SB Nation - Landon Cox

Postseason Huskie Hardware Roundup

Mike Breese — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:43:47 -0000

We on award tour with Chad Spann my man

Goin each and every place with a ball in his hand

Off-tackle, left, right, to the endzone

We on award tour with JO and Eddie A

Driving and pushing the big uglies to the ground

Run-block, cut-block, pass-block, pancake

We on award tour with Corporal Coffman

Switch him to D-Tackle, he's still the best

Swim move, bull rush, tipped pass, sack lunch

All-MAC Teams (As voted on by the Coaches)

Phil Steele's 2009 Postseason All-MAC Team

Team Awards (Voted on by the players)

Offense

C Eddie Adamski - 1st Team (Coaches, PS), Co-Top OL

LG Jason Onyebuagu - 1st Team (Coaches, PS), Most Inspirational Player, Co-Top OL

RB Chad Spann - 1st Team (Coaches), 2nd Team (PS), Offensive MVP, Overall MVP, Top RB

RB Me'co Brown - 3rd Team (Coaches, PS)

LT Trevor Olson - 3rd Team (PS)

WR Landon Cox - 4th Team (PS), Top WR, Frank Cahill (WR) Award

Defense

DE Jake Coffman - 2nd Team (Coaches), 1st Team (PS), Defensive MVP, Co-Top DL, Jawan Jackson (Walk-on) Award

DE Brandon Bice - 2nd Team (Coaches), 4th Team (PS)

DT D.J. Pirkle - Co-Top DL

DE Sean Progar - 2nd Team Freshman All-American (PS), Freshman of the Year

SS Tracy Wilson - 3rd Team (PS), Top DB

LB Cory Hanson - 4th Team (PS), Top LB

Special Teams

K Mike Salerno - 2nd Team (Coaches), 3rd Team (PS), Special Teams POY

PR Tommy Davis - 3rd Team (Coaches), 4th Team (PS)

A 31-45 loss to the deserving West Champs leaves the Huskies wanting more

Mike Breese — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:46:52 -0000

More photos » by Duane Burleson - AP

Dan LeFevour. Enough said.

Browse more photos »

I'd just like to say that I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving weekend. It was pretty exhausting for myself, but it was a great time and got to see some relatives on the west coast I had not seen in a while. Although I did miss the game on Friday as I was busy traveling, I watched the replay on ESPN360.com. I had seen some negative comments on the message board, but overall I thought it was a hard-fought game against the best team in the conference on a short week on the road.

Hats off to QB Dan LeFevour, RB Bryan Schroeder and the rest of the Chippewas. The best QB in the MAC was absolutely unstoppable and is reaching the apex of his season. He could do nothing wrong passing for 255 yds and 3 TDs. The Chips ran right at the Huskies, as Schroeder powered through for 128 yds and 2 TDs on only 9 carries and caught 4 passes for 41 yds and a TD. LeFevour is a sure-fire NFL prospect and proved it today. His pocket awareness is untouchable and was a pro at running the same offense he has been running for 4 years now.

The Huskies did what they could on offense and defense, but silly mistakes put the Huskies down too much early as they tried to make a furious comeback at the end of the game. The stat of the game was 3rd down conversions. NIU was 4 of 12 (33%) whereas CMU was 12 of 18 (67%).

The ball didn't bounce the right way for the Huskies on Friday, but they put up a tremendous effort. It must have been tough facing both the East (Ohio) and West Champs in consecutive weeks. For a team that was predicted to finish in the bottom half of the West, I was impressed.

Here's a positional breakdown of what I saw against the Chips in Mt. Pleasant:

Quarterback

It's clear that Chandler Harnish was not in a groove the entire game. First of all, you could clearly tell that his knee hasn't healed completely. He didn't look confident in the pocket and didn't have full speed on his runs. Another thing that messed up the offensive rhythm is the times that DeMarcus Grady filled in at QB. It was so painstakingly obvious that he was going to run the ball. We could have been more creative putting either one of the QBs in motion and sending them out wide or in the slot. Just keep Harnish behind center, especially early in the game when you're trying to get your footing.

Chandler had trouble handling snaps from Adamski at a couple different parts of the game. Sometimes, Harnish just held on to the ball too long. This could be accredited to Harnish himself, the offensive line protection or the wide receivers not getting open. He threw two interceptions late, which again could have just been miscommunications or bad throws. Looked like he was just trying to force it too much and needs to work on feeling out the blitz.

Running Back

This game reminded me of how much I love it when Chad Spann runs the ball. He started the game because Me'co Brown was out with an ankle injury. Are we seriously going to have to kidnap Me'co Brown to get Spann more carries next season? We should nickname him Mr. September, because the smaller back seems to breakdown come the latter part of the season.

Even though Spann looked awesome running the ball, you could clearly tell that his shoulder was not 100%. He had a critical fumble and then a dropped pass late in the game. A healthy Spann doesn't make those mistakes. More awesomeness from the postgame notes:

***Chad Spann scored his 19th rushing touchdown of the season (and 20th overall) to tie the Northern Illinois single season record for rushing scores. Spann tied the record owned by Stacey Robinson (1989 and 1990) and Michael Turner (2002). He also moved up to tie Turner for second on the Huskies' list for single season touchdowns with 20, trailing only Garrett Wolfe's 21 in 2004. Spann's 120 points on the year are also tied for second in a single season.

Wide Receivers

As a whole, way, way too many drops. I'm including the TEs and RBs in the passing game. Outcome would have been a lot different had they been able to catch everything thrown to them.

Martel Moore is an absolute beast. He made 3 highlight reel catches for 61 yds and almost a 4th that got knocked down. AND HE'S ONLY A TRUE FRESHMAN! He will be a future MAC star.

Landon Cox looked worn out in this game. Maybe being the only reliable WR all season finally caught up to him. He caught a TD pass early, but later on the game he had a couple drops and left the field with an injury.

Marcus Lewis was all over the place in his last regular-season game as a Huskie. He starts off the game as the go-to guy, catching 3 passes. The end of the 1st, he goes all alligator arms and doesn't catch the pass in his vicinity. Then comes the offensive pass interference. In the 4th quarter he had a SICK crack-back block on a Harnish scramble for a first. And in the final offensive drive for the Huskies, he scores the touchdown. Crazy, crazy game for the 4th year senior.

Offensive Line

It took all season, but the lack of depth really started to show as Panan Tense made his first start of his career for Adam Kiel at RT. There was just way too much pressure on Harnish the entire game. OL has to be a major focus this offseason to improve through recruiting. Joe Pawlak is a little trigger happy.

