Former Hoosier named NIU coach

Following Northern Illinois Coach Dave Doeren leaving the school for the head coach position at North Carolina State, former IU football player Rod Carey has been named head coach at NIU.

An assistant coach at NIU for the last two seasons, including the 2012 campaign as the Huskies’ offensive coordinator, Carey will coach the Mid-American Conference champions in their BCS bowl game.

That game will be a historic one as NIU will play Florida State in the 2013 Discover Orange Bowl, the first time a MAC team will play in a Bowl Championship Series game.

“Every opportunity Rod has had to step up and make a difference in our program, he has done it,” NIU Director of Athletics Jeff Compher said in a press release sent by the school. “What we need in our program is consistency and stability, and I believe that Rod brings that. This will allow us to stay on our current trajectory as a nationally-prominent program.”

Carey played his college football at IU under Coach Bill Mallory from 1989-93, starting three seasons at the center position.

His senior year, Carey was named a team captain for the Hoosiers and won IU’s Corby Davis Outstanding Offensive Player Award. He graduated from IU in 1994.

“I had the greatest respect for him,” Mallory said in the release. “He had everything you want to see in a person and in a coach. When he decided he wanted to go into coaching, I told him he would be a perfect fit.”

Carey started his collegiate coaching career in 1998, serving as a graduate assistant at Minnesota for two years.

From there, he spent the following seven seasons at Wisconsin-Stout, a Division III university, as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.

From there he advanced to the Football Championship Subdivision ranks in 2007, spending four years as an offensive line coach with one season at Illinois State and three at North Dakota.

On Jan. 13, 2011, Carey made it back to the FBS ranks when he was hired as NIU’s offensive line coach.

For the 2012 season, he was promoted to the offensive coordinator position after the team’s first game, which they lost.

The Huskies went on to win 12 straight games and outscore their opponents by a 513-229 margin with Carey’s direction.

“Obviously, I am really excited about the opportunity and thankful to [NIU President] Dr. [John] Peters, Jeff Compher and Dave Doeren,” Carey said in the release. “When you have a program like this, it’s not about what you can change; it’s about what you can keep. We’ve got great players, and we want to keep this ball rolling.”

Only one day after Doeren’s Huskies defeated Kent State in the MAC Championship Game on Nov. 30 by a 44-37 margin in double overtime, the coach left the school for a head coaching position at NC State.

The day after that, the day the Huskies’ bid to the Orange Bowl was announced, Carey was named the head coach at NIU.

As of Tuesday, for the first game of his head coaching career, Carey’s Huskies will be 14-point underdogs for their Jan. 1 game against the Seminoles.

“I have full confidence that this is the right choice to keep this program moving forward and take it to the next level,” Peters said in the release. “I believe we are in very good hands with Rod Carey.”