Northern Illinois University’s (NIU) upset of #5 ranked Notre Dame left many people shocked and is considered one of the biggest upsets in recent college football history, with Notre Dame originally being favored by 28 points. If you look deeper, however, NIU has had an incredibly strong tradition of football for the past couple of decades.
Joe Novak: 1996 – 2007
In 1996, NIU hired head coach Joe Novak. In his first three years, the Huskies only won a total of three games. Despite the terrible start, NIU kept Novak on as the head coach, and he finally broke the losing streak against Central Michigan. In 2000, Novak started a string of seven consecutive winning seasons. Going into 2003, NIU had its highest expectations in years; they began the season knocking off #15 Maryland with a score of 20-13 in overtime. In the following weeks, they beat #21 Alabama, 16-13, and Iowa State, 24-16. When the standings were released in Week 5, the Huskies were ranked #10 overall, but in Week 8 they lost to #22 Bowling Green. After losing one more game before the end of the year to Toledo and finishing the year unranked, they were left out of the bowl games. It wasn’t until 2004 and 2006 that Huskies would go to bowl games; they were the first NIU teams to go bowling. In Novak’s final season in 2007, he led the Huskies to only two wins finishing in the bottom of the MAC.
Jerry Kill: 2008 – 2010
Next, Jerry Kill stepped into the head coaching role for the Huskies. He led NIU to three straight bowl games in his three years as head coach. In his third year, the Huskies lost in the MAC championship. The next day, Kill resigned to become the head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Dave Doeren: 2011 – 2012
Up next was Dave Doeren. In his first season (2011), he won NIU’s first MAC championship and a bowl game that same year. In 2012, NIU went 11-1, finished ranked #21, and played in the MAC championship again. The Huskies beat #17 Kent State and were selected to play in the Orange Bowl against Florida State. The day after they played in the MAC championship, Doeren resigned, forcing Rod Carey to step in to coach through the Orange Bowl against FSU.
Rod Carey: 2013 – 2018
The Rod Carey era got off to a rocky start with a 31-10 loss in the Orange Bowl. This was not the only bowl loss for Rod Carey’s tenure; in the following seasons they went to and lost in the Poinsettia Bowl in 2013 and 2015, the Boca Raton Bowl in 2014 and 2018, and the Quick Lane Bowl in 2017. Carey’s era was turbulent to say the least. It was under his coaching that they went 5-7, their second losing season since 2000. Ultimately, though, in 2018 NIU clinched its first MAC West title since 2015 earning, them their 4th MAC title since 2011. At the end of the season Rod Carey left to take the head coach position at Temple.
Thomas Hammock: 2019 – Present
A week later NIU hired Thomas Hammock. He was the running back for NIU from 1999-2002, and was a running back coach for the Baltimore Ravens from 2014-2018. In his first season coaching, the Huskies went 5-7; in the following year, during the pandemic, they had the youngest team in the nation and went 0-6, playing only conference games and not winning a single one. In December 2020, however, Rocky Lombardi, quarterback for Michigan State, announced his transfer to NIU. With low expectations from fans going into the 2021 season, the Huskies turned their losing streak around with an underdog win to Georgia Tech. The 2021 season would ultimately bring another Mid-American Conference title, the 5th one since 2011. A few years later, it was still under Thomas Hammock when the Huskies would pull off the biggest upset in program history.
The NIU Huskies defeat Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish on their own turf in season opener.
Northern Illinois has had a very long tradition of winning. They one of the perennial contenders in the MAC and one of the best non-Power Four football programs, but have never been able to compete for a national title; which is why many people forgot about the Huskies.
September 7th, they went into South Bend to play #5 nationally ranked Notre Dame. The Huskies were 28 point underdogs, but they stunned Notre Dame, beating them 16-14 by shutting down the highly touted new quarterback transfer Riley Leonard.
Nobody expected NIU to even put up a fight.
Notre Dame was favored by over 75% of the rest of the games on their schedule after they defeated Texas A&M in one of the most hostile environments in college football. Many thought the Irish were a lock for the new 12 team College Football Playoff, but now it’s an uphill battle for Notre Dame after falling victim to one of the biggest upsets in modern college football. This win has reminded people just how great of a tradition NIU football has, and will hopefully propel the Huskies football program forward.
