There were no cheers, no whistles, no laughs; only echoes.

A pair of scuffling gym shoes on the concrete floor reverberated off the tunnel walls, but there was no one else there. The two were all alone.

The old door at the end of the tunnel cracked open with a shove and Phil Horvath slipped through.

It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the light and then there it was: Michigan Stadium; “The Big House.” More than 70 years of college football history stretched out before the middle-schooler and his father.

A stadium that can hold more than 100,000 people on this afternoon held only two. Horvath walked through the bleachers and sprinted over the field with no one to tell him not to.

There, standing in that stadium, Horvath told his dad that this is where he wanted to play. He wanted more than anything to wear the maize and blue.

Now all he wants to do is beat them.

“Every night I go to bed dreaming about when we beat Michigan,” said NIU’s starting quarterback. “I think about holding my helmet in the air as the clock strikes zero.”

Saturday, Horvath will again have to come out of a tunnel in the Big House. It’s what he’s always wanted; his dream. But not all dreams end up how we plan them.

He won’t be the hero wearing that deep blue jersey. The fans won’t be cheering for him but for his head. The junior will be standing on the wrong sidelines; a marked man in cardinal red surrounded by a vast sea of blue and maize.

“I can’t wait,” Horvath said. “I’m not that nervous. Last year against Southern Illinois I was nervous. I don’t know how I’m going to react come game time, but I’m confident.”

It’s that confidence that won Horvath the starting job. A confidence that only could have come with his experiences of last season, said NIU coach Joe Novak.

After starter Josh Haldi hobbled off the field after three downs in last season’s opener against No. 20 Maryland, Horvath’s college career was suddenly shifted from neutral to mach speed.

A back-up one minute, the entire team counting on him the next. Horvath went on to start three more games, winning two.

“We saw marked improvement in every game he played last season,” said Novak. “And it all culminated in the perfect game he played against Bowling Green.

“That’s a big part of the reason he’s our starter. He’s been there in the big games and performed.”

Against BG, Horvath didn’t throw for 400 yards and five touchdowns like a “perfect” game should entail.

He didn’t throw a touchdown, and his 191 passing yards wasn’t even his highest output of the year. But he controlled the tempo of the game and give his team a chance to win.

His performance wasn’t flashy or special. But it was reminiscent of his high-school idol, former Michigan quarterback Tom Brady.

“Growing up a Michigan fan I tried to model myself after him,” Horvath said. “He always stayed calm and cool and he just won games.”

Phil Horvath Sr. grew up in Michigan and was responsible for his son being a follower of the maize and blue.

He watched his young son fool around on the field that day at Michigan Stadium and listened to his son’s dreams of playing

But Horvath Sr. thought those dreams died out when his son chose to play in DeKalb instead of Ann Arbor.

That was until last winter. Horvath Sr. was looking over NIU’s 2005 schedule and there, right at the top of the list read “Michigan, at Ann Arbor, MI.”

Ever since, his excitement for the game and his son has been uncontrollable, Horvath Jr. said.

“I can hear it in his voice,” Horvath Sr. said. “He’s confident and he’s ready to go out on that field again.”

The first time Horvath entered the stadium, it was like a monastery; quiet, still, and revered.

If he ever wants that feeling again he’ll have to quiet 100,000 people. To do that he’ll have to be like his idol and just win.