Will distractions derail NIU vs. Fresno State?
Tom Matukewicz admits it.
During his 11 seasons as an assistant to Jerry Kill, Matukewicz second-guessed some of the man's decisions as if he were a fan instead of an insider.
He did it because his life's plan since he was a 12-year-old in rural Silver Lake, Kansas, has been to earn a head-coaching job.
Now that Matukewicz finds himself as Northern Illinois' interim coach for today's Humanitarian Bowl against Fresno State a situation put in motion when Kill and coordinators Matt Limegrover and Tracy Claeys left for Minnesota on Dec. 5 he owns even more appreciation for his former boss.
“I'm sleeping a lot less, but that ain't all bad,” Matukewicz said. “You can sleep when you're dead. I certainly consider this a positive thing. At the end of the day, this has been a way for me to crystallize a lot of my thinking about being a head coach.”
Then Coach Tuke chuckled at his second-guessing ways.
“You know, all these things that, ‘Hey, I want to do this,' and ‘Man, I think Coach Kill's crazy here.' Well, you're not so crazy now that you're sitting in that chair.”
After Saturday's game, Matukewicz resumes his role as NIU's linebackers coach under new head coach Dave Doeren.
But in the 11 short days he has served as NIU's lead dog, he has needed to summon all of his long-honed leadership skills.
Not only were the Huskies stunned by Kill's departure the day they gathered at the team banquet to celebrate their 10-win season, they spent the next several days focused on final exams.
Then, less than 24 hours before they flew to Boise, Idaho, for the bowl, the players learned Doeren, Wisconsin's defensive coordinator, would be their next coach.
Meanwhile, they were expected to maintain focus on a Fresno State team that defeated Illinois two weeks ago (something NIU could not do in September).
“You can't give enough credit to Coach ‘Tuke' and the rest of the staff that stuck around,” said NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish. “He did a great job of just rallying the troops and getting us all back focusing on Fresno State and having fun while we're doing that.”
Sounds like there's a chance the Huskies overcome their off-field issues and revisit the form that led to 9 straight wins in the regular season.
“The best way I can answer that question is, it's like our fight song,” Matukewicz said. “There's two phrases in our fight song that I love. ‘Forward, together forward.' OK? And that's what I plan on doing.
“And in there it says, ‘the hard way.' That's us. That's me. That's Coach ‘Tuke.' That's this team. Sometimes you've got to do it the hard way. And you know what? I kind of like that.
“This adversity, it could do either one. It could fracture us. We could be like a box of BBs that's spilled. Or we could come together for a common goal and Fresno, they better look out.”