Huskies hope to be in midweek form

[IE]

Expect an old-fashioned shootout tonight in DeKalb when Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak faces alma mater Miami of Ohio in a Mid-American Conference showdown on ESPN2.

Huskies quarterback Phil Horvath is coming off a 39-for-52 performance for a school-record 486 yards and six touchdowns in a 48-42 overtime loss at Akron 10 days ago, while Miami's Josh Betts engineered a 44-16 rout of rival Cincinnati last Wednesday for new coach Shane Montgomery.

There's history involved here besides Novak's college affiliation. The teams' last meeting was dramatic, NIU coming back from a 27-7 third-quarter deficit in Oxford, Ohio, to win 48-41 in a duel between Michael "The Burner'' Turner and Miami's "Big Ben'' Roethlisberger.

Turner, now a reserve for the San Diego Chargers, rushed for 222 yards and five touchdowns. Roethlisberger, now starring for the Pittsburgh Steelers, threw for 525 yards and four scores.

That was then. The Huskies now are scrambling to get their running game going after netting only 50 yards against Akron.

"Running the football -- that's our identity,'' Novak said. "Throwing the ball 40-plus times is not us. The run helps us control the game, keeps our defense off the field. The more throws, the more snaps on defense. It's as simple as that.''

Getting the ball into Garrett Wolfe's hands is the goal tonight against a Miami team that features 14 senior starters, including Betts, all four receivers from last season and three NFL-prospect linebackers.

"They may have the most overall talent in the league,'' Novak said. "It takes a while for a team to adjust to a new coach, but they seem to be doing that.''

Novak has been "festering'' for 10 days over the loss at Akron. He's not a big fan of midweek football but understands the reasons.

"Being on TV is great for recruiting and great for the league,'' he said, "but I believe it takes away from classroom work, which is what college is all about.''

Playing against his old school is old hat for Novak.

"It's been so long [1963-65], I don't think anyone remembers me,'' he said, "and I'm not sure I could find my way around the school.''

Finding a way into Miami's end zone is all that counts tonight.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/campus/cst-spt-niu05.html

 

[IE]

NIU offense can hurt 'Hawks

Talk about omens.

According to the Northern Illinois game notes for the 1-3 Huskies game tonight against Miami, the last time the Huskies got off to a 1-3 start, they reeled off seven consecutive Mid-American Conference wins to earn a share of the West Division championship.

That streak included an improbable, incredible 48-41 victory at Miami in which NIU scored 34 points in the fourth quarter to wipe out a 27-7 third-quarter deficit.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. on ESPN2.

The Huskies' only victory has been over Division I-AA Tennessee Tech in their only home game. They are eighth in the MAC in scoring defense and sixth in total defense.

"Right now, we're not a very good total football team," NIU coach Joe Novak said. "We have some improving to do in several areas.

"The No. 1 stat is scoring defense and total defense," added Novak, a former Miami defensive coordinator in the 1970s. "That's where you win championships. We're struggling on that side of the ball."

NIU, which was picked to finish second in the West Division in the preseason MAC media poll, seems capable of putting together a run similar to its 2002 streak. Garrett Wolfe, a 5-foot-7, 177-pound junior tailback who led the MAC in rushing last season, leads again this season with an average of 126.5 rushing yards a game. NIU is setting the pace in the conference in rushing and total offense.

"He makes Brandon Murphy look like the Incredible Hulk," Miami coach Shane Montgomery said, referring to his 5-8, 180-pound running back, who is third in the conference in rushing. "We've got to stop the running game first."

The Huskies also have proven they can adjust to being stopped on the ground. Junior quarterback Phil Horvath set a school record and was named West Division offensive player of the week after going 39-for-52 for 486 yards and six touchdowns in a 48-42 overtime loss at Akron in NIU's last game, Sept. 24.

"He had four dropped passes and three throwaways," Novak pointed out. "That's 46-of-52 then. You can't get much better than that."

The Huskies also lost at Northwestern, 38-37, when they failed on a 2-point conversion attempt with six seconds left in the game.

"You know, we could be 3-1, but could doesn't count," Novak said.

Said Montgomery: "Obviously, they're disappointed in their 1-3 start. Their loss to Akron was like our loss to Central Michigan. I'm sure they feel like that was a game they probably should've won."

Miami, which leads the MAC in average time of possession per game, will try to stymie NIU's explosive offense by holding on to the ball.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051005/SPT01/510050362/1078/SPT

 

[IE]

Miami at Northern Illinois
Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. in Huskie Stadium, DeKalb, Ill.