Defensive Line

Nobody could really get any pressure on Dan LeFevour, but who really can? Got cut up in the rushing game giving up 6.3 ypc to the Chippewa rushers. CMU just ran it up the middle with Schroeder. Same with the O-Line, the depth on this side of the ball has been severely depleted especially with Brian Lawson's late season hand injury. Jake Coffman had 6 tackles and Bice finished with 3 tackles and a sack.

Linebackers

Just a whole lot of meh. The starters looked like their feet were in ice blocks. A lot of overpursuing, which gave CMU the chance to execute screen passes. The only bright spot I saw was Tyrone Clark making a couple of big hits. He also was the player that tipped the ball up so that Patrick George could return the ball for a TD late in the game. The true freshman has been making great plays all season long. Both Schiller & Hanson had 9 tackles a piece and #53 was accredited with the forced fumble.

Defensive Backs

Senior David Bryant started at FS in his last regular-season game, but the rust from being sidelined most of the season was very evident. Dan LeFevour's stiff arm of him was highlight reel stuff. He did, however recover the fumble late in the game. SS Tracy Wilson racked up his 10 tackles a game average in this one.

CB Chris Smith IS A MAN. He played out of his goddamn mind in this game. Just awesome, hard tackles the entire game long. He's the best tackling CB we've had in a long, long time. Not bad for a JUCO transfer in his first year.

One thing I didn't get was all the soft coverage by the CBs on 3rd downs. It was just ridiculous. A player only has to go so far to get a 1st down and you're backed up even further than that. Yes, Kiaree Daniels I'm looking at you. 12 of 18 on 3rd downs is just ridiculous. Tommy Davis had some trouble in the tackling department as a backup. PG didn't have a stellar game either, but did return that INT for a touchdown late.

Special Teams

F*CK RUGBY PUNTS

This is not a personnel problem, this is a coaching problem. Sure, the Mike Salerno's 9 yard punt was into the wind but seriously... Josh Wilber and his monster leg hasn't played since Akron. Talk about under-utilized.

Coaching

These Huskies never gave up, right until the bitter end. Talk about getting this team up to play when they're down 10-38. There was a distinct difference in terms of talent and personnel between both teams, but I felt that the coaches did a decent job of switching things up. An offseason favor: No more 9 yard punts.

So what's next?

We wait, and then we wait some more. The MAC Championship is this Friday and bowl invitations will be sent soon after that. Navy doesn't take on Army until December 12th, so we may not know who our opponent will be in our potential bowl game until then. So now the most important thing to do is heal the bumps and bruises, hit the recruiting trail and keep in game shape. There's a bowl game on the horizon.

The 3rd Phase Failure in Athens

Mike Breese — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:28:58 -0000

I thought Brazill was a country (via farm3.static.flickr.com)

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Football is a game of three phases: Offense Defense & Special Teams. Every category is important and can win (or lose) a game single-handedly. As Kill would liken the loss to a 'game of Inches', I would say that we lost the game by many, many yards given up on the special teams side of things. And through penalties.

(Not so) Special Teams

There's just something about our coverage teams that hasn't been right ever since the Phillip Livas fiasco in the Independence Bowl last year. Purdue exploited it earlier this year for a return for a touchdown.

Mike Salerno kicks the opening kickoff to Ohio's 1 yd line and Chris Garrett returns the ball 69 yds to NIU's 35 yd line. Some would blame the defense for giving up a TD on the first offensive drive of the game. If the Huskies were to maintain coverage on the kickoff, then the Bobcats would have still been on their own side of the field after going 35 yds. Instead, they got to the endzone.

The offense gets the ball and goes on a modest drive to mid-field. Salerno boots a rugby punt to the 9 yd line and guess who is there to return it? LaVon Brazill, arguably the fastest player in green and white and the guy that just scored a touchdown for Ohio. We should have either booted it really high or through the endzone, but the line drive was returned by Brazill 91 yds to put the Bobcats up 14-0. It was the longest punt return for a TD in Ohio history.

The "rugby punt" that Kill seems to like has been met harsh criticism by fans. The result is a quick, sometimes bouncing, line-drive punt towards the sidelines sometimes giving the returner too much time to think about where he's going to go. A standard high, booming punt is not going to give the returner enough time to return the ball before the coverage team gets there.

Flash forward to the start of the second half.

The offense stalls because of penalties, so we punt it off to Ohio. We manage to stop them on a 3rd down run, so they decide to punt. Jordan Delegal comes off the edge and not only is he offsides, he roughs the kicker trying to make a play. Ohio didn't do anything that drive, but it just put the defense on the field a few more plays than it should have. A critical mistake, especially when it's a 14-14 tie game.

The only bright spot of ST was when Tyrone Clark made a heads up tackle to force Brazill to fumble in the 3rd, so we only had to go 12 yds and go up 21-17 on a Spann TD.

After NIU takes their last lead of the game at 28-24, they kickoff and Ohio returns it to the 27-yd line. But wait, there's a flag on the field an it's Jordan Delegal AGAIN with a 15-yard personal foul. Ohio starts on the 42 and drives a short field against an exhausted defense to go ahead 31-28.

Look #29, I know you had a bunch of offers to SEC schools before you went the JUCO route to Northern, but come on man. If you want to start on the weak side after Cory Hanson graduates, you're going to have to play smarter than that.

Defense

Just looking at the stats, the defense did their fair share of work to win the game. They held Ohio to only 228 yds! Ohio only converted 4 of 13 on 3rd downs, now that is impressive.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt giving up the first TD to Brazill. Ohio only had to go 35 yds. Then look what they accomplished after that:

04:02	1	02:30	OHIO 36	6	31	Punt
15:00	2	02:52	OHIO 33	3	-7	Punt
07:59	2	01:41	OHIO 35	3	4	Punt
06:13	2	00:55	OHIO 33	3	-2	Punt
02:38	2	01:17	OHIO 8	3	13	End of Half
14:54	3	03:11	OHIO 29	6	4	Punt
08:51	3	02:49	NIU 38	6	27	Field Goal Good

Remarkable.

The only reason that FG happened was because Harnish turned the ball over on a fluke fumble. The camera angle was awkward on that play, but it looked like the QB just dropped the ball.

Imagine the defensive psyche at this point: "Oh great, first that running in to the kicker penalty, now this?" They needed a breather at this point in the game, but the offense couldn't provide that.

