There he is.

Dan Nicholson’s eyes light up as they spot his receiver in a sea of white and blue. Except that red jersey streaking down the sidelines has no one near him. The receivers hand is pumping as much as his legs as he pleads for the throw.

Then with one smooth motion the ball is launched. It looks like it’s good. It is. Touchdown. Touchdown NIU. Touchdown Nicholson.

The quarterback closes his eyes to take in the moment. But when he opens them, the scenery has changed. He’s sitting in his hotel bedroom. The screaming fans are all gone; replaced by his teammate Dave Koronkiewicz, who is asleep across the room.

And then Nicholson remembers; the biggest game of the season was still six or so hours away.

What a freshman. His first collegiate start is mere hours away and instead of worrying about Toledo’s defense, he’s day dreaming.

But right now there’s nothing else to do. The remote to the hotel TV is broken, leaving Nicholson to watch a special on the Wild Wild West. A few minutes of that and he is asleep too.

It was probably good he got some rest. Tonight he’d be harassed by fans and players of NIU’s most hated rival. He was going to need all his energy. And besides, by the time his day was done, sleep would be the farthest thing from Nicholson’s mind.

The freshman woke up and went through the pregame routines, a meal with the other quarterbacks and a chapel service, in which an NIU alumni and one-time Huskies player, Marshal Taylor, spoke to the team. Then it was time.

Standing in line, the chill air froze Nicholson’s breath before it even left his mouth. He looked around and watched his teammates squeeze their shoulders together and file onto the large white coach bus.

Some wore headphones while others made small talk. Nicholson didn’t say a word.

NIU offensive coordinator calmly strolled up to Nicholson.

Down 14-7 and having just tossed an interception, any memory of NIU’s hot start had vanished, but still Bond remained calm.

“He said I was playing good,” Nicholson said. “But he explained what went wrong on the pick and told me I just had to do a couple of things differently.”

Nicholson took in his coach’s words and realized there was no panic. His teammates, his coaches, and then he realized even himself. Everyone was dead calm; nearly comatose. Nicholson knew right then they had a legitimate chance.

But that chance didn’t become a reality until one play. And all he had to do was hand off the ball.

It was a standard play. Just a cutback run for running back Garrett Wolfe.

But once the ball left Nicholson’s hand it became so much more.

“I just remember watching Garrett take off and [offensive linemen] Doug Free matching him step for step the whole way down the field,” Nicholson said. “I couldn’t stop smiling, and I just hugged George Daglas.”

From then on everything just blurred. The seconds ticking down, the celebration on the sidelines, the hugs.

Nicholson barely remembers jumping around in the locker room afterwards singing NIU’s fight song with his teammates.

He struggles to make out any one moment in that hour after the final siren had gone off.

It wasn’t until he was already well into the bus ride home that his head stopped spinning.

He was on the phone with his dad. The two had already hugged and cheered together after the game, but now they were reliving it.

His dad told him how proud he was and congratulated him over and over.

Nicholson took it all in as his eyes surveyed around the bus at his teammates. Half of the bus was listening to music; the other half was asleep.

The he realized his teammates still had unfinished business with Western Michigan still left on the schedule. So did he.

Nicholson’s voice grew very serious as he spoke into his cell phone. And he told his dad what had to happen next.

“I realized then that the win over Toledo was not gonna be the highlight of the season,” Nicholson said.

So much for being a freshman.