Saturday was an opening day for some NIU athletes that had nothing to do with baseball.

Amidst the hoopla surrounding baseball’s opening day, the Huskies football squad officially started spring practice Saturday afternoon.

Unlike the five previous spring practices, the visage of Jerry Pettibone was nowhere to be seen. The new face under the head coach’s cap belonged to former Oklahoma assistant Charlie Sadler.

Also gone is the familiar face of record-setting quarterback Stacey Robinson. The search for his replacement and the rest of the departing seniors began under sunny skies at Huskie Stadium.

“With an all new offense and defense, there was a lot of room for error,” Sadler said of his first practice as a head coach. “But they handled it pretty well. From watching the guys I felt pretty good about our athletes. We’re pretty much where I thought we’d be.”

One of the top priorities for Sadler and his staff will be selecting an offensive line that will replace the unit that lost all but one starter.

“The offensive line is a critical position to find out who our players will be,” Sadler said, “(And also) establishing a No. 1 quarterback. Your team’s success on offense hinges on that position. It’s going to be a day-to-day evaluation.”

But until spring practice gets further along the Huskies won’t be focusing on individual competition.

“Our ultimate goal is for our coaches to get a true evaluation of who our best 22 players are, (but) what the players have to do is get the basics and fundamentals of our new offensive and defensive schemes,” Sadler said.

With Saturday’s temperatures in the high 70s, the weather for the first practice was nearly ideal. A fact that Sadler acknowledges with a laugh. “I know it could have been a lot worse.”