The next time the D is out there Ohio then drives and scores a TD pass to LaVon Brazill (how is he not double covered at this point?). 24-21 Bobcats.

After the Delegal kickoff penalty, an exhausted defense is backed into a short field situation again, and Ohio drives to go up 31-28.

The next series, the NIU makes Ohio punt AGAIN giving the Huskie offense another chance at rallying back from a 3 pt deficit. This was clearly a game where the defense did NOT lose the game for the Huskies. They played to their abilities, but were over their heads from the get-go with special teams giving up all that yardage and the fumble on offense.

DE/DT Jake Coffman was one of the few bright spots on D, gathering 2 sacks, 3 TFL and a MAC player of the week award. It's also weird that CB Chris Smith had 9 tackles and that Patrick George only had 1. Make your own assumptions about that.

Offense

410 yds of total offense, 20 first downs and 31 pts. That should be enough to win you a football game, so kudos to the offense.

Harnish had a huge day going 24 of 35 for 307 yds and 2 TDs. However, trying to break the tie in the 2nd drive of the 3rd quarter, the ball simply fell out of his hands and was recovered by Ohio. I didn't see exactly what happened, but this is a circumstance of not having played full-time these past few weeks.

Coming out of the halftime was just awkward, because even on the first drive there was a false start by Martel Moore then a delay of game. That puts the offense at a pretty impossible 3 and 17.

He fared well, considering how much pressure Ohio was putting on him every single play. RT Adam Kiel got hurt early and then it seemed like after that they released the ~~horses~~ bobcats after that. Kiel will have surgery on his foot and will miss the Central Michigan game. Some of his passes were just a bit off though, which always seems to happen with him at QB.

On a second attempt to try to even the 3 pt deficit (after the failed 4th down), Ohio brought the house and got Harnish for an 11 yd sack. However, #12 tried to throw the ball and it didn't make it past the line of scrimmage for intentional grounding. The play after that was just a chuck deep to see if anybody would catch it and a Bobcat player did and returned it to the house.

Landon Cox had the best game of his young career catching 11 passes for 132 yds. Marcus Lewis continued his senior tour with 4 catches for 64 yds and a TD. The amazing jumping fullback Kyle Skarb a couple of his patented sideline catches and managed to score the opening TD for the Huskies.

I could go on and on about the running back situation, but I won't. Me'co Brown (ankle) and Chad Spann (shoulder) were pretty banged up, so wouldn't it make sense to give the ball to Justin Anderson? Not even in short-yardage situations? He looked great against Eastern Michigan...I just can't seem to muster up any rationale for this insanity.

Another thing that bothered me was the silly implementation of Garrett Barnas on the offensive side of the ball. I believe they could have used him a lot more on the defensive side of the ball, especially in this game. Just like NIU1981 says,

if you're going to have Barnas run and throw why not use, I don't know, DeMarcus Grady?? You know, our most explosive offensive player?

It was just so blatantly obvious that he was only doing these plays on offense to set up a pass later in the game. Every NIU fan watching the game knew it, so I bet the Ohio sideline knew it as well. Then the pass did go up and the whole play was a disaster.

Overall, I was somewhat impressed with the ingenuity on offense. There were some different formations in there with a bunch of different personnel in the backfield.

If you look at the whole scheme of things, championship teams don't make these mistakes. I am happy at this point just to be playing in the post-season for a bowl championship. Maybe. First things first as we have to make things Mt. Un-Pleasant for the Chippwas on Friday.

Comfortably Numb in Dekalb

Mike Breese — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:43:17 -0000

I don't know what to feel about this Northern Illinois team.

They looked like they were getting into the groove last Thursday, but Eastern Michigan is an abomination of a team. I know, I know. They have a new coach building from nothing with a new system, but that team I saw out there was terrible. The latter part of the MAC this year is a bottomless pit and the Eagles are nearing the bottom.

We ran the ball, ran some more and when the times were right, DeMarcus Grady launched the ball to Landon Cox for TDs on two separate occasions.

Me'co Brown got the unwarranted start at RB, but Chad Spann was unfazed by this development. In his first two carries he ripped off TD scores of 65 and 79 yds. That's NCAA video game stuff right there. You want to start the game off strong? Start the 3rd leading scorer in the nation in Spann. Justin Anderson is ahead of Me'co at this point. I guess Kill wants to keep playing "his guys", but if this costs us a chance at the MAC Championship I will blow my top.

The return game continues to be awesome, with Tommy Davis returning the opening kickoff for a TD. Something that hasn't been emulated since Michael "The Burner" Turner returned a 93-yarder back in 2002. It's truly unbelievable the strides that we've made on the special teams side of things. Now the only thing to fix is figuring out why Salerno's kicks keep getting blocked. Another thing that could come back and bite us.

We didn't look great in the wins over Miami or Akron, so this was a much-needed break of a victory that we only had 4 days to prepare for. This week we face a Ball State team that barely squeaked by EMU two weeks ago to grab their only win of the season. We open as a 17-point favorite at home against the Cardinals.

Sure our running game is working against the bottom of the MAC with a little play action thrown in. Only adding to the mystery is the status of Chandler Harnish,who allegedly was cleared to practice on Sunday. The thing is, we don't need Chandler and his sore knee to beat BSU on Thursday. However, he must get some reps to prepare for the road trip @ Ohio and eventually @ Central Michigan down the road.

The best part of this team is that they control their own destiny at the moment. All of the goals are in reach as stated many a times before. There are obstacles in the way, but a MAC Championship is still in the picture.

I just don't know how good this team is!!! Nobody does. Am I right?

They may lead the MAC in a majority of important statistics, but stats don't matter. Paper doesn't matter. All that matter is what happens on the field.

Right now, we just need to keep winning to look more attractive to whichever Bowl selection people want to extend an invitation to us. One game at a time. That road starts through Dekalb on Thursday against a team that really put a sour taste in to the mouths of the Huskies last year.

I should be liking these wins. I do. It's just that we all have to wait and see what this team is capable of.

So here I sit, comfortably numb as an NIU fan.

Because "I'm in Oxford at Miami University Trick" wasn't catchy enough

Mike Breese — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:38:59 -0000

After some time to reflect, I thought I'd add some thoughts about this game that you wouldn't get right away from just glancing at the box score.

How conservative was this offense, really?

