Thomas Hammock: NIU football spring practices to be different after 3-9 season

DeKALB – Since Thomas Hammock took over the NIU football team, spring practices have been offense vs. defense battles with a winner chosen for each of the 15 practices.

When this year’s camp starts Wednesday, Hammock wanted to keep the competition element but not have teammate battle teammate for the win. So now instead of being scored offense again defense, the whole team works toward reaching a specific goal.

We have guys that fifth year, sixth year that have played a lot of football for us. One more spring practice is not going to make or break where these guys are at.

—  Thomas Hammock

“When we walk off that field, we’re going to walk off that field as a team,” Hammock said. “When we open the season against Boston College, no one cares who won spring practice No. 5 or the spring game. The only thing people care about is who won against Boston College. So we’re going to get that division out of our program. You don’t have to go offense vs. defense to compete.”

Practices start at 7 a.m. Wednesday and run Wednesdays, Fridays and either Saturday or Sundays until the team’s spring showcase April 22. As in the past, the final practice isn’t a game or a scrimmage but a larger-scale practice with an emphasis on scrimmaging.

Hammock said keeping a competition element was critical, but he didn’t want his team pitted against itself. So now the Huskies will have a target score based on a system developed by Hammock and the staff they’ll try to hit each day.

“Every spring we’ve tried to make it who won the day,” Hammock said. “So we beat each other up all training camp. Last year we left a really good team on the practice field. That’s unfortunate. It happened. We’re not going to do that this year.”

The Huskies are coming off a 3-9 season in 2022 after winning the MAC in 2021. Injuries were a big factor, with the team missing key pieces from all over the field for chunks of the season.

Quarterback Rocky Lombardi was granted a medical redshirt and will return for his final season. Wide receiver Trayvon Rudolph was supposed to be one of Lombardi’s top targets but he missed all of last season.

There’s also five new players in camp from the transfer portal, including cornerbacks Gabriel Amegatcher (Nebraska-Kearney) and Cam’Ron Dabney (Kansas). Also, some of the team’s December signings are in camp, such as freshman quarterback Mason Kidd, freshman linebacker Ridge Howard and junior college transfer Nevaeh Sanders, a defensive lineman.

Hammock said he’s also changing how the staff will handle reps this spring. He said he split the team into three groups based on how many snaps a player had last year. The A group had the most snaps in game situations last year, the B group is in the middle and the C group had the fewest.

Hammock said the focus is getting the middle group as many snaps as possible.

“We’re going to develop the middle third of our team,” Hammock said. “We feel like if there are injuries during the season, we want to make sure those guys are ready to play and ready to contribute.”

He said using snaps was better than labeling people starters and backups, as that line can get blurred at times.

“You hate to say starters and backups, because that can get convoluted some times,” Hammock said. “I really thought A, B, C based on snaps really gave a picture of, ‘Hey, if you played 750 snaps, that’s a pretty good volume of snaps in the season. We have a pretty good idea of what type of player you are.’ Just as an example, if you played 250 snaps, well, we need to get some more information.”

Hammock said the team definitely has a chip on its shoulder and is excited to see what the first practice brings.

“It’s going to be unique,” Hammock said. “A guy like Nolan Potter, he’s played as many snaps as you can play in a program. We have guys in that fifth year, sixth year that have played a lot of football for us. One more spring practice is not going to make or break where these guys are at.”