Jan. 8, 2008

DeKALB, Ill. - Northern Illinois strong safety Alex Kube (Cary, Ill./Cary-Grove HS) became the third Huskie freshman in the last three seasons to earn a spot on the AON Insurance Freshman All-America team announced Tuesday by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), which also selects the squad.

The Huskies have had a player named to the FWAA Freshman All-America squad in each of the last three seasons as Kube (pronounced KOO-Buh) followed 2006 selection Eddie Adamski (Kildeer, Ill./Carmel HS), a center, and 2005 honoree at linebacker Tim McCarthy (Neenah, Wisc./Neenah HS). Northern Illinois and Florida State are the only two schools in the country to have a player chosen to the FWAA all-rookie team in each of the last three seasons.

Kube, who ranked second nationally among all freshmen in tackles with 111 (10.09 per game) while becoming the first rookie to lead NIU in tackles in 31 years, joined Central Michigan receiver/kick returner Antonio Brown as the Mid-American Conference selections to the 28-man squad. The FWAA received 104 nominations for its 2007 Freshman All-America team; the organization selects just one team.

Last month, Kube picked up a first team Freshman All-America nod from The Sporting News magazine. He is the first Huskie rookie to earn first team all-freshman nods from two organizations.

In 2007, the hard-hitting safety became the first freshman to lead NIU in tackles in 31 years, since Frank Lewandoski in 1976. He ranked seventh in the Mid-American Conference and 27th in the country in stops.

Kube played in 11 games with nine starts at strong safety and racked up seven double-digit tackle efforts to go with three pass break ups, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and 0.5 tackles for loss. His season-high tackle performance came at Navy when he collected 15 stops, the highest total by a Huskie player during the year.

Kube and the rest of his Huskie teammates return to DeKalb next week as classes resume on the NIU campus.

-- NIU --