[2024] Huskies Insider: NIU Falters On The Road; No Fly Zone In The Making: Coach Ape Lands 2 More Commitments

[Ape]

DeKalb, IL 

Welcome back to Huskies Insider, your #1 source of NIU Football news. Today we will talk about the Huskies first loss this season and Coach Ape's assembly of a potential No Fly Zone in Dekalb.

 

Tsuyoshi Vasquez taking a sack

 

Huskies Fail To Lift Off Against Toledo

As they say, all good things come to an end. The Huskies win streak has come to one. The Huskies had won 8 in a row stretching back to Week 9 last season when they fell to Central Michigan. The Huskies offense was completely stymied by Toledo. Tsuyoshi Vasquez was overmatched, tossing no Touchdowns and throwing 3 interceptions only totaling 183 yards in the air and chipped in 2 on the ground.  Lead Back Jamarco Woods was held to only 2.95 Yards per carry. Although he did chip into one of the rushing touchdowns continuing his streak forward to all 4 games to start the season and 6 total now. The defense wasn't any better than the offense allowing 48 points. Jeremy McNitt was nearly perfect, 24 for 29 for 394 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Huskies did get after McNitt though sacking him 4 times in the contest. Toledo's running backs didnt put up gaudy rushing numbers but contributed in the clutch, adding 4 touchdowns to their efforts.

Overall this is one that the Huskies will likely want to quickly forget. Coach Ape was terse in his post game remarks. "I'm not going to make excuses. I'm just promising to be better. We will work harder and hope we can still compete for a MAC Championship." The Huskies next test is against Miami (OH) on Thursday night.

 

No Fly Zone Over DeKalb. Huskies Land FS and CB.

Coach Ape has been busy on the trail and has landed another two 4* secondary players to pair with 4* CB Shane Hadnot.

Ben Lively, 4* FS (B/B)

The first commit we'll talk about is Ben Lively. Lively is a 4* FS out of Roanoke Rapids in North Carolina. Lively is highly rated by scouts, with an estimated B Overall and potential. Lively was between NIU and Duke but ultimately decided to come to DeKalb in hopes of starting as a Freshman. Lively has been described as a Ball Hawk by scouts and will look to make an impact in an increasingly tough MAC conference.

Mark Amador, 4* CB (B/C+)

The Huskies have double dipped at CB early on in this cycle now, having added a commitment from Mark Amador. Amador is a 4* CB from Saint Stephen's Episcopal in Bradenton Florida. Amador like Adam Lively and Shane Hadnot is rated as a B overall currently by scouts. Amador's potential is slightly lower than the other two commits, being rated as a C+. Amador is another prospect who excels in man coverage like Shane Hadnot. Coach Ape clearly has a vision for his future secondary working with these three commitments. All three will push to start right away for the Huskies who have a lot of projected holes in the secondary next year. After missing on any blue chippers in the secondary last year Coach Ape has now added 3 4*s to the mix, as many as he had in total last season. This class has the potential to help be the present and future of the Huskies with some potential for true freshmen starters.

The Huskies are still rumored to be leading on 5* QB Douglas Burns, 4*OT Grant Dotter, 4*WR Rich Dust as well as being in the mix for 4*SS Owen Davis, 4*C Jorge Lee, and 4* RB Benito Garcia. Here's to hoping they all become Huskies.