Younger Huskies 'stealing' a look at next season
DeKALB − Northern Illinois head coach Rod Carey likens pre-bowl practices to "stealing time."
This season, there are a whopping 76 FBS teams participating in a bowl game, and for the seventh straight season the Huskies are among that group.
It's a chance to pad the season with 1 more win, enjoy some more time in the sun. It's also a good opportunity to get a head start on the next season.
Each team that qualifies to play in a bowl is allotted up to 15 pre-bowl practices. In NIU's case this season, the Huskies will have a dozen because of their early date with Marshall in the Dec. 23 Boca Raton Bowl.
It's a chance for younger players and those who are redshirting to finally receive some legitimate reps and get a head start on next year's campaign when they hope to compete for playing time.
"They're huge, because this is really where you start your development for your young guys," Carey said at Tuesday's pre-bowl news conference at the Yordon Center. "This is really where you start that progression of getting them into the two-deep by the end of fall camp next year.
"What I always call it, you're stealing time, because usually you don't get to work with these guys if you're not in a bowl game."
On Tuesday in South Florida when the Huskies take on the Thundering Herd at FAU Stadium, NIU sophomore quarterback Drew Hare will put the finishing touches on what has been a solid campaign for the 2014 MAC championship game MVP.
The last two seasons - Hare redshirted in 2012 when the Huskies went to the Orange Bowl and backed up Jordan Lynch on last season's Poinsettia Bowl team - he said that the extra practices were a big benefit for him.
"They were huge." Hare said. "We have development practices. That was basically the time that the guys that weren't playing were getting a lot of reps and getting to really run our offense - whereas throughout the year you really don't get to run it as much. Guys on scout team, guys that were just backing up people, it's really big for development."
NIU got into Marshall preparation Tuesday, so practices will get back to a more normal pace leading up to the bowl game.
With the Huskies having suffered 2 straight bowl losses, Carey said the staff is making some changes when it comes to preparation.
"We need to change some things up, the last two we've lost," Carey said. "Yeah, we're doing minor things here different, but it's really more schedule-based than anything, because of the time, because of those things, when we're going down. Yeah, we're changing up some other things as far as practice - how much, how long we're out there for.
"We've got to make sure these guys are right physically by the time the game comes. I think we've got a good plan in place to go ahead and get that done."