Northern Illinois hosts Ball St in MAC Battle

November 15, 2011

Despite being separated by just 1 game in their overall standings and in the MAC West division, college football handicappers see a very big difference between the Ball St Cardinals and Northern Illinois Huskies. Not a lot of attention is given to the MAC conference, but there are a handful of teams that deserve some respect.

The Huskies finished the 2010 regular season with a 10-3 record that included a win over Minnesota and a 5 point loss to a very good Illinois squad. The loss of more than half of last season’s defense has held this year’s team back, but they are still sitting atop the MAC West and have an overall record of 7-3. Losing to BCS conference schools is expected from small division schools, but the Huskies nearly pulled off a huge road win against a high-scoring Kansas team in week 2. A loss to Central Michigan is the only blemish on this team’s division record, but wins in their last 2 games will secure the West title and potentially get them into an upper-tiered bowl game.

Chandler Harnish hasn’t been asked to light up opposing defenses with his arm, but what he has done is give this primarily running team a legitimate threat in the passing game. He has thrown 20 touchdowns in only 267 attempts, and has kept defenses off of the line of scrimmage to help benefit NIU’s rushing attack. The Huskies rushing attack currently ranks 9th out of 120 division 1 teams, and is led by their fleet footed quarterback. Harnish is the small schools version of Michigan’s Denard Robinson, and is responsible for 29 touchdowns this season. He has rushed for over 1000 yards and is doing with an incredible 8 yards per carry average. Along with Harnish, Jasmine Hopkins has been able to pick up big yardage and get into the end zone more often than not.

Ball St will certainly have their hands full defensively on Tuesday, but their stats on “D” are slightly skewed as they have been hammered by the out of conference opponents this year. This team has no middle ground. Either they keep a game close and pull out a win or they get crushed. They’ve been outscored in their 4 losses by a total of 186-48, and haven’t been overly impressive in their wins as 5 of them have come by a touchdown or less. These numbers don’t bode well for the Cardinals as they hit the road for this weekday match-up with one of the most explosive teams in the conference.

Keith Wenning is a solid college quarterback, but he doesn’t have the weapons surrounding him to keep this team above water in the MAC. Combining for just 376 yards per game offensively isn’t good in college football, and certainly isn’t good enough to keep a team ahead that allows 33 points per game. Ball St will need running backs Jahwan Edwards and Barrington Scott to have career days and their defense to force a handful of turnovers for this game to be within reach. Tune in Tuesday night as the Cardinals take on the Huskies in a MAC conference showdown.

Written by Glenn Andrew · Filed Under NCAA Football

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