NIU - Still Bowl Watching

OK, NIU lost to Ohio. And then they lost to Central Michigan.

Fair enough. NIU is not the best team in the MAC this year. And not the second best. But after that, I'd put NIU up against all mid-major comers. They finished 7-5 overall, and are still in the hunt for a minor or at-large bowl game. While I certainly respect Notre Dame for saying in advance that, with a 6-6 record, they would turn down a bowl invitation, well - that's Notre Dame. I've got nothing against a Tier 1 school like Notre Dame (except, perhaps that they've managed to turn the entire Chicago Sun Times sports section into their local cheer section, but that's not the school's fault). Hell, NIU isn't Notre Dame, and would never deem to be. But any excuse for a couple thousand NIU alums and students to gather around, down a few Goose Islands, and eat some brats and burgers in advance of even the most insignificant college bowl game (hmm - that would be last year) would be welcome. And a damned good party. Go Red and Black!

For all those bloggers and free-thinkers who opine that, well, anything less than a BCS bowl game is somehow "unworthy" (despite that perhaps 90% of them are not alums from BCS schools), all I can say is, well, f#ck you. It's a game, dammit, not the election of the new President. There are 128 Div-1 schools. There are 32 Div-1 bowl games, which mean exactly 1/2 of all the Div 1 teams get to play one extra game a year. Why are there so many bowl games now? Easy. They make money - big TV money. To assume that it's anything other than financial is foolish.

So a bunch of alums get to travel to a new city, laugh it up with friends, and watch their favorite mid-major team get rare national TV time knowing that their school will rake in some big bucks for a small, underfunded sports program. Don't like it? Too bad. Turn the channel and watch "Desperate Housewives", loser.

Oh, Crap.

NIU 31
Ohio 38

Bad day all around. Too depressed to comment further.

NIU - Getting Some Attention in Mid-November

Here's Rivals.com's take on NIU football going into the Ohio game this Saturday. Lookin' good!

Mike Huguenin
Rivals.com College Football Editor

Generally, second- and third-place teams in the Sun Belt Conference and fourth- and fifth-place teams in the Mid-American Conference don't garner much attention.
But fans need to start paying attention to the likes of Middle Tennessee, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Northern Illinois, Kent State and Ohio University because it seems extremely likely that three or four of those teams will be bowl-bound this season.
The ACC, Big Ten, Mountain West and Pac-10 could have trouble filling all their bowl slots, and in the quest to fill those open spots, bowl officials are going to have to turn to non-affiliated teams with winning records (not 6-6 marks). Those teams are going to come from the MAC and Sun Belt.
The Sun Belt has one tie-in, with the New Orleans Bowl. Troy looks as if it will win the league for the fourth season in a row. But Middle Tennessee (7-3), Louisiana-Monroe (6-4) and Louisiana-Lafayette (5-5) still have a lot at stake. MTSU has a shot at finishing 9-3, but regardless of how the Blue Raiders finish, they are in great shape for a bid because they already have seven wins. ULM and ULL - which play each other Saturday - also would have legitimate chances at a bid if they can get to seven wins.
The Mid-American has three tie-ins, with the Little Caesars Pizza (formerly the Motor City), International and GMAC bowls. The two division champs are guaranteed bowl spots. Right now,Central Michigan (8-2) in the West and Temple (8-2) in the East are in the driver's seat in their respective divisions. Ohio U. (7-3), Northern Illinois (7-3), Bowling Green (5-5) and Kent State (5-5) still have legit division title hopes, with Ohio and NIU - which play Saturday - also in good shape for the league's third bowl bid. One of those plus BG and Kent State - assuming each can get to seven wins - also will be in the mix for any "leftover" bowl slots.
In the Rivals.com bowl projections this week, we had spots open in the EagleBank (an ACC slot), GMAC (ACC), Little Caesars Pizza (Big Ten) and Humanitarian (Mountain West) bowls.
Northern Illinois starting RB Chad Spann has an injured shoulder and may miss Saturday's key game against Ohio U. He will be a game-time decision. Spann is fifth in the nation with 16 rushing touchdowns and is a major reason NIU has won four in a row for the first time since 2006.

