Thursday NCAA: Eastern Michigan Eagles at Northern Illinois Huskies
Well, if you don’t want to watch the Virginia Tech-East Carolina football game and there’s no World Series Game 7, you might be inclined to tune into Thursday’s MAC game between Eastern Michigan and Northern Illinois. It’s a statistical fact, by the way, that games on national TV, even those from smaller conference, get a bigger betting handle here at WagerWeb.com – this one is on ESPNU.
Northern Illinois (5-3, 3-1) is a 20.5-point favorite over Eastern Michigan (0-8, 0-4), which might well be the worst team in I-A this season.
It appears that NIU starting QB Chandler Harnish will not start for the third straight game because of a knee injury. He didn’t practice on Tuesday, meaning DeMarcus Grady likely will get his third straight start at quarterback.
All you need to know about Northern is how many yards it rushes for. In the last two seasons, when NIU rushes for over 200 yards as a team, the Huskies are 11-0. Conversely, when opponents hold Northern Illinois to less than 200 yards rushing, the Huskies are 0-10. After a two-touchdown performance against Akron last week, NIU RB Chad Spann is tied for the No. 5 ranking nationally in scoring. Spann has scored 14 touchdowns so far this season, 13 of which have come on the ground. The junior halfback also has 593 rushing yards on the year. Eastern’s defense is giving up 277 rushing yards a game.
Eastern Michigan, playing back-to-back road games on a short week after traveling home from Arkansas this past Saturday, has struggled immensely on offense this season, especially after losing quarterback Andy Schmitt to a season-ending knee injury.
EMU junior QB Kyle McMahon played his best game Saturday at Arkansas, logging his first career three-touchdown performance. McMahon didn’t play in the Eagles’ first three games, and has only completed 10 passes twice in the five games since. Junior tailback Dwayne Priest has gone over the 100 yards rushing mark only one time this season.
The EMU defense hasn’t been much better, allowing 63 points to the Razorbacks last week and at least 24 points in every game this season.
NIU won 37-0 the last time the teams met on Sept. 27, 2008, and has won seven of the past eight in the series. Really this game shouldn’t be close. The Huskies hung with Wisconsin this year, beat Purdue and barely lost to an underrated Idaho team. Their defense held Akron to just 31 rushing yards and 235 yards of total offense last time out. The Huskies have won five of their last six league home games, including a 2-0 mark in 2009. The only loss over the last two seasons came in overtime to Central Michigan last November.
Meanwhile, EMU hasn’t come within 12 points of an opponent yet this season.
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