Dwyer persevered through painful journey to shine for Illinois State

Jack Dwyer's football journey has been a painful one.

When playing in high school at Lake Zurich, he broke a bone in his lower leg as a junior, then a knee sprain shortened his senior COVID season.

Moving onto Illinois State, he dealt with a partial ACL tear as a sophomore. Then the following spring, he suffered a nasty combination of dislocated shoulder and broken collarbone.

Calling it quits crossed his mind a few times, but he stuck with it. Now he's a starting safety, hoping to help lead the Redbirds back into the FCS playoffs. No. 11-ranked Illinois State (8-3) will finish the regular season Saturday by hosting Southern Illinois (6-5).

“It was the best decision I ever made,” Dwyer said this week. “There were several times where I was really close to walking into coach (Brock) Spack's office and telling him, 'My body's given up on me, I can't keep doing this.'

“The best decision I ever made was to keep going, because it's definitely worth it now. This is the most fun I've had in a season ever.”

Dwyer's injury story goes even deeper. His older brother Luke was an all-conference linebacker who played next to current Dallas Cowboys defender Jack Sanborn on Lake Zurich's state finals team in 2017.

But after earning a scholarship from North Dakota State, Luke had to medically retire during his freshman season. Bryan Sanborn, one of Jack Dwyer's best friends growing up, also medically retired from football while following his older brother's path at Wisconsin.

Dwyer expects his brother to be in Normal this weekend for Senior Day.

“He's doing really well,” Dwyer said of Luke. “He's got one of the smartest football minds I've ever met. He's always watching our games, analyzing coverages. I'll get done with a game and he'll text me or give me a call and ask why we're running these coverages. He's really invested in it. It's really cool.”

What about being the younger brother of a hard-hitting linebacker? Was that cool, because it could go in few directions?

“He was a little rough, but he was a great mentor, just the definition of leading by example,” Dwyer said with a laugh. “He was the guy at practice who wasn't very vocal, wasn't yelling at people, but the hardest worker and doing everything he's asked to do. Just a really good role model for me.”

Dwyer is one of two Illinois State defensive starters from the suburbs, joining linebacker Patrick Bauer (St. Viator). One of Dwyer's roommates the past four years has been starting quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse (St. Francis).

Prior to this season, Dwyer had only played special teams. His first college start was in the season opener at Oklahoma.

“A welcome to college football moment, for sure,” he said. “It was a blast. I think the sixth play of the game, I forced a fumble. That was really, really exciting.”

Two weeks later, Dwyer got his first interception against Eastern Illinois. He missed two games this fall with another collarbone injury but is healthy heading into SIU.

“(The broken collarbone/dislocated shoulder), that was honestly a really tough one,” he said. “I was really considering just calling it there. Really happy I didn't, fought through it and I'm starting in my fifth year, so it's all definitely worth it.”

FCS playoffs take shape

Illinois State should be in a good spot to make the FCS playoffs win or lose this week, especially after a 35-21 road win at then-No. 15 South Dakota State last weekend. The playoff selection show is 11 a.m. Sunday.

One problem — the IHSA football finals are set for Hancock Stadium next weekend, so if the Redbirds stay at the No. 11 seed, they'll have to play on the road in the first round. The top eight seeds get byes in the 24-team tournament.

One change to the FCS playoffs, the Ivy League will participate for the first time. So Harvard is a potential opponent.

The one area Division III playoff game this weekend, Wheaton hosting Crown College of Minnesota, is a noon kickoff.

Division II success story

Antioch grad TreShawn Watson would have led all of Division II in receiving yards with 122 per game. But his season was cut short after six games due to a hip injury. He's at Minnesota State, which did make the playoffs, after spending three years at Illinois State.

Watson is hoping to follow the same path as a famous MSU grad to reach the NFL. Before becoming a household name with the Vikings, Adam Thielen played in college at Minnesota State. Watson spent some time with Thielen during the offseason.