The NI-5: Five takeaways from the Huskies recently wrapped spring practice

DeKALB - With the Northern Illinois football team wrapping up spring practices on Saturday, we take a look at what stood out over the last month of workouts.

There is a starting quarterback

It’s probably the news most of interest and simultaneously the least surprising, but the junior transfer from Michigan State won the starting job over three other competitors including two freshmen.

Coach Thomas Hammock said there was no doubt that Rocky Lombardi separated himself from freshmen Ethan Hampton and Dustin Fletcher, as well as junior Rodney Thompson.

But Hammock said that Hampton - who graduated from Aurora Christian early to participate in spring camp with the team - has really opened a lot of eyes. He said he’s already game-ready should the need arise.

“We feel good about where he can go and what he can develop,” Hammock said. “He has a very high ceiling. We have to continue to coach him and get him closer and closer. I think him having the ability to come in during January helps. If he came this summer he’d be six months further behind. He’s put himself in a position to have a chance to play.”

Hampton saw a lot of action during Saturday’s practice in the 11-on-11 drills. He scrambled for a first and was getting to the ball to guys like Tristin Tewes, Trayvon Rudolph and Tyrice Richie. He was taking first-team reps at times as well.

There are still more players coming in

The light bulb didn’t go off in my head until Hammock mentioned it in an interview this week, but there are a few dozen more freshmen on the way into the program, even though 22 starters are back from last year and only five are gone.

“We’re going to add 35-40 more freshmen in the summertime,” Hammock said. “To me, that makes the roster that much more competitive. The way I look at it is the foundation is made and guys can come in and compete. We don’t need guys to play right away like last year. But if a young kid comes in and surprises us, does each and everything every single that will help us win, then he’ll get an opportunity. It makes your home team better. It makes your scout team better. It makes everything the more talent we have on our team.”

So that crew gets added to the 47 players back with experience (the program considers experienced players ones who have appeared in three games, and starters having started three games at least in 2020).

That also leaves just six seniors on the roster, so a young team last year is somehow even young this year, yet more experienced.

Competition, for lack of a better word, is good

Hammock said everything the team was graded throughout every drill in the spring, leading to competition between the offense and defense leading to a lot of competitiveness, and that was on full display Saturday.

Hammock said the scoring system is tallied up off of film after practice. The offense was strong early, but on Saturday he said a late charge by the defense wasn’t enough to overcome.

It was.

He said the defense beat the offense, and that sort of thing is very useful come the regular season.

“For us, I think we’ve made it a very competitive environment in the sense that you may be losing a part of practice but everything is being graded,” Hammock said. “Everything is being evaluated. For them to have the mindset to continue to work and turn it around should give them confidence when the season comes, we know there will be adversity. And when adversity strikes, just continue to stay committed to the process.”

The offense racked up some big plays early. Hampton was under pressure, rolled out, and found Cole Tucker, who then took it about 30 yards. Clint Ratkovich showed his speed by sprinting up the right side for a score right after Tucker’s catch.

Tucker had a couple grabs over Eric Rogers early. Harrison Waylee sped through the middle of the defense for a touchdown on a later drive. Hampton had another touchdown pass later to Tyrice Richie.

But then the takeaways came, the first on a long drive. On the next series, Jeyvon Ducker broke off a huge run by fumbled without any contact. Jordan Hansen recovered it. Myles McGee also had a late interception, as did Joshua Earl.

Both MVPs are still “true” freshmen

Maybe I mentioned this, but this is a very young football team. Both MVPs are technically true freshmen in Harrison Waylee and Devin Lafayette. Both played last year for the Huskies during the team’s 0-6 campaign, and like all players who played last year were granted an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA.

Hammock said it doesn’t matter at what level, but young players always make the biggest jumps.

“It speaks to the work those guys put in,” Hammock said. “You can see we are young in terms of age but not young in terms of experience. And I’d rather be young and experienced than young and inexperienced. We have a lot of guys who have played a lot of football, and even though it was a short season it was a learning experience for them and something they sued as a launching point or what we’re heading to as a program.”

Offensive line update

One of the hardest things to keep track of, at least for me, is the offensive line. But it seemed throughout Saturday the first-team line was Marques Cox, J.J. Lippe, Nolan Potter, Logan Zschernitz and Brayden Patton.

And I bring this up because the lead the Huskies built was probably on their backs. A lot of the runs, the big runs, came straight up the middle for the offense. And they did what they were supposed to let plays develop on the outside as well.