NIU's Pawlak works his way to all-conference

As if the bruises and welts he collected during last season's International Bowl weren't enough, Joe Pawlak's ego took a special pummeling before he could leave Canada.

As Northern Illinois' right guard and his teammates waited for their plane at Toronto's airport licking their wounds from USF's 27-3 beatdown to close out the season then-NIU offensive coordinator and line coach Matt Limegrover came over to offer some frank advice.

“I said, ‘Listen, you've got two more years after this, but you better not get comfortable,'” Limegrover said this summer. “I said, ‘You've got to get better, you've got to get more flexible, you've got to get quicker. Because you can't survive playing against good teams week in and week out and just try to maul them and push them around.' ”

That wasn't all Limegrover told the 6-foot-5, 305-pound Pawlak, who was so lightly regarded coming out of Grayslake High School that he had two choices to further his football career:

1) Accept a post-signing day invitation to walk on at NIU.

2) Sign up to play junior-college ball.

“He didn't play well enough to be MAC champions or to play in a big-time bowl game,” Limegrover recalled in June. “I told him, ‘I'm not going to go through another year of you flopping around and having to cover your butt.'”

While that sounds harsh, Limegrover smiled as he recalled the response he got from Pawlak (pronounced “Pav-lack”).

“‘You're right, Coach,'” he said.

As Northern Illinois puts in its final practice for Saturday's Humanitarian Bowl game against Fresno State (4:30 p.m., ESPN), Pawlak stacks up as the most improved player in a Huskies uniform.

Applying the work ethic that forced the coaches to award him a starting job and a scholarship, Pawlak went from being NIU's least effective starter to being voted as a second-team all-MAC performer.

“I didn't want to think too much of it at the time, but I'm proud of it,” Pawlak said. “I put in a lot of work, so I was happy.

“I didn't want to have a performance like I did last season. I didn't perform too well. I just wanted to get better.”

And he wasted no time. With Limegrover's advice stinging in his ears, Pawlak visited strength-and-conditioning coach Eric Klein to work out a special regimen.

Most NIU players visit the weight room three times per week during winter conditioning. Pawlak showed up every weekday.

“Joe's always been a 100 percent guy,” Klein said. “Now it was 110 percent. Non-stop. We initially started with strength and mobility. Joe said, ‘I feel like my lower-body strength is not where it needs to be.' So, OK, that's where we'll start. He goes, ‘I'll do it. Whatever it takes.'”

Over the course of the offseason, Pawlak added as much as 80 pounds to his performance in the squat lifts. Then he tackled Klein's speed drills in the summer and added quickness.

Now he's a crucial component to an offensive attack that enters the Humanitarian Bowl ranked seventh nationally in rushing (264.8 ypg) and 13th in scoring (37.9 ppg).

“All the work he has done has put himself in this position,” said interim offensive line coach Joe Tripoli, the former Northwestern lineman who received a promotion when Limegrover moved to Minnesota with Jerry Kill.

“He's a smart football player. He leaves no stone unturned. He's been a big reason why we've done what we've done this year.”