Mike Kafka Class: Senior Hometown: Chicago, Ill. High School: St. Rita Height / Weight: 6-3 / 215 Position: QB

The 2009 Scouting Report: Enters his final season as NU's starting quarterback ... Tremendous athlete ... A true dual-threat quarterback -- solid runner with a strong throwing arm ... Enters his senior season having ompleted nearly 62 percent of his career pass attempts -- a figure that ranks among the highest of all NU quarterbacks ... Growing every day as a college QB, on and off the field ... Made some major strides during 2009 spring drills ... Poised to have a tremendous season.

2008: Backup quarterback ... Completed 32-of-46 pass attempts for 330 yards and two TD's while ranking second on the team with 321 rushing yards ... Ran three times for two yards vs. Illinois ... At Michigan, entered the game on NU's second series, rushing three times for 20 yards before leaving the game with a concussion ... Started his second straight game vs. Ohio State, completing 18-of-27 passes for 177 yards while rushing 29 times for 83 yards and one touchdown ... Named team's offensive big playmaker against the Buckeyes ... Racked up 300 rushing yards in his two starts, the most by an NU quarterback in successive games ... Named Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts in a 24-17 win at Minnesota ... Also earned an ESPN College Gameday Helmet Sticker for his performance and was named an AT&T All-America Player of the Week candidate ... Posted a career day starting in place of injured C.J. Bachér: rushed 27 times for 217 yards, including a long of 53 yards, and threw for 143 yards and two touchdowns on 12-of-16 passing ... His 217 rush yards set a school and Big Ten record for rushing yards by a QB ... Began the game by completing his first eight passes, including a 36-yard TD strike to Jeremy Ebert ... Also named team's offensive player of the week against Minnesota ... Played final series at Indiana, completing one pass for nine yards ... Against Southern Illinois, completed 1-of-2 passes for one yard and ran for three yards ... Entered the game vs. Syracuse in the fourth quarter, rushing two times for 18 yards, including an 11-yard carry ... Has totaled 835 career passing yards and 3 TD's, and 593 yards and 3 TD's on the ground.

2007: Backup quarterback ... Played most of the fourth quarter against Northeastern and totaled 11 passing yards (2-of-2 passing) ... Had one pass attempt and 8 rushing yards at Ohio State ... Has totaled 505 career passing yards and 1 TD, and 271 rushing yards and 2 TD's.

2006: Started first four games at quarterback before suffering a hamstring injury in the second half of the Nevada contest ... Sat out the Penn State, Wisconsin and Purdue games with the injury ... Made a solid debut at Miami (Ohio), completing 13-of-17 passes (.765) for 106 yards and 1 TD ... Also led all players with 89 rushing yards (5.2 ypc) on 17 carries ... Had a pass efficiency rating of 148.26 for his first college game ... His first TD pass was a 19-yard strike to Tyrell Sutton ... Passed for 173 yards (19-of-32) and ran for 42 yards vs. New Hampshire ... Had an interception and fumble vs. UNH ... Played the first half against Eastern Michigan and ran for 33 yards (6.6 ypc) and his first career TD (6-yard run) ... Completed 10-of-18 passes for 76 yards and an interception vs. EMU ... Had a mixed performance at Nevada: career-high 111 rushing yards, including a 13-yard TD run, and averaged 9.2 ypc ... In the air, completed 9-of-21 passes for 122 yards, with three interceptions ... His 111 rushing yards were the most by an NU quarterback since Zak Kustok ran for 111 yards vs. Bowling Green on Nov. 17, 2001 ... Made first appearance since the Nevada contest against Ohio State, completing 4-of-8 passes for 17 yards ... Averaged 5.5 yards per rush.

2005: Did not see action.

High School: SuperPrep All-Midwest Region and Rivals.com Top 25 dual-threat quarterback ... Ranked 50th nationally among all quarterbacks by SuperPrep ... Ranked No. 25 in overall Illinois player rankings by SuperPrep ... Rated 20th in Illinois by Rivals.com and 25th nationally in dual-threat QB ranking ... All-area selection by Tom Lemming's Prep Football Report ... Honorable mention all-state selection ... Team Offensive MVP ... Catholic Metro Blue Offensive MVP ... Chicago Sun-Times and Daily Southtown honorable mention all-area honoree ... Academic All-State ... Led Mustangs to three conference championships and a four-year mark of 35-8 ... In 2004, completed 75-of-129 passes for 1,004 yards and 10 touchdowns ... On the ground, ran for 806 yards (144 carries, 5.6 ypc) and 5 TDs ... Totaled 1,816 yards of total offense and 16 TDs ... Had 164 rushing yards and 126 passing yards vs. Mt. Carmel ... Captain of St. Rita's football and baseball teams ... School's Silver Honor Roll all four years ... Coached by Todd Kuska.

Personal: Born Michael John Kafka ... Son of Michael and Sandra Kafka ... Hails from the same program that produced recent NU punter J.J. Standring ... Communication studies major.

Kafka's Career Statistics

RUSHING                G   Att    Yds  TD  Lg Avg/C Avg/G
2006................   5    48    263   2  55   5.5  52.6
2007................   4     2      8   0   4   4.0   2.0
2008................   8    68    321   1  53   4.7  40.1
TOTAL...............  17   118    592   3  55   5.0  34.8
PASSING                G  Att- Cmp- Int    Yds  TD  Lg   Pct Avg/P Avg/G  Effic
2006................   5   96-  55-   5    494   1  39  57.3   5.1  98.8   93.5
2007................   4    3-   2-   0     11   0   7  66.7   3.7   2.8   97.5
2008................   8   46-  32-   3    330   2  36  69.6   7.2  41.2  131.1
TOTAL...............  17  145-  89-   8    835   3  39  61.4   5.8  49.1  105.5
TOTAL OFFENSE          G  Rush  Pass  Total Avg/G
2006................   5   263   494    757 151.4
2007................   4     8    11     19   4.8
2008................   8   321   330    651  81.4
TOTAL...............  17   592   835   1427  83.9
SCORING                G    TD  Rush  Pass Retn  PAT 2PAT   FG  Total Avg/G
2006................   5     2     2     0    0    0    0    0     12   2.4
2007................   4     0     0     0    0    0    0    0      0   0.0
2008................   8     1     1     0    0    0    0    0      6   0.8
TOTAL...............  17     3     3     0    0    0    0    0     18   1.1
ALL PURPOSE            G  Rush   Rec    PR    KR    IR  Total Avg/G
2006................   5   263     0     0     0     0    263  52.6
2007................   4     8     0     0     0     0      8   2.0
2008................   8   321     0     0     0     0    321  40.1
TOTAL...............  17   592     0     0     0     0    592  34.8