Forde-Yard Dash: Northern Illinois’s Upset of Notre Dame Rallied the Base for Coach Thomas Hammock

A handful of coaches have had stirring wins this season, reminding their teams’ fans of their coaching chops.

Hammock pulled off the biggest win in NIU history by upsetting then-No. 5 Notre Dame. / Mickey Welsh / USA TODAY NETWORK

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football (insurance fraud sold separately in West Lafayette, where a student is being deprived of his free car). First Quarter: Twelve Angry Men. 

Second Quarter: Restorative Triumphs

The scenes kept following the Northern Illinois Huskies on Saturday—from the coach in tears on NBC to a fan lifting the kicker into the stands by his shoulder pads to the fans greeting the team upon its return to campus in DeKalb, Ill. It was a beautiful #MACtion Saturday for NIU.

It also served as a timely reminder that Thomas Hammock (13) has some coaching chops. It has never been easy to just win on autopilot in the Mid-American Conference, and it’s especially hard now given the stretched mid-major budgets and the vagaries of the transfer portal.

Hammock has experienced boom and bust periods at NIU: going winless in the pandemic season of 2020; bouncing back to go 9–5 and win the MAC in ’21; then regressing to 3–9 in ’22. The margins are slim at that level—NIU was 0–4 in games decided by one score in ’20, then 7–3 the following season and 2–5 in ’22. 

Last season, the Huskies treaded water at 7–6, opening with an upset of the Boston College Eagles but then losing four straight. At a school that won 11 games a year for five straight seasons under three different coaches from 2010 to ’14 and played in the ’13 Orange Bowl, impatience with Hammock was starting to percolate. He came into the season with a 24–33 career record.

Then, in Week 2, he pulled off the biggest win in school history.

Yeah, NIU beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2003—P.J. Fleck was a captain on that Huskies squad—but the Crimson Tide were a train wreck in progress. The school had hired and fired Mike Price during the offseason, replaced him in the spring with Mike Shula, and were on their way to a 4–9 season. This Notre Dame Fighting Irish team is not going to finish 4–9.

So Saturday was a good day for Hammock to reestablish his footing at NIU. He joins a few other coaches who have gotten rally-the-base victories early this season: 

Shane Beamer (14), South Carolina Gamecocks

It doesn’t take long in the SEC for fans to fall out of love with a coach. Beamer was hailed as a fresh-faced hero, going 7–6 and 8–5 his first two seasons, then backslid to 5–7 last year and started to face criticism. An opening slog past the Old Dominion Monarchs didn’t help the overall mood. But then the Gamecocks went into Lexington, Ky., and dominated the Kentucky Wildcats as a 9.5-point underdog per BetMGM, winning 31–6, their first road victory since 2022. South Carolina hasn’t allowed a red zone touchdown this season. The rest of the schedule is brutal, but for the moment there is some shine on Shane once again.

Matt Campbell (15), Iowa State Cyclones

He’d accomplished the near-impossible, becoming a consistent winner in Ames, Iowa, and a hot name on the job market. Industry insiders speculated that he stayed too long in a difficult job, with inevitable declining returns—after going 9–3 in 2020 and advancing to the Big 12 championship game, Iowa State was 18–20 the last three seasons. And then there was his 1–6 record against the rival Iowa Hawkeyes. But after an improbable rally to win in Iowa City on Saturday, Campbell has renewed caché. The Big 12 looks wide open; why not the Cyclones?

Lincoln Riley (16), USC Trojans

Not many coaches went from savior to pinata faster than Riley in Los Angeles. After an 11–1 start in his debut season, the Trojans were pummeled in the Pac-12 championship game and upset by the Tulane Green Wave in the Cotton Bowl—then 2023 was an 8–5 bust. Heading into the Big Ten, there was sudden pessimism about whether USC could compete. That remains to be answered in league play, but beating the LSU Tigers to open the season and then backing that up with a blowout of the Utah State Aggies has restored some faith in Riley. (And made a rising star out of his 34-year-old defensive coordinator, D’Anton Lynn, whose unit has given up 20 points in two games.) 

Mario Cristobal (17), Miami Hurricanes

Beating this Florida Gators team might not turn out to be a big deal, but it was a nonnegotiable start to the season for Cristobal and the Canes. After two lackluster seasons, that was the start he needed—and making it a 41–17 blowout certainly helped. Now Miami has to show it can handle prosperity and its new role as the ACC favorite. The Hurricanes have lost their ACC opener three years in a row despite being favored in all of those games. This season that opener is against the Virginia Tech Hokies on Sept. 27.

Cristobal and the Hurricanes blew out the Gators to get off to a good start this season. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Clark Lea (18), Vanderbilt Commodores

After going 9–27 in his first three seasons, Lea needed to show something in Year 4. He wasted no time, shocking Virginia Tech, 34–27. Portal shopping for quarterbacks can be hit and miss, but Lea appears to have hit with New Mexico State Aggies transfer Diego Pavia. Provided the Commodores don’t face-plant against the Georgia State Panthers this week, they’ll go to the Missouri Tigers on Sept. 21 with their first 3–0 record since 2017.

Justin Wilcox (19), California Golden Bears

He’s a respected coach who had seemingly fallen into a post-pandemic malaise, going 15–22 the last three seasons after going 20–18 his first three years. Amid concern the Golden Bears would not be able to compete in the ACC, this Cal team already has a road win over an SEC opponent, upsetting the Auburn Tigers, 21–14. Wilcox’s starting quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, was originally a Yale Bulldogs commit whose only FBS offer was from the Golden Bears.

Bret Bielema (20), Illinois Fighting Illini

Bielema can coach, but sometimes that’s not as obvious at a mid-pack Big Ten team, where fortunes can rise and fall quickly. Illinois’s ahead-of-schedule move to 8–5 in 2022, Bielema’s second season, was followed by a 5–7 letdown last year. Now the Illini look salty again, starting 2–0 with a home upset of the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday. The Illinois defense has forced eight turnovers and allowed just 17 points in two games.

Mack Brown (21), North Carolina Tar Heels

Expectations were modest for the Heels after the departure of quarterback Drake Maye, and they were further lessened when his replacement, Max Johnson, broke his leg in the opener at the Minnesota Golden Gophers. But UNC managed to win that game, then come back and beat the Charlotte 49ers with new starter Conner Harrell performing serviceably. The schedule could facilitate a 4–0 start heading into ACC play, giving people something to talk about beyond speculating whether Brown is ready to retire.

Sitake could get the Cougars into Big 12 contention. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Kalani Sitake (22), BYU Cougars

The first season in the Big 12 was a 5–7 reality check that ended on a five-game losing streak. After the high of an 11–1 season in 2020, Sitake’s record had declined every season—10–3 to 8–5 to 5–7. But now the Cougars are off to a 2–0 start with an 18–15 win at the SMU Mustangs, in which they did not allow a touchdown. If they get past the struggling Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday, BYU could have a chance to join the crowded list of contenders in the Big 12.