Northern Illinois loads up on linemen

Where’s the beef was the No. 1 question facing Northern Illinois coach Dave Doeren and his staff as they started recruiting for the defending Mid-American Conference champions.

Losing four starting offensive linemen, including NFL prospects in tackle Trevor Olson and center Scott Wedige, from the most prolific offense in school history made it a point of emphasis.

“It’s a class that started with getting bigger up front and providing depth on the offensive line and defensive lines,” Doeren said Wednesday of his 31-recruit class. “I think we did that with seven offensive linemen and six defensive linemen.”

Bolstering those lines was something Doeren felt he needed to do a year ago when he took the job.

“We’d like to have 16 offensive linemen on scholarship so we can travel with two deep at every position and still have a third group redshirting,” he said. “And we play nine to 10 defensive linemen.”

Twenty-three of the recruits will be on scholarship with eight coming in as preferred walk-ons for the Huskies, who have won 11 games in back-to-back seasons.

Topping the scales for the O-line candidates are 6-foot-4, 310-pound Daron Brown of Detroit’s Mumford High School and 6-7, 305-pound Brad Steger of Rock Island.

Doeren seemed most excited about Wisconsin prospects Levon Myers (6-6, 270) of Franklin and Josh Ruka (6-6, 290) from Greenfield, though.

“We targeted (Myers) early as our left tackle of the future, and Wisconsin came back in on him late (in recruiting) but he stuck with us,” said the coach. “I think Myers and Ruka could be bookend tackles one day.”

The others include Mt. Carmel’s Sal Arceo (6-2, 275) and Marian Central’s Scott Taylor (6-3, 280) from Marengo as well as Dustin Adams (6-4, 285) of Minot, N.D.

The defensive line prospect most likely to make an impact next year figures to be Ellsworth Community College transfer Matthew Baltimore, a 6-4, 290-pounder from Florida who has started classes and will take part in spring drills.

“But I’d be surprised if we didn’t have five or six kids who make an impact next season,” said Doeren, whose team will carry a nine-game winning streak into next season, which opens Labor Day Weekend at Soldier Field against Iowa.

“I want to be the team those (BCS) teams don’t want to play (in non-conference games),” said Doeren, who figures to have junior Jordan Lynch (Mt. Carmel) take the reins at quarterback in place of graduated MAC Player of the Year Chandler Harnish.

The class includes 16 players from Illinois and covers nearly every position, including three quarterbacks.

“We got the first two we targeted,” Doeren said of Matt Williams (6-3, 195) of Geneva and Drew Hare (6-2, 195) of O’Fallon, Mo.

Both, like Harnish, look to be dual-threat prospects. Johnny Egan (6-1, 180) of Wautoma, Wis., will walk on.

Even though he lost offensive coordinator Matt Canada to his old boss, Brett Bielema at Wisconsin, Doeren plans to keep the same offensive system. He is expected to name former NIU receiver standout P.J. Fleck (Kaneland) to the position Thursday. Fleck spent the past two seasons coaching receivers for Greg Schiano at Rutgers after two years at his alma mater under Joe Novak and Jerry Kill.

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