By Woodrow Carroll
In the Saturday, Sept. 17 football game against visiting Vanderbilt University, Northern Illinois University could not have started better. The first four drives by the host Huskies resulted in touchdowns. Then the magic disappeared!
It was all Vanderbilt, 3-1, the rest of the way and the Vanderbilt won, 38-28.
Early in the third quarter, Northern Illinois scored to go ahead, 28-14.
In the six drives by Northern Illinois, 1-2, following the four touchdowns the Northern Illinois experience included: Punt, failure to convert a fourth down; a punt, a fourth down failure, a punt, and an interception.
Vanderbilt, an SEC (Southeastern Conference) and Northern Illinois have faced each other five times, and, they have all been exciting games. Sadly, from the Northern Illinois standpoint, Vanderbilt has come away victorious on each occasion with every game decided by 10 points or less.
Life gets no easier for the Huskies. Norther n Illinois will at Kentucky, at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24. Kentucky, 3-0, is an SEC member.
Kentucky is in the Top 10 of most polls and is viewed by most observers as the strongest opponent on the Northern Illinois schedule.
The game with the Wildcats will close the non-conference portion of the Northern Illinois schedule. Short of a monster upset over Kentucky, the Huskies’ won-loss record would be 1-3 entering into MAC (Mid-American Conference) games October 1 when they will play at Ball State.
Conference play for the majority of the schools will get into full swing, so a glance at our two featured football conferences, the Big Ten and the MAC, is in order.
• The Big Ten Conference is on pace to have another quality season. The Big Ten stood 32-11 overall, however, the real success story is the Big Ten East Division.
The Big 10 East was 20-1 overall. Only Michigan State, a 39-28 loser at Washington Saturday, has fallen among the East Division.. It’s a different story in the Big 10 West. Only Minnesota, 3-0, remained unscathed with the division 12-10 overall.
• What’s to be said about Northwestern? The Wildcats were 31-24 losers to non-major Southern Illinois Saturday, Sept. 17 and SIU came into the game 0-2, having lost to Incarnate Word of San Antonio and SE Missouri, Cape Girardeau, Mo., two non-major foes of SIU.
Strange as it may seem, Northwestern leads the Big Ten West. Thanks to a victory over Nebraska to start the campaign, the Wildcats were 1-0 in the Big 10 and1-2 overall.
• The MAC presents a different picture. The 12 members of the MAC were a combined 13-23. Toledo was the lone undefeated MAC team entering last weekend. The Rockets’ clean slate ended quickly in a 77-21 loss to Ohio State.
• The MAC’s Eastern Michigan pulled a stunner Saturday, Sept. 17 by knocking off Arizona State, 30-21. The EMU victory was only a small part of the story. Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards was fired after the game.
Eastern Michigan, 2-1, will have an opportunity to prove the victory over the Sun Devils was for real with an 11 a.m. game Saturday at home against Buffalo.
• Illinois will concludes its non-conference schedule at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22 when Chattanooga comes to Champaign. The Mocs present the Illini with an opportunity to move to 3-1 overall, however, Chattanooga is 3-0 and will be gunning for an upset.