Today was an amazing day for Northern Illinois Football, as the Huskies defeated the #5 team in
nation, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 16-14. Here is my recap of the day’s events, and the
impact this has for both Northern Illinois and college football.
Starting the day:
It’s 5:45 am on a cool, September morning in Dekalb, Illinois. My friend and I make the trip out
to South Bend to see Northern Illinois take on Notre Dame for the first time ever. We start the
day by eating breakfast at Nick’s Patio, a local restaurant recommended by a friend who attends
Notre Dame (it was fantastic; get the house ham and cheese croissant if you go). After filling up
On diner food, we make our way to our parking lot and explore campus. The word beautiful
cannot begin to describe how Notre Dame looks. I cannot stress enough that every college
football fan needs to visit for at least one game to absorb the history and tradition of the
University. The people and staff that greeted us with smiles, showed us around, and told stories
of gamedays past ensured that our first visit was special. The highlights of campus that we were
able to see were the Basilica, the Golden Dome, the Bookstore, Touchdown Jesus, the Lake with
the Stages of the Cross on the pathway beside it, the trumpets in front of the Golden Dome, and
Notre Dame Stadium.
Pregame to Halftime:
Being a former member of a college marching band, I was excited to see that the Huskie Marching Band was sitting in the rows ahead of us in Section 117. They kept the energy at a high level all game long, and we loved their presence. I don’t have any connections to the biggest donors of NIU, but I would like to have a movement to get more funding for the Pride of the Midwest to at least send a small pep band to games to support the Huskies. Notre Dame’s marching band was also fantastic, as I enjoyed all their festivities outside of the stadium and their pregame show.
Northern Illinois won the toss and chose to defer to the 2nd half, and Notre Dame started out on offense running 13 plays going 75 yards down the field for a touchdown. Northern Illinois had a scare on the kickoff, as the ball took a freak bounce at the ½ yard line and did not go inside the endzone, leading to the Huskies to start their drive at their own 2-yard line. However, they answered right back on a pass from Ethan Hampton to Antario Brown for an 83-yard touchdown.
After a Notre Dame 3 and out, NIU had a 5-play drive for 30 yards, which set up a 42-yard field goal for Kanon Woodill, giving the Huskies the 10-7 lead. Immediately on the next possession, Riley Leonard’s pass was intercepted by Christian Fuhrman, which set up another Northern Illinois field goal, which allowed the Huskies to go up 13-7. The rest of the 2nd quarter featured the Huskies and Fighting Irish trading punts until the end of the half, when Notre Dame attempted a field goal, but Mitch Jeter’s 48-yard kick was blocked by Cade Haberman, and allowed the Huskies to enter halftime with a 13-7 lead.
The Stunner in South Bend:
The second half started with an 8-play, 38-yard drive ending in a Kanon Woodill missed field goal from 53 yards. Using the good field position allotted to them, Notre Dame went down and scored a touchdown, which featured an insane Jeremiyah Love hurdle on his way to the endzone and gave the Fighting Irish a 14-13 lead with 8:34 left in the 3rd. Things looked bleak after that for the Huskies. Antario Brown was injured and pulled from the game; the offense stalled, and time was running out. Then, with around 6:00 left in the 4th quarter, Amariyun Knighten intercepted Leonard’s pass, and returned the pick for 33 yards to the 50-yard line. NIU would capitalize on this with an 11-play, 31-yard drive, which resulted in a Woodill FG with 0:31 left in the game. Notre Dame would threaten to take the victory with a 62-yard field goal with 0:05 seconds left. However, Cade Haberman once again blocked the kick, and a defensive recovery sealed the victory. A true stunner in South Bend.
NIU QB Ethan Hampton finished the game 10-19, with 198 passing yards, 21 rushing yards, and 1 passing TD.
NIU RB Antario Brown was again a star, having 99 rushing yards on 20 rushes, 126 passing yards on 2 receptions, and a TD on an 83-yard completion.
NIU LB Christian Furman was everywhere on the defensive side of the ball, having 9 tackles and an INT.
NIU DT Cade Habermann was excellent as well, being credited on 5 tackles and having two field goal blocks.
Aftermath:
The Huskie Marching Band played the NIU fight song more times than I can count (and sing). NIU faithful made their way down to the lower levels to meet and cheer the victors of the day. Coach Hammock gave a very emotional postgame interview on NBC, and the voice of the Huskies, Andy Garcia, gave an all-time call over the air. Both clips went viral amongst college football fans and put the Huskies back in the minds of many college football fans.
Leaving the stadium was another great experience for Huskie fans. Walking down the ramp to the lower concourse, the echoes of “N-I-U, N-I-U” and “Let’s Go Huskies” reverberated on the historic stadium’s walls that normally hear the chants and cheers from the Notre Dame faithful. After buying a program of today’s game and leaving South Bend, my friend and I made the trip back west to Dekalb and celebrated by having a beer, burger, and potato salad at Fatty’s.
Northern Illinois: The David That Took on Goliath
Northern Illinois Football notched another “Boneyard Victory," a term used for when an NIU athletics team takes down a P4 opponent. In recent years, Northern Illinois has earned boneyard victories against Boston College and Georgia Tech, but none are bigger than this. Northern Illinois becomes the first school from the MAC to beat a Top 5 opponent (0-51 before this game) and is, in my opinion, the biggest win in NIU history, more so than the home win against #15 Maryland and road win against #21 Alabama in 2003, and the MAC Championship victory over the #17 Kent State team in 2013 that sent NIU to the Orange Bowl, the first team from the MAC to reach a BCS Bowl/NY6 Bowl.
Northern Illinois also has a habit of scaring teams into not scheduling them and other MAC schools. again. Here are a few examples:
Alabama: After losing to NIU in 2003, they never scheduled the Huskies again and didn’t play a MAC school until 2011.
Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons scheduled a home and home series with the Huskies in 2001 and 2002. After losing their road game to the Huskies in 2002, Wake Forest has yet to play another MAC school, let alone Northern Illinois.
Northwestern: Despite being a little over an hour away from Dekalb, the Wildcats haven’t scheduled NIU since they lost to them in 2014. While Northwestern leads the overall series 5-1, they decided not to schedule the Huskies for any future games after this loss.
Illinois: While beating the Huskies in 2010, it was a close game right before Northern Illinois went on the greatest stretch of their program’s history, and the Illini did not schedule Northern Illinois again. Since then, they’ve played 8 different MAC schools. (A side note: Illinois has only played one road game against the MAC, which took place in 2008, where they lost to Western Michigan.) Every game since then has been played in Urbana-Champaign.
Boston College: Losing to Northern Illinois in 2023, BC has not scheduled any future MAC opponents.
*BC plays UMASS in 2025, which will feature UMASS as a member of the MAC, but the game was scheduled before the announcement for the Minutemen to return to the MAC. The game could still be canceled as UMASS needs to reduce one currently scheduled game to fit the MAC conference schedule in.
Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish have played 8 different MAC schools since 2010, with all being at home. Losing to NIU in 2024, Notre Dame does not have any MAC schools on the schedule in future years. Given that it took until 2024 for the two midwestern programs to play each other, and with NIU winning, I don’t expect NIU to be back on the Notre Dame schedule anytime soon.
Future:
Northern Illinois has a bye week next week (September 14th) and will return at home vs MAC opponent Buffalo (September 21st) before going on the road to try and get another boneyard victory against North Carolina State (September 28th). If NIU were to win against NC State, it would mark their 3rd straight victory over an ACC school.