Let's breakdown every time we passed the ball:

1st Half

After a 2 yd loss by some Perez Ashford running trickeration, it's 2nd and 12 and Grady passes to WR Martel Moore for 7 yds. It's 3rd and 5, QB DeMarcus Grady passes to Landon Cox who is one yard short of the 1st down. Drive result: Salerno Punt.
It's 3rd and 7, Grady completes a pass to Moore again just past the 1st down marker. Drive result: Spann 42 yd TD. 7-0 Huskies.
After two Me'co Brown rushes for a net -16 yds, it's now 3rd and 26. Pass to Moore is incomplete. Drive result: Salerno 44 yd FG. 10-0 Huskies.
It's 2nd and 9, Grady is about to pass, but gets sacked for for a 6 yd loss. Next play it's 3rd and 15 and a pass to Me'co nets only those 6 yds that got lost. Drive result: Wilber Punt. 17-0 Huskies after that Ashford TD.
On a 2 and 7, Grady passes to his out man Martel Moore for 3 yds. This drive was stalled by a 15 yd personal foul penalty on Marcus Lewis. Drive result: Salerno Punt. 17-0 Huskies still.

2nd Half

It's 2nd and 7, pass incomplete to TE Reed Cunningham. Then on 3rd and 7, pass incomplete to Cox as Grady was pressured into making a throw. Drive result: Wilber Punt, 17-7 Huskies.
On 1st and 10, Grady throws up a pass to Cox and he makes the circus catch for 33 yds. It's 1st down after a scramble by Grady. He steps back to pass but then Me'co throws a terrible block and the QB goes down in a hurry. Miami recovers #3's fumble, 17-7 Huskies
After 10 straight running plays, it's 3rd and goal, making it painstakingly obvious we were going to try and pass the ball. Of course this was further back than originally because of an illegal substitution. Drive result: Salerno 25 yd FG. 20-10 Huskies.

The 20-2 Run to Pass ratio on 1st down wasn't exactly the right way to do things. I know we're a run-first team, but it doesn't hurt to mix things up a little bit. What I don't get is that in the 3rd quarter we passed twice on 1st down in the same drive and that 2nd attempt resulted in a turnover.

The running game was working. You don't average 5.2 ypc and not have it being effective. The gameplan was fine.

Here are the bigger reasons the drives stalled that you can blame:

Me'co's backwards running for -16 yds
Grady gets sacked for -6 yds
Marcus Lewis 15 yd penalty
Grady gets sacked again and turns the ball over

Grady needs to work on getting the ball off faster, because he's not always going to have time to throw back there. The problem is that we don't want him to become a run-first quarterback. He'll get a lot of playing time and experience in these next three games hopefully.

The pre-halftime Victory Formation

The situation: Garrett Barnas runs the ball up to our own 46 yd line. The offense comes out, looks confused and then DeMarcus Grady uses the final timeout of the half. Only 29 seconds were left where we could have thrown some passes downfield and set up a field goal attempt. Instead, Coach Kill wanted to take a knee in this situation. This was a move not to win the game, but to NOT LOSE the game. The fans were extremely upset at this point, but I can see where Kill was coming from with his inexperienced QB and the fear that Miami might take an interception back and kill Grady's confidence.

Were we ever really in danger of losing this game?

Yes, for 2 plays. After Miami scored a TD to make it 16-20 Huskies, I was extremely nervous that the Redhawks were only within 4 pts of winning the game. An onside recovered by us and a Chad Spann TD later, those fears were quenched. The rest of the game, Northern Illinois was up by at least 7 points after the 17-0 flurry of a 1st quarter.

YOU LACK DISCIPLINE!

One thing you would only get from watching the game would be how undisciplined the defense played. We pretty much sent the house at the QB, disregarding their non-existent running game. Needless, I was disappointed by how the secondary looked all game. 348 yds given up through the air is not good any way you look at it.

You can partly blame this on personnel as David Bryant exited the game early at FS. Both Garrett Barnas and Jody Van Laanen made appearances at the safety spots.

Both Chris Smith & Patrick George had pass interference penalties, but both drives ended up in blocked field goals anyways. I guess sometimes it's worth it if you don't want to give up the big play. Both CBs got beat a couple times and it looked like the mediocre Miami WRs were taking them to school

Late hits

CB Patrick George pushes some guy when he was already out of bounds late in the 2nd quarter. No-call.
S Mike Sobol always trying to makes a play gets in a helmet-to-helmet hit a little after a play was dead.
Three plays later, Chris Smith also hits a guy late out of bounds. This time, the refs pick it up. This was the same time NIU was having substitution issues and has 12 men on the field.

I'm not mad about these late hits, especially the Sobol one. These guys were just trying to be aggressive and make plays. It did get a little excessive with the sideline hits though. I'd rather have an aggressive than a passive DB all day. Marcus Lewis on offense even got caught trying to make a block below the waist a little after the play that netted a negative 15 yds. I want this defense to B-E be aggressive, just do it with your head screwed on straight, please.

John Kimble...er Coach Kill wants to see you in his office

The Algebraic Wide Receiver Situation

Mike Breese — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:04:40 -0000

Landon Cox wonders if you got your tickets to the GUN SHOW (via www.huskiewire.com)

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I know what you're saying. We're so good at rushing the ball, why in the world do we need to worry about our receiving corps? Well that's all nice and swell, but sometime we're going to run in to an opponent that will stack the box and force us to throw it down the field. Toledo, perhaps? Forward passing: It's something that we're ranked 110th in the nation in, but that's mostly because of preference. Let's take a glance at the stats so far on the season for this under-appreciated position:

Name	Receptions	Receiving Yards	TD'
Skarb,Kyle	6	121	0
Cox,Landon	13	107	1
Lewis,Marcus	8	92	0
Clark,Willie	7	83	1
Spann,Chad	5	82	1
Moore,Martel	7	78	0
Brown,Meco	6	66	0
Beckner,Bryan	4	64	0
Palmer,Nathan	4	58	1
Cunningham,Reed	2	37	1
Ashford,Perez	3	21	0
Marks,Jack	1	5	0
Schepler,Jason	1	4	1
Team Totals	67	818	6
Opponents	93	1058	4

Yes, you're reading that correctly. Fullback Kyle Skarb leads the team in receiving yards. He's become almost an H-Back, sneaking in to the secondary whenever he can. But we're not here to talk about the fullbacks.

Landon Cox seems to be the rock in the passing game. He's had more catches and yds than any of the wide receivers. He also has started every game other than Purdue. But that's just because we ran a double-TE set on the first play of the game.

Marcus Lewis, Willie Clark & Martel Moore seem to be in the 2nd tier, as they all have 7-8 catches for 80-90 yds. You have a couple RBs and then a couple TEs mixed in with the 3rd tier of Nathan Palmer and Perez Ashford.

