2017 Western Illinois Leathernecks football team

2017 Western Illinois Leathernecks football
FCS Playoffs First Round, L 19–21 vs. Weber State
Conference	Missouri Valley Football Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 13
FCS Coaches	No. 12
Record	8–4 (5–3 MVFC)
Head coach	Charlie Fisher (2nd season)
Co-offensive coordinator	Doug Malone (2nd season)
Co-offensive coordinator	Jared Elliott (1st season)
Defensive coordinator	Tony Grantham (1st season)
Home stadium	Hanson Field (Capacity: 17,128)

2017 Missouri Valley Football Conference standings

	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 1 North Dakota State $^		7	–	1					14	–	1
No. 3 South Dakota State ^		6	–	2					11	–	3
No. 19 Northern Iowa ^		6	–	2					8	–	5
No. 13 Western Illinois ^		5	–	3					8	–	4
No. 15 South Dakota ^		4	–	4					8	–	5
Illinois State		4	–	4					6	–	5
Youngstown State		4	–	4					6	–	5
Southern Illinois		2	–	6					4	–	7
Missouri State		2	–	6					3	–	8
Indiana State		0	–	8					0	–	11
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

The 2017 Western Illinois Leathernecks football team represented Western Illinois University in the 2017 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by second-year head coach Charlie Fisher and played their home games at Hanson Field. They were a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC). They finished the season 8–4, 5–3 in MVFC play to finish in fourth place. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs where they lost to Weber State in the first round.

On December 22, Fisher resigned to become the wide receivers coach at Arizona State. He finished at Western Illinois with a two-year record of 14–9.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 31	6:00 p.m.	at Tennessee Tech*	No. 25	Tucker Stadium Cookeville, TN	OVCDN	W 41–14	7,886
September 9	6:00 p.m.	at Northern Arizona*	No. 22	Walkup Skydome Flagstaff, AZ	Pluto TV	W 38–20	9,053
September 23	5:30 p.m.	at Coastal Carolina*	No. 19	Brooks Stadium Conway, SC	ESPN3	W 52–10	14,996
September 30	3:00 p.m.	No. 10 South Dakota	No. 13	Hanson Field Macomb, IL	ESPN3	L 33–38	5,631
October 7	4:00 p.m.	at Northern Iowa	No. 15	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, IA	ESPN3	W 38–29	12,642
October 14	3:00 p.m.	Missouri State	No. 14	Hanson Field Macomb, IL	ESPN3	W 49–30	3,217
October 21	2:30 p.m.	at No. 2 North Dakota State	No. 10	Fargodome Fargo, ND	ESPN3	L 12–24	18,630
October 28	1:00 p.m.	No. 11 South Dakota State	No. 12	Hanson Field Macomb, IL	ESPN3	L 24–52	2,247
November 4	12:00 p.m.	at No. 12 Illinois State	No. 15	Hancock Stadium Normal, IL	ESPN3	W 31–14	13,192
November 11	12:00 p.m.	at Indiana State	No. 11	Memorial Stadium Terre Haute, IN	ESPN3	W 45–0	3,173
November 18	1:00 p.m.	Southern Illinois	No. 9	Hanson Field Macomb, IL	ESPN3	W 28–14	2,812
November 25	3:00 p.m.	at No. 11 Weber State*	No. 9	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT (FCS Playoffs First Round)	ESPN3	L 19–21	6,876
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS FCS Poll released prior to game Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

• Source: Schedule

Game summaries

at Tennessee Tech

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 25 Leathernecks	3	7	24	7	41
Golden Eagles	0	0	0	14	14

See also: 2017 Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

at Northern Arizona

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 22 Leathernecks	7	10	14	7	38
Lumberjacks	0	7	6	7	20

See also: 2017 Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1–1	2016	WIU, 34–20

at Coastal Carolina

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 19 Leathernecks	7	14	21	10	52
Chanticleers	10	0	0	0	10

See also: 2017 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1–1	2015	CCU, 34–27

South Dakota

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 10 Coyotes	7	17	14	0	38
No. 13 Leathernecks	0	6	14	13	33

See also: 2017 South Dakota Coyotes football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
5–2	2016	WIU, 35–34

at Northern Iowa

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 15 Leathernecks	3	2	13	20	38
Panthers	0	14	0	15	29

See also: 2017 Northern Iowa Panthers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
14–31	2016	UNI, 30–23

Missouri State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	14	7	3	6	30
No. 14 Leathernecks	7	6	15	21	49

See also: 2017 Missouri State Bears football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
16–17–1	2016	WIU, 38–35

at North Dakota State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 10 Leathernecks	9	3	0	0	12
No. 2 Bison	3	7	14	0	24

See also: 2017 North Dakota State Bison football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–6	2016	NDSU, 21–13

South Dakota State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 11 Jackrabbits	10	14	21	7	52
No. 12 Leathernecks	10	7	0	7	24

See also: 2017 South Dakota State Jackrabbits football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
5–9	2016	SDSU, 52–14

at Illinois State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 15 Leathernecks	0	0	17	14	31
No. 12 Redbirds	7	7	0	0	14

See also: 2017 Illinois State Redbirds football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
50–46–3	2016	ILST, 31–26

at Indiana State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 11 Leathernecks	3	28	7	7	45
Sycamores	0	0	0	0	0

See also: 2017 Indiana State Sycamores football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
25–15	2016	WIU, 36–35

Southern Illinois

	1	2	3	4	Total
Salukis	0	0	0	14	14
No. 9 Leathernecks	0	14	7	7	28

See also: 2017 Southern Illinois Salukis football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
35–23–4	2016	SIU, 44–34

FCS Playoffs

at Weber State–First Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 9 Leathernecks	3	3	6	7	19
No. 11 Wildcats	0	14	0	7	21

See also: 2017 Weber State Wildcats football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–0	1976	WIU, 21–19

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
RV = Received votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	25	22	20	19	13	15	14	10	12	15	11	9	9	13
Coaches	RV	RV	22	21	16	18	17	12	14	18	13	10	10	12