NIU's Seventh Win

Tonight's score:

NIU 26
Ball State 20

Another great night at Sidepockets in Lee's Summit, who once again gave us a dedicayed 8 ft flatscreen to watch the game. The steaks were excellent as well.

Another good write-up from the Chicago Tribune on the game (better than the NIU-EMU article, where is seemed that the Trib writer wrote most of the article in advance, and then stopped watching the game at the half), and even a write up in the Sun Times (or, as I call, it, the South Bend Times, as it seems that the Sun Times thinks the only college football team in the area is Notre Dame).

From ESPN.com:

Northern Illinois has quietly put itself in the hunt

While Central Michigan has dominated many of the headlines in the Mid-American Conference this season with their 8-2 campaign, Northern Illinois has quietly crept up the standings to give the Chippewas a challenge.

The Huskies have won three straight and are just one back of the Chippewas with three games to play, including tonight’s contest against Ball State. If Northern Illinois and Central Michigan continue to win, it sets up a pivotal game between the two at the end of the regular season to decide the West Division champion.

“To be honest, I think we’re a little farther along than I thought we would be,” Northern Illinois coach Jerry Kill said. “We’re so, so young on defense and we’ve had some critical injuries. We’ve lost two defensive tackles, we’re playing two true freshman on the defensive line. I was a little nervous, but our kids have really stepped up and put us in a good position. Now they’ve got to close out. There’s three games left and they’ve got to play very well.”

Central Michigan made a big statement Wednesday night with a 56-28 win over Toledo. Tonight, the Huskies take on a Ball State team that has just one win on the season, but has won the last two against the Huskies.

Kill said he’s been most impressed with his team’s ability to rally despite some tough situations. The three games the Huskies have lost have been by eight or fewer points. They’re lone league loss was a 20-19 decision against Toledo and the Huskies had a blocked field goal in the final seconds.

Not to mention the Huskies have been riddled with injuries, including a knee injury that has sidelined starting quarterback Chandler Harnish since that Toledo game. Backup DeMarcus Grady has filled in the past three games and led the Huskies to three consecutive victories. Both quarterbacks are expected to be available tonight.

“The hard thing for us is that we lost a two-point game to Idaho and we had a chance to win it on field goal at Toledo and then Wisconsin. We’ve been in every game,” Kill said. “Once we lost to Toledo, and certainly losing your starting quarterback, it would have been easy to just tank. But they’ve been able to fight through it, have some guys step up and that’s what it’s all about.”

Northern Illinois also has been helped by a running game that is one of the best in the country. Led by junior Chad Spann, who has 767 yards and 15 rushing touchdowns this season, the Huskies’ running game has allowed Grady to settle in at quarterback and now he’s contributing to the running option as well.

“Me, Me’co [Brown], Justin [Anderson], we’ve had to pick it up ourselves and just try to carry the team as far as we can,” Spann said. “But DeMarcus has bloomed very well, he’s gotten better every game and he’s taken pressure off of us and he’s putting a little bit on himself as well. So, he’s filled in very nicely.”

In Kill’s two seasons with Northern Illinois, he’s won at least six games. Last season, the Huskies went to a bowl and figure to be in the mix for another postseason appearance this year. But a divisional championship is something that would exceed expectations. The Huskies haven’t won the MAC West since 2005 and haven’t won the MAC title while the conference has played a championship game.

“All of our goals are still there,” Spann said. “We just want to focus on one game at a time, get that one game out of the way and we’ll be where we want to be. That’s the kind of mentality we’ve taken and that’s how we’re going to keep going.”

