2009 NCAA - Northern Illinois
Jerry Kill left Southern Illinois and a successful I-AA program (he beat Northern Illinois 34-31 in 2007) to take over in DeKalb in 2008 and did a fabulous job. NIU was 2-10 in 2007, and last season he used a solid defense to pilot the Huskies into the Independence Bowl. The Huskies finished with losses in four of their last five and were just 6-7 on the season, but Kill got good progress out of his team and has the advantage of extra bowl practices to work with as he heads into the fall. Redshirt freshman Chandler Harnish was forced (out of necessity) to run the offense last year. He ended up leading the team in both passing and rushing, but was often overwhelmed and confused. The good news is that he's been through a season and should be stronger as a sophomore. The Huskies have also struggled to run the ball the last couple of seasons. That was a big reason why Northern was so poor in the red zone, ranking near the bottom of the country in red zone efficiency. Eight starters return overall to an offense that has to do better if NIU has MAC West aspirations.
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Northern Illinois
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The defense returns just five starters from last season's stout 18 ppg group. Kill is reputed to be a master motivator and six of the top eight return up front, so even though Larry English was taken 16th overall, he insists that the front four could still be dominating. The linebackers could be decent, while the secondary is the concern, losing three of four starters. |
| ASK the bookie? - Kill has to replace 20 seniors from last season's 6-7 group. If he can shore up the special teams and get the young offense players to develop into weapons, then a repeat of last year and maybe another win or two is possible. The Huskies look a notch below the top three in the West. |
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