ARTICLE TOOLS

E-mail story

Comments

Printer friendly version

iPod friendly version

Share This

Text Size: A A A A

University of Tennessee Vols wary of Huskie upset bid

By: Wes Rucker
(Contact)

Included in this article

Ellix Wilson

KNOXVILLE — Sandwiched in between the University of Tennessee’s road trips to Auburn and Georgia, Saturday’s game against Northern Illinois looks funny on the schedule.

But UT coaches, players and fans have not done much laughing this week.

The Volunteers are 1-3 for the first time since 1994.

“Honestly, we’re not really in a situation where we can overlook anybody right now,” UT senior cornerback DeAngelo Willingham said.

Not that Northern Illinois is ever intimidated. Star tailback Michael “Burner” Turner left five years ago, but the Huskies are still a mid-major menace.

They lost 31-27 at Minnesota to open this season. They lost two games at Iowa by a combined 20 points the previous two seasons.

NIU lost 35-12 at Ohio State in 2006, and 33-17 at Michigan in 2005. They lost at Maryland and Iowa State by 10 total points in 2004.

The Huskies beat Alabama and Maryland in 2003, Turner’s senior season. They beat Wake Forest and lost by three points at Wisconsin in 2002.

Coach Jerry Kill arrived at NIU last December, after leading Southern Illinois to five consecutive NCAA Division I Football Championship Division playoff appearance, and 64 consecutive weeks in the top 20 of the FCS poll.

Underestimate them at your own risk.

NIU has 15 senior starters — seven on each side plus the punter — and most of them have played some of college football’s best athletes in some of the game’s toughest venues.

“I’ve made every single trip since freshman year,” Huskies senior receiver Greg Turner said. “I’ve played at Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin. I feel that playing in all these games, and all of us growing up together have made us mature.

“Going into Tennessee isn’t going to affect us that much. When we went into Ohio State my sophomore year, we were like, ‘Wow, look at how big this place is. Look at all the people.’ I feel that by us doing all those trips when we were younger has matured us more and made us more of a team. It’s made us come together as one.”

Northern Illinois followed the Minnesota loss with a 29-26 loss at Western Michigan, but the Huskies have rallied to blowout Indiana State (48-3) and Eastern Michigan (37-0) in the past two weeks.

Though the two schedules aren’t comparable, the Huskies have allowed three points in the past two weeks, and the Vols have scored 15 points.

“We never take anybody lightly, especially not with the way we’ve played this season,” UT junior tailback Montario Hardesty said. “We need to play better, no matter who we’re playing or where we’re playing them.”

Northern Illinois has an even larger logjam than Tennessee at the tailback position. The Huskies rotate five players at that position, and four of them have at least 100 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Four NIU players scored on the ground at Eastern Washington.

Kill doesn’t necessarily expect a similar scenario Saturday night, though. He said UT’s defense is “very, very, very good.”

“I can’t go out into the front yard here and draw out these new seven plays to try and beat Tennessee,” Kill said. “You have to do things the best you can. We’ll have a good game plan. I feel in the first four weeks we’ve given our kids the opportunity to move the ball.

“That’s what we’ll try and do this weekend. Will it be easy? No. The bottom line is a lot of things can happen, and we’ve got to make some plays.”

Kill said the Huskies’ biggest defensive challenge would be stopping UT on the ground. The Vols have been solid in the running game, especially considering that every opponent has aggressively stacked the line of scrimmage and largely disregarded UT’s passing attack.

“They have three tailbacks that are all NFL-caliber players,” Kill said. “They also have at least three offensive linemen that will play professionally. Tennessee is Tennessee.

“We are going to have to play very aggressive and be able to tackle their strong, fast running backs as well. We haven’t seen anybody like those backs they have.”

Comments