TV: ESPN2.

Notable: Considering no Mid-American Conference division champion in the last five seasons has lost more than one league game, both the MAC East Miami RedHawks (2-2, 1-1) and MAC West NIU Huskies (1-3, 0-1) must win to keep their title hopes alive. Miami looks to be without two of its top starting linebackers again because of injury. NIU's defense has struggled. The difference could be the tailbacks. Miami's Brandon Murphy (Strongsville High) and NIU's Garrett Wolfe both average more than 100 yards rushing a game.

http://www.cleveland.com/sports/pla...e/sports/1128504793228501.xml&coll=2#continue

 

[IE]

Huskies anxious after loss at Akron

Miami (Ohio) (2-2) at NIU (1-3)

Northern Illinois dropped to 1-3 more than a week ago in a 48-42 overtime thriller at Akron on Sept. 24, despite having Phil Horvath lead a 21-point fourth quarter comeback and throw for a school record 486 yards.

For Huskies coach Joe Novak, neither result is acceptable.

No team in either the East or West Divisions of the Mid-Atlantic Conference has advanced to the MAC championship game with more than one loss since Toledo went 6-2 in the West in 1998.

Throw in the fact that the Huskies, the No. 23 team in the nation in rushing at 210.8 yards per game, was held to just 50 against the Zips, has made Novak a little anxious heading into tonight's matchup with Miami (Ohio) (6:35 p.m., ESPN2, 560 AM).

"Akron did a good job on us. I got to give them credit for that," Novak said. "They did a great job. We were throwing the ball well all game. What we didn't do last week was we didn't run it very well. I attribute part of that to Akron and part of that to our ourselves. When we run the ball well, we got a great chance to win."

Huskies tailback Garrett Wolfe is still No. 8 in the country in rushing by averaging 126.5 yards per game, but he has been held to only 113 yards the last two weeks. For Northern to get back on the winning track, Wolfe must be able to run the ball like he did when he rushed for over 1,600 yards last year.

"We had almost 500 yards throwing last week and we got beat. That is not us," Novak said. "We are capable of doing that, but our style is to run the football and mix the passing game in certainly and do what we need to do. When we run it well, I know we have a great chance to win. And when we don't ? more often than not ? we don't have success."

The Huskies will have their hands full with a Miami team that has rebounded from a season-opening loss to Ohio State and an upset loss to Central Michigan with victories over Kent State and Cincinnati.

"Hopefully (the loss to Central Michigan) was a wakeup call for us," said first-year RedHawks coach Shane Montgomery. "We have a lot of talent and a lot of experience and you just can't show up on Saturday and think everything's going to go your way. You gotta play well and play consistent, and that's what we've done the last two weeks."

The RedHawks may be without two of its best defensive players in linebackers Terna Nande and Derek Rehage. Nande was injured in the win over Kent State and Rehage has been out all season. The RedHawks are 64th in the country in rushing defense, 99th in total defense and are giving up 27.3 points per game.

While that may seem like an advantage to them, the Huskies haven't fared much better on the defensive side of the ball. They are currently 88th in the country in total defense and allowing an average of 30.5 points per game.

"They're a little bit more inexperienced than they were in the past, and they are giving up some points and some yards," Montgomery said. "On paper you'd think it'd be a high-scoring game, but you just never know playing a team like Northern.

"They have the capability of running the ball and playing good defense. We have to play well on both sides of the ball and not only stop the run on defense but we're going to need to run the ball on offense."

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/sports/football/AU05_NIU_S1.htm

 

[IE]

Running on empty
NIU's offense explosive with pass, but run problems create lack of 'identity'


DEKALB -- The yards keep piling up. Faster than for any Northern Illinois University football team in history.

But that doesn't make coach Joe Novak happy.

"Do we get any points for that" Novak asked.

Not enough, anyway. And the reason NIU (1-3, 0-1 Mid-American Conference) is playing for its MAC life Wednesday night against Miami of Ohio is, at least in Novak's view, the Huskies aren't gaining ground the right way.

As in on the ground. The Huskies rank sixth in the nation in total offense with a team-record average of 519.3 yards, but 308.5 of them have come in the air.

"We can throw for 1,000 yards, but when we run the ball well, we've got a great chance to win. That is not us," Novak said of NIU running for 50 yards and passing for 486 in a 48-42 overtime loss at Akron. "We are capable of doing that, but our style is running the ball.

