Columbus Dispatch - Novak Story: Novak stays course, does things his way

Like most every kid who plays high school football in Ohio, Joe Novak wanted to play for Ohio State. But Ohio State didn’t want Joe Novak.

So the Mentor native went to Miami University and played for coach Bo Schembechler, who once said Novak was "the smartest defensive end I ever coached ... and the slowest."

Good thing for Northern Illinois that administrators were willing to let Novak go slowly after hiring him as football coach in 1996. The Huskies’ record his first three seasons was 3-30.

"Every time I’d go home, I was taking boxes with me so I was ready to pack," Novak said.

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The pressure, says Novak, is on Tressel and his team.

"That's why I'm gonna enjoy this one," the NIU boss said. "Jim will have a tougher time enjoying this one more than I will. What a great opportunity it is for our kids to go play at Ohio State, the number one team in the country. It's a great college football moment and we are just going to go in ther and enjoy it.

Nobody expects us to win and yet again, we do. We think we have a chance. We know we have to play very well, and we have to catch things right. We think we have a chance."