DeKALB, Ill. – Travis Moore and Aaron Wilkins have joined the Northern Illinois University coaching staff as assistant coaches for the Huskie defense, head coach Thomas Hammock announced Tuesday, completing the NIU staff on that side of the ball. 

Moore, a two-time All Mid-American Conference performer at defensive end for NIU who has been the head coach at Dwight D. Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, Illinois for the past 12 years, will coach the Huskie defensive ends while Wilkins, a member of the Liberty University defensive staff for the past four seasons, will work with the NIU cornerbacks.

As head coach at his alma mater since 2006, Moore led the Cardinals to the playoffs in six of his 12 seasons and was named the High School Football Coach of the Year by Prep Insight Magazine for 2017-18.  Eisenhower won the first two South Suburban Conference Red championships in school history under his direction, in 2011 and 2015, and he had an overall winning percentage of 57 percent. He managed a team of 15 assistant coaches and had more than 150 student-athletes in the Eisenhower program on an annual basis.

"Travis is a person that walked on to the NIU program as a freshman, earned his stripes daily, did the right things in the classroom, earned a scholarship and became a very, very good player for NIU," Hammock said of his former teammate. "He has a vested interest in the program. I admired, and continue to admire his work ethic, his character, discipline and toughness. He became the head coach at Eisenhower High School and I made frequent stops there during recruiting."

Prior to going to Eisenhower, Moore spent one year as an assistant coach at Oswego East High School, where he was a part of establishing the school's first varsity football program. 

Moore, a native of Robbins, Illinois, originally joined the NIU program as a walk-on for the 2000 season, but quickly established himself and started seven contests as a redshirt freshman in 2001. He went on to earn first team All-MAC honors in 2002 and 2004 at defensive end and finished his career with 146 tackles, 25 for loss.

"It's a dream come true to come back to NIU," Moore said. "I've come full circle. This is a program and a university that has given me so much, from the birth of my daughter, the marriage to my wife, who I met here at NIU, to coming out with a degree and having four years of joy on the football field. It's literally a dream come true to be back and to work alongside someone as great as coach Hammock."

Wilkins arrives at NIU after five seasons at Liberty, where he advanced from a volunteer coach working with the Flames' special teams, to a defensive quality control position (2015-16), to defensive line coach and defensive recruiting coordinator (2017) to coaching defensive backs (2018) in addition to his recruiting duties. Wilkins helped Liberty capture the program's eighth Big South title in 2016 and he was a part of Liberty's staff that led the Flames to a thrilling 48-45 win over Baylor to open the 2017 season.

"Aaron Wilkins is a guy that I've come to know through Coach [Robert] Wimberly," Hammock said. "He was a volunteer at Liberty, then an intern, became a quality control assistant, and then a position coach. I love to have guys that have worked their way through the ranks to a position of being an assistant coach. As a recruiter, he signed 11 kids from California to go to Liberty so he must be a good recruiter to do that. He brings a level of knowledge to the secondary that is going to benefit our cornerbacks, and he will work with Coach Jackson on that back end of our defense. I think the guys will gravitate to him, and we're happy to have him as a Huskie."  

Wilkins went to Liberty from his native California, where he spent three seasons (2011-13) on the defensive staff at Reedley College, where he also played junior college football. After coaching inside linebackers in 2011 at Reedley, he coached the secondary in 2012 and 2013, and served as recruiting and placement coordinator in 2013.  He coached four all-conference defensive backs and all four of his players transferred to FBS programs.

"I'm really excited about coming to a place where the expectations are so high," Wilkins said. "It's not always you are walking a situation with the tradition of NIU. We are and that's a blessing."

A junior college All-American safety at Reedley, Wilkins went on to play at the University of San Diego.

With the addition of Moore and Wilkins, Hammock's defensive staff is complete. In addition to Derrick Jackson, introduced Monday as the Huskies' associate head coach/defensive coordinator and safeties coach, the NIU defensive staff includes Robert Wimberly (Executive Assistant Coach/Co-Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach), and Jordan Gigli (Defensive Line Coach/Recruiting Coordinator).

"I think we have the right blend of teachers, evaluators and leaders that will help our defense continue the level of consistency and dominating play it has had in the past several seasons," Hammock said. "We have depth, we have talent and I look forward to our defense continuing to be one of the better defenses in the MAC."

-- NIU --