Northern Illinois vs. Fresno State
This game will be an interesting one in the fact that Northern Illinois will be playing with an interim coach because their head coach left to become the coach at Minnesota two days after their loss in the MAC title game to Miami (OH). How the team will react is to be seen.
After an unblemished 8-0 conference record in the regular season, the Huskies earned their first ranking since 2003 and second overall. It was very short-lived, however, as they suffered their first loss to a MAC team in the conference championship game. Soon after their coach, Jerry Kill, left to take over the head coaching duties in Minnesota. The Gophers are going to have to stop a vaunted Huskie rushing attack. Their 265 yards per game rank them seventh in the NCAA and their 38 ppg is 13th. The running attack is headed by the running back-quarterback tandem of Chad Spann (1,293 yds, 20 TD) and quarterback Chandler Harnish (764 rushing yards, five rushing touchdowns, 2.230 passing yards, 20 passing touchdowns and only five interceptions).
While the Bulldogs' statistics don't jump out at you like NIU's, they are a very balanced attack, throwing for 214 yards per game and rushing for 157. Ryan Colburn has thrown for 2,529 yards and 21 touchdowns, while his backfield mate Robbie Rouse has rushed for nearly 1,100 yards and eight touchdowns. The offense will be tested against a Northern Illinois defense that is giving up 19 points per game. In their wins, Fresno State is averaging 32.ppg, while scoring only 25 ppg in their four losses.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment