Rob Harley, Northern Illinois’ interim coach, is operating with a mindset that he’s building for the long term
DEKALB — Northern Illinois football coach Rob Harley had arranged a couple of postpractice visits Tuesday before his players headed to their second day of classes.
First, the Huskies mixed it up with some marching band members on the practice field outside of Huskie Stadium, jumping in on a routine and exchanging fight songs, with the players chanting, clapping and pumping their fists during their version.
Then the players took a knee while Harley introduced Bob and Barbara Heimerdinger, who were celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary. Bob Heimerdinger, a 98-year-old NIU Hall of Famer, played quarterback for the Huskies from 1948-51 and was the first NIU player to have his jersey retired.
Heimerdinger, who will be an honorary captain at the home opener Sept. 12, told the players of the importance of NIU in his life as a student, teacher, coach and now fan.
Between both exchanges, Harley referred to the band members and the Heimerdingers as examples of “Us.” And when the team finally broke practice for the day, it was with its new motto.
“Us or Them?” was shouted. And the players’ response: “Us!”
Harley is aware his slogan for the 2026 Huskies isn’t exactly breaking new ground. But he felt it fit.
The program’s longtime motto, “The Hard Way,” remains printed on the practice jerseys. But for a team that had a 3-9 season in 2025, followed by the departure of coach Thomas Hammock to the NFL, “Us vs. Them” put a focus on the players and coaches who stayed in DeKalb.
And for Harley, the interim coach since February who is mindful of building connections throughout the NIU community, it also zeroes in on those who help and support the Huskies.
“I want to bring everybody together because I think it’s important,” Harley said. “I’m a college football lover, number one. That’s the only thing I’ve wanted to do is — not coach, but be a part of college football — since I was 3. … It matters to me. It gives me a sense of pride to show up at work when I know there’s a foundation, and I’m just trying to pass that on to the players.”
Harley, an Elmhurst native, enters his first season as a head coach with an interim tag, a directive from above to win in many facets of his program — and the mindset that he’s building something for the long term.
Sudden change
After their first year together at NIU in 2025, Hammock let Harley know that he occasionally received inquiries from NFL teams but any move would have to be the right one.
Then came the offer from the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. Hammock and Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald had worked together as assistants with the Baltimore Ravens. The Seahawks job was coaching running backs, Hammock’s specialty, and included a senior offensive assistant title.
Hammock, who went 35-47 with three bowl appearances in seven seasons at NIU, had told Harley if he ever decided to leave, he would tell the NIU administration that Harley should take over. Harley was flattered and jotted down notes in case it ever came to that.
Hammock’s situation evolved so quickly that one Monday morning in February, he told Harley he was staying, and that night Harley received a knock on his door with word that he needed to head to his office.
Harley walked into an impromptu interview to become the Huskies interim coach, and less than 48 hours later, NIU announced Hammock’s resignation and Harley’s promotion.
Harley’s first order of business in his first 48 hours was to meet with every player individually to discuss what playing for him would look like. The window to enter the transfer portal was in January, but players on teams with head coaching changes receive an additional window.
“It was really important for me to say: ‘Listen, we’re going to continue what NIU is. We’re not throwing everybody away. We’re not starting from scratch. But we are going to be a little bit different based on my personality,’” Harley said.
He spent about 18 hours in those meetings and said the Huskies eventually retained 93 of the 96 players who were on their roster after the first portal window.
Wide receiver DeAree Rogers said the conversations were “up and down” over those first few days as the players tried to figure out what was going on.
The defensive players knew Harley better than others after playing for a season in his defense, which ranked 56th in the FBS with 357.2 yards allowed per game and 64th with 24.3 points allowed per game. The one-on-one conversations went a long way in helping all of the players feel comfortable.
“When he took over and Coach Ham left, it was a weird time for everybody,” offensive lineman Landon Hron said. “Instantly he talked to all of us one on one. It was a big step in the right direction.
“From there, everybody was cool around him, everybody was less tense. Playing under him, he’s one of those younger guys that we can get along with and talk a lot with. We’re very tight as a group just because of him.”
Much of the coaching staff stayed, but Harley made a notable change in adding former Illinois State offensive coordinator Tony Petersen as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, joining co-coordinator Quinn Sanders.
Petersen is a 30-year coaching veteran who spent a season as Bret Bielema’s offensive coordinator at Illinois before four seasons with the Redbirds, who went to the FCS national championship game last season. He takes over a Huskies offense that was among the least productive in the FBS, averaging 17.1 points and 285.9 yards.
“He’s a guy that’s going to do what our guys can do really well, and I’m not saying that in comparison to anybody else last year,” Harley said. “I just think that he really owns that.”
Meanwhile, Harley, 43, is owning his big new opportunity after 16 years as an assistant.
Rare opportunity
Harley heard from his coaching mentors after he was promoted, and he touches base with them at times. But the lessons he learned under Jim Tressel as an Ohio State player; Mark Dantonio as a Buckeyes player and Michigan State graduate assistant; and Pat Narduzzi as the Pittsburgh linebackers coach are with him every day.
He looks at things they did for their teams, reviews old manuals they used. He said at his core he is those coaches and how they cared for their players.
“A lot of that stuff is just woven into who I am,” Harley said. “In a certain situation, I can hear, this is what they’d be either yelling at me or guiding me to do. And obviously I’m doing it with my personality.”
The biggest challenge for Harley in his first head coaching role has been staying connected with all of the different arms of the athletic department that go into supporting a football team, from equipment and facilities to tickets and marketing. He believes he should introduce himself to the people who work with the team, to help them understand whom they are supporting.
He remembers Tressel saying most football facilities are sequestered from other campus operations, so he needs to go to those people, have lunch with them.
“He was masterful at that,” Harley said. “I am like a fraction of him. If I can be half of what he ever was with people, I would consider that a win. But that’s the toughest part because everyone deserves time. There’s only 24 hours.”
Harley’s college football obsession began as an Ohio State fan thanks to his family’s legacy. His great-great-uncle Chic Harley, a halfback, was a three-time All-American for the Buckeyes in 1916, 1917 and 1919.
Rob Harley played at York High School in Elmhurst before walking on at Ohio State and eventually earning three letters as a safety. He was a member of the 2002 national championship team.
When his playing career ended, he thought broadcasting would be how he stayed in football. He worked in Columbus, Ohio, on Buckeyes pregame and postgame shows. He was a sideline reporter for Big Ten Network and did color commentary for ESPN3.
But he realized that he didn’t want to offer strong opinions on other people’s play calls. He wanted to be a part of the calls.
So he quit his broadcasting jobs and ventured into a career in coaching, taking a volunteer job at Division II Ohio Dominican. The new job wasn’t glamorous. His wife, Danielle, paid the rent. He borrowed a car from his father. Harley recalled doing laundry for the players.
But he said it was “the best job ever,” and he did it for two years before becoming a GA under Dantonio for two seasons.
“I’m 30 years old, making $1,000 a month,” Harley said of his time in East Lansing, Mich. “That whole thing was 16 years ago in 2010. It’s crazy to think. Sixteen years is a decent amount of time but a flash in the pan in a life.”
Harley spent a year as Florida International’s linebackers coach before serving six seasons at Pitt under Narduzzi. When he felt ready to become a defensive coordinator, he went to Arkansas State for four seasons and then joined NIU in January 2025.
Along the way, Harley said he understood what a rare opportunity it is to become an FBS head coach, so his focus was less about getting to that goal than excelling where he was.
“You’ve got to coach the linebackers really well because nobody’s going to want to hire you if the linebackers don’t play well,” he said. “The job doesn’t exist if you don’t do a great job. So it’s less, ‘Oh, man, I can’t wait to be a head coach.’ And more, ‘I’ve got to do a really good job, and maybe some opportunities will come.’
“I was not expecting this — 45 minutes from my house, where my parents still live.”
