This past Monday evening, the Huskie football team was finally introduced to its new head coach Charlie Sadler in an informal players-staff meeting.

After the meeting, players said their coach had one prevalent message: Off-the-field high jinks will not be tolerated.

“He’s just like any other coach, when you do something wrong, he will discipline you,” receiver Steve Rodgers said. “He made that very clear.”

“He wants to continue with the winning program, but his main goal for us is to succeed as student athletes,” quarterback Rob Rugai said. “He really stressed that.”

Along with laying down academic ground rules, the players said Sadler gave insights on what he expects on the field, too.

“He briefly explained his offensive and defensive philosophies,” Rugai said. “He wants us to throw 20 times a game, which suits me fine. We’ve been too predictable in the past.

“Being that we haven’t thrown much around here the past two seasons, we’re going to have to improve our passing game.”

As NIU’s ground game flourished last year, their passing game faded to anonymity. The Huskies completed only 5.5 out of 11 passes per game.

If Sadler’s promise of offensive renovations proves to be genuine, there’s no doubt Huskie receivers are salivating at the chance of finally running patterns for a reason.

“(That’s) great news for me,” Rodgers said. “I hope I catch the ball a lot.”

Defensively, Sadler will incorporate a system in which aggression plays a key role.

“(Sadler’s defense) is designed for the linebackers, but we really don’t know what the scheme will be,” linebacker Nick Jones said. “It will allow us to be more aggressive. I think it will be a lot of fun for us.”

Linebacker Steve Henriksen concurred. “Basically, he’s going to blitz,” he said. “I think the guys are going to like it, actually.”

Overall, the players appear to have accepted Sadler and his methods with open arms.