Carifio: What to watch as NIU spring football camp begins

When the NIU football team broke for spring camp last year, the Huskies were coming off a winless season with a still-young roster and lots of question marks.

This year, the Huskies start spring camp Wednesday as the reigning Mid-American Conference champions, loads of returning talent and sky-high expectations.

What a difference a year makes.

Practices start Wednesday, with the first open practice at 10 a.m. Saturday. Camp ends April 16 with a spring showcase. And with practices set to start, here are five storylines to keep an eye on this spring.

Replacing Clint Ratkovich and Jay Ducker

Under normal circumstances, losing an NFL-caliber talent to graduation (Ratkovich) and the reigning MAC freshman of the year to the transfer portal (Ducker) would be a death blow for most teams.

But the Huskies running backs’ room is anything but normal. Part of the reason Ducker got as much action as he did was an early-season injury to Harrison Waylee, who had a breakout season in the short, winless 2020 campaign.

Waylee should be back (coach Thomas Hammock is beyond tight-lipped about injuries, so anyone’s status is always an assumption) this season. Antario Brown is no stranger to big games. Mason Blakemore wasn’t on the field much but showed a lot of potential.

To me, the most interesting thing is who, if anyone, replaces Ratkovich. He was a massive part of the Huskies’ identity. Hammock was brazen and successful in going for fourth-down and 2-point conversions. And a lot of that was because Ratkovich did not know how to go backward. He’d even line up at quarterback about two or three times a game for some trickery. That usually would end with a run, but still.

Maybe Brown is that guy. He’s got the physicality. But he’s young and isn’t going to have the reliability of Ratkovich. What’s more likely is that Hammock, a master of using his personnel to their abilities, probably will go down another road. Maybe two backs share the field at the same time. Maybe we see more quick passes using Cole Tucker and transfer Kacper Rutkiewicz.

How good is Shemar Thornton?

His 2019 numbers would indicate very good. He was Florida International’s leading receiver in 2019 but was injured in 2020 and played two games in 2021. He also played 11 games while battling injuries in 2018.

The transfer comes to the Huskies with a history of injuries but is an interesting piece to a wide receiver corps that lost Tyrice Richie to graduation but brings back Trayvon Rudolph, who had a 309-yard game against Kent State. Rudolph also is a great kick returner if anyone would ever kick it to him.

So it will be interesting to see what Thornton brings to the table, if he’s able to take some attention away from Rudolph and be another weapon for quarterback Rocky Lombardi.

Kyle Pugh is back for Year 8

This has to be some kind of record. Pugh was hurt last year, which would have been his bonus year, as the 2020 season did not count against anyone’s eligibility, per NCAA rules. But he was hurt and seemingly out of redshirts, so we all assumed his career was over.

Well, we all know what happens when you make assumptions. Pugh is back for one (probable) last year. He’s been a heck of a linebacker when healthy and can provide some leadership a not-quite-as-young-but-still-kinda-youthful linebacker group.

So for no reason, here are some of the other people who were, like Pugh, in the 2015 signing class for NIU: Spencer Tears, D.J. Brown, Josh Corcoran, Jordan Steckler, Sutton Smith, Daniel Crawford and Marcus Jones.

The Huskies have a Lynch at quarterback

That usually ends well for them. Quarterback Justin Lynch transferred from Temple after the Owls fired Rod Carey, the coach who both recruited Lynch to Philadelphia and was his big brother’s coach at NIU.

Jordan Lynch was a Heisman candidate for NIU and helped the team reach the Orange Bowl, in case anyone needed a refresher.

Obviously, the Huskies have a quarterback at the moment with Lombardi. But he’s a senior, and Lynch, a sophomore, may be able to take a redshirt this year while learning the system. He started for Temple last year.