Opponent Links, Week 2- Northern Illinois Huskies

-Northern Illinois played three quarterbacks in their 55-3 blowout win against Presbyterian, but Coach Rod Carey made one thing abundantly clear yesterday: the days of multiple QB's are over. This is Matt McIntosh's team now. For what it's worth, that story has a quote from an NIU player that calls this a "battle for the state" game.

-The Huskies became the first MAC team to ever play in a BCS bowl game when they were controversially selected to play Florida St. in the Orange Bowl, which they lost 31-10. Kirk Herbstreit was one of the harshest critics of NIU's inclusion, but had nothing but positives to tell the Chicago Tribune about the Northern Illinois football program last week.

-This game means a ton to Northern Illinois. They are 0-6-1 against Northwestern all time, but have gone 4-3 against B1G schools in the past seven years and are expecting to win. Expect them to be ready to play come Saturday.

-Here's SB Nation's MAC blog, Hustle Belt, with an in-depth preview of the 2014 Northern Illinois Huskies. Their first game was a glorified dress rehearsal, a 55-3 shellacking of the Presbyterian Blue Hose(s? I honestly don't know, I looked up what a Blue Hose is on the Presbyterian Wikipedia page and it took me to an article titled "Kilt accesories." So are they one collective Blue Hose, or is each player a Blue Hose in himself? Please, if you know the answer, leave it in the comments, I'm dying to know), so Saturday's game is sort of like a season-opener for the Huskies.

-The Huskies will be wearing some slick all-white uniforms on Ryan Field on Saturday. Just got to hope it doesn't rain if you're a Northern Illinois player.