NORTHERN ILLINOIS (9-4, 6-2 MAC) vs. COASTAL CAROLINA (10-2, 6-2 SUN BELT)
FRIDAY * DEC. 17 * 6 P.M. ET * EXPLORIA STADIUM * ORLANDO, FLA.
NORTHERN ILLINOIS NOTES
HUSKIE BITES
• The Mid-American Conference Champion NIU Huskies take on the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in the Tailgreeter Cure Bowl in Orlando.
• NIU will play in its 14th bowl game as a Division I FBS program and in its 19th bowl all-time. This year’s game marks the Huskies’ 11th bowl game in the last 14 seasons.
• The 2021 Huskies won a nation-leading seven games by one score or less, including four victories by two points or less and another in overtime.
• After going 0-6 a year ago, NIU’s turnaround has come with the second-youngest roster in the FBS as the Huskies featured 75 players who finished high school in 2020 or 2021 and 11 more who graduated in 2019; of those 86 players, 53 have seen action for NIU in 2021 and 33 are listed on the two-deep.
• NIU claimed its sixth MAC Championship all-time with a 41-23 win over Kent State in the Rocket Mortgage MAC Championship Game at Detroit’s Ford Field on December 4.
• NIU is the first team in FBS history to win its conference championship game one season after going winless.
• MAC Freshman of the Year Jay Ducker rushed for 146 yards on 29 carries in the MAC Championship Game to surpass the 1,000-yard mark for the season. He needs six yards to break the Huskies’ 44-year old freshman rushing record.
• Huskies’ head coach Thomas Hammock, a two-time first team CoSIDA Academic All-American who rushed for over 1,000 yards for the Huskies in 2000 and 2001, was named the MAC Coach of the Year and is a finalist for the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year honor after engineering one of the biggest turnarounds in college football this year.
• NIU has scored 20 touchdowns on plays of 25 yards or longer in 2021 and has totaled 51 long plays, the most in a single season since 2016, with 19 plays of 40 yards or longer and 12 of 50 yards or more.
• The 2021 Huskies are looking to become just the second NIU team – and the first since 2011 – to win the MAC Championship Game and a bowl game in the same season.
LET’S GO BOWLING!: With its appearance in the 2021 Tailgreeter Cure Bowl, the NIU football program is playing in its 11th bowl game in the last 14 seasons, and is in a bowl for the first time under Thomas Hammock. In its last bowl appearance, NIU suffered a 37-13 setback to UAB in the 2018 Boca Raton Bowl. NIU’s last bowl victory came in the 2012 GoDaddy Bowl, where the Huskies defeated Arkansas State, 38-20, on January 8, 2012. NIU has dropped its last six bowl games.
HUSKIES IN BOWLS: NIU will play in its 14th bowl game as a Division I FBS program and in its 19th bowl all-time with this year’s trip to the Tailgreeter Cure Bowl. The Huskies appeared in a MAC-record eight consecutive bowl games from 2008-15. NIU will be playing in its 11th bowl game in the last 14 seasons dating back to a 2008 Independence Bowl appearance. NIU is 4-9 (FBS) and 5-13 overall in bowl games. The Huskies’ modern bowl history began at the California Bowl when the 1983 MAC Champions earned a 20-13 win over Cal State Fullerton.
BOWLING, AGAIN: NIU won its sixth game of the season and secured bowl eligibility for the first time since 2018 with its 39-38 win at Central Michigan on October 23. The MAC’s winningest program this century, the Huskies are playing in a bowl game for the 13th time since 2004 – a span of 18 years. Thomas Hammock is the fifth head coach to take the Huskies to a bowl game during that time.
HAMMOCK’S BOWL HISTORY: NIU head coach Thomas Hammock, a Huskie alum, never had the opportunity to play in a bowl game during his playing days at NIU, but has coached in eight bowl games during his college coaching career, including two Rose Bowls during his time at Wisconsin and in the 2006 Poinsettia Bowl as a NIU assistant. The last bowl game Hammock coached in was also played in Orlando as he was on the Badgers’ staff for the 2014 Capital One Bowl.
SERIES HISTORY: The Cure Bowl will mark the first meeting between NIU and Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers are the third first-time opponent on the Huskies’ schedule this season. NIU earned wins over Georgia Tech and Maine in its first meetings with those two schools back in September.
RECEIVING VOTE: NIU earned its first vote in the Associated Press rankings following its win over Kent State in the MAC Championship game. The Huskies earned a single point in the latest poll, putting the Huskies 36th. It was the first mention for NIU in either the AFCA Coaches or AP regular or postseason poll since Dec. 7, 2014 when NIU had 29 and 11 points, respectively. Cure Bowl opponent Coastal Carolina received two points in the latest AFCA Coaches Poll, tied for 34th.
