Published: October 16, 2009 09:59 am      

Herrig finds success on offense

Clinton grad starts at guard for top-5 team

CEDAR FALLS — Even though he had an inkling it could happen, Northern Iowa redshirt senior Nate Herrig from Clinton didn’t think it would.

But then on Sept. 1, 2008, two days after one of the biggest games of his career — a 41-17 loss to then-No. 16 BYU in Provo, Utah, in front of 65,000 fans — his college football career took an unexpected turn. After spending his previous three years on the defensive line for the Panthers, Herrig’s coaches asked him to switch positions.

And not just any simple switch. They wanted to put him on the opposite side of the trenches.

“We landed Sunday morning at 5 a.m. from BYU and we were in there Monday afternoon at 2, and I was in a completely different meeting room,” Herrig said. “It was kind of a shock. I ended up having to learn a whole new side of the ball. It was pretty tough; it took some time.”

With the help of offensive line coach Rick Nelson and Bill Salmon, the offensive coordinator/associate head coach/wide receivers coach, he got through it and wound up starting nearly all of the Panthers remaining games in 2008 at left guard. He still starts there today.

The move to the offense wasn’t entirely out of the blue for Herrig. While he was stunned when it actually happened, it was something that had been spoken about previously.

Panthers coach Mark Farley approached Herrig during winter conditioning in the spring of 2008 and asked him if he would be open to making the switch. Herrig said he would, for two reasons — the betterment of the program and the opportunity for the increased playing time.

Herrig never played much on the defensive side of the ball. He always had “two great guys in front of me,” so moving to the offensive line allowed him the opportunity to get on the field more often.

Although he knew the change would be tough, resiliency is something Herrig learned from his days at Clinton High School, where he was a team captain and defensive MVP. He missed most of his junior year with a shoulder dislocation and was always fighting off some kind of injury.

“The main thing I learned (at Clinton) is hard work and resilience,” he said. “Sophomore and junior year it seemed like I was always banged up. It’s about just never taking a day off. I had bigger goals — football was my goal. That’s what I wanted to do.”

To facilitate the move to offense, Herrig had to change more than just position — he needed to gain weight. When he played on defense, he weighed in around 275 pounds. He is now listed at 6-foot-3, 297 pounds but said he teeters between 295 and 305.

That still puts him as the smallest starting offensive lineman on the UNI team.

He’s particularly dwarfed by the Panthers’ left tackle.

“I play next to Austin Howard, out of Davenport Central,” Herrig said of his teammate on the left, who stands 6-foot-7 and weighs 319 pounds. “He’s a very good friend of mine — we’ve kind of built something there. We don’t even talk on the field anymore.”

Having that kind of connection to protect quarterback Pat Grace’s blindside can only serve to help the Panthers (5-1, 3-0 MVFC) as they get into the second half of their season. UNI is ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in the FCS polls, and Herrig expects big things from his team the rest of the way. The Panthers have a key matchup Saturday when they play host to No. 5 Southern Illinois in a sold-out homecoming game at the UNI-Dome.

“Our first goal is to win the Missouri Valley Football Conference,” he said. “Once we hit the playoffs, we have one goal — to win every game. This year has been a long time coming. We have big aspirations as a team here. We go in every week with the expectation not only to play well but to come out with a win.”

Once this season ends — and after graduation in May — Herrig, a mathematics education major, plans to go into student teaching.

He hopes to coach one day down the road, as well.