NIU’s Harnish leads in resilience

With its last-minute-but-critical victory over Ball State at Huskie Stadium Tuesday, Northern Illinois moved one step closer to a second consecutive trip to the MAC championship game in Detroit.

And nobody — absolutely no one — wants another chance at a MAC title more than NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish.

As he has all season, Harnish put up more amazing numbers Tuesday, setting three school records and moving to ninth on the all-time NIU rushing list behind such former Huskies stars Michael Turner, LeShon Johnson, and Garrett Wolfe.

Although NIU and Harnish piled up plenty of numbers with 710 yards of total offense (372 rushing, 338 passing) against Ball State, the onslaught was about more than just numbers for Harnish.

He learned from last year’s heartbreaking loss to Miami (OH) in the title game that when a mistake is made, you have to make up for it.

Harnish lost a fumble with a prime chance to tie the game at 7-7 late in the first quarter, and Ball State safety Joshua Howard returned it for a touchdown. Harnish was determined to make amends.

“That was the kind of thing you see on TV and think ‘Man, What a bonehead move,’” Harnish said of the fumble. “I felt terrible; but at the same time, I was going to put it on my shoulders. I knew it was my job to get the offense back on track.”

Harnish would do much more than make up for miscue. The senior quarterback, who now holds 17 school records, answered Ball State’s second-half opening drive touchdown with a 49-yard touchdown run. From then on, the Huskies seemed unstoppable as Harnish led the offense to overcome a 17-point deficit.

NIU head coach Dave Doeren was not surprised that his quarterback engineered the second-half turnaround.

“When you’re a senior, you don’t want to lose,” said Doeren. “I always know Chandler is going to leave it on the field. That’s what you saw. He and the rest of the seniors really wanted to complete a mission.”

Harnish’s mission would come down to the last drive with 1:44 left to play and his team starting from its own 20-yard line. He led them on a 10-play drive that included pass completions to three different receivers (Perez Ashford, Martel Moore and Nathan Palmer) and four runs to set up the game-winning field goal by kicker Mathew Sims with eight seconds to play.

“Chandler and the rest of the offense got me in position to do my job,” said Sims. “I just had to put it through the uprights so we had the opportunity to finish it off with a win.”

Thanks to Harnish’s perseverance, only Eastern Michigan (10 a.m. Nov. 25 at Huskie Stadium) stands in his way of returning to the MAC championship game.

And he’s going to do whatever he can to make that happen for NIU (8-3, 6-1).

“We had some tough losses earlier in the season,” said Harnish. “You hold on to those things and you don’t want to feel that feeling again. We’ve won some big games, but we’ve lost some big games in our career too. We’re so hungry for what’s in Detroit, and we’ll do whatever we have to do to win.”