Us vs. Them: Elmhurst native Harley swaps slogans as he takes over at NIU

There is an alternate universe where Northern Illinois football coach Rob Harley became a household name years ago.

Instead of coaching on the sideline, he could have been hosting the studio show at halftime.

After playing at Ohio State, the Elmhurst native initially went into broadcasting. He started at a local Columbus station, became a sideline reporter on the Big Ten Network, evolved into a game analyst and was moving up the ladder.

“One day my agent calls and says, 'Listen, they want to put you in the studio at ESPN2,'” Harley said. “I'm like, 'Yeah, guess what? I want to coach.' And he's like, 'What are you talking about? We've been working on this for eight years.'”

Turned out, being close to the game made Harley recognize he needed to be part of it.

“I really don't want to talk about it, I want to do it,” he said. “And so I quit everything.”

The next step was sort of like jumping off a second story balcony onto some couch cushions. He went from a promising television career to working for free. One of his former OSU coaches got the head job at Division II Ohio Dominican and told Harley, if he ever wants to try coaching, there was plenty of work available. Just no pay.

“So I coached linebackers, I coached safeties, I coached special teams, and loved every second of it,” Harley said. “We did the laundry for the players. It was a blast, because you had your hands in everything.”

Harley said he sold his own car and borrowed one from his father to help fund the lifestyle change. What he did have were connections.

Next, he became a graduate assistant at Michigan State under Mark Dantonio, Harley's defensive coordinator in college. Other than the age gap, it was a nice fit, since Harley leaned defense and MSU had a big season in 2013, winning the Big Ten.

“I'm 29, like the oldest GA ever,” he said. “All the other GAs are 22, 23. It was a unique time. I wouldn't trade any of it.”

He was also fortunate his girlfriend at the time, now wife, Danielle tolerated four years of the no or low income plan. A former Ohio State lacrosse player, she eventually decided to do some coaching of her own.

Harley finally landed full-time jobs as linebackers coach at Florida International, then Pittsburgh. When Harley felt ready run his own defense, he went to Arkansas State in 2021.

Four years later, Harley was named defensive coordinator at Northern Illinois. Back home, finally, with no thoughts of becoming a head coach. In February, though, NIU coach Thomas Hammock left to take a job with the Seattle Seahawks and Harley got the job offer he never expected.

The official title is interim head coach, but let's face it, there's strong motivation on both sides to make this work long-term.

Born Buckeye

Harley is actually an Ohio State legacy, just with a gap of about 80 years.

His great, great uncle Chic Harley is a Buckeye legend, probably the first one in football. He played in 1916 and '17, went to fight in World War I, then came back for the 1918 season. According to some sources, he was part of the original Decatur Staleys.

Their lives didn't overlap, but Rob heard plenty of Chic stories from his grandfather and grew up loving college football.

“Ohio State was a huge part of our family, but I've been a passionate follower of college football, every bowl game, all day long,” Harley said. “Everyone always asks me, are you a Bears fan? I like when the Bears do well. I do not have an NFL team. It's been college forever and ever.”

As a junior at York High School, Harley's team reached the playoff quarterfinals before losing to Schaumburg. When an injury derailed his senior year, most of the college recruiting stopped. But OSU offered a chance to be a preferred walk-on.

Harley was part of some great teams, including the 2002 national champions, but too much talent in the defensive backfield kept him mostly on special teams.

“Just to play, to get on the field on special teams with that roster, it's darn near impossible,” he said. “I played behind three All Americans.”

When he did get a few reps at safety, there was heavy pressure not to screw up while the all-American took a break on the sideline.

“In a lot of ways, that prepared me to be a coach, even though I didn't think I was going to coach then,” Harley said. “You're not going to get as many opportunities to fail as those guys are. So you've really got to know it.”

Hearing a symphony

Now that he's back in the Chicago area for the first time in 25 years, Harley can feel the Midwestern vibe every day. Others feel it for him, demonstrated by a recent encounter with his college coach Jim Tressel in Toledo.

“I hadn't seen him in a while,” Harley said. “He looks at me and grabs me by the shoulders and said, 'I'm so glad you're back home in the Midwest, because you were out there for a while.'

“And I'm like, 'I was in Pittsburgh and Jonesboro, Arkansas.' But that's just the mindset of a Midwesterner. Like, bro, you've been gone. You've been out there in the universe.”

Harley's current universe is DeKalb. He recognized that his era of Chicago-area high school football players helped turn NIU into a big winner with coach Joe Novak in the mid-'00s. Now the task is to reverse last year's 3-9 record while making the school's first trip through the Mountain West Conference.

Harley brought in a new slogan, Us vs. Them. The old hashtag, The Hard Way, hasn't been retired necessarily, but Us vs. Them is a way to illustrate the team building that lies ahead.

“I love being a part of a team,” he said. “I just think it's super cool when a team, I don't care who's leading it, moves and has success, because that's a hard thing to do in a group.”

And it needs to happen every day. With 113 players and roughly 40 support staff, holding a single efficient practice can be an accomplishment.

“When I'm the linebacker coach, I'm just worried about the linebackers, right?” Harley said. “And you're not really appreciating the symphony. You're just worried about playing this section of it.

“Now as head coach, you're seeing the whole symphony and you're hearing it for what it is, and when it's collectively put together properly, you're like, 'My God, that is a minor miracle.' I've become really passionate about that.”

Symphony in DeKalb — maybe that can be next year's slogan.