With more than five months to go until the NIU football team kicks off play against Maryland at home on Aug. 28, the football team is preparing now.

“We put a sign up here that the football team has made,” NIU coach Joe Novak said. “It says, ‘You play the games in the fall but you make a team from January to July.'”

The Huskies finished early-morning conditioning at the Student Recreation Center last week and began practice on Friday.

The team practices at 7:30 a.m. Monday Wednesday and Friday at 7:30 a.m. at Huskie Stadium. Monday was the team’s first day wearing pads.

“First day with pads, it felt real good to get back out there,” rising senior cornerback Randee Drew said.

There are several notable Huskies who are relegated to the sidelines with injuries that include quarterback Josh Haldi (thumb), wide receiver P.J. Fleck (shoulder), defensive end Travis Moore (knee), Mark Orszula (leg) and tight end Brad Cieslak (ACL). Novak said that they all should be ready for the start of the season. (See the Northern Star tomorrow for more on injured Huskies.)

Before spring practices end, the annual Spring Game is set for 7 p.m. on April 17.

After the spring practices finish, there are a couple of weeks to lift for the players, which is voluntary. From there, they get three weeks off after school ends and the rest of the summer to do more voluntary workouts. Beginning in August the camp begins to prep for the season.

“We all feel this is our best football team coming up, potentially,” Novak said. “This team just needs to come up and work hard. This is the most excited that we’ve been. We’ve made progress because we’ve worked hard.”