NIU vs EMU - Kill's Class Act

Many thanks go out to Sidepockets in Lee's Summit for setting aside a table and in 80 inch flatscreen for 1/2 of the Kansas City Chapter of the NIU Alumni Association (that is, umm, me - the other guy couldn't make it). Matt had a great time as well, and NIU's Coach Kill offered a great teaching point on sportsmanship.

NIU was up 50-6 with a little under two minutes to go witha first down on Eastern Michigan's 1 yard line. Had it been Oklahoma or Florida or some school like that, they would have gone for the TD for no reason other than racking up an even bigger score. And it's not like NIU would have had a problem scoring - they pretty much walked over Eastern for the entire game. NIU had already put in their third-string quarterback and pulled most of their starters, and still was having an easy go of it. But rather than go for another TD when they were already up by 44 points, Kill had his offense take a knee and run out the clock - on the Eastern Michigan one yard line. Class act.

Here's the play by play for the last 1:25 of the game:

3rd and 5 at EMU 6Justin Anderson rush for 5 yards to the EMich 1 for a 1ST down.
1st and Goal at EMU 1Timeout NORTHERN ILLINOIS, clock 1:25.
1st and Goal at EMU 1Team rush for a loss of 3 yards to the EMich 4.
2nd and Goal at EMU 4Team rush for a loss of 5 yards to the EMich 9.
End of 4th Quarter


Northern Illinois routs Eastern Michigan 50-6
Chad Spann scores 2 TDs on runs of 65 and 79 yards
By Fred Mitchell, Tribune reporter

DeKALB, Ill. -- Jerry Kill dreaded having his team play on a weeknight.

"I like playing at 11 o'clock, I like playing at 12 and I like playing at 1. And I don't like playing at night," the colorful Northern Illinois coach said before Thursday night's game. "High school football ought to be played on Friday night, college on Saturday, pros on Sunday.

"I'm a traditional dude."

Turns out his Huskies probably could beat winless Eastern Michigan any day of the week. They dispatched the Eagles 50-6 at Huskie Stadium.

Kill wondered before the game if his team would have any "juice" after playing five days ago against Akron. The answer came on the opening kickoff as the Huskies (6-3, 4-1 MAC) became bowl eligible with their sixth victory.

Chad Spann scored two touchdowns and had 151 of his career-best 174 rushing yards in the first half. Quarterback DeMarcus Grady rushed for 104 yards and one touchdown and passed for two touchdowns.

"I thought we played fast coming off the short week," Kill said.

Tommy Davis returned the opening kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown. Davis, a redshirt freshman from East St. Louis, appeared to be bottled up around the Eastern Michigan 28-yard line before breaking loose.

"I ran up in there and it was kind of cloudy," Davis said. "But I broke through a tackle and I was able to break free."

It was the first NIU kickoff return for a touchdown since Aug. 29, 2002, when Michael Turner, now with the Falcons, ran one back 93 yards against Wake Forest.

The Huskies' 50 points tied their fourth-highest total in a MAC game and marked the first time NIU has scored 50 or more since Oct. 23, 2004, when it beat Western Michigan 59-38.

Eastern Michigan (0-9, 0-5) kicked a 21-yard field goal for its first score after NIU muffed a punt and the Eagles recovered.

The Huskies responded with a six-play, 73-yard drive that was capped by a 30-yard touchdown pass from Grady to Landon Cox.

Joe Carithers kicked his second field goal, but that was it for the Eagles.

Spann ripped off a 65-yard touchdown run 17 seconds later. Mike Salerno added a 26-yard field goal early in the second quarter as NIU increased its lead to 23-6.

Spann's second carry of the night was a 79-yard touchdown sprint, a career long and the 10th-longest in NIU history. It was his 16th touchdown of the season.

"The front line did a great job, as always," Spann said. "It's my job to get to the second level. I have to make a play there. I just had to turn on the speed and try to beat them to the end zone."

