If NIU head coach Jerry Kill learned something from watching his Huskies in their last game, it’s that the team needed a boost in the speed department.

Turn the calendar back to Jan. 2 when the Huskies suffered a 27-3 International Bowl loss to South Florida. It was a game that proved to be a wake up call- NIU just wasn’t fast enough.

Now go forward to today, where the Huskies have welcomed more speed, and without coincidence, more competition at the linebacker position. With redshirt junior and projected starter Pat Schiller out, NIU has gotten a good look at the rest of the depth chart in camp.

“All the young guys, the one thing that I can tell is that they can all run and they can all move,” said redshirt senior linebacker Alex Kube. “That’s one thing coach recruited on. There’s not one guy that’s going to get outrun.”

With that improvement in speed, however, comes youth. Among the Huskies’ top rising linebackers are a slew of underclassmen who will compete for playing time at a position Kill described as “a little bit thin” with Schiller’s injury.

Sophomores Devon Butler and Tyrone Clark, redshirt sophomore Victor Jacques, freshmen Mike Hellams and Cameron Stingily and junior Jordan Delegal are in the midst of position battles and have impressed the coaching staff throughout camp.

“We have athletes,” Kill said. “That’s not the problem. We have to do a great job in coaching them, but we have the athletes to do it, and we will see how they will pick it up. When you are younger it’s a littler harder to handle the grind.”

While the grind of camp and practice gives the coaches and players a chance to fine tune skills and defensive knowledge, there’s still work to be done. The six aforementioned linebackers have a total of one combined start in their respective NIU careers (Clark earned his first career start in the International Bowl.)

The lack of starts though, hasn’t translated into a poor showing. Kube has been in the NIU system for five years and has seen the ups and downs during his time in DeKalb.

Kill said the senior has been working non-stop with the rest of the linebackers this offseason on all factors of their game.

“I was on a 2-10 team,” Kube said. “I know what it takes to lose a football game, and I know what it takes to win. I’m trying to explain what we need to do to not to be in those situations.”

Not being in those situations, especially for freshmen Hellams and Stingily, involves improving on the mental aspect of the game and simply getting more reps on the field.

Size-wise, Kube said, both Stingily (6’2″, 240 pounds) and Hellams (6’1″, 220 pounds) are ready to be on the field come opening kickoff on Thursday, Sept. 2 at Iowa State. If they are ready, as NIU learned against USF, the game could depend on the simple factor of who’s faster.

“If you don’t have speed on defense, you’re not going to be very good,” Kube said. “If you look at all the great defensive players, they all can run, they all can move, they all can make plays in space. Based off the recruiting they’ve done, the players I’ve seen at linebacker all can run, all change direction very well.”