Northern Illinois football coach Rod Carey billed Friday night’s opener against the Boston College Eagles as the biggest home game for his program since August 28th, 2003. On that date, the Huskies beat #15 Maryland 20-13, and B.C. is the first power five conference team to come to DeKalb since then.
This upcoming ACC opponent is definitely nowhere near as strong as that Terrapins squad; which finished the season 10-3 and ranked #20.
SPREAD: Northern Illinois football +3 1/2
KICKOFF: 8:30 PM CDT Friday Sept 1
Welcome to the era of television priorities having complete hegemony over every aspect of the sport at all times.
“I am not a Friday night college football guy in any way, shape or form. I do not like it,” said Carey. “I would certainly wish that we could find another answer with our television partners than being on Friday night.”
It’s not just on Friday night, it’s an EXTREMELY late kick, which is very odd when you consider the primary/largest market for this game is on the eastern seaboard. Thus, it will be after 1 am EST by the time this game wraps up.
Northern Illinois Football Preview:
The primary question of course is “who’s going to be the starting quarterback?”
It’s three days from the season kicking off, and the answer is EITHER junior Ryan Graham OR sophomore Daniel Santacaterina. Graham has the most experience, so he could be the favorite to eventually win the starting job. Carey is not a two quarterback system kind of guy in any way shape or form, so once he finds his man, he’ll stick with him.
On Tuesday, at his weekly news conference, Carey said he reached his decision, but he’s keeping it covert, so as to not tip his hand to B.C. in their preparations this week.
“I know what I’m doing and I’m just not saying. It has nothing to do with you guys [the media] and I know sometimes it doesn’t feel that way but it’s the first week before I’ve put anything on film that I can use that to my advantage,” Carey said.
“I think the two guys that have been in the competition with Graham and Santacaterina have different games so maybe BC has to prepare a little bit like that. I’m just going to hold it close to the vest until game time.”
“I’m not doing this intentionally to spite BC or Coach Addazio or anything like that. I think I’m trying to put our team in the best situation to win, just like he’s going to do with his team and if this can help that at all, then that’s my job more than anything else to try to do that.”
Whoever is taking the snaps can rely on a solid tailback tandem in senior Jordan Huff and sophomore Marcus Jones.
At Media Day, Jones said that he takes a lot of pride in the tradition of success that has come before him at the position, especially Garrett Wolfe.
“I feel like I get a lot of aspects of him (Wolfe),” Jones said.
“I’m not the biggest guy, I’m not the fastest guy, but I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder and felt I’ve been overlooked by the bigger schools.”
B.C. has a very stout defense, so the rebuilding Huskies offense will definitely have their work cut out for them. On the flip side, Boston doesn’t have much of an offense, especially in the passing game, so the NIU secondary should really eat in this one.
Cornerback is the deepest and most talented position on the roster. Shawun Lurry was an All-American his sophomore year who started to look like a NFL Draft pick. He backslid a little last season although his numbers were still solid. He’ll be very motivated for this, his last go around.
Iowa Hawkeyes transfer Jalen Embry is finally eligible and ready to make noise. Albert Smalls can bring it too, meaning that competition for playing time here will be fierce. For the entire Northern Illinois football season preview, going in depth on every position group, click here.
Boston College Preview:
In Boston, it’s “one if by land, two if by sea”…and pretty much zero via the air. The Eagles haven’t taken flight much lately, finishing 120th in passing yards last season, 127th in overall offense. Lindy’s projects the Eagles as the 84th best team in the country, 12th in the ACC. For their summation snippet, the publication rips the Eagles lack of a passing game.
That’s really sad because when you think B.C. football what’s the first thing that usually comes to mind?
That’s right; great QBs like Doug Flutie, Matt Ryan, Glenn Foley, Chase Rettig, the Hasselbecks etc. It’s a very fine and extremely proud tradition. Athlon ranked one of this year’s two QB1 candidates, Anthony Brown, 105th nationally. The magazine also predicted them to finish dead last in the ACC Atlantic division, with a projected record of 5-7 overall 2-6 in the ACC, 70th nationally. Street and Smith’s has them finishing 6th of 7 in the ACC Atlantic.
We will most likely have to wait until the first offensive series to see if the QB1 is Brown, or Darius Wade. So B.C. is in the same boat as NIU. “No doubt, exact same boat. We have to prepare for both, so they have to prepare for both,” said Carey.
They were among the worst offenses in the entire country last season, and for 2015 as well. However, that defense is the truth.
“Their front seven is really strong, it’s going to be a hard hitting game, as their line backers are very strong and very aggressive,” said Jones.
“They’re a power team, they will want to overload to one side, outnumber us on the edges,” said NIU safety Trequan Smith.
“(They’ll try to) pound the ball, but we’re preparing for a little read option too, bootlegs, we’ve been preparing for them a lot.”
Although this game kicks off super late, it should go by fast, because both teams will be run-oriented, focusing on the ground-and-pound game under the Husky Stadium lights.
The Eagle to keep an eye on is DE Harold Landry; who has substantial NFL Draft stock. “He’s good,” said Carey
“I don’t know where the NFL scouts have him ranked, but for us this is like Bosa when we faced him at Ohio State. He can single-handedly disrupt an offensive game plan, and we have got to know where he is.”
Prediction for novelty purposes only: Northern Illinois football 16, Boston College 9
I like NIU to do much more than just cover the spread; I think they’ll win outright. Not sure how much weight this win really will have, but it should make for a really fun night to open the season in DeKalb.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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