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Huskies Return Home to Face UMass
Oct. 30, 2012
Complete Release in PDF Format Northern Illinois Football 2012
NIU QUARTERBACK Jordan Lynch
Storylines
HUSKIE FOOTBALL FACTS
NORTHERN ILLINOIS FACTS
MINUTEMEN FACTS
NIU-UMASS SERIES HISTORY
NORTHERN ILLINOIS HEAD COACH DAVE DOEREN In two seasons as head coach of the Northern Illinois Huskies, Dave Doeren owns a 19-4 record for a winning percentage of .826. In Doeren's first year as a head coach, NIU won the school's first Mid-American Conference Championship since 1983, triumphed in the GoDaddy.com Bowl and closed out the year with nine straight victories en route to tying the school record with 11 wins. Doeren became the winningest first-year head coach in school history. In addition, Northern Illinois has ranked in the top five in the nation in Academic Progress Rate (APR) in each of his two seasons with the Huskies. A 17-year collegiate coaching veteran who helped take teams to eight bowl games and two national championship contests as an assistant coach at Wisconsin (2006-10), Kansas (2002-05), Montana (2000-01), USC (1998-99) and Drake (1995-97), Doeren was named the 21st head football coach in NIU history on Dec. 13, 2010. Doeren came to NIU after completing his fifth season at Wisconsin in 2010 at the Rose Bowl where the Big Ten champion and 11-2 Badgers met TCU. After spending his first two seasons in Madison as the Badgers' co-defensive coordinator, linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator, he added defensive coordinator duties in January 2008. During Doeren's time at Wisconsin, the Badgers posted a 49-16 overall record and played in the Champs Sports (twice), Outback and Capital One bowls. At Wisconsin, Doeren's defenses were consistently ranked in the top 25 in the nation; while there he coached current National Football League defenders Jonathan Casillas (Saints), DeAndre Levy (Lions) and J.J. Watt (Texans). Doeren arrived at UW after four seasons (2002-05) at the University of Kansas. He was the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator for three seasons at KU before being promoted to co-defensive coordinator in 2005. Prior to his time at Kansas, Doeren coached the secondary at NCAA FCS power Montana for two seasons. Montana won the I-AA national championship in 2001 and went 28-3 with two conference titles in his time there. He started his college coaching career as an assistant at Drake from 1995-97 where he coached linebackers, before becoming defensive coordinator in 1997. A four-year letterwinner at Drake (1990-93), Doeren earned Academic All-America honors as a senior and graduated with a bachelor's degree in pre-medical biology and a master's in educational leadership. HUSKIE MULTIMEDIA Watch NIU-UMass
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BACK HOME AGAIN: After playing on the road three times in the last four games and in each of the last two weeks, Northern Illinois welcomes the newest Mid-American Conference team, the University of Massachusetts Minutemen, to Huskie Stadium for the first time. NIU will play on Saturday for the final time during the regular season.
HOME HAS BEEN SWEET: Northern Illinois is back home where the Huskies own the second-longest home winning streak in the country at 19 games. Following Wisconsin's home loss last week, NIU's streak ranks behind only LSU, which puts its 22-game streak on the line versus Alabama Saturday. The Huskies have not lost a game in DeKalb since Sept. 26, 2009, when Idaho claimed a 34-31 win. Northern Illinois also has won 14 straight Mid-American Conference games at home, dating to a 33-30 overtime loss to Central Michigan on Nov. 12, 2008.
ADDING ON: With each victory, Northern Illinois' 2012 seniors are adding to their record as the winningest senior class in NIU history. The 2012 senior class unseated their 2011 counterparts as the school's winningest group ever with the win at Akron and are now adding to that mark. The 2012 seniors have won 37 games between 2009-12. See page four for more on NIU's 16 seniors.
BEST MARK: Northern Illinois' 8-1 record matches the 2003 Huskies as the best posted by any NIU team in its major college history (since 1969). The last Huskie team to open a season with a better record was the 1965 squad that went 9-0 in the regular season before falling to North Dakota in the Mineral Water Bowl.
