Huskies won't run to victory

Northern Illinois hopes tonight's Independence Bowl marks the beginning of the end.

The end, that is, of the Huskies' brief days without a dominant rushing attack.

NIU offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover figures the best chance to dent Louisiana Tech's defense won't be via the ground.

"Their front seven are probably, next to Tennessee, the strongest group we've faced," Limegrover said. "We're not going to be able to say, 'Let's line up and run our base stuff.' We're going to have to do some things a little bit differently.

"To think you're going to run it 45-50 times and have success is a little unrealistic."

While these are all solid ideas from Limegrover, especially considering the Bulldogs rank No. 11 nationally by allowing just 99.8 rushing yards per game, it begs a question: How is Northern Illinois, a program that long has loved its running backs, in such a predicament?

During coach Jerry Kill's seven seasons at Southern Illinois, the Salukis finished among the top seven Football Championship Subdivision rushing teams four times.

In other words, Kill and Limegrover grew accustomed to unleashing dominant running games.

And when Kill was hired at NIU last December, he inherited a program from Joe Novak that had produced a 1,000-yard rusher in each of the last nine seasons.

With strong ground games as their common ground, how could NIU not continue to be Running Back U? Somehow, the Huskies head into the Independence Bowl with a rushing game that grades out as, um -

"I'd say probably an incomplete," Limegrover said, "be- cause we don't have everything in that we want in."

Apparently not.

The Huskies' top rusher, true freshman Me'co Brown, owns just 508 yards this year. That ranks as the lowest total for NIU's leader since Vince Smith managed 448 yards in 1976.

During the Novak era, the Huskies counted on their running back to get a 100-yard game almost every week. Last season, for example, they still produced eight 100-yard games despite their 2-10 record.

This year NIU boasts just four 100-yard games - two from Brown and two from redshirt quarterback Chandler Harnish.

But these comparisons don't acknowledge Novak's apples vs. Kill's oranges.

During the Novak era, the Huskies ran a single-back set with multiple tight ends. They didn't need fullbacks or the spread schemes that are so popular today.

Kill's plans, on the other hand, are more typical of college football's spread-crazy landscape. Harnish ranks a close second to Brown in rushing yards (478).

More important, though they had such players as New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs on their SIU rosters, Kill and Limegrover don't believe in one runner monopolizing the ball.

Brown leads NIU with 109 carries, but sophomore Chad Spann has 74, junior Justin Anderson has 53 and late-rising sophomore Ricky Crider owns 43.

It's a work-in-progress," Limegrover said. "It's not something where you could come in and in one year completely transform everything they had done and what they were used to into what you wanted to and have the exact right personnel to do it."

Put less politely, NIU's current complement of running backs don't match what Kill and Limegrover had at SIU.

"Yeah, and I think we need to continue to fit what we do to the guys we have," Limegrover said. "Because we don't have bad backs. We've got to continue to work to give those guys an opportunity to be big-play players."

"I think we did improve as the season went on," said junior left guard Jason Onyebuagu, NIU's top lineman. "But we didn't play as well as we wanted to the last time out (against Navy on Nov. 25).

"I think that's kind of actually helped us with our bowl preparation, so we can come out and have a good showing."