Northern Illinois Huskies
2010 Record: 11-3
2010 Bowl Game: won Humanitarian Bowl 40-17 vs Fresno St
2010 ATS: 10-3-1
2011 Returning Starters: 12 (9 offense, 3 defense)

Last season Northern Illinois won the Mid-American Conference Western Division and capped off an 11 win season with bowl victory. This year the Huskies look to repeat that success. However, they will have to do so with a new coach as Jerry Kill leaves the program for the University of Minnesota job. Former Wisconsin Defensive Coordinator Dave Doeren takes over the NIU program for his first head coaching position.

This is the first in our series of team previews for the 2011 season, and our college football handicappers are getting ready for  another season of winners.

Here is a look at Northern Illinois on offense, defense, and special teams. We will also look at their schedule to see which games pop out as potential trouble spots or could be easy victories.

Offense

The offense is led by fifth year senior quarterback Chandler Harnish. Harnish is a dual threat quarterback who can hurt you with his arms and legs, and is widely considered to be the best signal caller in the MAC. He completed 64.7 passes last season en route to 2,530 yards, 21 touchdowns, and only 5 interceptions. He was also the teams second leading rusher with 137 carries for 836 yards and 7 touchdowns. He is the school’s all-time leader in total yards with 7,332 and third in touchdowns with 53.

Despite the brilliance of Harnish, the Huskies only passed for 189.6 yards a game last season which was #85 in the country. This is because the Huskies preferred to run the ball under former coach Kill. NIU averaged 261.9 rushing yards a game last season, which was 7th in the country. Overall the offense was ranked 19th in total yards and 12th in scoring with 38 points a game.

Though the Huskies do return 9 starters on offense they do have to replace running back Chad Spann who was the MAC Offensive Player of the Year last season. Spann sign as an undrafted free agent with the Colts in the NFL after rushing for 1,388 yards on 258 carries with 22 touchdowns last season for the Huskies. Look for senior running back Jasmin Hopkins to get the bulk of the carries this season. Hopkins rushed for 366 yards on 38 carries with 2 touchdown runs. Hopkins even threw a touchdown pass last year. Last year the Huskies  had 7 players with at least 2 touchdown runs and 6 with at least 31 carries, so they will spread the ball around on the ground.

Senior Wideout Willie Clark is the top receiver. Last year Clark caught 42 catches for 602 yards and 7 touchdowns. Senior Nathan Palmer is probably the most explosive receiver on the roster. Palmer caught only 29 passes lat year but for 532 yards and six touchdowns. Junior Martel Moore caught 40 balls for 525 yards with 4 touchdowns.

The offensive line gave up only 13 sacks last season and is considered the best in the conference led by all-MAC senor center Scott Wedige.

Defense

The NIU defense is the biggest question mark on this team as they have to replace 8 starters. The defense is led by junior linebacker Tyrone Clark who had 4 interceptions, 1.5 sacks, and 78 tackles last season.

The defense also returns junior DB Tommy Clark who had 73 tackles, an interception and 4 fumble recoveries last season. The speedy Clark might be more valuable on special teams than defense as eh returns both kickoffs and punts.

Last season the NIU defense gave up 335.4 yards a game and ranked #26 in the nation. They gave up 208.2 passing yards a game (#44 in the country) and 127.2 yards rushing a game (#24 in the country.) They gave up 18.9 points a game which was 14th best in the country. Expect a drop off this year as they have a new coordinator and have to replace so many starters.

Special Teams

Sophomore kicker Mathew Sims takes over as the kicker from Michael Cklamovski. Sims played in 5 games last year and made 2 of 3 field goals attempted and 4 of 6 PAT’s. However, his longest kick was only 23 yards last year. He also averaged 46 yards on 2 kickoffs last year. Senior Punter Josh Wilber averaged 39.8 yards on 38 punts last year with 6 touchbacks.

Davis averaged 7.9 yards per punt return on 18 punts last season, and returned a kickoff for a touchdown last year while averaging 24 yards per return.

Schedule

The Huskies begin with a home game against Army which might be pretty tough considering Army went to a bowl game last year and the triple option is difficult to defend if you aren’t used to it. NIU then travels to Kansas, which is a winnable game for the Huskies. Kansas is a lower tier Big 12 team that struggles to move the ball on offense. Then Northern Illinois plays Wisconsin at Soldier Field in Chicago, officially a home game for the Huskies but expect plenty of Cheeseheads to make the trip south for that game. Ironically, Coach Doeren was a coordinator at both Kansas and Wisconsin before taking the NIU job. The Huskies have a shot against Wisconsin just because Doeren knows all the schemes the Badgers will run. The Huskies wrap up non-conference play with FCS school Cal Poly at home.

NIU has a great chance to be at least 3-1 or maybe even 4-0 by the time conference play starts but the games against Kansas and Wisconsin won’t be easy. In conference the Huskies have home games against Kent St, Western Michigan, Ball St, and Eastern Michigan. The Huskies travel to Central Michigan to open conference play October 1. Then starting October 22, they face a challenging 3 game road trip at Buffalo followed by a pair of Tuesday night ESPN games at Toledo and Bowling Green November 1st and 8th. The Western Michigan and Toledo games should decide the division.

Betting Trends

The Huskies were 10-3-1 ATS last year including 4-1 at home and 6-2-1 on the road. NIU games went over 9 times out of 14 games last season, including 3 times at home and 6 times on the road. The under is 15-7-1 in the Huskies’ last 23 home games.

Game to bet on the Huskies

As much as I would love to play the Huskies against Kansas or Wisconsin, I will go with the Eastern Michigan game. This game will be played the day after Thanksgiving, and the hapless EMU Eagles might as well be turkeys. Whatever the spread lay the points with NIU. Last year, Northern Illinois crushed them 71-3 on the road.

Game to bet against NIU

As mentioned the triple option is tough to defend against especially for a young defensive team right out of the gate. The Huskies also could be looking ahead to the Kansas and Wisconsin games, and might over look a dangerous Army team to start the season. Army is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 road games. All these factors point to a narrow NIU win but they won’t cover the likely double digit point spread.

There you have it. It should be a great season for Northern Illinois. Check out our college football odds page for the best odds on every game.