With winter slowly taking over, the NIU coaches turned their attention from the 2003 season to building the program for years to come.

During that fall, the Huskies were constantly getting calls, tapes and visits from high school athletes from around the country.

“Everyone had a player for us,” said former recruiting coordinator Mike Sabock. “We had film coming from all over the country.”

But Joe Novak, former NIU head coach, and his coaching staff were not ready to bring any kid with talent to DeKalb.

Novak and his staff had built their program up from the ground. Just five years earlier, the Huskies were in the middle of a 23-game losing streak. The former coaches spent their time and energy recruiting local kids who were overlooked by other programs but would work hard to produce a winning product.

“We wanted good kids, not a bunch of renegades,” Novak said. “We looked for extremely hard-working kids with not a lot of egos.”

These types of kids resulted in producing the 2003 team.

Former offensive coordinator Matt Canada agreed with the method. He remembers that by recruiting these kids the Huskies were able to get a group that was not complacent.

“A lot of those guys we got early on. NIU was the only one offered to them or they were walk ons,” Canada said. “We had guys who really wanted to win. Nothing ever came easy.”

Now with national spotlight, the Huskies hoped to find kids with the same attitude, but even more talent.

DeAndre Smith, former running backs coach, remembers a lot of high-profile running backs suddenly looked at NIU. With former products like tail backs LeShon Johnson, Thomas Hammock and Michael Turner, high school running backs saw the Huskies as a viable option.

“When I got here in 2001, people were like, ‘Northern Illinois, where you are located? Are you in Carbondale?'” Smith said. “After 2003, it wasn’t like that. They knew exactly where DeKalb was.”

One running back Smith remembers the Huskies made an offer to and was close to signing with NIU, was Laurence Maroney. Although Maroney would have been recruited in the 2003 class, the signing group prior to the 2003 season, Smith believes NIU’s success during that period helped to bring the tail backs interest to DeKalb.

“There was a genuine interest in us,” Smith said. “If we didn’t have that kind of success, I don’t think he would have talked to us.”

Another recruit that NIU went after was wide receiver Jeremy Maclin. The current Missouri Tiger, Smith remembers the Huskies 2003 season, caught the eye of the St. Louis native.

But when push came to shove, the DeKalb program was unable to beat schools like University of Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin to sign many athletes. The 2003 season did, however, improve the Huskies ability to recruit against other MAC programs.

“You’re not very often going to beat a Big Ten team with the facilities they have,” said Sam Pittman, the former offensive line coach, about going after recruits. “The best thing was to get back into the MAC. We could beat some of those guys in recruiting.”

One recruit that the Huskies were able to keep from a Big Ten school is current defense end Larry English.

In the last week of recruiting, the University of Iowa came to English and made an offer to him. The high school linebacker decided to keep his commitment to NIU.

When all was said and done, Novak introduced 22 new Huskies in early February. High school seniors quarterback Dan Nicholson, wide receivers Britt Davis and Matt Simon, linebacker Tim McCarthy and more joined NIU. Novak and his staff had built their team for years to come.

“Coach [Novak] did a great job evaluating the kids,” Pittman said. “He knew exactly who he wanted on his team and who he wanted coaching his team.”