When Kyle Pugh began his undergraduate career at Northern Illinois in 2015, Kobe Bryant was beginning his final season as a Los Angeles Laker, Joe Biden was the vice president of the United States and Tik Tok was just a cringey lip-syncing app called Musical.ly.
Yes, things have changed a lot since. But not quite as much for Pugh, who remains a Huskie and is right now wrapping up his eighth year on NIU’s roster. That’s thought to be the longest tenure ever for an FBS player and hints at the resilience the 25-year-old has shown through multiple setbacks — and a pandemic. Pugh will take his final football bow Nov. 26 on Senior Day when NIU hosts Akron in DeKalb. That will put a bow on one of college football’s most unusual careers that will end with at least 236 tackles, 1 interception, eight team photos and two master’s degrees.
But how did he get here? Or better yet, how is he still here? I got in touch with Pugh because I wanted to hear more of his story.
At Bloom Township High School outside Chicago, Pugh put up impressive numbers as a linebacker. During his senior year, he charted 112 tackles, recovered four fumbles and led his team to the playoffs. And though he drew attention from several DI programs, the choice for where he wanted to play college ball was clear.
“The best decision for me was to go to Northern Illinois,” he said. “It was really close to home. I come from a big family so it was important that my folks could at least come to the home games. And at that time NIU was on a crazy run; the team had just gone to the Orange Bowl…so it was a great fit for me.”
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Like any other high school standout with major talent, Pugh imagined what the next four years of his life would look like: playing time, clean…
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