Huskies take apart lowly Indiana State in Kill's home debut
DEKALB - Jerry Kill might have been making his home debut as Northern Illinois coach Saturday, but he was quite familiar with the Huskies' opponent, Indiana State, and the sad state of the Sycamores program.
The Huskies didn't hang 72 points on the hapless Sycamores - which Kill's Southern Illinois team did a year ago - settling for a 48-3 laugher and a feel-good first home game for the 20th coach in NIU history.
"I want these kids to have some success and do well," Kill said after making the first home debut for a Huskies coach since Joe Novak lost to Western Illinois 17-0 in 1996. "I want to see them smile and feel good. I really enjoy the win for the kids."
After watching two games that easily could have gone down as wins turn into losses by squandering fourth-quarter leads, the Huskies took out their frustrations on Football Championship Subdivision Indiana State. The Sycamores fell to 0-3 by a combined 138-6 score, losing their 17th straight game and falling to 1-42 in their last 43.
The Huskies led 10-0 after one quarter, 31-3 at halftime and 41-3 after three.
"It doesn't matter who we play, we just want to keep getting better," said Dan Nicholson, who started at quarterback after taking a cortisone shot on his ailing right shoulder Tuesday. "We needed to establish our run game and we did that today."
NIU (1-2) wasted no time giving the 20,936 at Huskie Stadium something to cheer about, marching 70 yards on the opening possession. Montell Clanton, who started at tailback, carried the first three plays. His successful running set up the play-action pass for Nicholson, and the senior quarterback found Reed Cunningham on a 9-yard strike and a 7-0 lead.
If any one stat summed up the day, it was the respective running games. Indiana State went nowhere, rushing for 31 yards on 26 carries, while the Huskies piled up 285 yards on 37 carries.
The Huskies' defense also got on the scoreboard with Bradley Pruitt's 54-yard interception return for a first-half touchdown, 1 of 4 turnovers they forced. About the only negative for the Huskies was 3 turnovers of their own.
"I think the speed of the game and our defense really got after them," Kill said. "The kids were ready to play."
Nicholson and freshman DeMarcus Grady split time at quarterback. Grady made his first pass attempt a memorable one, connecting with Matt Simon for a 19-yard TD in the second quarter. Grady added 53 rushing yards.
"They've got a really good football team that really should be either 2-1 or 3-0 right now," said Indiana State coach Trent Miles, a Huskies assistant from 1991-94. "We were no match for them."