No. 23 Northern Illinois achieved a big upset two weeks ago against Notre Dame.
The excitement that followed was nice, but the Huskies (2-0) know it won’t matter if they don’t stay focused.
Northern Illinois will host Buffalo on Saturday for both teams’ first game in the MAC, and it will be their first game since the surprise victory in South Bend, where they won 16-14 against a team ranked fifth in the nation.
“I know to the outside world, people are still talking about that game,” coach Thomas Hammock said. “But one of our five fights is us versus them. We moved on last week. It’s great for the university, great for the athletic department, great for the football program.
But we have a job to do to make sure we can play our best football on Saturday.” Before this game, Northern Illinois had never beaten a top-10 opponent, and no MAC team had defeated a top-five team.
That changed when Kanon Woodill kicked a 35-yard field goal with 31 seconds left against Notre Dame, and Cade Haberman blocked a 62-yard attempt as time ran out.
This win marked the Huskies’ first victory over a ranked team since 2015, which brought them into the top 25 for the first time in 11 years at No. 25. They moved up two spots during their bye week.
“We played a tremendous team and we played as hard as we can play, and we gave ourselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter,” said Hammock, a former star running back who is now in his sixth season as head coach at his alma mater.
“To say it was an eye-opener, that would be a disrespect to our football team. We’ve got a good football team that expects to go out there and compete at a high level.”
