Q&A with Chandler Harnish

Northern Illinois quarterback Chandler Harnish throws a pass at Huskie Stadium on Wednesday. (Beck Diefenbach – bdiefenbach@daily-chronicle.com)

After Wednesday's voluntary workout at Huskie Stadium (on the new FieldTurf) I caught up with Northern Illinois quarterback Chandler Harnish to talk about his goals for the summer, who has impressed him in workouts and somehow the conversation drifted to grilling. (Sidenote: I don't think it gets much better than grilling a steak on a warm summer night.)

You, of course, don't have to read that part, but some of the football-related answers will interest you.

John Sahly: How has the summer gone with working out, throwing with the wideouts and trying to meet your goals?

Chandler Harnish: Summer's been great. We've put in a lot more work. We've got off to a lot better start. The freshman class, I don't want to put down last year's freshman class, but these guys really want to learn. They're putting in the work and they're doing a great job and they haven't faltered in our workouts and that's all you can ask out of them.

And we've been working out here twice a day, five days a week. We're doing about everything we can do to be as good of a team as we can.

JS: I know it's just workouts, but has anybody especially impressed you?

CH: Man, you've got the guys like Nate Palmer, Landon Cox, Willie Clark, those guys are going to be there and we need them to step up. Our receiving core has kind of been up and down. But freshman-wise, we've got guys like Daniel Rodriguez, Martel Moore, Anthony Johnson, Perez Ashford, and these kids can run.

And that's something we need. We need that breakaway speed, I think we've missed that a little bit. We want consistent guys that will get us five yards here and there, but we need guys to break a vertical [route] down the field. If we get that going I feel like we're going to be very, very dangerous as an offensive unit.

JS: Can you compare where you were at in the winter where you were just working out with the guys and throwing to them indoors to where you're at now?

CH: You really can't compare, it's a night-and-day difference. Going through the spring, we were able to fully understand what we were trying to do. We were able to focus in on the little things because we knew what we were doing having been through a year with these coaches.

And now, us quarterbacks can take that knowledge and pass it on to the receivers and the young guys. Since we can do that, we watch film and we have meetings and all that, we're developing a chemistry to where we can go on the field and we have a third-and-10 versus Wisconsin and there's 95,000 [people] going crazy and we won't have to say anything to each other. We'll see a look, throw a route and be ready to go.

JS: What are you looking at improving on the most this summer?

CH: Just being consistent in throwing the ball, teaching everybody what we're trying to do as a unit and building chemistry and having a little fun while we're at it. Football's a game of fun and I think sometimes that's forgotten, especially at the D-I level because you put in so much work. But we come out and we do this because we want to win and winning is fun. People like to be around situations like that.

JS: How do you measure improvement when coaches aren't around to give critiques?

CH: That can be tough. Just by, I feel like maturity, how I relay my information to the receivers. But then a lot of those things we'll see come two-a-days. We tell them what we're doing and they know we're putting in a lot of hard work. They've said it will really pay off and I feel like that's true. If we can get the whole offensive unit, especially the skill guys that catch the ball to understand that, we're going to be where we want to be, ready to go, come Wisconsin.

JS: Do players start to take ownership of the team without the coaches around?

CH: Absolutely. This is a time for us to really stand out and take over because come fall, the coaches have a lot of control. They like to see us take over, especially if we get to the point where if we have leaders at every position, they don't need to do that. They can let us coach and that's where they want us to get and that's where we going to get, it just takes a little bit of time.

JS: What else have you been doing with the receivers to build on that chemistry?

CH: Like I said, we'll have meetings, we'll watch film, especially being young quarterbacks we'll talk about different plays and different looks. Something we need to work on more is just having fun. We need to go to the pool. We need to have barbecue's. We need to do that kind of stuff. I think we will as the summer goes on but this is really the second week for a lot of guys. It's fun getting to know the new guys.

It's fun teaching them because I was just there a couple of years ago and I remember how tough it was for me. We're trying to make this experience as easy as possible while they transition from high school to college. If we can do that they're going to have excellent careers here at Northern.

JS: How are your barbecue skills?

CH: I don't like to be cocky, but I think I can barbecue pretty well. We grill just about every day so I'm sure we'll get something together for the wide receivers. They deserve that because they're putting in a lot of hard work.

JS: What's your speciality?

CH: (Takes time to think) I would say I make pretty good ribs.

JS: I still haven't figured out how to do ribs on the grill.

CH: You've got to do it on low heat, slowly, so the juices don't come out.

JS: Charcoal or gas?

CH: We use gas. I have a buddy that's used charcoal in the past, but that's one thing you have to be patient with and continually baste it to keep it juicy. And I feel like it's pretty good and my roommates like it so that keeps us happy.