Grady hooked up with Cox again with 47 seconds left in the half. The 31-yard touchdown pass made it 37-6 at halftime.

To Akron -- and Beyond!

NIU played a substandard game against a lousy Akron team last week to win. A win is a win, but games like that are not going to get NIU past Ohio or Central Michigan - or into a bowl game.

It's shaping up to be a tough battle for the not-quite-best. Central Michigan has already locked in a bowl, with a 7-2 record, and got just a few votes short of being listed in the top 25 before last weeks loss to Boston College. NIU is second in the MAC West behind CMU, helped a lot by Western Michigan's loss to Kent State last week. NIU is now 3-1 in the MAC West. However, Ohio and Kent State are both 4-1 behind Temple in the MAC East. WMU's loss to KSU puts them at 3-3 in the MAC West, and probably out of the running. But that leaves NIU, Kent State, and Ohio to vie for bowl game scraps, assuming Temple and CMU are lock-ins.

Fortunately for NIU, they play Eastern Michigan tomorrow, which should be an easy win (if they lose, however, the rest of the season is, for all intents and purposes, tanked). If they win on Thursday, they go to 4-1 in the MAC, and 6-3 overall. Assuming Ball State continues to suck as bad as EMU, the Huskies should go into the last two weeks, against Ohio and CMU, with a 5-1 conference record, and a 7-3 record overall. Frankly, I don't see NIU being consistent or strong enough to knock off CMU (if so, it would be as awesome as the Purdue game), but they seem pretty evenly matched against Ohio. That one's a toss-up.

As for their opponents and bowl slots: Western Michigan - for some ungodly reason, scheduled a game against Michigan State this week. An easily predicted loss there will drop them to 4-6 overall and should end any remote post-season chance for them. Both Kent State and Ohio still have to play Temple in coming weeks, which could affect the MAC East title.

It's going to be an interesting November. Five MAC teams - NIU, CMU, KSU, Ohio, and Temple - will have winning records, and all five will probably have seven wins (CMU should have 9 wins before facing NIU on the 27th). Five winning teams, but there aren't gong to be five bowl slots (Somebody is goin' to get screwed).

From last week's Tribune:

NIU rally overcomes upset-minded Akron 27-10
Chad Spann's 2 4th-quarter touchdowns lift the Huskies

By Fred Mitchell, Tribune reporter

November 1, 2009


DEKALB -- Northern Illinois saved its best for last Saturday, overcoming a four-point fourth-quarter deficit to dispatch upset-minded Akron 27-10 at Huskie Stadium as Chadd Spann rushed for two touchdowns and Nathan Palmer added another in the final period.

NIU (5-3, 3-1 MAC) prevailed with redshirt sophomore DeMarcus Grady starting at quarterback in place of injured starter Chandler Harnish. On a day when gusting winds were swirling at 30 mph, Grady passed for 62 yards and ran for 109.

"I just tried to play my game and not think so much," Grady said of his second straight start. "I took what the defense gave me."

The Huskies enjoyed an advantage in the kicking game that resulted in good field position. Mike Salerno averaged 52.7 yards on three punts with rugby-style kicks, and two of them landed inside the 20. Josh Wilber later punted twice for a 43.5-yard average.

Akron (1-7, 0-4) entered the contest with 13 scholarship players out with injuries. Freshman quarterback Patrick Nicely completed 11 of 27 passes for 124 yards and was sacked three times.

The Zips started the season with three-year starter Chris Jacquemain at quarterback, but coach J.C. Brookhart dismissed him from the team before the Sept. 19 Indiana game for breaking team rules. His successor was sophomore Matt Rodgers, who was lost for the season with a knee injury suffered in the Oct. 10 loss to Ohio University.

Salerno put NIU on the board on its second possession, converting a 22-yard field goal after an eight-play, 46-yard drive. With 2 minutes, 50 seconds left until halftime, Salerno added a 37-yarder.

