Just over a year ago, NIU was the talk of college football.
The Huskies had just done what most thought impossible — marched into Notre Dame and shocked the nation’s No. 5 team before a sellout crowd. They cracked the Top 25, captured national attention and, for a fleeting moment, flirted with the College Football Playoff.
Today, that conversation sounds a whole lot different.
The praise and hype that once followed NIU has now turned into criticism and disappointment — and rightfully so.
Since that program-defining victory, the Huskies have found new and unique ways to squander golden opportunities. What should’ve been a trip to Detroit last year instead ended with NIU settling for a bowl win in Idaho. And this year, its farewell tour through the Mid-American Conference has gone from hopeful to utterly humiliating — a slow-motion disaster even I couldn’t see coming.
As I write this, the Huskies are 1-6 and winless in MAC play. Their dream of playing for one last league title is all but over, and another loss will almost certainly keep them home this postseason. And let’s be real, NIU would be completely winless if not for a well-timed kickoff return touchdown in the season-opening squeaker over Holy Cross — a team that only just got its first victory in Week 8.
As if things couldn’t get worse, NIU now heads into a high-stakes Bronze Stalk battle with archrival Ball State — a matchup that hasn’t gone well since head coach Thomas Hammock took over in 2019. The Huskies have beaten the Cardinals just once under Hammock and have lost each of the last three meetings in excruciating fashion.
So, how did we get here? How did a program with modest yet reasonable expectations end up floundering this badly?
No offense…
Seriously. NIU’s offense has been virtually nonexistent. Hammock and company spent the offseason selling a fast, flashy offense — something that injected excitement into the fan base. Instead, they’ve delivered one of the worst offenses in not just the FBS, but all of Division I. The Huskies have scored just 86 points in seven games, making them one of only three FBS teams yet to crack 100 this season.
At the heart of it all is the quarterback situation. Hammock has switched signal-callers twice already, benching opening-day starter Josh Holst for true freshman Brady Davidson before the MAC opener, only to go back to Holst in last week’s loss at Ohio. It’s been a seesaw at the most important position in sports, and as the famous saying by the late John Madden goes, “if you’ve got two quarterbacks, you have none.”
You may be asking, “But Skyler, aren’t you being just a little harsh here? They just scored a season-high 21 points, and Holst just had his best game against the defending MAC champion.”
That’s true. It’s also true that NIU spent the better part of three quarters getting spanked before finally getting into an offensive rhythm — well after the game was already out of reach.
What makes the offense’s ineptitude even more painful is that it’s wasting a rather stout defense — all while trying to play football “The Hard Way.”
I admit, I didn’t expect new defensive coordinator Rob Harley to succeed at NIU, given the track record of previous defenses he’s led. Yet his unit has quickly proven me wrong. It’s not as formidable as last year’s group, but it’s still very opportunistic — with six takeaways on the year — and plenty talented.
Sixth-year senior Quinn “Buck” Urwiler has quietly blossomed into one of the top linebackers in the country. He leads the FBS with 44 solo tackles and ranks second with 83 total tackles. As a whole, NIU is third in the MAC in scoring defense (20.3 points per game) and fourth in total defense (323 yards per game).
Long story short, this defense is more than capable of contending for the conference crown. Yet the Huskies aren’t anywhere close, which begs the most important question in all this:
Who’s to blame?
My lovely editor would tell you that the players and coaches alike are at fault for what’s become of this nearly doomed season, and she’d be correct. Mostly.
When it gets to this point — when “Northern Ill-ugh-noise” has become a frequent flyer on ESPN’s Bottom 10 — the lion’s share of the blame has to land on those in charge, and nobody has claimed more responsibility than the leading man himself.
Hammock is 33-44 as NIU’s head coach, with 28 of those losses coming in MAC play. He’s also endured three separate losing streaks of five games or more and is on track to miss the six-win mark for the fourth time in seven seasons.
Not great, Bob!
However, I’m not here to call for Hammock’s job like I did with a certain basketball coach back in the spring. At least not yet. I have a great deal of respect for the man, and he’s proven himself to be a steady leader and a skilled recruiter during his seven-year tenure. Plus, his estimated $1.6 million buyout is far too rich for NIU’s blood.
Instead, I’m calling for a change. I don’t know exactly what that change needs to be, but Hammock should be driving it. Maybe it’s playcalling adjustments. Maybe it’s personnel decisions. Whatever it is, something has to give.
Because as it stands, NIU isn’t built for Detroit. NIU isn’t built for a bowl game. And if this self-inflicted chaos continues, it probably isn’t built to compete in the Mountain West, either.
