Illinois Fighting Illini vs Northern Illinois Huskies Football Preview

The directional Illinois tour continues for coach Ron Zook and the Illinois Fighting Illini. One week brought Southern Illinois to Memorial Stadium in Champaign, and now Northern Illinois comes to the grounds of the campus with one of the world’s largest libraries.

Hopefully for the home team, some playbook studying will take place – after all, NIU went into Purdue last season and shocked the Boilermakers. Illinois rates as the favorite in this game, but the Illini can’t get too comfortable, or else the visiting Huskies from DeKalb could make things interesting in one of their final games before the start of the conference season.

Northern Illinois coach Jerry Kill has been in the hospital since Sunday, suffering from dehydration and unspecified medical issues unrelated to his battle with kidney cancer in 2005. His players will want to run through a brick wall this week and give a maximum effort as they hold their leader in their thoughts and prayers.

Inspiration and motivation are always part of the lifeblood of college football, but they usually emerge in relationship to rivalries or a sense of antagonism throughout a roster. In this case, Northern Illinois’ purpose and passion between the white lines will come from a more poignant and heartfelt source. This will be an emotional late-morning kickoff for the Huskies, and while everyone in the Illinois football family certainly joins the NIU crew in terms of praying for Jerry Kill’s complete recovery, the Illini have to tend to business on the field and display the detachment that goes with big-time college football.

The Illinois offense showed impressive balance last week against Southern Illinois.  Redshirt freshman quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns.  Mikel LeShoure ran for 115 yards and two touchdowns.  The Illini piled up 407 yards of total offense. Illinois did throw two interceptions against Southern Illinois, but they both came from backup signal caller Eddie McGee. Scheelhaase has been very solid in 2010, and if he plays anything close to his best, the Illini should be in good shape on Saturday.

The Huskies defeated North Dakota 23-17 last week.  Quarterback Chandler Harnish was 14 of 25 for 146 yards, and ran for 178 yards.  Running back Chad Spann carried 21 times for 140 yards.

In their season opener, the Huskies lost at Iowa State with DeMarcus Grady at quarterback, but Harnish, who was the Huskies’ starter last season, made the start last week.

Northern Illinois has a chance to beat a Big Ten team on the road for the second straight season, but its defense has to answer the call. The Huskies gave up 334 yards to North Dakota last week. NIU may have trouble stopping the Illini attack, especially if Zook and offensive coordinator Paul Petrino get the quarterback play they’re looking for. 

Illinois, on the other side of the ball, has been impressive in defending against the run.  The Illini have allowed just 144 rushing yards in two games.  NIU’s running game is its strength, and will test the Illini this week on an afternoon when Jerry Kill will be thought of… and passions will run high in the Land of Lincoln.

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