By Woodrow Carroll
With the college football season rapidly headed in our direction, we might try to get a grip on what is in store for the Northern Illinois football program in 2025. The coming season will see the Huskies in their final go around in the Mid-American Conference, before moving to the Mountain West for football.
Last season was a good one for Northern Illinois football, although there were a couple of bumps in the road that took some of the luster off what started out in grand style.
Consider if you will, the NIU Huskies were 2-0 after beating Western Illinois, 54-15, then shocking No. 5 Notre Dame with a 16-14 win. In beating the fifth-ranked Fighting Irish, Northern Illinois registered a victory over the highest ranked team in the school’s gridiron history.
If nothing else, Northern Illinois football was consistent last season. The Huskies never won more than two games in a row. Nor did the Huskies lose more than two straight.
The Huskies had a week off after taking down Notre Dame. Buffalo then came to town when Northern opened MAC play.
The game with Buffalo started off in fine fashion with Northern Illinois taking a 14-3 halftime lead. The Buffalo Bulls, however, refused to roll over and ended up sending the game into overtime. In that overtime period, with the two teams deadlocked at 20-all, Buffalo blocked a Northern Illinois field goal attempt. The visitors from New York then connected on a 37-yard field goal attempt for the 23-20 upset victory.
The loss to Buffalo continued a troubling pattern for NIU football!
Whenever the NIU Huskies defeat a team from a power conference or a major independent, such as Notre Dame, the victory is called a “Boneyard Win.” And, the conquest of the Fighting Irish was about as memorable as NIU could ask for when you are talking about “Boneyard Wins.”
In 2023, Northern Illinois stung Boston College, 27-24, to open the schedule. And, that “Boneyard Win” was followed by four straight losses that put the season in jeopardy of being a complete washout. Fortunately, the Huskies recovered to finish the regular season with a 6-6 final mark. Those six victories in 2023 were good enough to get Northern an invite to the Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.) where the Huskies edged Arkansas State, 21-19.
Northern Illinois got off on the right foot in 2021 by edging Georgia Tech, 22-21. However, the Huskies had little time to savor that “Boneyard Win” when Wyoming came to DeKalb and beat NIU, 50-43.
Getting back to last season’s NIU football schedule, we quickly learned that the Huskies were going to be erratic in the extreme.
Northern had a shot at another “Boneyard Win” playing at North Carolina State following the game with Buffalo. It went down to the wire before the Wolfpack managed to hold on for a 24-17 victory.
As mentioned, the 2024 Huskies never won or lost more than two in a row. So, after the loss to North Carolina State, it was time for a Northern victory. Up steps the University of Massachusetts who provided Northern with a 34-20 home win.
Following the victory over UMass, the Huskies beat Bowling Green, 17-7, to up their record to 4-2. Then came a 13-6 loss to Toledo followed by a 25-23 setback at the hands of Ball State. Northern Illinois, the talk of collegiate football after the Notre Dame contest, was now 4-4 overall and really out of the running for the MAC Championship.
Northern Illinois did close strong last season to win four of its final five contests. A 28-20 win over Fresno State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl left the Huskies with a final record of 8-5. Still, after taking down Notre Dame, which reached the NCAA Championship Game before losing to Ohio State, one got the feeling that something was missing.