NIU's training staff are miracle workers

March 30th, Mike Sobol goes down with an ACL injury.  5 months later, he's back on the field against Iowa State.  He's filled in nicely as the starter, as Tracy Wilson's been trying to recover from a painful groin injury.  According to the gamenotes, he averaged at least two hours of rehab a day and was full-go in practice in only 4 months.  Miraculous.

Before the Spring game on April 24th, Pat Schiller goes down with an ACL injury as well.

Both are back on the field:

"It’s just unbelievable," Schiller said. "I can’t even describe the emotions that just came through my body. Finally, I’m back.

"Throughout the week at practice, I felt it. I knew I would have to play with some pain. When I went out there, really just the adrenaline filled my body. I’m feeling it now after the game just settling down, but when I was out there it was unbelievable."

Kill said he’d monitor Schiller’s future playing time.

"I don’t know how many plays he took. That’s a concern," Kill said. "I want to make sure we’re smart with that."

Schiller returned in just about the same amount of time that Sobol did.  This is an extremely far cry to where we were in 2007, when Jerry Kill inherited a team full of players that were coming off serious injuries and could barely play.

Let's not forget Chandler Harnish, who suffered a knee injury last year against Toledo.  He didn't even need to go through surgery and is now fulfilling his potential as the starter.

Credit goes out to the training staff, specifically Kammy Powell who is the head football trainer.  Credit goes out to Eric Klein, the strength and conditioning coach, who radically changed the weight program and the overall culture of the team.

As Coach Kill has said many times, one of the most important things during conference season is to stay healthy.  Now while Wilson may be out at SS, at least we have Sobol there to fill in for the time being.