Northern Illinois University Athletics

Joe Novak guided the NIU football team from 1996-2007, winning 63 games while turning around the fortunes of the Huskie football program. Novak led the Huskies to four MAC West Division Titles (2001, ’02, ’04, and ’05) and was named MAC Coach of the Year in 2002. Novak helped the Huskies earned national headlines in 2003 when NIU was ranked as high as No. 10 in the Bowl Championship Series standings.

Novak’s 139 games coached ranks second all-time in NIU history and his 63 victories rank third in Huskie football history. Novak led NIU to a pair of bowl appearances, the 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl and the 2006 Poinsettia Bowl, and helped 10 players earn All-American honors at NIU.  

A Miami University graduate, Novak played defensive end for the Redskins before spending time as an assistant at Miami and Illinois before coming to NIU as defensive coordinator in 1980. In four seasons as defensive coordinator for the Huskies, Novak helped mentor four NFL draftees and helped the Huskies to the 1983 MAC Championship and California Bowl title. 

After moving on to Indiana, where he spent 12 seasons helping the Hoosiers to one of the most successful periods in program history, Novak returned to DeKalb on December 22, 1995, when he was named the 19th head coach in NIU history. 

In his first four seasons, Novak laid the foundation for a program that would enjoy seven consecutive winning seasons from 2000-06, including the historic 2003 season when the Huskies went 10-2 with wins over nationally-ranked Maryland and Alabama.