Northern Illinois coach cries tears of triumph, that’s what college football should be all about | Commentary

Running to the typewriter…

Two days after Thomas Hammock rushed for 172 yards on 38 attempts in a surprise win over Wake Forest, his Northern Illinois Huskies began preparing for a game against USF in Tampa the following week.

But during a conditioning workout that fateful day, Hammock couldn’t breathe and something didn’t feel right. After a series of tests, he discovered he had a heart condition and his football career was over.

“I was devastated,” Hammock told me Wednesday. “I had NFL aspirations. When you’ve been playing football since you were 6 and then you’re told it’s over, it hits you hard. But I’ve found a bigger purpose: helping mold and develop young men. And I’m loving every minute of it.”

Especially this week.

Hammock is now the head coach of the Northern Illinois Huskies, who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in recent college football history with a win over No. 5 Notre Dame on Saturday. It was NIU’s first-ever win against a top-10 team and the first time a MAC team has ever defeated a top-5 opponent.

Coach Hammock burst into tears during the TV interview after the game. He cried because he loves his players, he loves his job, and he loves his school. He met his wife at Northern Illinois. He named his son “Douglas” after the dormitory he lived in at Northern Illinois. He will tell you that the college degree and the lessons he learned in the classroom and on the football field at Northern Illinois are the biggest reasons he is who he is today.

“I’ve grown as a player and a man at Northern Illinois,” he said. “Everything I am as a man goes back to my time as a student-athlete at NIU. And now I’m living my dream as a coach here.”

Hammock’s Huskies don’t have the eight-figure NIL budgets of schools like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Georgia and Alabama, and that’s why they’re so inspiring. They showed us that sometimes you don’t have to have the most money, the biggest staff, the best recruits and the most luxurious facilities to be a winner.

“All that NIL money looks great,” Hammock said, “but at the end of the day, football is still about your passion, your discipline, your will and your determination. … I think we’ve shown the power of belief, the power of relationships and the power of growing and developing together within a program.”

In other words, NIU is better than NIL.

If you ask me, Coach Hammock and his Huskies are what college football should be all about. …

Synopsis: I was thrilled to see that former UCF basketball coach Kirk Speraw was just announced as one of the inductees into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. However, UCF’s former administration — for the sloppy way in which Speraw was treated and ultimately fired — should be inducted into the school’s Hall of Shame. … If the traffic stop involving Miami-Dade police and Tyreek Hill had been an actual football game, Hill would have been caught teasing and that one Miami-Dade police officer would have been booed for unnecessary roughness. Sigh. Such an avoidable outcome. … How stupid does all the WNBA haters of Caitlin Clark look now that she’s put the WNBA on the map, single-handedly boosted the league’s television ratings and led the once-failing Indiana Fever to the playoffs for the first time in eight years? In retrospect, Clark’s omission from the U.S. Olympic team will go down as the worst sports marketing move since LeBron’s “The Decision.” …

Did you see what Dwight Howard is going to be a contestant in? Dancing with the stars? Maybe he can revive that old dance move he used when he pledged his “loyalty” to Magic fans and then left Orlando a few months later: “The Hustle.” … David Whitley of the Gainesville Sun writes that UF has already started to move forward as if Billy Napier is going to be fired: “Major donors have seen enough,” Whitley writes. “Donations are drying up, aside from promises to finance Napier’s $26 million buyout. A short-term succession plan is in place in case Napier is fired before the end of the season.” Wow, giving up the season after one loss — albeit a bad one — to Miami in Game 1? If that’s true, UF needs to change the lyrics to the traditional song We are the boys from Old Florida that Gator fans wave and sway to at UF football games. Instead of the original verse — “Through all kinds of weather, we all stick together” — may I suggest a replacement verse? How about: “After one game, we start to cast blame at FLORIDA.” …

Many fantasy football owners (like me) who have Christian McCaffrey on their roster were livid when the 49ers waited until 90 minutes before kickoff Monday night to announce that McCaffrey would not play in the game against the Jets. By then, it was too late to fill his spot with a suitable replacement. Hey, us fantasy football losers, uh, owners have rights too! … It appears that NASCAR has essentially forced all of the racing teams to sign a new revenue agreement, with one of the few opponents being Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing team. Memo to NASCAR: It’s never a good idea to mess with a GOAT. … Do the Cleveland Browns still wish they had Baker Mayfield at quarterback instead of Deshaun Watson? At this point, the Browns wish they had Curtis Mayfield at quarterback instead of Deshaun Watson. … Mikey likes: UCF beats TCU by 7, FSU beats Memphis by 10, Texas A&M beats Florida by 5, USF beats Southern Miss by 14, Miami beats Ball State by 100, Dolphins beats Bills by 6, Lions beats Bucs by 4, Jags beats Browns by 8, Harris beats Trump by 3 (mentions of immigrants eating pets).

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