By Bobby Narang
The Northern Illinois University football team returned to the practice field Monday morning.
In another twist to the football season, and sports world in general, the Huskies restarted their season after the Mid-American Conference officials reversed course and elected to have a shortened season.
Northern Illinois head football coach Thomas Hammock, a former standout running back for the Huskies, expressed excitement over returning to a sense of normality this Fall.
“It felt really good,” Hammock said in a school release. “For us, it’s been a long time coming and a lot of uncertainty, but it was good to have a focus, a narrow focus, on knowing the start date and knowing the things we need to get done to get ready for the season. Our players had great energy and it’s been outstanding.”
“You went from trying to keep the players engaged during the Fall semester to now we’re preparing for a game. I think the urgency has certainly picked up amongst the coaches. It has certainly picked up amongst the players and guys know that we need to get ourselves mentally and physically prepared to play a MAC season.”
The Huskies and the rest of the conference will play their first games Wednesday, Nov. 4. The schedule was expected to be released late this week. Hammock said his coaching staff members had to make sweeping changes to their practice schedule due to the announcement.
“We looked at a normal camp schedule, and what we wanted to do was take the things from camp that we thought were productive and we could be efficient with our time and try to get that into a school day,” Hammock said. “You can’t have the players here more than four hours a day. The things that you would normally space out take more time during training camp. You have to be able to condense in a timely fashion to make sure we’re not going over our time, but with the understanding that these guys are in class, have study tables, tutoring.
“We want to make sure we can be as efficient and effective with our time. I think the way we have our schedule mapped out is really good. We get our physical work in the morning with practice.”
Still, Hammock said his players and coaches are primed to make the best of the shortened season that will feature only conference games. The Huskies entered the Summer with diminished expectations, ranking near the bottom of the West Division by several national football preseason publications.
“The goal is to progressively build this team up, to get them ready and peaking by November 4,” Hammock said. “You have to build them up to be able to sustain a two-hour practice, which helps prepare you for a three-hour game. You don’t just jump right into it day one. What we tried to do is progressively work ourselves back into practice shape, into game shape, and we want to peak at the right moment.”