Just came over from the Teamyates board and cannot access the insiders board from work.

Does anyone know if we have any more verbals since Ryan Tuggle of Bartlett ?

Do we have any more visits scheduled ?


Also does anyone know any information on our open game that we have next year? Has anyone stepped up to fill it yet ?

What I've gleaned for recent commits:

Larry English
Jon Brost (OT from MN)
Matt Simon (6-2 WR from MN)
Dan Keller (TE/DL 6-6 280, WI)
Chris Nednick (K Naperville)

I've been told that the class is nearly full, assuming no one defects - they need to keep a couple grants open for walkons or returnees (rumor has it that OG Matt McGhghy could be back in the spring or fall).

No idea about the schedule. Haven't heard an update since La Tech was being talked about.

McGhghy back? That would be great. Any news on Orszula aslo? That woul dbe a Toledo like like next year full of mean 300lbers. I love TUrner, but I think a great line can make our new RBs just as good.

HuskieJ Wrote:McGhghy back? That would be great. Any news on Orszula aslo? That woul dbe a Toledo like like next year full of mean 300lbers. I love TUrner, but I think a great line can make our new RBs just as good.

McGhgy & Orszula back=AJ Harris leading the MAC in rushing....

or Cas Prime, Greg Owens, Adrian Davis etc.

I was just thinking that if one of the red shirt freshman do win the job, can you guys imagine what kind of career they will have? 4 years starting in our offense, have we ever even had any running back do that?

I heard one of the assistant AD's on the radio not too long back say NIU was about 95% sure we were going to play LA tech.

Next year i predict 2 OOC wins, ISU and LA TECH.

Someone on the other board said we were able to also get a verbal out of Brian Holicek, a 350lb D linemen from Wisconsin.

Now that is a big man.

crazywilly Wrote:I was just thinking that if one of the red shirt freshman do win the job, can you guys imagine what kind of career they will have? 4 years starting in our offense, have we ever even had any running back do that?

Also, I've heard theres some talk of trying AJ at receiver or tight end (or is that the Q that Keith Perry was playing... ?)

If he's got the hands for it, he could put up huge numbers in that kind of role. That could also really help us open up the offense a bit more, enabling us to run more misdirections and screen passes.....

I think next year we are going to be a pretty decent team. We have an O line that will grow together along with a partially new Defense who can't be much worse.


With the runningbacks and wr's we have there is no reason to believe we won't be able to compete for the MAC West.

You're going to see us get younger next year, especially on D. You'll also see us get deeper now that we've had that good success. Remember, up till the last two years we've only had 6-5 as a best record, and no true facilities upgrade. Now with 8-4 and 10-2 and national recognition, we should be able to capitalize on that.

RB is the position I worry the least about. We've got RBs coming out the wazoo!!

What position worries you the most?

Personally I think maybe Corner gives me a little bit of a worry.

Lee and hansbro as the starters?

I don't know about our depth, i have heard that the florida guys are pretty good but i don't know. I also heard both the hansbros are good, and we have seen a lot of lee. I just think we need to worry about getting blasted by the pass again.

:mad:

Willy,
It's not our coverage guys so much as it's our defensive scheme against the likes of BG, Toledo and even Miami (when we have to play them). Those teams, that will sometimes throw empty backfields at you, are tough to defend with 5 WR's. They can just pick a zone apart. We need some big DE's (Tall) that can deflect a slant pass attempt, then play up with our corners on the deep threats with the safety's acting as help. You will also need athletic LB's who can cover those inside WR's.

Speaking of our D coverages.........does anyone like the idea of possibly trying to convert AJ Harris to a safety. Not saying that is an easy thing to do, but as I remember in highschool he did play some dB. We are somewhat deep (for a MAC team) at RB....and he wouldn't get enough touches playing Keith Perry's old spot, but it's apparent that he is big, physical, with good speed. Would make a good safety. And let's face it, our two losses came about because we couldn't stop anybody, not because we couldn't score. So possibly putting one of your best atheletes on the side of the ball in need of atheletes wouldn't be a bad thing. Just a thought.

