Northern Illinois 2009 Football Predictions
Written July 23, 2009 by InfoPlays
After a disastrous 2007 campaign with high expectations, not much was expected from the Northern Illinois Huskies in 2008. But this team exceeded expectations with a 6-win season and an Independence Bowl berth. The young backfield will continue to develop, but the defense will likely take a step back with big personnel losses and only three returning starters. The Huskies will have to really fight to have a winning season and get back to the postseason. College football lines are available for your wagering at Sportsbook.com right now. This world-renown book offers 10% sign-up bonuses and reduced Friday juice.
Offense: Head coach Jerry Kill righted the ship last season with a .500 record in the regular season. They dropped their bowl game, but the Huskies brought some excitement back to DeKalb, and they’ll have a nice, young backfield to build around this season. Sophomore QB Chandler Harnish was impressive in his freshman campaign, completing 118 of 211 passes for 1,528 yards and eight touchdowns. He is a dual threat, leading the team with 539 rushing yards a year ago. Sophomore running back Me’co Brown rushed for 510 yards and two touchdowns as a freshman. He looked even better in the spring, showing off his speed and quickness to break in the open with just a hint of daylight.
The receiving corps is the concern. Northern Illinois lost five senior wideouts to graduation, and Harnish will try to get Landon Cox more involved in the offense this year. Cox caught 16 balls a year ago, and he has the size to become a deadly red-zone target. Kill has high hopes for sophomore Willie Clark, who has the speed to get by defenders after catching six balls for 79 yards last season. Senior Marcus Lewis should be a factor at receiver before season’s end. Tight end Jason Schepler caught only two passes last year, but he impressed the coaching staff with his improvement in spring drills. The left side of the offensive line will be a strength with left tackle Trevor Olson and left guard Jason Onyebuagu returning. Senior center Eddie Adamski mans the middle, also a returnee.
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Defense: The Huskies will have to rebuild on defense this season after losing significant talent. Kill and defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys got the most out of their defense last season, holding nine opponents to 19 points or less. Stud defensive end Larry English is no longer around, leaving for the NFL as the 16th overall pick in the draft. End Brandon Bice will have some big shoes to fill, but he has the potential to become a defensive stopper after registering 6.5 sacks last season to earn third-team All-MAC honors.
Junior tackle Mike Krause returns after compiling 20 tackles last year, including three for a loss. Senior linebacker Cory Hanson had 37 tackles and six for a loss. He can cover sideline to sideline and should be an all-conference contender if he can shore up his tackling. David Bryant settled in a free safety last year and was the team’s leading tackler with 83 stops. Nine of the eleven starters are upper-classmen, so the learning curve could be a lot smaller than most would think.
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We return four starters on defense (LB Alex Kube, safeties David Bryant and Mike Sobol, and DT Mike Krause), not three. Even though we lost seven starters we return a lot of experienced players because Jerry Kill rotated the LB and DL position so much throughout games. DT DJ Pirkle and DE Jake Coffman have lots of experience and have started games in the past. DT Adam Coleman got lots of playing time as a true freshman last season. LB’s Cory Hanson, Pat Schiller, and John Tranchitella have lots of experience and have started games before as well. Jerry Kill thinks our defensive line could be better this year then last. While Larry English was unquestionably a great player and awesome talent, he was not the sole reason our defense was so good last season. The area of defense most Huskie fans are concerned about is CB. We lost three seniors there, including two really good starters.
Offense should get better. We have four running backs who could all start. The passing game can’t be any worse than last season’s, even if we did lose five senior WR’s. Those five receivers didn’t get much production last year. Chandler Harnish played his first season at QB as a freshman.
We should win a minimum of five games and a maximum of nine games. I see this year as a 7-5 type season.
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