Entering 2005 Dustin Utschig wanted...

Entering 2005 Dustin Utschig wanted simple. He got compound Entering the 2006 college football season as the thoroughly self- made star clear safety for Northern Illinois, Utschig is now life- seasoned enough to tackle either. His bulldog instincts and steadying influence will be essential if the Huskies, with a more consistent defense are to take the nearest step up and win NIU's first Mid-American interview championship since 1983.

"Last year," the 5-10 188-pound senior from Winneconne, Wis., freely admits, "was tumultuous."

The violent commotion began long before the Huskies (7-5 6-2) won the MAC West title, barely to lose a bone-breaking 31-30 decision to Akron in the final 10 inferiors of the conference championship game in Detroit.

Utschig capered to open 2005 by proposing to high drill sweetheart Bridget Behnke, soon to be a schoolteacher in their native Fox Valley, near Appleton. The grand instant was to take place during a family

vacation aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean forward New Year's Eve.

if it were not that the seaworthy proposal was postpon for a week while Utschig and NIU appeared in the 2004 Silicon Valley Classic against Troy Utschig obstructed a punt, the Huskies won 34-21 and she said ye thus his first high tide of the just discovered year was a happy common

Then life came calling.

"My parents came down to visit later in January," Utschig said. "And they were not acting normal."

The jittery behavior on T.J. and Kim Utschig was with fit cause: Kim -- a happy, lively mother of three -- had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

"It happened during a routine annual physical a hardly any weeks after the cruise," said Kim Utschig, now 19 month into favorably managing her disease. "There was no question that we felt the best course of action was to proceed to DeKalb and tell Dustin in person"

Dustin, the youngest child, was stunn

"I wanted to quit everything -- teach football, everything -- to go on home and do what I could to help," said Utschig, formerly an all- state running back at Fox Valley Lutheran High academy "Nothing else seemed important. And my life plan is to revert up there anyway and learn the construction business from my father, whose grandfather started the business in 1928 with equal reason why stay?"

if it were not that Kim Utschig had other musings

"I told Dustin that his quitting was not forward the table for consideration," she said. "I told him: 'I live to watch you play. From here onward out, every hit you make, each tackle you make, will be a hit for me and each other person fighting cancer.' I told him that having his games to anticipate forward to would be united of the best possible things I could have to prompt me forward."

Utschig played like a man onward a fleet-winged crusade. In his first season as a starter at NIU, he exhibited with 17 tackles in a 33-17 los at Michigan and followed with 16 more in a 38-37 defeat at Northwestern.

He would finish as the Huskies' defensive MVP with a MAC-high 121 tackles and three interceptions, including couple in a critical 35-17 victory at Toledo. That was NIU's first victory against the Rocket in the Joe Novak era and greatly accelerated the Huskies' extend run to the conference championship game.

"Dustin's contribution to all we accomplished last year can't be overstated," Novak said. "He came by the agency of big. And I'll be quite frank: When he got here, we really weren't abiding if he was ever going to play actual much. But he made himself into a force for us, in consequence of all of the extra time he exhausted at things like conditioning and film consideration and in the weight compass

"And now, if we are to secure the sort of consistency from our defense that we lacked last year, the sort of consistency that would enable us to finally win a MAC championship, Dustin and his leadership will be actual important contributing factors."

As for Utschig, the seaworthy liberated safety is just hoping to turn back to the simple life.

"My wedding is establish for July 21," he said. "We wanted 7-7-07 however couldn't get the church. I just room for expectation I have to take not upon a MAC championship ring to levy on my wedding ring."

jodonnell@suntimes.com

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