NIU’s Athletic Department announced Friday six-year football Head Coach Rod Carey will resign from his current position to take a head coaching job at Temple University in Philadelphia.

 Carey finished his tenure at NIU with a record of 52-30, two Mid-American Conference titles and four division titles. Carey also appeared in six bowl games as head coach, losing them all.

 Carey joined NIU in 2011 as an offensive line coach. After just one season, Carey was promoted to offensive coordinator and became head coach for the team’s appearance in the 2013 Orange Bowl against Florida State following the departure of Dave Doeren.

Athletic Director Sean T. Frazier credited Carey for leading “the most successful era in NIU’s FBS history” is a news release Friday.

“[Carey] has worked tirelessly to elevate NIU Football and Northern Illinois University, while making an impact on hundreds of student-athletes,” Frazier said. “Under [his] leadership, the Huskies have been successful on the field, in the classroom and in the community.”

NIU will now begin a search process to to find the replacement for Carey. Frazier said in the Jan. 11 press release that the open position has already drawn the attention of coaches around the country.

“As one of the most successful FBS programs in the country, we’ve had significant interest in leading our football program,” Frazier said. “We will put tireless effort into finding the next head coach, with the expectation to continue our championship tradition at NIU.”

Carey was introduced as the new coach of Temple at a news conference Friday afternoon, where he briefly spoke about his time at NIU and his final message to the team that morning before leaving DeKalb.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t come up here and say thanks to NIU,” Carey said. “I met with those guys this morning. I won’t get into that because that gets too emotional. I met with a lot of the team that was back. It was a wonderful way to say goodbye but it was a hard way to say goodbye.”

During the news conference, the 47-year old coach mentioned he had previously rejected other jobs while coaching at NIU before taking the Temple job.

“I said ‘no’ other times to other jobs when I was at NIU,” Carey said. “This is the right time and the right place and I am super excited about that.”

Carey’s contract with NIU requires him to compensate the university with a one-time payment of $800,000 in order to be released. No official word has been given on the salary and contract length of Carey’s contract.

Temple’s Director of Athletics Patrick Kraft said the school is happy to land Carey, saying the  coach brings the track record of a winner.

“We are very happy to announce that [Carey] will take over as the next Temple head football coach,” Kraft said.  “[Carey] is a proven winner with a history of success as a head coach at the FBS level.”

Carey is Temple’s second head coach in less than a month. University of Miami offensive coordinator Manny Diaz was introduced by Temple on Dec. 19, but Diaz ultimately returned to Miami on Dec. 30 to take the head coaching position there.

The Northern Star will update this story as more information becomes available.