So what does NIU Huskies football head coach Dave Doeren do for encore? In Doeren’s first year at the helm NIU won its first Mid-American Conference Championship since 1983, earned its second straight bowl victory (2012 GoDaddy.com; NIU 38, Arkansas State 20) and closed out the year with nine straight victories en route to tying the school record with 11 wins.
It’s simple really. All Doeren needs to do is prepare his team to extend the nation’s longest winning streak and beat the Iowa Hawkeyes at Soldier Field in Chicago. A season opening victory could well land the Huskies a spot in the Top 25 rankings.
High expectations? We’ll save a BCS bowl game for next year.
The Huskies are returning 49 letterwinners from its MAC Championship squad. Most notably among the 24 letterwinners it lost is QB Chandler Harnish who is looking like he might have earned a spot on the Indianapolis Colts roster behind Andrew Luck. Luck was the first pick of the 2012 NFL draft. Harnish was the last pick.
But when Harnish had to come out of the game for a spell due to injury, junior Jordan Lynch led NIU to the go-ahead touchdown, scoring on a three-yard dive in the bowl victory over the Arkansas State Red Wolves. Doeren prepared Lynch with playing time in every conference game last year.
Lynch will be throwing to a group of talented and experienced receivers. Wide receivers Martel Moore and Perez Ashford will be rejoined by TE Jason Schepler who missed 2011 due to injury.
The Huskies defense returns ten starters on defense led by DE Sean Progar’s 34 career starts over the last three seasons followed by CB Rashaan Melvin and LB Tyrone Clark with 15 starts apiece. Progar was named to the preseason watch list for the Rotary Lombardi Award, presented to the top lineman/linebacker in college football. The senior made a career high 52 tackles, 22 solo, a year ago with 11 tackles for loss and 5.5 quarterback sacks. In 40 career games, Progar has 121 tackles, 29 tackles for loss and 15.5 quarterback sacks.
Iowa is 7-0 all-time against Northern Illinois. The series began in 1985, and in their last contest in 2007 the Hawkeyes used a stout defense and an efficient ground attack to outlast Northern Illinois 16-3 in front of a sellout crowd of 61,500 at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Hawkeyes QB James Vandenberg, started all 13 games in 2011, completing 237-404 pass attempts for 3,022 yards and 25 touchdowns, with seven interceptions. He also rushed for 61 yards on 78 attempts and scored three touchdowns. His favorite target will likely be WR Keenan Davis, a candidate for the Biletnikoff Award who recorded 50 receptions for 713 yards and four touchdowns in 2011.
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