DEKALB, Ill. – Helped by the return of all five starters from the offensive line and the starting quarterback from a year ago, the Huskie offense has come together as a unit during the three weeks of camp.
 
"Anytime you have all five offensive linemen and your quarterback back, you know it's a good start," said NIU offensive coordinator/tight ends and fullbacks coach Mike Uremovich said.  "We've got a lot of guys that are back that, last year at this time, were just trying to survive, now they're starting to learn and master the offense.
 
"Obviously Marcus [Childers] has started eight games now, so he's matured a lot. He's really helped bring along our receiver group because we have a bunch of young guys in there."
 
Childers, who started the final eight games for the Huskies and entered camp as the starter this year, has developed a great deal during fall camp both physically and as a team leader.
 
"During the offseason, I said I wanted to be a better leader," Childers said. "Physically, I've gotten a lot better at throwing the football. Now I understand where the ball goes in certain situations and learning how to read defenses."
 
The redshirt sophomore from Adairsville, Ga. improved with each start last season. He put up numbers that compared favorably to the last redshirt freshman to start at NIU, Chandler Harnish. This season, he will be given a little more responsibility with the offense.
 
"As the year went on last year, we allowed him to make more decisions," Uremovich said. "When you're a young quarterback and you're in there, we try and manage the game as the play caller and not put him in a bad position. At this point of his career we're giving him options to make decisions. We're allowing him to do things he didn't get to do last year because he hasn't seen as many things. But now, going through spring and another fall camp, the thing he's really gotten better at is the decision-making process. We put a lot on him and he's handled it really well."
 
While having an experience signal-caller in the backfield helps, the NIU offense will only go as far as the offensive line will take them. It's the group on the offensive unit Childers felt made the biggest strides through camp.
 
"The offensive line has really improved the most since the start of camp," he said. "They've really come a long way since last season."
 
 
 
"The best thing about the O-line is not just that you have the guys back, but you have a lot of guys on the two-deep that started games for us last year, so there's a lot of experience," Uremovich said. "We have starters, four from last year, and one's a junior college transfer that got here last semester. Then there's also three or four guys in the second group that have played a lot of games. There's a comfort level there."
 
The offensive line will be key as the Huskie offense evolves throughout the season. They will be relied on to power a Huskie rushing attack that features a bevy of running backs, the deepest group of the offense, which will help the Huskie passing attack with its young receiver unit.
 
"Our ability to run the ball has always been something we've been good at here at NIU for as long as I can remember," Uremovich said. "You like to think with the offensive line we have coming back and the running backs we have, we should be able to run the ball really well. In turn, the defense will have to make some decisions and allow us to open up the passing game a little bit."
 
"It's big time for me," Childers said of the offensive line. "With a young receiving corps, they should give me a lot more time than last year. Having those running backs in the backfield with me too, they're older, they've played a lot of football, so I think it's going to cool to see how it all unfolds with the young receiving corps."
  
The Huskies kick off the 2018 campaign at Iowa Saturday, Sept. 1 and will welcome Utah the following weekend to Huskie Stadium. Season ticket packages start as low as $55 in 2018 with the Huskie Stadium Family Pack (four tickets for $220), while a general admission ticket on the East Side is only $60. Mini-plans were introduced last week. Fans can pick two Saturday games and one midweek MACtion game for $70. Single game tickets for all five 2018 NIU home football games are on sale NOW online at NIUHuskies.com or by calling 815-753-PACK (7225).
 
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