In a competitive Huskies backfield, one running back has claimed his spot at the top of the depth chart: red shirt junior

Cameron Stingily.

A season ago, Stingily wouldn’t have been on anybody’s radar as the Huskies’ starting running back. That’s due in part to the fact Stingily came into NIU as a middle linebacker.

In 2010, Stingily played five games at linebacker before he missed the rest of the season with an Achilles injury. He red-shirted in 2011 and in the off-season he began his transition stage to running back.

“It started off tough, but then I had Akeem Daniels, Jamal Womble and Giorgio Bowers all help me,” Stingily said. “They put in the extra work to show me the little things, like the footwork and things like that. After I started learning the big picture, I started cleaning up my details.”

Last season, Stingily was still adjusting to the tailback position and only saw one carry for 5 yards against Massachusetts.

Heading into spring ball and summer camp was when Stingily buckled down and made significant improvements. He worked with new running backs coach Kelton Copeland.

“When I got here right before spring ball, Cam didn’t have a lot of experience at the position,” Copeland said. “So what we tried to do was work on mainly his footwork, his catching ability, because in this offense we use backs as everything, you can’t just be one dimensional on offense.”

Stingily put work and time into ironing out some kinks and was named the starting running back going into the Iowa game.

In Stingily’s first career start and first real game action he recorded 12 carries for 42 yards, a big chunk of that coming in the fourth quarter.

“In that fourth quarter we knew that if we get those guys winded a little bit, now we can start pounding and using our advantage,” Copeland said. “Which would be guys like Cam running downhill, and he did a tremendous job of that, got a couple plays where he broke tackles and got yards after contact, which was huge for us. It kept the ball in our possession and kept the chains moving, which ended up being successful.”

Stingily shined in the fourth quarter and on the Huskies’ last drive he rushed for 11 yards on two carries and put the Huskies in perfect position on the field to kick the game-winning field goal.

“I was actually shocked that they trusted me…with the game on the line like that,” Stingily said. “So when my opportunity came knocking I was actually geeked up, like excited to run the ball and give it my all for how many plays they need me for… I was trying not to overthink, but when it was under two minutes and they gave me the ball, I was like, ‘Wow, they are actually letting me take over a little bit.’”