BOWL ELIGIBLE: Northern Illinois is bowl-eligible for the fifth straight season and will extend the longest bowl streak in Huskie history in 2012. NIU has ended the last four seasons at bowl games with appearances in the Independence (2008), International (2009), Humanitarian (2010) and GoDaddy.com (2011) bowls.
STREAKING THRU THE MAC: The Huskies currently own the longest conference winning streak in the country with 13 straight victories over Mid-American Conference opponents, dating back to the team's first MAC game a year ago at Central Michigan (Oct. 1, 2011). The Huskies' MAC winning streak includes its win over Ohio in the 2011 MAC Championship game.
HUSKIES IN THE MAC: NIU is 113-90-2 all-time in MAC games with a 77-45 (.631) record since 1997. The Huskies have won 20 of their last 21 and 25 of their last 29 MAC regular season contests. Northern Illinois is in its 27th season as a member of the Mid-American Conference; the 2012 season is NIU's 16th in the MAC since rejoining the league in 1997.
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: With a 44-11 record since 2003, NIU has raised its all-time record at Huskie Stadium to 150-97-2 for a .606 winning percentage. Northern Illinois is 63-38-1 (.622) all-time in home Mid-American Conference games with a 42-19 (.688) mark versus the league in Huskie Stadium since 1997.
RECEIVING VOTES: Northern Illinois has re-entered the "Also Receiving Votes" category of the three college football polls. NIU is in the USA Today Coaches Poll for the third straight week and has 39 points, up from 14 a week ago. Northern Illinois has 12 points in this week's Associated Press Poll (up from five) and 58 points in the Harris Interactive Poll. In the preseason, NIU earned one point in the AP poll and two points from the coaches. The Huskies finished 2011 ranked 28th and 26th, respectively by AP and USA Today, the second straight year Northern Illinois ended up in the Top 30.
FIRST TIME: NIU and UMass meet for the first time Saturday; the Minutemen are the second of two first-time opponents on the Huskies' 2012 schedule, following the UT Martin Skyhawks. UMass is in its first season in the MAC, but first-year head coach Charley Molnar is no stranger to the league as he has coached at Kent State, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and Central Michigan.
BRONC BUSTING: Northern Illinois won its eighth straight game with a 48-34 defeat of Western Michigan in Kalamazoo last Saturday. Quarterback Jordan Lynch accounted for 410 yards and six touchdowns as NIU overcame a 21-17 halftime deficit with 28 straight points in the third and fourth quarters. Lynch tied his career high with four touchdown passes, two each to Tommylee Lewis and Da'Ron Brown, while Martel Moore caught seven passes for 120 yards. Defensively, the Huskies got a big interception and return from Jamaal Bass to set up a touchdown and Sean Progar contributed a career high three sacks. Lewis set up another NIU score with a 44-yard punt return and Mathew Sims kicked career long field goals of 54 and 49 yards.
ANOTHER STREAK: Add another streak to Northern Illinois' list that includes active overall, MAC, home, road and MAC home winning streaks. NIU enters Saturday's game at UMass with eight straight November victories over the last two seasons. Northern Illinois has not lost a game in November since Nov. 27, 2009 when the Huskies lost to Central MIchigan on the last day of the regular season.
LYNCH'S RECORD STREAK: Jordan Lynch has run for at least 100 yards in each of the Huskies' last seven games dating back to the Army game, which has set a new NCAA record for most consecutive 100-yard rushing games by a quarterback. In addition, with 136 rushing yards on 21 carries at Western Michigan, NIU quarterback Jordan Lynch tied Huskie great Garrett Wolfe's 2004 record for most consecutive 100-yard rushing games in a season. Overall, Lynch has eight 100-yard games in 2012 and needs one more to tie the single season school record.
SPEAKING OF STREAKS: After completing 18-of-28 passes for 274 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions at Western MIchigan, Jordan Lynch has now thrown 146 passes without being picked off. His interception-less streak spans five games (since the fourth-quarter of the Kansas game) and he has thrown only three INTs on the year.
