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Northern Illinois reportedly looking at Wisconsin OC Joe Rudolph as head coach candidate

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Northern Illinois reportedly has interest in Wisconsin offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph as a candidate to fill its head coaching vacancy.

Adam Rittenberg of ESPN reported on Monday that Rudolph was among the names that have mentioned as the most likely to lead the Huskies for the 2019 season. The other two likely candidates are SMU defensive coordinator Kevin Kane and Baltimore Ravens running backs coach Thomas Hammock.

All three candidates have ties to Wisconsin. That’s significant because current Northern Illinois athletic director Sean Frazier also spent seven seasons in Madison under Barry Alvarez.

Kane was a graduate assistant at Wisconsin from 2008-2009 and served in a quality control role in 2010. Hammock was a graduate assistant from 2003-2004 for the Badgers and returned to Madison from 2011-2013 to serve as running backs coach and assistant head coach.

Kane and Hammock have also served on Northern Illinois’ staff in the past.

Rudolph has been on Paul Chryst’s staff since 2012. He joined the head coach at Pitt in 2012 and followed him to Wisconsin prior to the start of the 2015 season. Rudolph has been the brains behind one of the top rushing offenses in the country over the last two seasons.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB