Going into the final game of his collegiate career, Quinn Urwiler already locked down one of the most prolific single seasons for an NIU linebacker.

The Huskie senior and Batavia graduate threw an exclamation point on top of the season, forcing a fumble and coming away with his first career interception, bobbling the pass before coming away with it.

Even though he finished the year with 141 tackles, 11th most in school history, he said he was maybe too focused on showing off to coach Thomas Hammock the speed he displayed in his days at Batavia High School.

“We were playing stray, so it was just getting to my hash,” Urwiler said. “The guy tipped it. ... The first time I grabbed it, I’m like, ‘Here I go, I got to run. I get to show Coach Ham the running back skills from high school.’ Then I dropped it, then I caught it again, then I dropped it, then I think I caught it a third time. I thought, ‘I‘m pretty sure I caught that.’

“It was pretty exciting.”

Urwiler finished a tackle away from tying Tony Smith for the 10th most total tackles in school history – he had 142 in 1992. Urwiler’s 70 assisted tackles put him 10th all-time, displacing Michael Hester in the record book – he had 69 in 1994.

Even with the two turnovers he forced in the team’s final game on Friday against Kent State, and the fact both led directly to touchdowns for the NIU offense, the Huskies dropped the game 35-31 despite a two-score lead in the fourth quarter.

The Huskies finished 3-9, their fourth losing mark in Hammock’s seven seasons and their second three-win season in four years.

Before the game, Urwiler said he was emotional and was hoping to head into the real world on a positive note. But he said he also knew football isn’t the be-all and end-all.

“But I also want to know my identity is not in football,” Urwiler said. “No matter what I do in life, I have to raise a family and become a successful young businessman.”

After graduating from Batavia, Urwiler spent 2020 and 2021 at North Dakota, appearing in 14 games at the FCS school.

He transferred to NIU in 2022 and played mainly on special teams as the Huskies went 3-9. The next year, when the Huskies won a bowl game, he was still mainly a special teams player. In 2024 he became a rotational player and made 32 tackles. He had four tackles in the Huskies’ bowl win.

“Would I like to have played a starting role longer? Sure,” Urwiler said. “But I wouldn’t trade anything for the opportunity I was given here. Being able to put my blood, sweat and tears into this program and just be able to grind to be in a role that people can respect me, and also being a leader where other people respect me is something that I really, greatly appreciate.”

Hammock said maintaining culture is harder and harder in the current college football climate. But despite the 3-9 year for the Huskies, he was impressed the work ethic and the culture never changed. He spent most of the year saying an outsider, if they observed practice, would never be able to tell the team’s record.

He said that’s a credit to the seniors who have been with the program and name-checked Urwiler first.

“I really appreciate our seniors, how they’ve been able to keep the culture intact despite where we are, how we’ve played this year and the amount of turnover that we’ve had,” Hammock said. “They’ve understood what it takes, how we need to work, getting new guys into the program, making sure they need to understand how we need to work as a program.”

Urwiler was an all-academic selection in the Mid-American Conference last season. One of his goals heading into this season was a first-team selection. He was second in the conference in total tackles, one behind Buffalo’s Red Murdock and 22 ahead of Bowling Green’s Gideon Lampron, who was third with 119. Urwiler led the league with 71 solo tackles.

Nationally, he leads the country in solo tackles and is third in total tackles. His performance against Kent State, with the two turnovers and 12 tackles, earned him MAC Defensive Player of the Week Honors.

“As a kid, I always dreamed of being a Division I football player and getting an opportunity to start,” Urwiler said. “I fulfilled my dream. I set a goal for myself coming into the season, having 100 tackles and also being first-team all-conference. Right now, I have one of those, and hopefully the other can come with it. It’s nice knowing that I made an impact at this place and that I put the linebackers in a great place to continue to build off of it.”

Beyond all the stats, the awards and the honors, Urwiler said he loved this team and he loved his teammates.

“I’m here for my brothers,” Urwiler said. “I was just blessed to get the opportunity to be in a starting role and be a leader. As a leader, I said, ‘Now I have to show what I’m all about.’

“I think I did a good job of that and being able to set that standard for the future. Telling guys, ‘Hey, when things are going bad, this is how you fix it,’ and continue to build off of that.”