DeKALB, Illinois – The defending Mid-American Conference champion Northern Illinois University Huskies donned full pads for the first time this preseason as head coach Thomas Hammock put the Huskies through a two-hour workout Sunday afternoon at Huskie Stadium.
 
With most of the practice spent in live tackling and the new "heavy thud" tempo, Hammock saw the intensity level upped during the team's sixth preseason practice. NIU moved the workout to the afternoon in order to practice outside on the first day in pads.
 
"The intensity really ramped up," Hammock said. "We had to add a new tempo to practice. We had to have a tempo in between thud and live tackling, so we call it heavy thud. With that, we have the ability to get some guys that have played a lot of football a lot of work without tackling guys all the way to the ground and exposing them to injury. They handled that well."
 
One of the most energetic segments early in Sunday's practice saw the offensive and defensive players face off one-one-one in an "open field avoidance" drills with running backs and receivers attempting to get past defenders in a limited space. The entire offense and defense cheered on their respective teammates, upping the competition level heading into 11-on-11 situations. Quarterbacks Rocky Lombardi (Clive, Iowa/Valley HS) and Ethan Hampton (Elburn, Ill./Aurora Christian HS) took all the snaps with the first and second team offense, respectively Sunday as the offense appeared to have the edge in the daily competition.
 
"It was an intense practice," Hammock said. "The defense got after the offense [Saturday] and there was a response. I'm sure the offensive coaches took that personally and the offensive players responded. There was leadership, there was energy, there was intensity, there was an edge, and it was good to see. As the head coach, you don't know who to cheer for, there's always a catch 22, but I loved the response. I'm sure [Monday] there will be another response. I love the competition and how these guys are playing."
 
For the offense, Hammock named running backs Antario Brown (Savannah, Ga./Beach HS) and Mason Blakemore (Centralia, Ill./Centralia HS), and wide receivers Fabian McCray (Chicago, Ill./Phillips HS) and Jalen Johnson (Aurora, Ill./Metea Valley HS) as players who have played well and put good days together through the first week of camp, while also mentioning freshman linebacker Nick Alvarado (Bloomfield, N.J./Union City HS) and the Huskie defensive line among those who have caught his eye.   
 
Alvarado had a pair of tackles for loss and safety Jordan White (Havre de Grace, Md./Havre de Grace HS) picked off a pass to provide the defensive highlights Sunday. When the Huskies moved to short yardage and goal line situations, touchdowns by Brown, tight end Tristen Tewes (Pleasant Plains, Ill./Pleasant Plains HS) and McCray highlighted those segments. Running backs Blakemore, Brown and Harrison Waylee (Johnston, Iowa/Urbandale HS) all broke free for long runs at one point or another during practice.
 
"I really like the progress [I've seen so far]," Hammock said. "We were able to get a lot of quality work. With the twos, we went a lot of live tackling today and that was good for those guys to get a lot of work. I like how we've been able to break down the practices and get guys a lot of work. We continue to split the practices and as long as we're able to stay healthy, I want to continue to split the practices and get work and develop our whole football team. You see guys getting reps, making plays – young guys making plays. They're getting better and it's helping our football team as a whole."
 
The final few periods were spent in hurry-up, move-the-ball situations with the number one and two offenses taking on the young defenders and the number one and two defenses going up against the young offensive players as part of the "split" practices Hammock referred to. Lombardi connected with receiver Shemar Thornton (Miami, Fla./Hallandale HS) on a 70-plus yard touchdown pass to close out practice.
 
The Huskies return to the practice field Monday as the second full week of camp gets underway. See the complete camp schedule, including position previews, and links to daily coverage on the 2022 Camp Central page on NIUHuskies.com.
 
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