The news of Thomas Hammock’s departure stunned NIU earlier this week, but interim coach Rob Harley said the Huskies didn’t stay rattled for long.

“There’s a little bit of shock value, but guess what we had to do today, the day after it’s announced? Go lift,” Harley said. “Go prepare. Go throw. There’s a lot of excitement for what is next.”

Hammock, an NIU graduate who took over the program in 2019, announced his resignation on Wednesday to become the running backs coach for the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. The move caught everybody by surprise, including Harley.

Harley, the team’s defensive coordinator, whose first year with the program was 2025, said he found out Monday night that Hammock’s departure was a possibility. By Wednesday, Hammock was on his way back to the NFL. He was the running backs coach with the Ravens before taking the NIU job.

“It’s like snap your fingers, and you have to look at these 22 things,” Harley said. “I was just looking at our opponents from a defensive perspective 24 hours ago.”

Harley takes over the program a little more than a month ahead of the start of spring practices. He’ll also be the head coach come the fall, said athletic director Sean Frazier.

Frazier said he’s looking to see how the team performs both on the field and in the classroom under Harley as it moves into the Mountain West Conference.

“We have a really good class, we have a really good team, we’re going into a really good conference, we’re going to be on a national stage,” Frazier said. “If you can get that done in a really great way, academically and athletically, I’d be a fool not to say this is the right person at the right time.”

Harley said he’s not worried about the interim tag.

“The people and the players are the only things that matter, otherwise I don’t have a job,” Harley said. “It’s not about what process I use. It’s the results of them being their best. It’s worked on defense in terms of being able to galvanize. Now, can we bring the whole thing together?”

As of Thursday afternoon, Harley said he’s talked to about half of the players. His focus is more about how he does things, he said, than what he does.

At this point, he said he’s not concerned about what type of offense the Huskies will run or what kind of changes to the defense he’ll make.

“It’s not just that we want to say we’re going to have a great culture. I don’t even want to use that word, to be honest with you,” Harley said. “I want to talk about the energy, the energy, energy, energy, energy in everything we don’t if we always played that way. And I think that’s a huge opportunity for us. Some people would call that a weakness. I think it’s an opportunity ... that we have space to grow.”

With the change in the head coach, the players have the opportunity to enter the transfer portal. It will remain open for 15 days from Wednesday, the day Harley was announced as the coach, per NCAA rules.

Running back Lazaro Rogers already announced he entered the portal. But Harley said he was optimistic there wouldn’t be many more losses through the portal.

In the end, he said, the players are starting to realize not much has changed.

“Did we lose somebody we cared about that was a great leader for this program? No question,” Harley said. “‘But what has changed for me personally? Nothing. I came here; every dream, every goal I have is in front of me. All that has changed is a different style, a different human being, will now stand in front of you.”