DeKALB — The long wait is almost over. Football season is upon us once again.
Months after capping an 8-5 season with a thrilling double-overtime victory in Idaho, NIU football returns to the gridiron this week. The Huskies will kick off their 124th season — and 57th at the Football Bowl Subdivision level — at home against College of the Holy Cross at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
But this season isn’t like any other. It’s a curtain call.
The 2025 campaign marks NIU’s final year in the Mid-American Conference before the Huskies begin football-only membership in the Mountain West Conference in 2026. With six MAC titles already to its name, NIU will chase a seventh to put a bow on its near-30-year stint in the Midwest-based league. Should they succeed, the Huskies would join the short list of teams, including UTSA, SMU, Texas and Washington, to leave their conference as its reigning champion.
“It would mean everything (to finish on top),” seventh-year head coach Thomas Hammock said during NIU’s Chicago Media Day on July 17. “We’re one of the programs that has some of the most MAC championships. We definitely want to win one this season. Every year, you are just guaranteed one opportunity to be a champion.”
But to become a champion, NIU will have to succeed despite a harsh offseason that saw 22 starters and nearly half of the coaching staff leave the program.
Staffing shake-up
For the first time since Hammock was hired in 2019, NIU will start a season with three new coordinators.
The school parted ways with offensive coordinator Wesley Beschorner in late November, opening the door for the arrival of Quinn Sanders from the University of Charleston. Sanders spent 11 of the past 12 seasons on Charleston’s coaching staff, including the last three as head coach. Under his direction, the Golden Eagles averaged 44 points per game in each of the past two years. Now, Sanders looks to inject a similar dose of speed and explosiveness into an offense that ranked eighth in the MAC in scoring a season ago.
Defensively, NIU suffered a significant loss when defensive coordinator Nick Benedetto — the mastermind behind last year’s top-30 unit — left for the same role at Fresno State. Hoping to avoid a drop-off, the Huskies brought in Rob Harley from Arkansas State. Harley, an Elmhurst native, ran the Red Wolves’ defense for four seasons, in which his units allowed more than 30 points and 400 yards per game each year. Though the numbers aren’t flattering, Harley’s system is built on aggression and opportunism, which could lead to more takeaways for the Huskies.
Special teams coordinator Adam Breske also left with Benedetto for Fresno, prompting NIU to tab Cory Connolly as his replacement. Connolly spent the past decade on the other side of the Bronze Stalk rivalry at Ball State. Other new additions on staff include defensive tackles coach Justin Robinson and tight ends coach Brayden Patton — the latter of whom was a standout on NIU’s offensive line from 2017 to 2021. Graduate assistants Ty Boles and Kai Ross were also promoted to full-time assistants, coaching running backs and safeties, respectively.
Roster reset
If the staff turnover wasn’t enough, NIU also graduated the largest senior class in program history. The Huskies then watched several more key players leave in the transfer portal, including starting quarterback Ethan Hampton, leading receivers Trayvon Rudolph, Cam Thompson and Grayson Barnes and defensive up-and-comers Santana Banner and Skyler Gill-Howard.
Even with the team’s numerous offseason departures, Hammock is confident in the talent on the current roster.
“We’ve got guys in our program that are going to be better than guys that played last year, and that’s a fact,” Hammock said. “Now they’ve just got to go out there and prove it.”
On offense, NIU returns two key starters in left tackle Evan Malcore and running back Telly Johnson Jr. Malcore was the only underclassman starter on last year’s offensive line that powered the 16th-best rushing offense in the country. Johnson, who filled in for the injured Antario Brown for the final six games of 2024, is poised to lead the Huskies’ reloaded rushing attack. He’ll be aided by Jaylen Poe, Romelo Ware and Charleston transfer Chavon Wright.
Under center, redshirt sophomore Josh Holst is expected to be NIU’s new starting quarterback. Holst started three games last season, including the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, where he earned the game’s MVP honors. The signal-caller will also have a new array of targets, featuring returning wideouts La’Don Bryant, George Dimopoulos and Rickey Taylor Jr., as well as incoming transfers Gary “Champ” Givens (Valparaiso) and DeAree Rogers (Lenoir-Rhyne). Tight end Jake Appleget also figures to have a role in the offense after taking over for Barnes.
