Saturday marks the annual spring football game at Huskie Stadium.

The game also marks the end of Jerry Kill’s second spring as head coach.

For the past five weeks, Kill’s team has been on the field at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as either Friday evening or Saturday morning.

“We’re doing a lot of good things right now,” said quarterback Chandler Harnish, who is completing his first spring as NIU’s starter. “It’s kind of sad that it’s coming to an end, but we’re proud of where we’ve come, and we’re happy to be going into the summer and getting better. It’s been huge for us, and I’m sure the guys are glad to be getting done and getting a little break.”

Harnish was inconsistent during his freshman season, but says he has been better at not turning the ball over this spring.

“I think [I’ve improved on] not trying to force a pass when it’s just not there and finding the checkdown or making a play with my feet,” Harnish said. “Just being more consistent and being smarter with the ball.”

Before the game, the 25th annual Tailgate Showdown will take place at 11 a.m. with the spring game starting at 1 p.m.

But fans who have seen different spring games on ESPN the last few weeks shouldn’t expect the same thing Saturday afternoon.

Saturday’s event will be more of an organized practice with the team working on different situations. NIU has done this in the past and smaller schools do the same thing due to numbers.

“We’re short numbers even more so than we were a year ago. So we’ve got to get through the spring,” Kill said. “You can’t afford to get somebody hurt.”

Kill said there is one case where he would consider doing an actual game.

“If ESPN comes in tomorrow and pays us a million dollars, we’ll have a spring game,” Kill said. “We’ll probably have one [today] .”

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