Grady learning to make plays with his arm
By JON STYF
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jstyf@daily-chronicle.com
For more NIU coverage, visit HuskieWire.com
DeKALB – When the Eastern Michigan defense stacked the line with defenders Thursday night, they were testing Northern Illinois quarterback DeMarcus Grady to beat them.
Grady had yet to be tested that way is his most recent stint filling in for injured starter Chandler Harnish.
This time he proved he could make the throws downfield. Twice he hit an open Landon Cox down the field for touchdowns – of 30 and 31 yards – in a 50-6 win over the Eagles (0-9, 0-5 MAC West).
“They did what I thought they were going to do,” NIU coach Jerry Kill said. “They put them all up on the line of scrimmage and the quarterback had to make a play and DeMarcus was able to do that.”
When Grady asked about the post routes he found Cox for touchdowns on, Kill quickly interjected and said “Don’t let them trick you” into giving away the gameplan.
“I just really wanted to come in and focus on my throwing,” Grady said. “You have to be able to throw the ball and that’s something that I really focused on this week.
“I wanted to come out tonight and make plays by throwing the ball.”
The big question now is whether Grady will continue to get a chance at throwing the ball after leading the Huskies (6-3, 4-1 MAC West) to a 3-0 record in his starts in the last three games against three teams that now have two wins combined.
Harnish, who has been sidelined for the past three games after suffering an unspecified right knee injury against Toledo, still has not been cleared by the team’s medical staff but trainer Kammy Powell indicated to Kill that Harnish should be ready to take part in Sunday’s practice.
It’s still unknown if that means Harnish will be available to start next Thursday’s 5 p.m. game against Ball State.
If not, it will be Grady again. Only it will likely be an improved version after what he learned Thursday night when a failed attempt to throw the ball away turned into an Eastern Michigan interception.
“That was kind of disappointing,” NIU quarterbacks coach Pat Poore said. “That was just bad judgment. Obviously we’d like to see him throw that ball out of bounds or pull it down and take off. That was a mistake that we didn’t want to see and we got on him about.”
Poore said that was the one bad spot on an otherwise highly successful throwing day for the redshirt sophomore who finished 4 of 5 for 119 yards and a pair of touchdowns through the air.
“There’s nothing better than game experience, just like with Chandler last year,” Poore said. “That’s all we ask those kids to do, just keep working to get better and do the little things.
Sometimes it’s protection calls, sometimes it’s a slide step and a drop.
“The more comfortable he is doing that stuff, the better he will play.”
Grady has already shown he can run the ball successfully, finishing with his second straight 100-yard rushing game against the Eagles. And the coaching staff knows he has the arm to throw the ball downfield.
The key for Grady is going through his progression and finding a receiver before he has to bail on the play and run with it. Poore said that most of Grady’s runs have been zone read plays, some are designed runs and others have running as part of the progression on the play.
That play-calling is similar to what the Huskies used with Harnish last season.
“He’s a good quarterback, it’s just a matter of having the confidence to let it go when there’s people around, it’s the experience factor,” Poore said. “The thing with him also is that he’s got playmaking ability where he can get out of stuff. When you have that, sometimes you rely on that.
“It’s the decision on whether I stand in there and put it where it needs to be or do I rely on my feet. The only way you learn to do that and when to do that is playing.”
In that way, Harnish’s injury has certainly allowed the Huskies’ offense to grow. Because, whether he starts another game or not this season, NIU knows it has a better backup quarterback after the progress they have seen from Grady over the past three weeks.
“They packed them all down there and we threw it over the top and had two touchdowns and that’s the game. Pick your poison,” Poore said. “It was great to see him execute, he threw a couple of nice balls and our guys ran good routes.
“It’s just a process of getting better and getting used to throwing to guys and timing and all that. I was happy with his game.”
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