ROCKY’S ROAD
Can lightning strike twice vs. Michigan for Rocky Lombardi at Northern Illinois?
Rocky Lombardi has come to accept who he is, five years into a drama-filled college career forged at two programs.
The bleach-blond quarterback with a tight end’s build, who looks as if he were picked out of central casting to star in a football movie, now feels comfortable as the plucky underdog.
“I don’t really have any choice but to embrace it,” he told the Free Press this week. “But I have kind of grown to like it.”
“No, grown to love it,” he continued, quickly amending his words. “So, it’s been good.”
This weekend, Lombardi will again reprise his role as the lovable longshot. The Vegas oddsmakers have picked his Northern Il
linois team to lose by almost four touchdowns to a Michigan program that Lombardi tormented less than a year ago in the most shocking setback of the Jim Harbaugh era.
Back then, he served as the first starting quarterback for a new coaching regime at Michigan State — shepherding a remade offense through an awkward transition during a season delayed by a global pandemic.
No one gave Lombardi much of a chance to beat the Wolverines last Halloween. It was the second game in a revised Big Ten-only schedule, and the Spartans had stunk the week before against lowly Rutgers while committing seven turnovers. The betting line was initially set at 24 points in favor of the Wolverines, who had pounded Minnesota in the opener.
Then Lombardi threw one bomb after another, terrorizing an overmatched secondary. The attack featured a 30-yard touchdown strike to Ricky White, a 53-yard throw to Jalen Nailor and one more 50-yard pass to White. Lombardi hit on only 17 of his 32 attempts (53.1%) that day, but enough stung the Wolverines, to the tune of 323 passing yards and three scores.
“We were just taking deep shots throughout the whole week in practice, and once the game came we were able to connect,” Nailor recalled this week.
Michigan was stunned. But Lombardi wasn’t. He noticed the Spartans’ rivals were vulnerable with Don Brown’s solvable defensive scheme that relied on a heavy dose of man coverage and lots of blitzing.
“He stuck to his guns and they were like, ‘This is what we do and we do it well so we are going to stick to it.’” Lombardi recalled. “We knew what we were getting into. So, I wasn’t really surprised, honestly. I watched the tape and I knew what kind of talent we had and I knew what kind of talent they had. And at the end of the day we just had to execute our game plan. And we did that.”
MSU’s 27-24 win reverberated long after Lombardi ran out the clock on the final play of regulation, picking up one more first down for good measure. It can be argued the result altered the course of both programs with Lombardi’s performance serving as the catalyst for change in Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
After all, Michigan quickly dumped Brown after the season, kick-starting a staff shakeup that led to the arrival of four new defensive assistants. Sixty-five miles up the road, the victory alleviated the pressure on Mel Tucker, allowing the roots of his program to grow despite an unstable environment. The Spartans went 2-5, but the win over the Wolverines signaled the rebuilding process was proceeding faster than anticipated.
“I hope it sling-shotted them into a successful year this year,” Lombardi said. “I know it definitely built our confidence last year, even though last year didn’t end up how we wanted it to. You could tell the program is on the rise, and I know Coach Tucker and company will get this program back to the top soon.”
The climb will take place without Lombardi, however. He entered the transfer portal last December, joining an exodus of 21 scholarship players as Tucker reworked his roster.
The denouement of Lombardi’s tenure at Michigan State occurred 13 days before his departure, when he was knocked out of action during a dismal performance in a blowout loss to Ohio State.
He sat out the final game — watching the Spartans’ future starter, Payton Thorne, supplant him in the lineup. It seemed a fitting conclusion for a player who always seemed unmoored in East Lansing. Three different offenses will do that. So too will the uncertainty that accompanied repeated pivots between a backup assignment and a frontline role.
As Thorne said about life as a college quarterback, "You can never relax. You’re always competing . ... You could always be substituted. There is always somebody to fill your spot."
Still, with his future at Michigan State up in the air, Lombardi wasn't eagerly planning his exit.
“Yeah, well, I never really wanted to leave,” he said. “Those are my guys. I was a captain last year and those were the guys I grew up in college playing with. We had a great relationship. I value loyalty a lot. It was hard for me to move on.”
Yet Lombardi ultimately decided it was best that he did.
“I just didn’t feel like it was the right spot for me at the time,” Lombardi said. “It was just my time.”
So, he heading 280 miles south to another program trying to find its footing in the early stages of a new coaching regime. Last fall, during Thomas Hammock’s second season in charge, Northern Illinois went 0-6.
The winless record could have scared Lombardi. But he was intrigued by the rebuild underway. The Huskies had the second-youngest roster in the FBS in 2020 and almost the entire starting lineup was returning. They just needed a steady hand to guide the offense.
More to the point, they needed a player who could rise above his stat as the longshot.
It took one game before Lombardi made his presence felt. With Northern Illinois pegged to lose by almost three touchdowns against Georgia Tech in the 2021 opener, the blondhaired bomber steered his new team to a stunning 22-21 upset victory — throwing a touchdown pass and completing a 2-point conversion in the final minute to overtake the Yellow Jackets.
“I saw he had a nice win Week 1,” said Thorne, his former understudy. “I hope he plays well this weekend.”
It would be quite the story if he did. But can lightning really strike twice in the Big House against Michigan?
The quarterback, whose given name elicits memories of a notable silver-screen underdog, isn’t making any guarantees.
“Obviously it is going to be a tough game and they’re a tough opponent,” he said. “But we’re going to go out there swinging and we’ll see what happens.”
After all he’s done already, does anyone really want to bet against a guy named Rocky?