NIU looking for some revenge against Toledo
Toledo (6-3, 5-0) at Northern Illinois (7-2, 5-0)
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday at Huskie Stadium
TV: ESPN2; Radio: WSCR 670-AM
Series: Toledo leads 29-8
Coaches: Tim Beckman (11-10, second year at Toledo); Jerry Kill (20-15, third year at NIU; 124-72 in 17th year overall).
NIU players to watch: It's going to be a Senior Night to remember for 21 Huskies, most of whom were brought to NIU by longtime coach Joe Novak. Tailback Chad Spann, one of 11 Football Bowl Subdivision players with 1,000 rushing yards this year, gets the most publicity, but the group features nine other starters as well as all three specialists. OLB Alex Kube (Cary-Grove) leads the team in tackles with 62. Fullback Kyle Skarb (Lake Zurich) owns 23 career catches for 295 yards and 3 TDs. You can't forget inspirational senior DE Jake Coffman (13 career sacks and 23 TFLs), who served two tours with the Marines in Iraq and returned to the team in May for nights such as this.
Toledo players to watch: The Rockets come to town without the services of starting QB Austin Dantin (injured throwing shoulder), but redshirt freshman Terrance Owens hasn't been too shabby in his place. At Eastern Michigan on Oct. 30, Owens completed 10 of 15 throws for 234 yards and 4 TDs. Owens will be sure to target sophomore Eric Page (66 catches, 776 yards, 4 TDs). Page also returns kicks and punts. LBs Archie Donald (88 tackles, 2 INT) and Dan Molls (87 tackles, 3 INT) rank among the MAC's top four tacklers.
The skinny: It's been a long time since Huskie Stadium was the site for such an important MAC game. The winner of this nationally televised affair needs merely to split its last two games in order to be the West Division representative in the MAC title game on Dec. 3. Most of the statistics and anecdotal evidence suggests the Huskies ought to prevail in front of their “Black-Out” crowd, but numbers don't know the emotional baggage associated with this series. Toledo has a history of destroying NIU's MAC West title dreams, which makes the Rockets the closest thing to a bitter rival that the Huskies have. NIU spent extra time on special-teams work this week as Toledo boasts the league's best kick returner in Page.
He said it: Jerry Kill on it getting to be that time of year: “All our preparation all the way back to (the offseason) is paying off right now. Will it continue in the month of November? We'll see. In baseball, (you win) in October. In football, it's November… Our approach will be even more business-like about what we need to be. When you play games in November, the consistency is so important. And you can't get too up or too down.”