This is a success story.

The entire 1989 football season was a success and things are expected to be even better for the1990 Huskies. The ultimate success last season was named Stacy Robinson. Everyone knows what he did. But 6-0, 211-pound junior fullback Adam Dach quietly grinded out 714 yards on 164 carries for an impressive 4.4 yard average.

Dach was a consensus First-Team All-State at Byron High School. He is the record holder for the most yardage gained in a single season in Illinois. Dach gained 2,319 yards on 285 carries with 25 touchdowns his senior year. He also holds the single game record with 495 yards. With just those statistics, you would think college scouts would be tearing down the front door of the Dach’s home in Rockford. But only the smart ones showed up.

NIU and Northwestern were the only schools seriously recruiting Dach. The big football schools stayed away.

The main reason was, besides being from a small school, Dach weighed 185 pounds. The big football schools felt that he could not take the pounding a big time fullback has to take. Well they were wrong. Dach is one of the most bruising fullbacks in the country. If such a stst were kept, Dach may have led the nation in second-effort yardage in his first two seasons.

Offensive Coordinator Mike Summers recruited Dach and baited him with NIU’s business school and the resurgance of the football program. Dach was looking for both education and a successfull football program. Northwestern had that high quality education, but not the latter.

“I’m very thankful that I’ve got the opportunity to play for Coach Pettibone. He’s a great individual and a great coach,” Dach said. “I’ve heard so many stories about players being cheated out of their scholarships at other school. But everything Coach Pettibone told me while I was being recruited came true. He has never made a false statement to us. It’s good to know you have someone like that leading you.”

The soft-spoken Dach was red-shirted for medical reasons his freshman year. He came back next year with a vengeance. He gained 906 yards in 192 tries for a 4.7 yard average. But Marshall Taylor could account for some of those yards. Taylor was the main threat in the 1988 triple option and opposing defenses didn’t know about Dach.

Last year, they knew. With Taylor gone, the opponents keyed on Dach. They didn’t know about Robinson. Now, it was Dach who could account for the 1,443 yards Robinson gained last season.

“Stacy ran the show last year, but that was fine with me, because we were 9-2. If I would have gained 1,000 yards and we ended up 2-9, it (the 1,000 yards) wouldn’t have meant anything to me,” Dach said.

Although he didn’t reach his goal of 1,000 yards last year, it may have been a blessing in disguise.

Dach improved his blocking. The most famous block coming in the final seconds of last November’s game against Southwestern Louisiana. Dach threw the key block that leveled the a Cajun linebacker to allow Robinson to score “The Touchdown”.

This year, Dach’s goal is to gain the elusive 1,000 yard plateau. The new spread option offense is more of the same triple option, but it is designed to open up running lanes. Head Coach Jerry Pettibone is not hiding the fact that the Huskies are going to be throwing the ball. The triple option has become the quadruple option.

Dach is the first of that option. The running of Dach, Robinson, halfbacks Brett Schroeder and Mike Strasser, and the passing of Robinson are the reason why Pettibone grins so widely when he hears those words – spread option.

“I don’t know what the defenses will do against us this year, but there’s no way they’ll be able to stack up the both of us (Dach and Robinson). The spread option will give ample opportunities to the both of us,” Dach said.

“Plus we’ve got very talented halfbacks. The last couple years they haven’t got the chance to show how talented they are. This could be their year, too.”

Just how good is Dach? Pettibone should know. “We thought he was an outstanding athlete who had great success in high school and wrestling. He was also an outstanding student. All those positive things told us that despite being from a small school, he would be successful at the Division I level,” he said.

Pettibone has been around some top fullbacks who have made it big in the National Football League. Oaklahoma’s Horace Ivory went to New England and Kenny King went to star with the Oakland Raiders and helped win Super Bowl XV, scoring on a 80-yard touchdown pass from Jim Plunkett.

Nebraska’s Tom Rathman is tearing up opposing defenses for the team of the ‘80s, the San Francisco 49ers.

“I think Adam is right up there with the best players I’ve been around. He has the same type of athletic ability. He may not have the speed of King or Ivory, but he’s got more size and strength than they do,” Pettibone said.

Like every football player, Dach dreams of playing in the NFL. But if he doesn’t make the NFL, Dach said he will exhaust all his options of playing football before using the marketing degree he’ll get next summer from NIU.

“For all of us here, football is a way of life. It’s all we have ever known. I could be happy without football, but I’m going to exhaust every option, Canada or WFL, before I turn to something else,” Dach said.

The college scouts were wrong about Dach. Whether the NFL scouts will make the same mistake remains to be seen. Dach may not possess devastating speed, he may not be a (Kansas City Chiefs’) Christian Okoye in size, but he owns all the intangibles.

Those intangibles are what helped Dach capture the “Top Dog” honor for two years in a row. The award goes to the player who can lift the most relative to his body weight in the bench press, squat and clean lift. Dach benched 360, squatted 605, and cleaned 330.

For the first time in Dach’s collegiate career, he has come out of both spring and fall practices injury-free. This could be the year.

So what will happen to Dach? Time will tell.