Let's break this down game-by-game. BTW, I have no idea what the X, V & Z positions each mean.

Wisconsin

Depth Chart

X - Willie Clark

V - Nathan Palmer

Z - Landon Cox

Actual Starters

Nathan Palmer

Martel Moore

Perez Ashford

Top Performers

Willie Clark: 3 catches for 11 yds

Marcus Lewis: 2 catches for 19 yds

What a confusing way to start the season! Instead of Clark & Cox starting, 2 freshmen in Moore & Ashford take their spots. None of these players have exceptional games and we end up losing to the badgers.

Western Illinois

Willie Clark
Nathan Palmer

Landon Cox

Top Performers

Willie Clark: 2 catches for 52 yds

Martel Moore: 2 catches for 36 yds

This makes a little more sense as the depth chart holds true and Clark has a great game.

Purdue

Nathan Palmer

Preston Williams

Top Performers

Marcus Lewis: 4 catches for 49 yds

Landon Cox & Nathan Palmer: 2 catches for 17 yds

This marks the 1st of 2 games where Preston Williams starts a game. Very confusing, but I guess the senior comes in on certain packages where we add a fullback or an extra TE. Marcus Lewis, another senior, comes out of nowhere to have a great game.

Idaho

Preston Williams

Landon Cox

Top Performer

Landon Cox: 5 catches for 53 yds and a TD

Martel Moore: 3 catches for 23 yds

Willie Clark: 2 catches for 20 yds and a TD

This was the most important game for our WR corps as we couldn't run the ball early on against the Vandals. Cox stepped up huge and showed why he is the most solid player at this position. Willie Clark also played up to his position and scored a TD as well. Nathan Palmer missed this game because of a thumb injury.

Western Michigan

Depth Chart

X - Willie Clark

V - Preston Williams

Z - Landon Cox

Actual Starters

Marcus Lewis

Landon Cox

Top Performers

Nathan Palmer: 2 catches for 41 yds and a TD

Landon Cox: 3 catches for 14 yds

Palmer made a triumphant return from his thumb injury, as he caught the ball for an early TD to set the tone. It's strange that NaPalm got the majority of his yds from this game coming off the bench, when he started the first 3 games. I guess the theme here is you have no idea who is going to start at WR when our first play puts only 2 players on the field. Kill is big on packages. Willie Clark missed this game because of a back injury. Preston Williams didn't do anything but drop a pass.

Toledo

Depth Chart

X - Marcus Lewis

V - Landon Cox

Z - Perez Ashford

Conclusion

Starts don't matter when you play Wide Receiver at Northern Illinois. If you're good, you'll get passes thrown your way. The depth chart from the game notes has only been correct one time. Stay healthy, otherwise you'll be "Wally Pipp'd" by either of the true freshmen in Perez Ashford or Martel Moore. It's finally nice to see Marcus Lewis get a bunch of playing time, being a 4th year senior.

The one constant in the whole mix of things: Landon Cox. He's a great run-blocker and is always a target with his 6'3" frame. He just needs to cut down on those holding penalties a little bit. Run-blocking is key in this type of offense. If you're patient enough, you'll get your glory.

On Further Review

NIU1981 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:49:28 -0000

WR Willie Clark using the Idaho player as leverage for a touchdown grab (via NIUHuskies.com)

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I watched the Idaho game again and since we've dumped all over everyone for two days now let me give out some kudos to a few guys who played well.

Landon Cox made that awesome run after catch in the first half and caught at TD pass in the second half.
Willie Clark had a tough run after catch on the first possession and wrestled the ball away for a TD late in the half on a real nice play. He also drew pass interference the one and only time in the game they threw downfield.
Chad Spann ran very hard as usual on very limited touches.
Darnell Bolding applied good pressure on several occasions. I would like to see more of him as a situational speed rusher.
Tommy Davis and Ricky Crider did a great job in the return game. It will be fun to watch those guys this season.
Chandler Harnish did well for the most part. He was lucky the guy was out of bounds on the near interception but otherwise took good care of the ball and ran well.
Speaking of near interceptions, the pass interference call on David Bryant that nullified Tracy Wilson's pick was terrible. I thought so when I saw it in real time and even more so now.
Josh Wilber did better in the punt game this week.

The Boilermakers enter the Boneyard

Mike Breese — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:07:38 -0000

Justin Anderson performing "The Fake" (via mikegreenephotography.com)

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The boneyard is a fixture in the Huskie locker room representing the biggest victories in NIU's history:

Just past the door the players normally enter is "The Boneyard." The white fixtures in the shape of bones are affixed to the walls complete with scores such as "NIU 19, Alabama 16" and "NIU 20, Maryland 13" from 2003 serve as reminders of the biggest wins of the program’s history.

Six years was way too long of a break between boneyard triumphs. So says Harnish, who was a freshman in high school at the time of the last one:

They call them "boneyard" victories, triumphs over BCS conference schools, and Northern Illinois hasn't had many.

"It's a speechless feeling," NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish said. "We haven't had a boneyard victory in a while."

Since there are no pictures available of this phenomenon, I'm going to assume that these are actual bones taken from the unfortunate players from BCS schools that Huskies tend to prey on.

The Call

So who's idea was it to fake a punt on 4th and 2...on your own 16 yard line?

"You really don't get nervous on it until they line up and you see 'Oh, [wow] we got the look we want.' That's when you get nervous on the whole thing," said NIU defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys, who was in on the fake punt discussion with [Jay] Sawvel and Jerry Kill.

Despite being NIU's leading rusher in 2007, Justin Anderson has been embracing his role as a team player:

"To be honest, I'm thankful for the opportunity," Anderson said. "I've been on the punt team for a couple of weeks now. It's something new. I'm thankful for coach Sawvel putting [the fake] in."

"Any player would rather do more," he said. "Me and coach Kill, we've bumped heads about it. But I know my role and I'm going to play my role. Whenever they call on me, if they call on me, I'm ready. But I'm a team player. I'm all for my guys. I'm not jealous."

A confident team player:

"I was just trying to give those kids from Indiana a chance," Anderson said. "I was talking with [Onyebuagu]. He was saying [Purdue] wanted him to walk-on and they didn't give him a scholarship and he didn't like that. I kept telling him 'Are you ready? I'm going to get you a win.' "

Coach Kill gets a helmet sticker for this play-call, even though he doesn't wear a helmet. THANKS GRAHAM WATSON. He also got a "Paper" award from Mid-Major Madness.

