AMES, Iowa – In a surprise move, Northern Illinois put names on the backs of its jerseys for the first time since before the era of coach Joe Novak (1996-2007) in Thursday’s season-opener at Iowa State.
The Huskies already were debuting brand new Adidas jerseys this year, but the names on the jerseys were not revealed even to the players until they walked into the locker room at Jack Trice Stadium.
The Huskies again will be sporting a red home uniform, while the road jersey is the traditional white. The home uniform features white numbers outlined with black, with “HUSKIES” written above the number.
The road jerseys NIU displayed Thursday look the same, with red numbers instead of white.
Both jerseys have black piping down the sides, while the home jersey has a black stripe leading from the piping to the neck on both the front and back.
The road jersey has the same stripe, but it’s red. The helmet design is the same as previous years, but has a red sparkle to it.
“The bottom line is, these kids, if they don’t look good, they’re not going to play good,” NIU coach Jerry Kill said at the team’s media day in Chicago. “If they don’t feel good about their equipment they’re not going to play well. You’ve got to feel good to play good. I think we all understand that.”
Kicking off: After an open competition at kicker, one of the team’s biggest question marks coming into the season, senior Michael Cklamovski, a transfer from Illinois, handled kickoff duties for the Huskies. His first kick went out of the end zone for a touchback.
Cklamovski also missed a 49-yard field goal on NIU’s opening drive when it went wide right.
Traveling men: While DeMarcus Grady got the start at quarterback, NIU traveled four quarterbacks just as Kill said on Monday. Grady, Chandler Harnish and redshirt freshmen Jordan Lynch and A.J. Hill traveled with the team. Junior college transfer Casey Weston did not.
True freshmen Da’Ron Brown (WR), Jamaal Bass (LB), Cameron Stingily (LB), Greg Barksdale (LB), Jimmie Ward (DB), Akeem Daniels (WR), Mike Hellams (LB), Michael Gegner (OL), Tyler Loos (OL), Luke Eakes (TE), Joe Windsor (DE) and Mathew Sims (K) also dressed for the game.
Catch ’em while you can: Thursday’s game was the start of a long stretch of the schedule with only the rare appearance in DeKalb. NIU’s lone home game before Oct. 9 is at 6 p.m., Sept. 11 against North Dakota at Huskie Stadium.