STARTING ANEW: Northern Illinois saw its streak of seven straight weeks with a MAC West Division Player of the Week snapped last week following the Akron game. However, NIU made up for that slight with a couple of impressive performances at Western Michigan that garnered MAC West Player of the Week honors for defensive end Sean Progar and kicker Mathew Sims. Progar made a career high three sacks (see page 5) to lead the Huskie defense at WMU, while Sims scored 12 points on the two longest field goals of his career and added six PATs to earn the Specialist award.
NO. 6 IS NO. 1: NIU quarterback Jordan Lynch continues to lead the nation in yards of total offense, and with 3,169 yards, is just the second Huskie (joining Chandelr Harnish in 2010 and 2011) to amass more than 3,000 yards in a single season. Lynch has 1,185 rushing yards on 170 carries to rank second in the nation behind only Nevada's Stefphon Jefferson. Lynch has accounted for more yards of total offense than 45 FBS teams, including LSU, Boise State and Notre Dame. His rushing total is higher than 40 teams, including Penn State, West Virginia, Rutgers and Michigan State. Lynch's averages of 352.1 yards of total offense and 131.7 rushing yards per game, rank sixth and fifth in the country, respectively.
SCORING CHAMP: Jordan Lynch accounted for a career-high six touchdowns at Western Michigan with four passing and two rushing to raise his nation-leading total to 32 touchdowns. Lynch scored at least two rushing TDs and threw two touchdown passes in a game for the third consecutive game. He has at least one passing and one rushing score in NIU's last five contests and has totaled 17 passing and 15 rushing touchdowns. With 32 total touchdowns, Lynch leads the country in TDs Responsible For and with 10 points per game, he ranks 16th nationally in scoring. His 32 touchdowns also rank third on the Huskie single season chart.
GROUND GAME: Jordan Lynch has surpassed the thousand-yard mark in rushing to become the latest member of NIU's 1,000-yard season club. The Huskies have now had a player rush for 1,000 yards in 13 of the last 14 seasons dating back to 1999. Lynch's total already ranks in NIU's single season Top 20, and he is within reach of the NCAA FBS record for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a season, set by Michigan's Denard Robinson in 2010 with 1,702 yards.
HE CAN PASS TOO: It's not all about the rush for Jordan Lynch. The NIU junior is directing a successful passing attack as he has completed 61.5 percent (147-of-239) of his passes for 1,984 yards and 17 scores on the year. He leads the MAC and ranks 23rd in the country in passing efficiency with a 152.20 mark, has not thrown an interception in 146 attempts and has passed for at least 200 yards in seven of NIU's nine games.
LONG DISTANCE BOOT: Huskie kicker Mathew Sims earned MAC West Specialist of the Week honors for the second time this season after kicking the two longest field goals of his career, including the longest field goal in NIU history, at Western Michigan. Sims broke the Northern Illinois record with a 54-yard field goal at the end of the first half that was 10 yards longer than his previous career high. He kicked the second-longest field goal of his Huskie career in the fourth quarter with a 49-yard boot.
SACK MAN: NIU senior defensive end Sean Progar picked up his second MAC West Defensive Player of the Week award with a career-high three sacks Saturday at Western Michigan. Progar upped his season sack total to a team-leading seven by dropping Tyler Van Tubbergen three times for losses totaling 19 yards. The Huskies' most experienced player will play in his 50th game Saturday versus UMass and ranks fourth all-time at NIU in quarterback sacks with 22.5 and is eighth in tackles for loss with 36.5. He has 38 tackles this season and 159 for his career.
MORE, MORE, MOORE: Huskie senior receiver Martel Moore continues his climb up the NIU record book with the best season of his stellar career. Moore recorded his eighth career 100-yard receiving day, and the fourth of 2012, with seven catches for 120 yards versus Western Michigan. Moore is up to fourth on the NIU all-time list for career receiving yards with 2,178 and is one of only five Huskies all-time, and the first since 2005, to surpass the 2,000-yard mark. His seven touchdown catches this year match his career high while his 48 catches are the most in his career. The Texan ranks fourth all-time at NIU in catches and is tied for sixth in touchdown catches.