Other than that fake...

The special teams was pretty brutal. K Mike Salerno missed an easy 25-yarder, where it looked like the snap and ball placement was a little off. Obviously we need to improve our punt coverage as Purdue returned one for the house on that first one. I know that P Josh Wilber has a lot of pain in his foot, but he has to get better than a 35.6 average and get more balls inside the 20 yd line. Hope he can bounce back big next week. Our punt return game is pretty boring as well, but I don't know you go about fixing that so much.

Typical NIU Quarterback Stats

15 of 26 for 174 yds and a TD. That's classic efficiency there for a Huskie QB. Chandler Harnish's only mistake was when he tried to force a ball in to a reciever and it got tipped in the air and picked off. It was a nice thing to see him hooking up with senior WR Marcus Lewis for once. Lewis seems to be Chandler's main target through these early games. Willie Clark didn't play for some reason and I wasn't too impressed with Landon Cox. It seemed like he could have had a couple extra catches in this game. Either that or Harnish was JUST off throwing to him and a couple other guys. Most of the throws were broken up by good plays on Purdue's defense however. TE Reed Cunningham may become a redzone threat not unlike Spann as his 1 catch was for a TD.

Dynamic Duo

RBs Me'co Brown & Chad Spann were just sick again. Nobody can stop these guys. Brown won MAC West POW for his performance. 26 for 150 and a TD for #8. 18 for 80 and 2 TDs for #28. Spann has SO much power. You think he'd down and the next thing you know he's in for a TD. Had a weird fumble early on though that nobody caused. Credit the line for opening up MONSTROUS holes for both of these players to run through. Spann is now only behind Cal RB Jahvid Best for most TDs scored in the country with 7. Best has 9, including 5 vs Minnesota this past weekend. Brown is #14 in the nation in ypg with 110.33.

Oh and don't forget about the tremendous pair of fullbacks that we have in Kyle Skarb & Connor Flahive!

First-class Secondary

The defense pretty much stacked the box trying to stop Ralph Bolden, so the secondary really needed to step up and they did big-time. It was very impressive how CBs Chris Smith and Patrick George were able to stay with their receivers step-by-step. Davis Bryant had a nice return at FS and SS Tracy Wilson keeps piling up the tackles with 8 in this one. Kiaree Daniels was impressive as well.

Big 10 Referees

It seemed like they let Purdue run wild, especially late in the game. On Purdue's last drive, Elliott threw the ball to a receiver, the receiver then proceeded to lateral the ball back over some guys head. The refs somehow called an incomplete pass. Truly one of the most ridiculous calls I have ever seen in my life. Then as the clock was winding down...

Can you say CHEAP SHOT???

Hope, you got some 'splanin to do:

"I'm sure it's going to be brought up and we'll address it. I didn't see anything that happened to that injured player that made me think it was foul play. I don't think Zach Reckman should've jumped in there on that guy at the end of the play but maybe he was hoping the ball would come out. He was trying to find a way to win."

Infirmary Report

Injury updates: Linebacker/Kick returner John Tranchitella missed the game with a knee injury he suffered against Western Illinois. He likely will be out for a few weeks. Tight end Jason Schepler left the game in the second quarter with an elbow injury. Right guard Joe Pawlak left the game in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury. More will be known on Schepler and Pawlak this week.

Also, DE Jake Coffman was shaken up towards the end of the game for a while. No word if it is anything serious. Me'co Brown was also sick with the flu, but turned out a great performance:

"I felt terrible," Brown said. "I went out there the night before, Friday when we made it up there and my stomach, I wasn't feeling too good. I was coughing real bad. [Running backs] Coach [Rob] Reeves told me 'Michael Jordan played sick and you can do the same.' It looked like at the end of the day it came to be something good."

via mikegreenephotography.com

The NIU Huskies Football Depth Chart is out

Mike Breese — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:46:22 -0000

The depth chart just got released per John Sahly's Huskie Wire. A lot of differences from the vague chart from the media guide. Youth is served to say the least for Northern Illinois with 8 freshmen (4 true) and 16 sophomores listed under the two-deeps. 15 juniors and 9 seniors make up the upperclassmen. Here is the breakdown by position:

The Offense

WR (X) 10 Willie Clark ...................................... 6-1, 196, So.-R
11 Marcus Lewis .......................................6-3, 210, Sr.
OR 1 Martel Moore ....................................... 6-2, 168, Fr.

WR (V) 81 Nathan Palmer .............................5-11, 190, So.-R
82 Preston Williams ...........................5-11, 180, Sr.-R
OR 80 Landon Cox ...........................................6-3, 213, Jr.

WR (Z) 80 Landon Cox ...........................................6-3, 213, Jr.
7 Perez Ashford ....................................5-10, 168, Fr.
OR 81 Nathan Palmer .............................5-11, 190, So.-R

I'm not an expert on NIU's current offensive system, so I can only assume that the X is on the left, V is the slot and Z is on the right. Realistically, guys can be switched all over the field so who knows. I bet you the ladies that went to Football 101 could probably explain this to me. Moving on, we always knew that the main three (Clark, Palmer & Cox) were the top guys coming in. We just didn't know where they were going to fit. Lewis & Williams look to fit in nicely as veteran reserve role-players. True freshmen Ashford & Moore look to creep in to the lineup as deep threats.

TE (Y) 87 Jason Schepler ...................................6-3, 255, So.
83 Reed Cunningham .......................... 6-5, 255, Sr.-R

TE (H) 96 Bryan Beckner .................................. 6-4, 240, Jr.-R
97 Jack Marks ...................................... 6-6, 232, So.-R

More algebra numbers that confuse me. Schepler & Beckner beat out Cunningham in an epic battle throughout all of the off-season. As our offense evolves, all of these players will see extensive playing time. Marks is the 4th guy in and surprised not to see Nick Groeniger anywhere.

LT 62 Trevor Olson .................................... 6-6, 294, So.-R
68 Keith Otis ........................................ 6-4, 314, So.-R

The only line position that has not changed since the Spring. A good sign, because left tackle is one of the most important positions on the field.

LG 65 Jason Onyebuagu ................................6-2, 307, Sr.
60 Ed Jackson ........................................ 6-3, 297, Jr.-R

I'm extremely excited that Ed Jackson is able to claim a backup job on the offensive side of the ball after becoming too big to play on the D-Line.