PALMETTO FOES: In 119 years of college football, NIU has only played one team from the state of South Carolina before taking on Coastal Carolina in the Cure Bowl. The Huskies defeated FCS opponent Presbyterian 55-3 in the 2014 season opener in Huskie Stadium.
SUN BELT OPPONENTS: All-time, NIU is 11-7 against the teams that currently make up the Sun Belt Conference with all 18 games coming versus just three of the league’s teams. NIU is 7-1 in eight games versus Arkansas State, including a victory in the 2012 GoDaddy. com Bowl in Mobile. The Huskies defeated Troy in the 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl in the lone meeting between those teams. NIU faced Louisiana every season from 1988-96 and went 3-6 versus the Ragin’ Cajuns. NIU, Arkansas State and Louisiana were all members of the Big West Conference from 1993-96.
HISTORIC QUEST: The 2021 Huskies are looking to become just the second NIU team to win the MAC Championship Game and a bowl game in the same season. The 2011 Huskies defeated Ohio in the league’s championship game (23-20) before posting a 38-20 victory over Arkansas State in the GoDaddy Bowl (Jan. 8, 2012). The 2012 MAC champion Huskies fell to Florida State in the Orange Bowl, while both the 2014 and 2018 MAC Champs suffered losses in the Boca Raton Bowl, to Marshall and UAB, respectively.
NO SUNSHINE: The Tailgreeter Cure Bowl game versus Coastal Carolina will mark Huskies’ 12th game all-time in the state of Florida, and the first since the 2018 Boca Raton Bowl. NIU, which is 1-10 all-time in games played in Florida, are looking for their first win in the state since a 30-28 victory over Central Florida on Oct. 9, 2004. NIU is 0-3 in postseason bowl games in the Sunshine State with losses to Marshall (2014) and UAB (2018) in the 2014 Boca Raton Bowl and Florida State in the 2013 Orange Bowl.
MAKING HISTORY: NIU is the first team in FBS history to win its conference championship game one season after going winless. The Huskies went 0-6 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, with three of the losses by one score. So far, NIU has engineered a nine-win improvement, which ranks second in the FBS and is the largest one year jump in school history. NIU’s previous biggest one-season improvement occurred prior to its becoming a major college program in 1969, with six game turnarounds in 1929 and 1951. The Huskies’ biggest one-year jump as an FBS school came in 1983 under Bill Mallory who won 10 games in that season after a five-win campaign in 1982.
COASTAL CAROLINA NOTES
A COASTAL WIN WOULD …
• put the Chanticleers at 11-2 overall and give Coastal 11 wins for the second consecutive season;
• match the program’s FBS record for most wins in a single season with 11;
• end the Chants’ season on a three-game winning streak;
• be the Chants’ first-ever FBS postseason bowl win;
• put CCU at 1-0 all-time versus Northern Illinois;
• move the Chanticleers to 2-3 all-time versus the Mid-American Conference.
A COASTAL LOSS WOULD …
• hand the Chanticleers their third loss of the season (10-3);
• put the Chants at 0-1 all-time versus Northern Illinois;
• drop the Chants to 1-4 all-time versus the Mid-American Conference;
• make CCU fall to 0-2 all-time in FBS postseason bowl games.
LAST YEAR AT THE 2020 CURE BOWL
DECIDED IN OT
• The No. 9/11 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers lost a heartbreaking 37-34 overtime contest to Liberty at the sixth annual FBC Mortgage Cure Bowl as the Flames blocked a potential game-tying field goal to preserve the overtime victory at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Fla.
• After holding the Flames to a field goal on their overtime possession, the Chants threw three incomplete passes before Massimo Biscardi was called on to send the game into a second overtime. The Flames were able to get a defensive push up the middle of the line and get a hand up to knock down the 42-yard game-tying attempt.
• The overtime was set up by a Joshua Mack fumble on the one-yard line with 41 seconds remaining in a tie game at 34-34, as Jeffrey Gunter knocked the ball out prior to Mack crossing the goal line for what would have been the go-ahead touchdown.
• With their back up against their own end zone, the Chants were able to get the ball out to the 10-yard line before kneeling in the final seconds of regulation to send the game to overtime.
GAME NOTES
• The Chanticleers were ranked in both top 25 national preseason polls to start the season for the first time in program history.
• For the first time since Oct. 18, 2020, the Chanticleers were not ranked in either the AP or USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll on Nov. 14, 2021.
BEST SEASON IN SUN BELT HISTORY
• Coastal’s undefeated run through the Sun Belt Conference regular-season slate in 2020 was tied for the best regular-season in Sun Belt Conference history.
