(Update: here’s my segment from this morning discussing Northwestern on 1620 The Zone KOZN)
There’s nothing quite like the Northwestern secondary to cure what ails ya. In Drew Hare, NIU’s third quarterback to play in Evanston that day, the Huskies have found the guy to replace Jordan Lynch. Hare fired two touchdown tosses to Da’Ron Brown, the second of which was by far the most aesthetically pleasing play of the entire game.
Although that’s not saying much when you consider neither team even scored until midway through the third quarter. Drew Hare led Brown perfectly on a 59-yard scoring, splitting the mediocre at best Northwestern secondary.
“We made enough plays in key moments that got us the victory,” NIU coach Rod Carey said after the game. On the topic of quarterback rotation, Carey gave the industry standard coachspeak and cliche euphemisms and boilerplate, but he knows. He saw that throw that Drew Hare made. He saw how atrocious starter
Matt McIntosh was. Anthony Maddie was better. But it’s clear, Drew Hare needs to be the guy now moving forward. The transition from Chandler Harnish to Jordan Lynch was a challenge, or at least it was supposed to be difficult. All Lynch did was develop into the greatest player in NIU Husky football history.
Certainly not saying Hare is going to become that; but NIU needs to be his team now. Drew Hare ran for a score to complement his two TD passes; as he accounted for all three Husky touchdowns. With the 23-15 win, The Huskies claimed their third consecutive victory over a Big Ten Conference opponent and extended their nation-leading road winning streak to 16 straight contests. The Huskies travel to Las Vegas, Nevada to take on the UNLV Rebels this Saturday (Sept. 13). Kickoff is at 6 p.m. (CT) from UNLV’s Sam Boyd Stadium.
Paul M. Banks owns and manages The Sports Bank.net, in partnership with Fox Sports and Yahoo. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)