Football began its spring practices last week with senior quarterback Drew Hare still sidelined, officially marking the start of its preparation for the 2016-17 season.

The Huskies went 8-6 last season, their worst finish since the 2009-10 campaign when they finished 7-6. Despite their low win total, the Huskies still managed to reach the MAC Championship, taking a 34-14 loss to Bowling Green State University on Dec. 4 in Detroit. Their season ended after a 55-7 loss to Boise State University on Dec. 23 in the Poinsettia Bowl.

The team’s appearance in the MAC Championship was its sixth in a row and its appearance in the Poinsettia Bowl marked its eighth consecutive season making it to a bowl game — the longest bowl game streak in MAC history.

“It’s good to be back at practice,” said head coach Rod Carey, according to an NIU Athletics news release. “We go through a progression where you lift, you’re running and then you get some skill development in there without a football. Now we’re in the phase where we have a football with skill development. Overall, it was good to see everybody out there and moving around. We didn’t play a game. We didn’t have pads on, but pleased for what it was.

Offensively we want to use our operation to its full potential. So we’re looking at that. Defensively, we want to be on a string all the time defensively. So we’re looking at that. Special teams-wise, we need to get better. If you took our punt team out [of the conversation], our special teams were great, but you can’t take punt out. We’ve got to get better at punt, and keep moving forward with everything else too. The expectations are the same. We have a bunch of different phases to offseason and people can categorize it how they want to but spring, you really start individual skill development and the process of becoming individual champions in hopes that you can become a championship team. It’s the start of it, so those haven’t changed.”

Carey is entering his fourth full season at the helm for NIU — he boasts a 31-12 record, but the team is 0-4 in bowl games in that span.

The team is scheduled to hold practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 a.m., ending its weekly practices on Fridays at 5 p.m. The Huskies will host two special practices, starting April 16, when they practice at Gately Stadium in Chicago and April 23 when they hold the Huskie Bowl at 2 p.m. at Huskie Stadium.

Hare is still working his way back from an Achilles injury that ended his 2015-16 season, but he will remain at the top of the Huskies’ depth chart upon his return. With seven quarterbacks on the roster, Carey said that it is a chance to develop all of the team’s younger talent.

“I’ve never been in a situation like this where we’ve had — Drew’s started a game, [Anthony] Maddie’s played a lot, Graham started a game and Tommy [Fiedler] started a game — all within the last two years here,” Carey said. “That’s a lot of experience. That’s the good problem. The bad problem is, I don’t know how we’re going to juggle it, other than how you produce. Now, Drew is our starter. Don’t get anything mixed up here. Drew is our starter. The other three, you know, I think you just have to really base that off production.”