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| Northern Illinois safety Tracy Wilson and the Huskies conclude spring practice today at Huskie Stadium. (Rob Winner – rwinner@daily-chronicle.com) |
DeKALB – A year from now, the final practice of spring football at Northern Illinois might be different.
This year, though, the spring preview will remain the same as it has under NIU coach Jerry Kill. The Huskies will have a pretty normal end-of-week practice, which will consist of about an hour-long scrimmage today starting at 1 p.m. at Huskie Stadium. The practice is open to the public and admission is free.
Kill said after Thursday's practice that he feels good about what his team accomplished in spring football and the main goal of the final practice will be to come out of it without any injuries. NIU was extra careful this spring with a couple of players – such as running back Chad Spann and defensive tackle D.J. Pirkle – holding them out of contact drills while they recovered from injuries.
"We'll take a look some of the younger guys, go about an hour and get out," Kill said. "At this point in time, I feel good about what's gone on."
While this year's final practice will be used mostly to evaluate some of the younger players, next year, Kill said, the Huskies could move toward an actual spring game like some schools do.
"A year from now, we'll have more kids, freshmen and things like that, probably a year from now we'll get into a deal where we maybe divide the staff up and have a true [game]," Kill said. "We just don't have the depth at this point in time. But a year from now, we will. It'll be the first time since I've been here."
Today's scrimmage will have some uniqueness to it.
Quarterbacks traditionally are off-limits from contact in practice to prevent injuries. That could change for a couple of quarterbacks today.
"I don't know if we'll go live on the quarterback or not," Kill said. "We never have but we might a little bit on a couple of guys. Jordan [Lynch] needs to get hit a little bit. The big thing is just getting out with no injuries."
Kill had mentioned earlier in camp that quarterback Chandler Harnish, who has been testing out an injured right knee for a few weeks, might need to take a few hits just to see how the knee reacts.
Kill also said there won't be any kicking during the scrimmage.
"I'd like to, but I think we're not quite where we need to be there," he said.
