HC Jerry Kill says pull my finger to QB Dan NicholsonToday is going to be a very boring day with no NFL to watch, so I was browsing the Dekalb Chronicle and saw a pretty interesting article on the state of the football team. Nice debut article by Jon Styf, who has taken over for former Chronicle writer Bobby Narang. Well, you just have to read:
At this point, Nicholson and plenty of his teammates, like senior wide receivers Britt Davis and Matt Simon, who both had offseason shoulder surgery as well, are all trying to recover. The injuries are so widespread that when the Huskies ran their first conditioning drills under new coach Jerry Kill last Tuesday morning, nearly 20 players were on the sidelines watching.
“There were as many guys watching as working,” offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover said.
Nicholson's had arthroscopic surgery on a tear in his throwing shoulder on Jan. 7. Optimistically, he hopes to be able to start throwing a football again during spring practices. But he probably won't be able to fully return until the summer.
Hopefully most of those injured guys will at least be back by the spring. I'm surprised that many guys are still sidelined. Just shows how brutal last season was injury-wise. It wasn't just some dings here and there. A lot of players had SERIOUS season-ending injuries. I didn't know that both our starting WR's had shoulder surgery in the off-season! Geez!!!
On Dan:
The shoulder, which kept him out of most practices, affected his throwing strength on Saturdays as well.
“My mechanics were the same, but I'm not going to lie, I didn't have 100 percent of my arm strength,” Nicholson said.
And some thoughts on the offensive philosophy:
I also came across the Sun-Times ranking for High School Juniors who we should start scouting for next year. National Signing Day is February 6th and I can't wait to see the full lists of commits that Northern has coming up. Red shows interest in NIU.
One of those big changes will be the Huskies' new offense, which is still in the planning stages. The coaches are planning on bringing in their multiple-sets, which Kill compares to what Boise State runs, but they will tweak it to apply to the talent Northern Illinois already has.
“We're smart enough to know that when you have good players to not try to pound that square peg into a round hole,” said Limegrover, who held the same title of offensive coordinator under Kill as Southern Illinois. “We're not going to take where we were last year and just change Southern to Northern.”
Recruiters zero in on top juniors (Sun-Times)
1 Craig Drummond, Morgan Park 6-5 245 DE
2 Evan Watkins, Glenbard North 6-6 225 QB (Northwestern Verbal)
3 Chris Watt, Glenbard West 6-4 275 OL
4 Lendell Buckner, Leo 6-2 320 DL (Illinois Verbal)
5 Darius Moffett, Hubbard 6-4 220 LB
6 Pat Ward, Providence 6-7 270 OL (NIU Offer)
7 Leon Hill, Leo 6-5 330 OL (Illinois Verbal)
8 Charlie Goro, Maine South 6-3 182 QB
9 Jon Budmayr, Marian Central 6-1 185 QB (Wisconsin Verbal)
10 Mike Trumpy, Wheaton North 6-0 197 RB (Northwestern Verbal)
11 Robert Morgan, Leo 6-2 205 RB
12 Shaun Pratl, Richards 6-7 215 TE
13 Jordan Roberts, Aurora Christian 6-1 205 QB
14 Dominique Bell, Morgan Park 6-1 190 RB
15 Jake Juriga, St. Charles North 6-3 205 LB
16 Cody O'Neill, Marian Central 6-3 275 OL
17 Jake Baratz, Naperville North 6-5 285 OL
18 Kyle Zelinsky, Bartlett 6-2 220 LB
19 Jeremy Johnson, Mount Carmel 6-1 230 LB
20 Marquone Edwards, Waukegan 6-1 190 WR
21 Nick Mlady, Naperville North 6-1 190 RB
22 John Brewer, Lake Zurich 6-3 240 DL
23 Jordan Coffey, Batavia 6-5 210 QB
24 Mike Adams, Aurora C. Cath. 6-5 230 QB
25 Jerad Grundy, Johnsburg 6-0 175 QB
26 Bryan Bradshaw, Prairie Ridge 6-2 185 QB
27 Tyler Hudetz, Joliet Catholic 5-10 185 RB
28 Ben Sampson, Stevenson 6-6 305 OL
29 Mark Zielinski, New Trier 6-5 290 OL
30 Jamal Gray, Thornton 6-3 190 WR
And while we're at it, here are some players that are interested in NIU:
TyQuan Hammock, Fort Wayne, (IN) Bishop Luers 6-1 220 LB (Thomas Hammock's brother)
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