Former Hersey High grad Rutkiewicz off to another fast start with NIU

Throughout his college football career, Kacper Rutkiewicz has produced immediate results.

As a true freshman, the Hersey High School grad was Illinois State's top receiver. In his fifth game for the Redbirds, he had a 64-yard gain against top-ranked North Dakota State.

This year, Rutkiewicz moved north to DeKalb and in his second game with Northern Illinois, he caught 2 touchdowns passes in last week's narrow loss to Tulsa.

"I think down (at Illinois State) it was mostly about preparation," Rutkiewicz said. "I felt like every day, I came in super-prepared. I never made any mistakes, I knew what I was doing, knew where to line up. And that preparation really gave me a lot of confidence to be able to make plays during fall camp."

During that 2019 season, the Redbirds had an experienced quarterback in Memphis transfer Brady Davis. But when he was injured late in the season, the passing game never recovered. Illinois State was able to win two playoff games that year by relying heavily on current Jacksonville Jaguars running back James Robinson. But Rutkiewicz's numbers never came close to matching his freshman production.

"I just thought I did as much as I could do over there," he said. "I tried my best, I talked to the coaches. I have a great relationship with all those coaches still, but I felt like I had to make a move for my career."

NIU had a valuable in-state transfer last year with former WIU fullback Clint Ratkovich. Rutkiewicz is a 5-foot-8 slot receiver, but is hoping to make the same kind of impact. Of course, the first thing he did was try to build a relationship with Huskies QB Rocky Lombardi, who is in his second year as a starter after transferring from Michigan State.

Rutkiewicz arrived on campus in January, but missed most of the spring and summer with a hamstring injury. He still managed to get in sync with Lombardi, as demonstrated by a 30-yard TD pass to open the third quarter against Tulsa.

"Rocky made a great check, he saw man coverage," Rutkiewicz said. "We work on it a lot during practice. We have a really great connection, so when I see he makes a check, I'm really confident in his calls. It worked out well.

"We're really great friends off the field. He's one of the older guys. We have a super-young team and the older guys, there's not many of us, so we're all close."

Rutkiewicz, whose parents emigrated from Poland in 1987, credits current Hersey head coach Tom Nelson with giving his football career a boost when Nelson became offensive coordinator.

Nelson took a similar path from Hersey to Illinois State and later spent time in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals. Rutkiewicz decided to utilize the transfer portal and likes the early results.

"This program's great," he said. "Everyone loves football and I think this is the greatest decision I ever made, because I love coming here every day. I love working hard with these guys. It's easy to work hard when everyone enjoys being here and never complains. So I think I'm in a really great spot."

NIU kicks off against Vanderbilt at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at Huskie Stadium.

"We have an opportunity to play an SEC opponent at home and you don't get those opportunities very often," NIU coach Thomas Hammock said. "We want to take full advantage. I hope our home crowd is loud and energized, because we've got a good football team."

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