Northern Illinois By The Numbers
When Northern IIlinois takes the field at Vanderbilt Stadium Saturday it will be the twelth time in their program's history they will have faced an SEC opponent.
All-time the Huskies are 1-10 versus the SEC with their lone win coming in a 19-16 upset of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa in 2003.
It will be the fourth time the Huskies have faced the Commodores, with Vanderbilt holding a 3-0 record versus NIU. The three meetings between the tow schools are the most of any SEC team against the Huskies, with the last coming in 1999.
In that 1999 contest, Vanderbilt defeated the Huskies 34-31.
HUSKIES STATS
The Huskies offense is averaging 16.3 points per game.
Offensively, NIU has averaged just 77 yards per game rushing through their first three games.
Conversley their passing game has been their strength, averaging 270 yards through the air.
Quarterback Ross Bowers is completing just over 61% of his passes for the season, completing 65 of 106 attempts for 776 yards with 3 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.
Bowers has been sacked 9 times through three games.
Running back Tre Harbison leads the Huskies rushing with 162 yards on 41 attempts, an average of 4.0 yards per game, which is a good average, but the Huskies have trailed in two of their three games and seem to have abandoned the run because of it.
Defensively the Huskies have allowed 89 total points through three games, an average of 29.6 points per game.
Opposing quarterbacks have done damage through the air as the Huskies defense is allowing 229 yards per game.
Likewise, the Huskies run defense has struggled, allowing 160.7 yards per game on the ground. In fairness to NIU< of their 520 total rush yards allowed this season, 247 came against Nebraska, while 273 came against Illinois State and Utah. That;s still an average of 136.5 yards per game outside of the Nebraska contest.
Perhaos the most key stat for the Huskies through trhee games, they struggle on 3rd down,converting just 10-47 for 21.28 % so far this season.
The Commodores defense needs that trend to continue Saturday.
A 29 year veteran of radio in the Middle Tennessee area and 16 years in digital and internet media having covered the Tennessee Titans for Scout Media and TitanInsider.com before joining the Sports Illustrated family of networks.