5 observations from NIU’s practice Saturday, the 9th of fall camp

Saturday was supposed to be a scrimmage.

But NIU coach Thomas Hammock said with the amount of physicality his team has shown so far this fall, he felt it was better health-wise if Saturday was more along the lines of a regular practice.

“I realized we will hurt each other if we just go live,” Hammock said. “I saw enough in our practice Wednesday night to let me know we have the type of team that will go physically as hard as they need to go.”

Hammock said they kept things generic and basic on Saturday. For about an hour chunk in the middle of practice, though, there were full-team drills.

Here are five things that stood out from the practice.

Josh Holst would appear to be the starting quarterback

Obviously nothing is ever guaranteed, but it appears Holst is the starter at this point in the fall. The Marengo grad was the first one in, switching off with true freshman Brady Davidson. Dartmouth junior transfer Jackson Proctor entered the rotation later and freshman Dane Hatfield saw a few series.

NIU policy does not allow reporting on players who do not dress or who are injured.

On his second series, Holst led the offense to its first touchdown. The floater found its way past a couple defenders that made a play on the ball right to DeAree Rogers, who then avoided a defender and ran about 60 yards for the score. Holst also had a deep pass to George Diampoulos for about 25 yards.

Tempo was fast, for about one series

On the first drive, the Huskies showed what their up-tempo offense may look like. The day started with a couple quick runs by Telly Johnson and also included a scramble by Holst for about 10 yards.

But after that, possibly because of the physicality that Hammock mentioned or maybe because of the triple-digit heat index, the Huskies went back to a more deliberate offensive pacing.

Defensive line causing pressure

With Holst in, sophomore Filip Maciorowski was the closest defender to the quarterback when the play was whistled dead, as there was no contact allowed on the quarterbacks.

On the next play, junior Reggie Jean had what would have been a much more clear-cut sack.

Freshman Charles Brooks III had a couple of apparent sacks, while Ivan Davis flushed the quarterbacks more than once. Freshman Jordan Bellamay had a likely sack of Holst.

Final unofficial tally: Two touchdowns, two turnovers

After the first touchdown, Davidson came in. On a bang-bang play on the far side of the field, Jake Gassaway came up with what appeared to be a fumble recovery, taking the ball and running toward the endzone with it before the play was whistled dead.

It also appeared Luke Skartvedt got to a high snap before Holst did, but the offense was allowed to remain in possession of the ball.

The day ended with freshman Landon Tate hauling in a long touchdown pass from Proctor.

Running back depth a strength

Hammock has always said this running back is good from top to bottom, and they proved it on Saturday.

Johnson had a few solid runs as the starter, including getting about 15 on a third and 22 play. Jaylen Poe and Chavon Wright each had some stretches where they were the featured back alongside Holst.

Lazaro Rogers had four runs of about 8 or more yards on the day, seeing most of his time with Davidson or Hatfield at quarterback.