The defense, meanwhile, is anchored by experience at every level. Defensive ends Roy Williams and Jalonnie Williams will continue to line up on opposite ends of the defensive line, while the interior will be manned by transfers Dasean Dixon (UAlbany) and Alvin Gulley Jr. (Yale). Quinn “Buck” Urwiler will wear the green dot for the Huskies as the starting middle linebacker. Competing to line up next to Urwiler at weakside linebacker are Danny Cronin, Jake Gassaway and Marc Pretto.
Back in the secondary, Jacob Finley has emerged as NIU’s No. 1 cornerback, filling the role last held by JaVaughn Byrd. Other contributors in the group will be transfers Donte Harrison (Shepherd) and Keshawn Lyons (McKendree), along with redshirt freshman Dev’ion Reynolds. The nickelback position is now occupied by redshirt senior Ty Myles, the longtime backup to Jashon Prophete. The Huskies’ last line of defense will consist of Saginaw Valley State transfer Jasper Beeler at free safety and veteran Muhammed Jammeh at strong safety.
Rounding out the lineup is an all-new cast of specialists. NIU bolstered its kicking game with the addition of two-time All-MAC honoree Andrew Glass from Kent State. Redshirt sophomore Danny Vuckovic will succeed the graduated Tom Foley at punter after becoming the latest Huskie starter to be put on scholarship.
In the return game, Poe appears next in line to handle kickoffs after NIU’s depth at the position was erased by departures. Meanwhile, punt returning duties will likely be handed off to Rogers following Dane Pardridge’s sudden transfer earlier this month.
Make head for the Motor City
For NIU, the path to the MAC championship game is typically a straightforward one, but it’s hardly ever a cakewalk.
Last season — and in many seasons before — the Huskies struggled to play consistently, often playing up to stronger opponents while struggling against weaker ones. That was especially evident when they dropped a home game to Buffalo just two weeks after stunning fifth-ranked Notre Dame. In the end, that inconsistency cost them a chance to play for the MAC championship trophy.
This time around, Hammock said he feels his team has the talent, the competitiveness and the physicality to win in Detroit. Now, the challenge will be handling the adversities that arise along the way.
“Everything is not going to go our way this season,” Hammock said. “Something is going to happen that we were not prepared for, and we have to be able to respond and bounce back and handle it in the right way. The better that we can do that, the better chance we have of being a champion at the end of the year.”
The Huskies’ pursuit of the conference crown begins Saturday with their first-ever meeting against Holy Cross, a recent Patriot League powerhouse and FCS playoff regular. It’ll be the fifth time in seven years NIU has opened its home schedule against an FCS opponent.
The first big challenges of the season will come over the next three weeks, with a bye week sandwiched between visits to two Power Four opponents. The Huskies will first head east to face Maryland under the Friday night lights on Sept. 5 — almost 22 years after NIU famously upset the 15th-ranked Terrapins in double overtime in the 2003 season opener. Then, they’ll travel to SEC country to take on Mississippi State on Sept. 20 in Starkville.
After a home date with San Diego State on Sept. 27, NIU opens its 39th overall season of MAC play with a five-game stretch that includes the conference’s top three preseason favorites — Toledo, Miami and Ohio — along with Eastern Michigan and archrival Ball State. For Hammock, those challenges from the league’s elite are ones he’ll welcome with open arms.
“They have to play us,” Hammock said. “And I’m not trying to be arrogant in that sense, but everybody knows the MAC is a one-possession league, so it’s a one-possession game … We’re not going to be afraid to play anybody. We just have to play our best football on that particular day.”
From there, the schedule will ease up as NIU kicks off the homestretch with its longest trip of the year — about 830 miles — for a Tuesday night tilt with newly rejoined MAC member UMass on Nov. 12, before returning home to face Western Michigan in its final midweek MACtion game. The regular season concludes Nov. 28 when conference cellar dweller Kent State comes to town.
Beyond that point, nothing is guaranteed for the Huskies. Another bowl game would already count as a success, and winning it would make history. A bowl victory would give NIU its first-ever streak of three consecutive bowl wins.
However, the bigger prize lies in the Motor City — reaching the mountaintop of MACtion one final time before ascending to the Mountain West.
