2017 Western Illinois Leathernecks football team

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.

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
2017 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

On December 22, Fisher resigned to become the wide receivers coach at Arizona State.[1] 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.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place 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

References

1. https://sports.yahoo.com/western-illinois-shows-big-downside-early-signing-period-175419555.html