C 50 Eddie Adamski ................................. 6-3, 284, Sr.-R
71 Scott Wedige................................... 6-4, 296, So.-R
OR 77 Jared Volk ............................................6-3, 302, Fr.

Wedige had mono throughout camp, so Volk saw a ton of snaps. Hope we don't have to see them, because Adamski is one of the better linemen in the conference.

RG 72 Joe Pawlak ...................................... 6-5, 281, So.-R
70 Logan Pegram ................................. 6-3, 293, Fr.-R

Pawlak moves up to the starting spot, because of Kevin Skatrud's season-ending knee injury and Tense's switch to RT. Pegram switched over to the right side from the left.

RT 61 Panan Tense .....................................6-4, 300, Jr.-R
OR 74 Adam Kiel ........................................ 6-5, 305, So-R

Tense has good size, so he switched from starting RG to the starting RT as stated above. The coaching staff was high on Tense to have a spot starting on the right side even before Skatrud got hurt.

QB 12 Chandler Harnish ........................... 6-2, 213, So.-R
3 DeMarcus Grady............................. 6-1, 202, So.-R
OR 15 Ryan Morris ..................................... 6-3, 196, Sr.-R

Pretty much expected. Looks like we'll be redshirting all our freshmen QBs. Is the OR necessary or simply a formality for the 5th year senior in Morris?

FB 34 Kyle Skarb ............................................ 6-2, 226, Jr.
47 Connor Flahive ................................. 6-0, 240, Jr.-R
88 Nick Groeniger ......................................6-5, 242, Jr.

Top-2 were expected. Hey, I found him! Groeniger will play an H-Back role shifting and lining up in the backfield and all over the field.

TB 8 Me’co Brown .......................................5-7, 185, So.
OR 28 Chad Spann ..........................................5-9, 197, Jr.
21 Justin Anderson ............................... 6-0, 234, Sr.-R

Nice to see Anderson as the 3rd guy in again. Ricky Crider is struggling with a hamstring right now, but should be OK for Saturday.

The Defense

LE 56 Brandon Bice ................................... 6-4, 250, Sr.-R
90 Alan Baxter .......................................... 6-0, 241, Fr.
OR 44 Darnell Bolding ................................. 6-2, 224, Jr.-R

Pretty much expected if you've followed the epic rise of freshman Baxter. Both Bice and him provide huge bodies capable of stopping the run and stopping the QB. Bolding looks to be a situational pass-rusher.

NG 92 Brian Lawson ....................................6-3, 272, Fr.-R
93 Adam Coleman ...................................6-3, 266, So.
99 Nabal Jefferson .................................5-11, 270, Fr.

Lawson is starting as a freshman now due to Mike Krause's condition. Coleman provides tremendous depth as well. Marist grad Nabal Jefferson is the surprise winner of the true freshman most likely to see action in the middle of the line. Noseguard is just the defensive tackle left of the defensive tackle, if that makes any sense.

DT 98 D.J. Pirkle ............................................. 6-0, 285, Jr.
89 Ron Newcomb ................................ 6-3, 265, So.-R

Pirkle is the man and Newcomb jumps up to the backup spot as Coleman heads over to NG.

RE 54 Jake Coffman....................................6-5, 255, Jr.-R
95 Sean Progar ..................................... 6-3, 255, Fr.-R

Solid as a rock on Larry English's old position.

SLB 37 Alex Kube .......................................... 6-0, 212, Jr.-R
36 Tyrone Clark .......................................5-11, 202, Fr.
OR 27 Spencer Williamson ........................ 6-4, 218, Sr.-R

True freshman (I'm sensing a theme here) Clark frog-jumps Williamson to be the backup to the most-feared player on the defense.

MLB 53 Pat Schiller...................................... 6-2, 229, So.-R
9 Devon Butler ......................................5-11, 209, Fr.
OR 52 Phil Brown ........................................ 6-0, 225, Sr.-R

A shock here. Where the heck did Victor Jacques go? He went from Schiller's backup to not even making the top-3. Something is definitely awry here. Phil Brown continues to be in Kill's doghouse.

WLB 26 Cory Hanson .................................... 6-2, 220, Sr.-R
42 John Tranchitella .................................6-1, 236, Sr.
29 Jordan Delegal ....................................6-1, 203, So.

Two solid veterans anchor the weakside with potential speed-rushing specialist Delegal to probably see some time.

LCB 33 Patrick George ................................... 5-11, 190, Jr.
20 Tommy Davis ................................. 5-11, 190, Fr.-R
OR 2 Sean Evans ........................................5-11, 167, Fr.

Davis to play nickelback, but it looks like the smallish Evans is pushing him.

SS 25 Tracy Wilson .................................... 6-2, 204, So.-R
39 Garrett Barnas ..................................... 6-1, 205, Jr.

Nice to see Barnas get that 4th safety spot. Wilson has been a terror since the end of last season, beating out incumbent Mike Sobol.

FS 4 David Bryant .................................. 5-11, 210, Sr.-R
38 Mike Sobol ........................................6-0, 198, Jr.-R

Sobol switches over to free safety to provide depth because Jody Van Laanen has been banged up this off-season and just returned to practice.

RCB 23 Kiaree Daniels ................................... 5-10, 193, Jr.
5 Chris Smith ........................................ 5-10, 185, Jr.

Finally looking at the depth chart has me a little more comfortable with our depth chart depth as long as Smith and the rest of these guys stay healthy.

Specialists

K 16 Mike Salerno ................................. 5-11, 170, Sr.-R
3 Ryan Fillingim .......................................6-0, 191, Jr.

P 49 Josh Wilber ........................................ 5-11, 235, Jr.
OR 6 Ryan Neir ..........................................6-3, 195, Fr.-R

DS 55 Nolan Owen ....................................... 5-10, 203, Jr.
93 Adam Coleman ...................................6-3, 266, So.

HO 15 Ryan Morris ..................................... 6-3, 196, Sr.-R
38 Mike Sobol ........................................6-0, 198, Jr.-R

The usual suspects here. Walk-on Fillingim is emergency backup. Nice spot for Morris to see more time on the field.

PR 20 Tommy Davis ................................. 5-11, 190, Fr.-R
OR 8 Me’co Brown .......................................5-7, 185, So.

KOR 20 Tommy Davis ................................. 5-11, 190, Fr.-R
AND 4 David Bryant .................................. 5-11, 210, Sr.-R

Well it looks like we'll be seeing a lot of Tommy Davis! Me'co will probably only field punts in critical situations. Don't know about using our best player on defense on kickoff returns in Bryant. Should be interesting to see how that works out. These spots will be open all year.

