By Woodrow Carroll
Trailing the Massachusetts Minutemen, 13-7, at halftime Saturday, Oct. 5, the Northern Illinois football team was up against it. The luster surrounding the Huskies’ upset of Notre Dame had long since faded. A shocking loss to MAC rival Buffalo was followed by a tough loss at North Carolina State. Then a couple of unexpected heroes stepped up to give the Northern Illinois Huskies a much needed boost Saturday.
With featured running back, Antario Brown, injured, Gavin Williams and Jaylin Poe took over the running game for Northern Illinois. Combined with a solid defensive effort in the final 30 minutes, Northern Illinois won the game, 34-20.
The victory over the Massachusetts increased Northern Illinois’ record to 3-2 overall and 0-1 MAC. Northern Illinois’ next game will be against MAC team Bowling Green, Saturday, Oct. 12 at 2:30 p.m..
The Massachusetts will join the MAC next season and a look at the team’s schedule this season says it all. The loss to Northern Illinois dropped the Minutemen to 1-5. Massachusetts had five losses to MAC teams and alone victory over FCS Central Connecticut State. And, life will get no easier for the Minutemen because their next games are against Missouri and Georgia.
Northern Illinois will play Bowling Green then Toledo, in back-to-back games as part of the league’s new format.
Gone is the MAC Championship game, which put the winner of the East and West Divisions in a final contest. The MAC championship game will now consist of the two best teams in the conference to meet for the league crown, December 7, in Detroit.
In other college football news, if you had made a friendly wager that Indiana would be the first team to become bowl eligible, you would have gotten very few wagers. Just many looking at you and feeling sorry for you. Yet, with a 41-24 victory over Northwestern Saturday, Oct. 5. the Indiana Hoosiers are 6-0 on the season and are bowl eligible.
Taking nothing away from what Indiana has achieved this season, the schedule has been kind. Indiana opened the season with victories over Florida International and Western Illinois. Not until late in the season, when Michigan and Ohio State are on the schedule, will Indiana have to go up against a Top 25 team. And that is assuming no major upsets occur in the interim that would radically effect the polls.
Indiana is off this week and will next play at home against Nebraska (5-1) Saturday, Oct.19.
The last time Indiana won a bowl game was in 1991. And, for personal reasons, the contest sticks in my memory because it was the first of 42 bowl games yours truly has had the good fortune to cover down through the years.
Coached by former Northern Illinois coach, Bill Mallory, the Indiana defeated Baylor, 24-0, in the 1991 Copper Bowl played in Tucson, Ariz.. Assisting Mallory was Joe Novak who went on to coach at Northern Illinois. And, Rod Carey played center for Indiana against Baylor before he ended up calling the shots as the Northern Illinois’ coach years later.
Illinois (4-1 and 1-1) will play host to Purdue Saturday, Oct. 12 at 2:30 p.m.. The Illini suffered a 21-7 loss to well-regarded Penn State in their most recent game.
However, danger may lurk for favored Illinois because the Purdue Boilermakers (1-4 and 0-2) were bludgeoned, 52-6, by Wisconsin Saturday, Oct. 5.
After beating FCS Indiana State to open the season, Purdue have not come close to winning since. Brutal losses to Notre Dame, 66-7, and Wisconsin may have turned Purdue into a desperate foe that Illinois needs to be aware of come Saturday.