Northern Illinois starting Quarterback Drew Hare is not Chandler Harnisch; nor is he Jordan Lynch. He’s not as talented or versatile as either of those guys; but he’s still pretty damn good. Hare’s story is yet to be fully told, as he’s entering his final season. When all is said and done, he could en up putting up bigger and better numbers than those two guys.
In his first year as a starter, Drew Hare had an 18-2 TD to INT ratio. He didn’t assume the starting position until the week two win at Northwestern, but once he did it was all smooth sailing.
“It’s always good to have your quarterback back because you don’t have to answer those questions that you had to answer last year,” NIU Head Coach Rod Carey said jokingly at NIU Media Day Chicago.
“It probably took a lot longer than I or him, or he or anybody wanted, but it’s the way it had to be. I think Drew got better as the year went on, and I know he’s looking for more.
“So it’s good, that’s the short answer.”
Now that Drew Hare has a full year of starting experience under his belt he can feel at ease with the fact that he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder.
“It’s nice not having to worry about it as much, but I’m not complacent in anyway, because there’s still some competition back there with the guys behind me,” Hare said when I asked him about how this preseason feels different from last season.
Hare is a lot more relaxed heading into this fall camp.
“Oh yeah, let’s just say I wasn’t sleeping well at this point last year,” he said.
“It’s a lot better.”
“I try not to worry about those two I just try to be Drew Hare,” he said when I asked him about the inevitable comparisons to Lynch and Harnisch that he receives.
NIU football fans should expect bigger and better things from Hare this fall, as he has a very talented and deep receiving corps to work with. There are about six to eight receivers who could make a difference this season.
We asked Rod Carey at Media Day to compare Drew Hare to Jordan Lynch and Chandler Harnisch.
“Drew is not the finished product, we don’t know what Drew’s accomplished yet. Now in physical attributes, he’s more like Chandler than he is like Jordan. But that’s where the comparisons kind of have to stop. You can do a physical comparison but you really can’t do a career comparison because his is still ongoing. He’s off to great start; he got himself a MAC Championship.”
Earlier in the day, Carey said in his opening statement: “Winning is cool. It doesn’t matter how it looks.”
And with Drew Hare under center, expect NIU to keep winning.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country.
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