been playing that position and say, ‘We’re going to get you ready in three days to play a game.’ It’s impossible.”

Defensive lineman Jacob Powell told reporters on a video call the Redbirds didn’t have enough bodies at practice to go two deep, and he said the workload was becoming tough.

“To continue playing would have been extremely rough,” he said. “The guys we had left out of the three or four of us, pretty much all of us are really banged up as it is. Everybody wants to play, but at the end of the day you have to understand the situation that we’re in.”

Spack held a meeting with team leaders Sunday morning to tell them his thoughts and hear their opinions. He also conducted a video call with players’ parents, who he said were positive and appreciative for his decision.

Himmelman said his parents were upset that he was upset. But they also were happy he walked away from the season healthy and they wanted his teammates to do the same.

In a statement, Illinois State athletic director Kyle Brennan supported Spack’s decision, and Spack said he heard similar expressions of support from donors and other coaches.

Some on social media weren’t as kind.

Dozens left comments on various stories about the decision, several questioning whether Spack would have continued playing if the team had a better record than 1-3. Spack said he would take the criticism but didn’t want it directed at the players.

“I don’t know what they want us to do,” he said. “We cannot play. We don’t have enough defensive linemen to play. I don’t know what we could do to play right now.

“This is not about toughness, mental or physical. These kids are tough. And it’s not about wins and losses. It’s about the safety of these players, and it was just a bad deal for us and there’s no way we could recover from it.”

Moving forward

Despite the way it ended, Himmelman said he doesn’t regret staying on for his final season.

He played in all four games — “better than nothing,” he said — and now will focus on what’s ahead.

“It’s obviously not the way I wanted it to go or the way I thought it would go, but I try not to live with any regrets or play the what-if game,” Himmelman said. “So I’m happy I came back.”

He spoke with the ISU strength coach to put together a six-week workout plan to build strength and power and add weight. He will work with trainers to get his body healed before potentially joining an NFL team’s offseason program — the additional rest being the silver lining of the season’s cancellation. And he will continue to work with his position coach so he stays sharp with his technique and footwork.

Himmelman projects as a Day 3 pick, with draft website walterfootball.com putting him in the seventh round/undrafted free agent range.

ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. mentioned Himmelman on a March 1 conference call when asked who could be the next Jeremy Chinn, the Southern Illinois safety who was drafted in the second round last year and started 15 games for the Carolina Panthers. Kiper pointed to Uphoff, who is from Peoria, as a potential third-round pick and added Himmelman could be a fourth- or fifth-rounder.

Himmelman is ready to see what’s ahead.

“The last couple of days were a lot of emotion,” he said. “It was really a roller coaster transitioning from, OK, my college career is officially done to now I have this opportunity in front of me that I have to work for. It definitely is exciting. It’s something I’ve dreamed of for a long time, so to be five, six weeks away is crazy.”

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