As far as this recruiting class....they have 14 verbals accoridng to one of those sites.....it looks like they recruited about 6 DL's.....they are actually listed as TE's, but I am sure they are going to play DE's. So apparently Lukolos must be on to something, because they certainly look like they are angling for D-line help, with this class.

NIUDiesel32 Wrote:Speaking of our D coverages.........does anyone like the idea of possibly trying to convert AJ Harris to a safety. Not saying that is an easy thing to do, but as I remember in highschool he did play some dB. We are somewhat deep (for a MAC team) at RB....and he wouldn't get enough touches playing Keith Perry's old spot, but it's apparent that he is big, physical, with good speed. Would make a good safety. And let's face it, our two losses came about because we couldn't stop anybody, not because we couldn't score. So possibly putting one of your best atheletes on the side of the ball in need of atheletes wouldn't be a bad thing. Just a thought.

As far as this recruiting class....they have 14 verbals accoridng to one of those sites.....it looks like they recruited about 6 DL's.....they are actually listed as TE's, but I am sure they are going to play DE's. So apparently Lukolos must be on to something, because they certainly look like they are angling for D-line help, with this class.

Big, strong, fast dude ala Akil Grant? Interesting idea.....

The idea is based soley on the concept that Harris could make a successful conversion, and that one of the freshman tailbacks could step up next year to split carries with Davis. But lets face it, if we can't stop anybody.....and were getting down 14 and 21 points.....Harris could be Walter Payton and it's not gonna matter because we can't run'em down two or three scores. In the MAC, you sometimes need to be alittle more creative with your good atheletes because you simply don't have enough of them to go around. You said yourself, in order to play those spread O's like UT, BG, and Miami O......you need as many atheletic DB, and LB's as you can get to defend those.

Best thing about Novak's recruiting class this year....he's got guys from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. I know last year he recruited out of Missouri as well. Two years ago....every single signee we had was from Illinois save one or two. He's definetely getting NIU's name out in the midwest.

I'd agree that Harris at saftey would be great, but ray smith was playing well while filling in for akil. AJ can be like an ultra back for NIU, TE, Q, WR and some D.

My opinion about the depth at RB next year:
1. Cas Prime
2. Adrian Davis
3. Greg Owens

I really do think that AJ will be moved, joe sees the talent we have at RB and he has to think that if we move some of those athletes around we will have a faster more athletic squad.

If Harris is not the tailback, I think A. Davis will probably be the starter. The only problem I have with him, is that he is really small. So we will definetely one of the freshman, unless I am missing someone else, to step up and take some carries. You definetely need to utilize all your atheletes though......that's for sure.

I'd be very surprised to see AJ moved to D. He's got about 4 inches on Akil Grant. He's a good enough athlete that he'll be involved in our offense, if only at WR, which I think he'd be good at as a middle of the field Q/TE route type-of-guy.

Ray Smith played well in Grant's absence, and Dustin Utschig could play behind him. CB will be interesting - we'll have a lot of young numbers there. We don't play a lot of man coverage, so we need solid tacklers.

DL is the position we need to improve, IMO. Moore, Frank and Reynolds were all banged up, and we got little pass rush from the DL late in the season. The less rush we get out of the front 4 means we have to blitz, which leaves us with less guys in coverage and holes to be found in 4 and 5 WR sets, which is what BG was able to exploit.

I like AJ at running back. He's a track star. Can you imagine him hurdling defenders next season? At times this year, he looked timid, but other times he looked strong. I really think he's going to have a breakout year next year. Not to take anything away from Turner, but I really believe that there is a system at NIU in place for RB's to excel.

I agree that we need more athletes on the defensive side of the ball, but not in our starters. They are all great athletes. It's in our depth where we need the athleticism. We were thin on defense this year, in terms of experience, and that hurt us.

Our depth on D was great at the beginning of the season. When injuries set in - note, injuries to key players - our depth was eroded and rotations ceased. With our kind of attacking D, we need numbers in order to keep some fresh legs attacking.

BTW - we have verbals from a pair of WRs from Florida. Don't have all the info on them right now. Hopefully we can keep 'em!