MMM...PANCAKES: Huskie tight end Jason Schepler continues to pile up the pancake blocks as his return from tearing his ACL twice over the last 18 months has keyed the Huskies' rushing success. Schepler, a dominating blocker on the edge, collected four more pancakes at Western Michigan and now has 37 through nine games, an average of 4.1 per game. He added his second catch of the season, and the longest of his career, with a 29-yard reception to ice the game in the fourth quarter. NIU leads the MAC and ranks 12th nationally with 241.9 yards per game while running much of the way behind Schepler, the only fifth-year senior on the Huskie offense. Schepler's second career touchdown catch - a 13-yard grab at Akron - came nearly two years after his last reception, in the 2010 MAC Championship game. He has been named one of the team' offensive players of the week three times.
NO EXPERIENCE, NO PROBLEM: Northern Illinois entered the 2012 season with TWO returning starts on the offensive line as only guard Jared Volk, who was returning from a knee injury, had ever started a game for the Huskies. Eight players make up the 2012 offensive line rotation, helping power a rushing attack that ranks 12th in the country and leads the MAC as the Huskies average almost 250 rushing yards per game. There is not a senior in the bunch as tackle Matt Krempel and Volk are juniors, tackles Tyler Loos and Ryan Brown and guard Tyler Pitt are sophomores, and guards Matthew Killian and Aidan Conlon, and center Andrew Ness are redshirt freshmen.
MOBILE MEN: With Marlon Moore in the NIU line-up at cornerback, half of the Huskies' starting defensive backfield came to DeKalb from Mobile, Alabama. Moore, a true freshman from C.F. Vigor High School, joined safety Jimmie Ward (Davidson HS) at NIU this season and, like Ward, has made an immediate impact. Ward is the Huskies' leading tackler with 70 stops and ranks second on the team with nine pass break-ups; he and Moore are tied for the team lead with two interceptions each.
USE `EM ALL: Northern Illinois has converted 13-of-17 fourth-down attempts in 2012 after going one-for-two at Western Michigan. At Akron, Jordan Lynch's 35-yard touchdown run came on fourth-and-two, marking the third time that NIU has not only converted, but scored, on fourth down. The Huskies' 76.5 percent conversion rate is the best of any team that has at least 15 attempts.
STAFF TRANSITION: On Sept. 3, Northern Illinois announced that first-year offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar's duties would be reassigned so that he could focus on his battle with cancer. Offensive line coach Rod Carey is handling game-planning and play-calling duties. Joe Tripodi, a third-year graduate assistant who coaches the Huskie tight ends and fullbacks, was elevated to a full-time assistant position and added recruiting responsibilities.
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• Huskies in the Postseason • 2013 Printable Schedule  • Printable Season Statistics • 2012 NIU Football Seniors Complete Bios • Recruiting Questionnaire • Interactive Guide • Orange Bowl Media Guide • Orange Bowl Central • NIU Football Media Supplement • Archives • Jordan Lynch for 6 • Yordon Center 360º • Huskie Stadium 360º • Huskies in the NFL • Football History • 2012 Fan Promotions • Visiting Team Guide • All Letterwinners 05/07/2013 - Football Registration Open for 2013 Football Summer Camps05/06/2013 - Football Five Huskies Named to National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society05/06/2013 - Football Huskie Great Larry English Honored by NIU Alumni Association05/01/2013 - Football Five 2012 NIU Seniors Heading to NFL Camps04/23/2013 - Football HUSKIE STADIUM TO GET NEW SCOREBOARDS AND AUDIO SYSTEM FOR 201304/20/2013 - Football Black Defeats Cardinal 31-7 in First Huskie Bowl04/18/2013 - Football Bill Mallory Selected for Induction Into MAC Hall of Fame04/17/2013 - Football Carey at Cubs Rescheduled04/13/2013 - Football INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES HIGHLIGHT NIU'S SPRING GAME04/10/2013 - Football Teams Set for Inaugural Huskie Bowl
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