The Zips scored on their opening drive of the second half when Branko Rogovic connected on a 34-yard field goal.

Akron used a little razzle-dazzle to take the lead with 5:25 left in the third period. Senior Alex Allen threw an 80-yard halfback pass to wide receiver Andre Jones, who was wide open for an easy score.

"The halfback pass was huge, a real shift in momentum," Brookhart said. "It really felt at that point we were in pretty good shape."

Spann regained the lead for NIU with a determined 28-yard run with 13:35 left in the game. Spann appeared to be wrapped up by Akron defenders before breaking loose.

"Chad stepped up and made a heck of a run," coach Jerry Kill said. "I don't praise kids enough sometimes. That, to me, was the play that got us going. It was a tremendous run."

Spann added his MAC-leading 14th touchdown of the year on a 2-yard run with 7:59 left to put NIU on top 20-10.

Palmer scored on an end around from 7 yards out with 46 seconds left.

NIU vs Miami

From Friday's Chicago Sun Times:

At the midpoint of their season, the Huskies are 3-3 and entering a critical stretch if they are to entertain hopes of reaching the MAC title game or a bowl game. Their next four opponents -- Miami (0-7), Akron (1-5), Eastern Michigan (0-6) and Ball State (0-7) -- are a combined 1-25. NIU should enter the final two games of its schedule, at Ohio (5-1) and at Central Michigan (6-1), with a 7-3 record.

Today's score:

NIU - 27
Miami - 22

The Huskies are 4-3, with 5 games left to play.

The photo - Matt at the Wisconsin game. The Huskie Hat was a great hit.

NIU Football - Bowlbound This Year?

I think YES! Northern is off to a 3-2 start, with the losses coming against Wisconsin and Idaho. Their big win against Purdue set them up for a powerful season.

Even better, the Huskies lucked out with an relatively light schedule this year. Let's look at who they face for the rest of the season:

Toledo (17 Oct) - This would seem like a pretty balanced fight, with both teams at 3-2 so far this season. But take a look at Toledo's three wins - an upset against Colorado (1-3), and then Florida International (0-4), and Ball State (O-5). A combined record of 1 - 12. Not exactly strong opposition. NIU should be able to knock Toledo off, as long as they don't choke.

Miami of Ohio (24 Oct)- Miami is currently 0-5.

Akron (31 Oct) - Akron is currently 1-3, with their one win coming against Morgan State, a Mid-East Athletic Conference team.

Eastern Michigan (5 Nov) - another MAC school sitting at the bottom of the charts with an 0-4 start thus far.

Ball State (12 Nov) - another team currently at 0-5.

Ohio (21 Nov) - NIU will have a nine-day rest before they take on Ohio, who are currently 3-2. But like Toledo, look at the schools Ohio has beaten: North Texas (1-3), Bowling Green (1-4) and Cal Poly (2-2) from the Great West Conference.

Central Michigan - Currently 4-1, and will probably be the team for NIU to beat to win the MAC West, But other than their impressive win over Michigan State, their three other wins were against Alcorn State (0-3), Akron (1-3) and Buffalo (1-4). This will be a tough game for NIU nonetheless as CMU seems to be the team to beat in the MAC this year.

Northern needs to win 4 more games to get that magic 7 wins. Between 24 October and 12 November, NIU plays four teams with a combined record of 1 - 17. These should be walkovers. As long as they don't choke, they should be able to handle both Toledo and Ohio. That just leaves CMU - the last game of the regular season. Even with one or two off days, NIU should go 8-4, at the worst, and possibly 9-3.

The MAC will get three bowl bids this year - the GMAC, International, and Little Caesars (the old Motor City Bowl), and could get more slots if other conferences fail to have enough bowl-eligible teams (which is how NIU eeked into the Independence Bowl last year with a mediocre 6-6 record). So, which one to hope for: Detroit (cold), Toronto (very cold) or Mobile (never cold). Hmmmm.