Aug. 16, 2008

DeKALB - Over 500 members of the Huskie family attended the inaugural Northern Illinois Football Fan Day, Saturday. The NIU faithful were treated to a two-and-half hour scrimmage, followed by an autograph session with the Huskies.

On the field, the team showed the fans a little bit of everything, starting with punts, followed two-minute drills, and a variety of other scenarios.

"We went to overtime, we went to getting the field goal team out with no timeouts left," Head Coach Jerry Kill said. "We went through about every situation that could possibly happen today in football."

While Kill's team went through nearly every imaginable scenario, he was hesitant to grade the squad's performance.

"You never can evaluate practice until you go in and watch the film," he said. "There will be a lot of things that I like and there will be a lot of things we need to improve on."

One thing Kill will examine closely are the seven turnovers created by the defense. The group recovered three fumbles, and Huskie linebackers picked-off four passes. On one of the interceptions, Cory Hanson (Minneapolis, Minn./De La Salle) caught a pass intended for wideout Britt Davis (Broadview, Ill./Riverside-Brookfield), but the receiver stripped Hanson and the offense regained possession.

Despite the turnovers, the offense scored four touchdowns. True freshman Me'co Brown (Moss Point, Miss./Moss Point) found the endzone on a three-yard burst, and quarterback Ryan Morris (Carol Steam, Ill./West Chicago) scored one a one-yard run set-up by a 28-yard dash from junior Justin Anderson (Chicago, Ill./Steinmetz).

Redshirt freshman Chandler Harnish (Bluffton, Ind./Norwell) added to the scoring with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Reed Cunningham (Cambria, Wis./Pardeeville), who totaled two receptions for 22 yards. Harnish, who took the majority of snaps, completed 11-of-24 passes with two interceptions.

Sophomore Chad Spann (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central) impressed the crowd by staying on his feet after a hit and continuing 65-yards to the end zone for the day's longest play. Spann finished the day with seven rushes for 80 yards. Evansville, Ind. native Ricky Crider (Reitz) led the team in rushing with 83 yards on 14 tries, including runs for 27 and 15 yards.

Latecomers missed an early surprise. On the opening play of the day, redshirt sophomore Tyler Clasey (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) burst through the offensive line to block an Andy Ditbenner (Bloomington, Ill./Normal University) punt, exemplifying Kill's "hard hat, lunch pail" philosophy.

Kill said he has seen a great deal of progress from his team over the first two weeks of fall camp, but reserved judgement on just how far the team has come.

"We're a lot farther along than we were in the spring," he said. "But are we far enough, where we'd like to be (at this point)? I think I can answer that after I've watched the film."

The Huskies open the 2008 campaign on Saturday, Aug. 30 at Minnesota with the home opener set for Sept. 20 versus Indiana State.

Statistics

Individual
Passing
Harnish 11-24-2 89 (TD), Rogers 6-11-2 39, Grady 2-7-0 10, Morris 2-5-0 29

Rushing
Crider 14-83, Spann 7-80 (TD), Smith 9-61, Anderson 8-41, Harnish 13-28 (TD), Brown 7-23 (TD), Grady 8-38, Clanton 3-18, Rogers 7-9

Receiving
Clark 4-29, Cox 3-27, Cunningham 2-22 (TD), Davis 2-22, Turner 1-4, Clanton 1-6, Skarb 1-3, Crider 1-13, Palmer 1-11, Clasey 1-7, Schepler 1-7, Jacques 1-4

Scoring Summary
Brown 3 run
Morris 1 run
Cunningham 14 pass from Harnish
Spann 65 run

Defensive
Interceptions
Allen, McCarthy, Hanson, Tranchitella
Sacks
Schiller, Lawson, Kritikos (2), Rice