Several coaches from other schools were on hand Tuesday morning to watch the NIU football team go through its fourth practice of the spring.

Coaches from Concordia and North Central College among others watched junior-college transfer Jamal Womble take the majority of the reps at tailback with the first-team offense.

NIU head coach Dave Doeren has been impressed by Womble, but will reserve judgment until he’s seen more of the former North Carolina Tar Heel.

“If he keeps coming along I’ll be excited,” Doeren said. “I’m not going to do jumping jacks for you just yet; we’ve only had two days in pads.”

There were the normal hiccups that go along with a spring practice, but as a whole, Doeren’s goal to implement a no-huddle offense continued as planned on Tuesday.

“I thought the offense did a much better job of taking care of the ball and there were fewer penalties,” Doeren said. “The terminology is starting to click on both sides. I don’t want to delve into what guys have done too much, because there are still some guys over-analyzing things.”

One Huskie that wasn’t over-analyzing anything on Tuesday was quarterback Chandler Harnish. Doeren believed the redshirt junior had his best day of the spring thus far.

Junior wide receiver Martel Moore continued to catch anything thrown his way in team work and one-on-one drills with the defensive backs.

In those same drills, defensive back Jimmie Ward went out with an apparent ankle injury. The sophomore would return in time for the Huskies’ full-contact scrimmage.

The defense got the best of the offense in Saturday’s full-contact portion of practice, according to Doeren. The performance was no surprise to sophomore defensive end Joe Windsor.

“It’s a lot of fun [in full pads],” Windsor said. “Everybody loves contact; that’s why we play the game. But just being out there with my teammates is great.”

The defense hit the offense hard enough on Saturday that a few of its own guys – including starting defensive end Sean Progar – missed Tuesday’s practice with minor injuries. As a result, Doeren said the offense got the better of the defense on Tuesday.

Before speaking to the media after practice, Doeren took some time to talk with some of the visiting coaches that came out to watch practice.

“We want all the coaches we recruit from to think of this as a home away from home,” Doeren said. “We want them to feel like they can come here and learn ball from us so they can feel comfortable enough to tell a kid on their team that those are the guys that you should be playing for.”