Upset-Authoring NIU Staff Littered with South Dakota Connections
Northern Illinois authored one of the all-time upsets in College Football this past Saturday, taking down 5th-rated Notre Dame in South Bend.
NIU Head Coach Thomas Hammock has a few local connections, having coached at both Wisconsin and Minnesota as an assistant.
A few of his Assistant Coaches are heavily tied to South Dakota and the tri-state area, including the Offensive Coordinator Eric Eidsness.
Eidsness served as the Offensive Coordinator at SDSU from 1999-2003 and was back with the Jackrabbits again from 2010 to 2018. Eidsness is a Sioux Falls native that graduated from Sioux Falls Lincoln in 1988.
Here is the full list of South Dakota connections on the staff of NIU football currently:
Eric Eidsness - Assistant Coach/Quarterbacks/Offensive Coordinator
- SDSU (1999-2003, 2010-2018), Southwest Minnesota State HC (2004-2009)
Nick Benedetto - Defensive Coordinator/Safeties
- USD (2010-2011), Grandview (2012), USF (2017-2019)
Wesley Beschorner - Offensive Coordinator/Running backs
- USD (2006-2015)
Adam Breske - Assistant Coach/Linebackers/Special Teams Coordinator
- USD (2007-2015), USF (2017)
Luke Meadows - Assistant Coach/Offensive Line
- Hot Springs SD Native, Wartburg (2001), SDSU (2002-2011)
Did you miss the upset that shook the college football world on Saturday, here's the final sequence from South Bend:
NIU (2-0) now takes a much-deserved week off before taking on Buffalo at home in DeKalb, Illinois on Saturday, September 21st.
Sources: NIU Huskies - Football Staff Directory and NIU Huskies on Twitter
South Dakota Born NFL Players of this Century