• Coastal Carolina became the only team in Sun Belt Conference history to finish the regular season undefeated at 11-0 overall.
SEASON OF FIRSTS IN 2020
• Coastal’s 2020 season was a season of many first for the young program.
• First-Ever Sun Belt team to start a season at 11-0
• First Time Ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll
• First Time Ever Ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll
• First-Ever Win over an FBS top 25 opponent
• First-Ever Win over Arkansas State
• First-Ever Win over South Alabama
• First-Ever Win over Appalachian State
• First-Ever Win at Texas State
• Hosted ESPN College GameDay (Dec. 5)
• First-Ever Win over an FBS top 10 opponent
• First-Ever Win over BYU
• First-Ever Win in the state of Alabama
• First-Ever Undefeated Regular Season (11-0)
• First SBC Team to have an Undefeated Regular Season
• First-Ever SBC Team to be Ranked in the AP Top 10
• First-Ever Postseason Bowl Appearance
• The 2020 Sun Belt Champions were also picked to finish first in the East Division along with the Appalachian State Mountaineers in the 2021 Sun Belt Conference Football Preseason Coaches Poll.
• The Chanticleers matched Appalachian State with 44 total points each but tallied six first-place votes to the Mountaineers’ four.
BUSTING THROUGH THE SUN BELT
• Coastal finished the 2020 regular season at 8-0 in conference play, posting their best conference record since joining the Sun Belt as a full-time member in 2017.
• Prior to last season (2020), Coastal had not won more than two conference games in any season since joining the Sun Belt in 2017 and just six total conference games in the program’s history in the Sun Belt.
• This year, the Chants went 6-2 overall in Sun Belt Conference play, matching their conference wins’ total in each of the first three years combined.
SERIES VERSUS NORTHERN ILLINOIS
• Coastal and NIU will be meeting for the first time on the gridiron this week at the 2021 Tailgreeter Cure Bowl (Dec. 17).
CCU VS. MAC
• Coastal is 1-3 all-time versus teams from the Mid-American Conference (MAC) with the lone win coming this year on the road at Buffalo (Sept. 18) back in the third week of the season
SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
• The Northern Illinois Huskies are 9-4 overall and went 6-2 in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play.
• The Huskies won their sixth MAC Championship, defeating Kent State 41-23 in the MAC Championship game on Dec. 4 at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich.
• MAC Coach of the Year Thomas Hammock led the Huskies to an unprecedented turnaround this season, going from 0-6 in 2020 to a conference championship title in 2021.
• The Huskies also had nine student-athletes earn All-MAC honors, as C.J. Brown was named to the All-MAC first team. Three offensive players in Nolan Potter (OL), Drayden Patton (OL), and Trayvon Rudolph (WR/KR) earned a spot on the second team, while Logan Zschernitz (OL), Clint Ratkovich (RB), James Ester (DL), Lance Deveaux Jr. (LB), and Jordan Gandy (DB) all were named to the third team.
• NIU’s offense this year is averaging 31.5 points and a total of 422.0 yards per game, both of which rank in the middle of the MAC.
• However, that offense is led by a rushing attack that ranks second in the MAC and fifth in the nation at 234.2 yards per game, and an offensive line unit that has allowed 10 sacks all season, which ranks third nationally.
• Former Michigan State quarterback Rocky Lombardi leads the offense as he has completed 180-of-310 pass attempts for 2,416 yards, 13 touchdowns, and eight interceptions.
• On the ground, Jay Ducker, who was named the MAC Freshman of the Year, has rushed a team-high 194 times for 1,038 yards and three touchdowns, while Ratkovich leads the way with 12 rushing touchdowns.
• In the passing game, a trio of Huskies in Rudolph (49 catches, 877 yards), Tyrice Richie (44 catches, 540 yards), and Cole Tucker (35 catches, 488 yards) have over 35 catches on the season, while Rudolph leads the team with seven touchdown catches.
• Defensively, the Huskies are giving up 32.7 points and 447.7 yards per game this season, including allowing 20 points or more in all 13 games on the year.
• All-MAC selections Brown (104) and Deveaux Jr. (69) lead the team in tackles, while fellow all-conference selection Gandy is first on the team with 10 pass breakups.
RUN DMC
• The 2021 Tailgreeter Cure Bowl should see plenty of action on the ground, as both the Chanticleers and Northern Illinois rank in the top-10 in all of FBS in rushing yards per game.
• The NIU Huskies rank fifth nationally with an average of 234.2 rushing yards per game on the season, which ranks second in the MAC.
• CCU is right behind the Huskies, as the Chants rank sixth nationally and lead the Sun Belt in rushing yards per game at 231.3.