Harley thinks the journey has helped him mature in how he coaches the players. Cornerback Dev’ion Reynolds said he can be both joyful and intense, which is by design. Harley is a competitive person first, but as the leader he also wants to be someone from whom players can draw energy.
“He’s the same person every day, never gets too high, never gets too low,” Rogers said. “He’ll tell you when you’re wrong, but he’ll come up to you later on after practice to say: ‘Hey, I love you, kid. I’m proud of you.’”
Harley said the interim tag means nothing to him.
From the day he accepted the job, he began operating as if he planned to do it for the long term. He moved the team’s preseason practices to a grass field outside of Huskie Stadium, reserving playing inside for special occasions and games. He put his effort into building connections with people around NIU. He gave the team its new mantra.
“That’s unfair to the players to think that I’m holding a spot,” Harley said. “And that’s for other people to (decide) whatever they’re going to judge. It’s my job to get this team ready, and it’s our job as a staff to see that they play well. And that’s not going to change whether I’ve signed a 25-year contract or a one-year contract.”
NIU athletic director Sean Frazier said at his fall media day news conference that “winning, academically and athletically” would determine whether Harley retains the job.
“There is no perfect matrix of you win this many games and you get the job,” Frazier said. “It’s a total overall review of offense, defense, special teams, academics, social engagement, fundraising. There’s a list that’s so long, it’s phenomenal.
“But I have hope. What he has done already has been outstanding relative to engagement, the way we’ve run practice. These are all things that are exciting to me. I’ve been here for a while and other places, and this is a good vibe.
“But we’ve got to win games, and that is an absolute.”
Harley has some internal and external obstacles to make that happen.
The defense lost the majority of its starters to graduation and the first portal window, but Harley stressed that the revamped group has a lot of reps, something the Huskies went after in their own portal additions. Part of the reason he puts so much emphasis on connecting his team to the program’s history is because they’re educating several new players.
The offense is looking for more in 2026 under Petersen.
The Huskies return running back Telly Johnson Jr., who rushed for 712 yards and four touchdowns on 5.7 yards per carry. NIU has held a training camp competition among several quarterbacks, including returnees Brady Davidson and Jalen Macon, Charleston transfer Ean Hamric and Western Carolina transfer Taron Dickens.
The 5-foot-11 Dickens threw for 3,508 yards and 38 touchdowns in 2025 and finished second in voting for the Walter Payton Award as the FCS offensive player of the year. He originally committed to North Carolina before switching to NIU in July.
Harley hadn’t publicly named the starter as of Tuesday and noted the Huskies had another scrimmage Friday to evaluate.
NIU also will be playing its first season in the Mountain West Conference after 40 years in the Mid-American Conference over two stints.
For coaches, the challenge comes in facing opponents, coaches and schemes they are less familiar with. The Huskies also have significant travel this season, playing at Iowa, Arizona and Georgia State in the nonconference slate before Mountain West road games at Wyoming, UNLV, San Jose State and North Dakota State — the middle two on back-to-back weekends.
Harley said they spoke with NFL teams about how they manage travel, and while they heard many different tips, the primary advice was to keep on routine as much as possible.
“Everybody’s very excited,” Rogers said. “The Mountain West Conference, that’s a conference that beats Power Four opponents every year, usually a contender in the playoffs. So us getting on that bigger stage, that really helped a lot of guys decide: ‘Oh, yeah, I want to stay. I’m going to a bigger conference. More opportunities to make plays, more people to watch games now.’”
The Huskies’ first three games might not be the easiest entry into Harley’s head coaching career either. Iowa is ranked No. 22 in the Associated Press preseason poll. Illinois State, the FCS runner-up last season, visits in Week 2. The Huskies head in Week 3 to Arizona, which also received votes in the AP Top 25.
When it comes to the Iowa game, Harley and the players go back to the new mantra.
“For the opponents, it’s nameless and faceless,” Reynolds said. “We just go out there and be us. We don’t change the way we play. We don’t change anything for anybody. Everything is all us.”