NIU Football preseason practice starts this week!

Mike Breese — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:15:48 -0000

Fall camp is starting up as the team reports at 2 PM today and I'm excited as ever for the upcoming season and preparation for the season opener against the Wisconsin Badgers. The tenative schedule for the preseason practices is located here and will also be posted on the right toolbar of this website. The Chicago Media Day for NIU was at Harry Caray's restaurant on Monday. Here are the highlights from the last couple days:

Good things come in threes. Comcast SportsNet announces they will show three Huskie home football games this upcoming season as well as extend the agreement three years:

Northern Illinois' first three 2009 home games - Sept. 12 versus Western Illinois at 6:30 p.m. (CT), Sept. 26 versus Idaho at 2:30 p.m. and Oct. 3 versus Western Michigan at 2:30 p.m. - will air live on CSN Chicago as the network continues a long tradition of bringing Northern Illinois football contests to its coverage area, which includes millions of homes in Illinois, Iowa, northwestern Indiana and southern Wisconsin.

Thanks to the agreement with CSN Chicago and its string of on-the-field success this decade, Northern Illinois has become the most televised program in the Mid-American Conference. Since the beginning of 2004, every Northern Illinois home game has been televised. Overall, the Huskies have had 53 games broadcast in the last five seasons with a school-record 13 broadcast in 2006 and 11 last year.

That leaves us with only 3 games yet to be picked up by a television network: 10/17 @ Toledo, 10/24 @ Miami OH & 11/21 @ Ohio. Here's hoping for FSN Ohio to maybe pick these up, because I don't want to be forced to subscribe to All-MACcess.

670 the Score to broadcast football & basketball games for the next three years:

In addition to all Northern Illinois football games (except those which directly conflict with White Sox games), WSCR-AM will air 20 Huskie men's basketball games each year and will carry the school's weekly 30-minute athletics update show "NIU Live" on Thursday nights from August through March.

Dual coverage. Both the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Chronicle put up some great articles about the Huskie offseason in the past few days:

Just before spring practice let out, NIU coach Jerry Kill passed out an article he found on the Boise State football team's offseason work.

The Broncos get together, without coaches, and do 11-on-11 drills on their own throughout the offseason. Then when they arrive at fall practice, they already have been working on the scheme for two months.

Harnish and his teammates took the not-so-subtle hint to heart.

Throughout June and July, at least twice a week, NIU's football team has gotten together for 7-on-7 drills.

Harnish organized the offense, senior safety David Bryant led the defense and senior guard Jason Onyebuagu led the offensive line.

Progess. Coach Kill likes it:

"This summer, Chandler and our quarterbacks took the next step for our program," Kill said. "Maybe the Boise State article had to do with it, maybe it was because Chandler was a year older.

"We're so far ahead of what we were a year ago. We're going to be able to work faster on the fundamentals and move forward."

Some "Uncommon" reading material provided for the entire team (Tribune, Chronicle). In one year's time, its changed the entire life of OLB Alex Kube:

The junior linebacker from north suburban Cary didn’t have the trust of his teammates or the coaching staff of the Northern Illinois football team.

But then Kube read Tony Dungy’s book, "Uncommon: Finding your path to significance," and his life changed.

"I wasn’t concerned with my performance in the classroom," Kube said. "It was football, football and more football. The book told me what I need to do to be a better person. This year I had a 3.0 grade-point average; I’ve never had a 3.0 before."

Compher also had no idea he would field an unusual request for additional funds from Kill, who proposed each member of the team should have a copy of the book that helped Kube find his direction in life.

"We didn’t budget for the book," said Compher, who like Kill is an avid reader. "But I knew we would find a way to figure it out. I love the proactive approach to leadership and thought it was a great idea."

"When you read the book you realize this is what you are supposed to be doing," Kill said.

"You are supposed to be doing the right thing, not what other people want you to do."

"Coach is always on us for school work," Onyebuagu said. "Football is just a bonus we are here for school. We’ve got to take pride in how we handle ourselves as people. Coach always stresses for us to be good people."

Potential surprise players for the Huskies this year?

Two NIU players have been consistently picked by teammates as Huskies who could surprise this season. On defense it has been middle linebacker Pat Schiller and on offense it has been wide receiver Marcus Lewis.

Quotable on athleticism:

Cory Hanson on who has the best athletic talent on the team outside of football:

"Besides me, I’d have to say either Patrick George (Chicago, Ill./Gordon Tech) or Landon Cox (Calumet City, Ill./Thornton Fractional North). Those two can do some pretty good things off the football field. There’s a lot though. We have a lot of good athletes on this team."

Umm, somebody might want to tell them...

The NIU kickers/punters have not yet been told about the rugby punt rule change for this season. For those of you wondering what it is, basically, the rule change is that If a punter carries the ball outside the tackle box before he kicks on a rugby-style kick, there will be no roughing the kicker violation. Obviously if the punter gets decked after the punt there will be a flag, but there is less protection for punters on the rugby kick. We'll explore in fall camp if that means fewer rugby punts for the Huskies.

...and The Daily Chronicle gets a tour of the Yordon Center.

SB Nation - Landon Cox

Postseason Huskie Hardware Roundup

All-MAC Teams (As voted on by the Coaches)

Phil Steele's 2009 Postseason All-MAC Team

Team Awards (Voted on by the players)

Offense

Defense

Special Teams

A 31-45 loss to the deserving West Champs leaves the Huskies wanting more

Quarterback

Running Back

Wide Receivers

Offensive Line

Defensive Line

Linebackers

Defensive Backs

Special Teams

Coaching

So what's next?

The 3rd Phase Failure in Athens

(Not so) Special Teams

Defense

Offense

Comfortably Numb in Dekalb

Because "I'm in Oxford at Miami University Trick" wasn't catchy enough

How conservative was this offense, really?

The pre-halftime Victory Formation

Were we ever really in danger of losing this game?

YOU LACK DISCIPLINE!

The Algebraic Wide Receiver Situation

Wisconsin

Western Illinois

Purdue

Idaho

Western Michigan

Toledo

Conclusion

On Further Review

The Boilermakers enter the Boneyard

The Call

Other than that fake...

Typical NIU Quarterback Stats

Dynamic Duo

First-class Secondary

Big 10 Referees

Infirmary Report

The NIU Huskies Football Depth Chart is out

The Offense

The Defense

Specialists

NIU Football preseason practice starts this week!

Video from Chicago Media Day after the jump