By Woodrow Carroll
With the collegiate football season rapidly approaching, each program is gearing up to get off on the right foot. And, nowhere is this more important than in the ranks of the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) schools where so much is at stake in terms of ranking, reputation and revenue.
The Land of Lincoln’s three FBS’s football programs, Illinois, Northwestern, and Northern Illinois (NIU), are well positioned for a fast start to the schedule. At least Illinois and NIU are favored to open the campaign with a victory. Northwestern will open on the road at Tulane Saturday, Aug. 30 at 11 a.m., where the going may be a bit rougher.
For Illinois, it will be Friday Night Lights when the Illini will open the 2025 campaign as host to Western Illinois Friday, Aug. 29 at 6:30 p.m.. The following day Northern Illinois will welcome Holy Cross Saturday, Aug. 30 at 2:30 p.m..
Both Illinois and Northern Illinois are opening with foes viewed as non- major opposition. Meaning, you had better win or else! What a victory over the likes of a Western Illinois or Holy Cross does is give the team a fast start towards bowl eligibility if nothing else.
Lose to a team you should defeat and the football program is likely behind the eight ball for the rest of season. Say “hello” to last season’s Kent State’s Golden Flashes.
There were 134 FBS teams operating a year ago. Only one of those teams failed to win a single contest: Kent State, which closed out 0-12.
A member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) along with Northern Illinois among others, the two schools did face each other last season, Kent State suffered a 23-17 loss to St. Francis (Pa.), a non-major program, in what was supposed to be the so-called guaranteed victory on the schedule. As you might imagine, Kent State went nowhere from that point on. While no one expects Illinois to fall to Western Illinois or Northern Illinois to suffer a defeat at the hands of Holy Cross, upsets do happen. Which makes life interesting!
Teams can recover from disastrous seasons. Northern Illinois presents a good example.
After engaging in a brief run as a member of the Big West Conference in the mid-1990s, Northern Illinois went independent for the 1996 season before returning as a MAC member in 1997. Not a particularly good time for the Huskies gridiron fortunes.
Joe Novak, who was an assistant to Bill Mallory during Mallory’s time as Northern Illinois head coach in the 1980s, began his 12-year run as Northern Illinois head football coach in 1996. It was not an auspicious beginning as the Huskies went 1-10. Things got even worse the following season as NIU went 0-11 in what marked Northern Illinois’ return to the MAC.
There was only a minor improvement in 1998 as NIU went 2-9. Thus, after three seasons in DeKalb, Novak’s record stood at 3-30 for his time at the school However, things decidedly were on the upswing.
Season four in DeKalb for Novak’s charges, saw the Huskies go 5-6. Then came seven consecutive winning seasons highlighted by wins over Alabama, Wake Forest, and Maryland among other notable victories.
At a time when there were few bowl games available, Novak guided the Huskies into two bowl games. First up was the Silicon Valley Classic (San Jose, Calif.) in 2004 where the Huskies downed Troy, 34-21. Not so good for Northern Illinois was the 2006 Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego where NIU lost to TCU, 37-7.
Novak stepped down as Northern Illinois coach after the 2007 Season. Northern Illinois went 2-10 that season with a very young team. If you take away the 3-30 record that Novak was saddled with after his first three years at Northern, he was a very respectable 60-46 overall at the school.