"Those stats don't mean a (darn) thing."

NIU wants to run because that's what NIU does. In 36 years of Division I-A football, no Huskie has passed for 3,000 yards in a season. Only one (Josh Haldi in 2003) has passed for 2,500. And only two have even passed for 2,000.

But a Huskie has led the MAC in rushing three years in a row.

NIU also wants to run to bolster its young and leaky defense.

"It helps our defense when we run well," Novak said. "It establishes physical superiority."

NIU had won 16 of its last 17 games when it rushed for at least 150 yards before running well and losing at Michigan and Northwestern to start the season.

Garrett Wolfe led the nation in rushing by a wide margin after those two games, averaging 196.5 yards and and 7.2 yards per carry. To that point, Wolfe had averaged over 200 yards rushing in his 10 games as NIU's starting running back.

Two games later, he's had his two lowest-rushing games as a starter and totaled 111 yards on 31 carries (3.6 average).

That's not NIU.

"I take full blame for that," Wolfe said. "I could have done things to make myself more effective. I didn't do that. That's what film is for."

Film will show that the Huskies have, as Novak said, been somewhat misleading on offense. Yes, they scored six touchdowns against Akron, but between scoring on their first two possessions and their last three of regulation, the Huskies scored points on only one of nine drives.

Five of those drives lasted three plays or fewer.

Three of them because the Huskies couldn't run on third-and-short. Wolfe was stopped cold twice on third-and-1 and once on third-and-3.

"We're a running football team," Novak said. "I'd like to think we can pick up third-and-short. And we didn't."

"Somehow, you've got to pick up third downs," offensive tackle Doug Free said. "We didn't get it done running."

NIU's answer: "We have to try to do something different," Wolfe said. "But we still have to maintain our own identity."

One way to do that is to get Wolfe the ball as a receiver, not a runner. He had a career-high 112 yards on six catches at Akron.

"We made an emphasis this spring and fall that we wanted to be a better screen team," offensive coordinator John Bond said.

That's one tweak. But the Huskies are still searching for their identity. They've been the MAC's best running team for years. Everyone knows it.

And everyone is now geared to stop it.

That's why Akron stuffed Wolfe three times on third down.

"They were unloading everybody," Wolfe said. "Safeties. Corners. Not just nine sometimes. Everybody."

NIU made Akron pay for that strategy by passing.

"If Akron was going to do what they did, we were going to sling it," Bond said. "But we also stayed pretty patient with the run."

Indeed, NIU ran 19 times for 35 yards and passed 24 times for 241 yards through three quarters. Counting four sacks of Phil Horvath as pass plays, NIU ran 40 percent of the time but gained only 13 percent of its yards on the ground.

And the Huskies trailed by 21 points.

In the fourth quarter, the Huskies turned pass-happy. And the pass almost did make them happy. Horvath threw for over 200 yards in the last period to help the Huskies stage one of their four largest comebacks in school history before falling in overtime.

"We can go either way," Free said. "Traditionally, we ran the ball a lot more, but we've got a great quarterback. We use the pass more to hurt people because Phil is doing such a good job."

"In years past," Bond said, "when teams would sell out to stop the run, we weren't as proficient at throwing it."

Now the Huskies are. And they can still run. At least if teams play them honest.

"We pose problems for people," Bond said, "in that we can run the ball for power and run it to score -- Garrett and A.J. (Harris) can go any minute from any distance on the run -- yet we can push the ball down the field vertically and can also dink you.

"It's different than what people are used to, but if they are not going to let us run the ball, we're going to sling it.

"Because we can."

The only question, then, is when to sling it and when to run it. And how to keep defenses from loading up to stop what NIU wants to do.

"Sooner or later," Free said, "defenses have got to get in a middle ground where they can watch both aspects. If teams keep putting so many guys up in the box and we keep getting touchdowns throwing the ball, they have to drop someone back. Then we will hurt them with the run."

If so, then NIU's offense will truly be as potent as those (darn) stats indicate. Then it will become the best offense in Huskie history.

"There's no way you can't make that argument," Wolfe said. "Just look at the things we've been able to do so far and the potential we have."

http://rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051005/SPORTS14/510050313/1001/SPORTS

 

[Guerilla_Ninja]

great thread, great data... thanks IE. im on campus now and weather will not be a factor at all. ive chosen to play the MIA team total over 30.5. ill also be listening to my white sox... oh, a 2-0 lead would be great for that series price investment.

 

[Smitty]

thanks, ie.