Northern Illinois coach’s raw emotion after Notre Dame upset shows best of college football

NIU coach Thomas Hammock showed us why college football is so great after pulling off the biggest upset of the season.

The Northern Illinois Huskies were a 28-point underdog entering Week 2 against No. 5 Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon. The Huskies had never upset a top-10 opponent in program history, but the $1.4 million payday the school got for the matchup from Notre Dame made it worth the short trip from DeKalb, Illinois to South Bend. As it turns out, the Fighting Irish got a lot more than they bargained for.

Northern Illinois stunned Notre Dame, 16-14, for the biggest upset of the college football season. NIU’s defense shutdown Irish QB Riley Leonard all afternoon, and a 35-yard field goal by Kanon Woodill put the Huskies ahead for good with 31 seconds to play in regulation.

It’s an awful loss for Notre Dame following a big win over Texas A&M in the season opener last week. For Northern Illinois head coach Thomas Hammock, it proves all the hard work he’s put into his program has paid off. The Huskies have only made two bowl games in Hammock’s first five seasons as head coach, and were picked to finish third in the MAC this season. No one thought Northern Illinois could beat Notre Dame, but somehow it pulled it off.

Raw emotion poured down Hammock’s face as spoke with NBC on the field after the win. “They believed. And we came here and got it done.” Watch the full post-game interview here:

Thomas Hammock. College football is awesome pic.twitter.com/PnexxDkNld

— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) September 7, 2024

That’s the beauty of college football right there. Notre Dame could have had every single player on NIU roster if they offered them a scholarship out of high school, junior college, or in the transfer portal. The Fighting Irish eat the big kids’ table in the world of college sports, and NIU is just about as tiny as it gets for FBS. For one afternoon, the Huskies went into Notre Dame’s hallowed home and made it their own.

Salute to Thomas Hammock’s Huskies. Everyone loves a Notre Dame football loss ... except for Notre Dame fans.