Oct. 27, 2008

By Zach Peters

NIU Media Relations

It seems like every year the Northern Illinois football team gets a chance to prove itself against a BCS school, which presents a great opportunity and a memory of a lifetime for the Huskies involved. Whether it be traveling to the house that Bear Bryant built to face the storied Alabama Crimson Tide program, going to the "Big House" to face the Michigan Wolverines in front of 100,000 fans, tangling with the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Horseshoe or playing the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium, the NIU football program continues to challenge itself and provide everlasting memories.

On this day, September 3, 2005, the Huskies began their season with the challenge of facing Michigan in Ann Arbor and this was a day that then red-shirt freshman, now senior, Brandon Beal would never forget.

"It was the first game of the year and there was all the hype and talk about us going to Michigan and playing a big school like that," said the Kirkwood, Mo. native. "We were playing against a team that has nearly 10 kids go to the NFL every year."

The game featured a handful of top NFL draft picks, including the first overall pick of the 2008 draft, Wolverine offensive tackle Jake Long, and the 18th pick of the 2007 draft, Michigan cornerback Leon Hall, along with six other Wolverines that were selected in the first three rounds of the last two NFL drafts.

The Huskies also featured a pair of NFL draftees in star running back Garrett Wolfe and offensive tackle Doug Free as they were selected in the third (93 overall) and fourth (122 overall) rounds, respectively.

As the Huskies pulled up to the stadium in the team bus, Beal had just one word to say.

"I was just like, `wow,'" Beal said. "That was a big moment." Then the team headed to the locker room to prepare for the game and Beal was again impressed.

"The visiting locker room was pretty nice, a lot better than most of the other schools we play at," said Beal.

After the team finished gearing-up in the locker room, they headed to the field where 100,000 fans already occupied the "Big House."

"In high school, you play in front of maybe 5,000 people and at Northern around 30,000, but at Michigan it is 100,000," said Beal. "I was flabbergasted, especially since I was a freshman. I remember looking at the Michigan players and thinking about how huge they were.

"I remember during warm-ups, seeing my parents in the first couple rows and they were screaming and hollering. This was about a half an hour before the game and the stadium was nearly full to capacity already. I remember looking up into the stands and seeing the blue, white and yellow fans and just a little, tiny section of red." Feeling a bit out of place and outnumbered, the game finally started and the Huskies got a chance to prove themselves and did so when Wolfe broke away from the Wolverine defenders for a 76-yard scamper, taking it all the way to the "House."

"Garrett's run down the sideline was definitely a memory of mine because seeing him do that and watching the offensive line block for him made me realize that we could play with this team," Beal said. "At that point, I felt like we had a chance to put up some points on the board against these guys.

"I also remember Phil Horvath dropping back for a pass to tight end Jake Nordin for about 20 yards and I was excited to see that our offense was rolling. At that point I was really thinking that we had a chance to pull the upset."

If it weren't for five NIU turnovers that led to easy points and a Michigan 33-17 win, the Huskies might have pulled this one out as they nearly matched the Wolverines in total yards, 447-411 and held Michigan to just six points in the second half. Never the less, it was a memorable day for Beal and the Huskies.

"On the bus ride home, we all had kind of a disappointing feeling," Beal said. "We spent all that time preparing and when you look at the scoreboard at the end of the game, we knew that wasn't indicative of how the game really went. There were a lot of long faces, but we knew we had to get ready for the next game.

"It still was a good experience though," said Beal. "You learn a lot from a game like that even though we lost. Being able to put up points like we did let us know that we can compete with those types of schools every year."

Not only has Beal been able to take away great experiences from that day, he has also realized through NIU head coach Jerry Kill how the lessons learned from football can be applied to life.

"Coach Kill preaches to us about how football can be compared to life," Beal said. "Football teaches you things like being on time, working diligently and how hard work really does pay off. He is a hard hat, lunch pale type of guy. It's hard not to pick up on that. He's a good guy to model yourself after as far as working hard and coming from a background where you don't have very much. Playing football really helps you develop some of the attributes and skills that he has and that help you succeed in life."

Northern Illinois University Football

Printer-friendly format	Email this article