What Mountain West fans should know about Northern Illinois

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What Mountain West fans should know about Northern Illinois
DEKALB, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES – 2025/10/25: Northern Illinois Huskies RB Telly Johnson Jr. (45) scores a touchdown during the Northern Illinois Huskies vs Ball State Cardinals game at Huskie Stadium. Final Score: Northern Illinois Huskies 21:7 Ball State Cardinals. (Photo by Raj Chavda/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

As new teams enter the fold for 2026, it’s important for us to learn more about them before next football season. Over the next few Fridays, we will have the chance to learn from each team’s fans as they share what’s important to know about their favorite teams. The first up is the Northern Illinois University Huskies.

Here’s a link to 125 key moments in the school’s history. For key points about their football program, see below.

5 Conference Championships

  • Northern Illinois has more conference championship appearances and wins than any other current MAC team. The Mid-American may not be on par with the Mountain West, but historically, they have been the best team.

NIU will return 9 starters from 2025

  • That’s not a huge number, but six of those are on offense, which bodes well. Northern Illinois brings back its quarterback, running back, two wide receivers, plus two offensive linemen. On defense, they only see a starting defensive tackle, defensive end, and cornerback coming back next year.

FCS Transfer Focus

  • Like many teams, NIU is trying to figure out their transfer portal philosophy. Under the recently departed Coach Hammock, they plucked top FCS talent, similar to what Coach Eck did with New Mexico.

Boneyard Wins

  • The Huskies call wins over power teams “Boneyard wins,” and they have amassed a nice collection of them:

The Hard Way

  • Another one of their mantras is “The Hard Way,” emphasizing a strong work ethic and not taking shortcuts. It’s a focus on earning success and making opponents fight every game, as demonstrated above against Ohio State.

Mission III

  • Mission III has been roaming the sidelines since late 2023. He attends all home games, homecoming, and other ceremonial duties at community events.

Huckem Fuskies

  • Get used to hearing this battle cry

Fans on Reddit say:

  • With the loss of our coach and nearly all our players, I expect this season to be very, very ugly for us.
  • The 80s were solid and the 90s were legendarily bad. 2003 was insane. 2013 was insane. 2020 we went winless and then won the MAC in 2021. 2024 we beat Notre Dame and lost to Buffalo the next week. We live in the extremes.
  • Huskie Stadium is old and often empty – hopefully the MW money and new media schedule will massively help on both fronts.
  • Excited for the new conference a lot. I think a lot of our fans are. I know playing Air Force, Hawaii, and Wyoming regularly is a much better “feeling” for a lot of us than playing November games in Michigan or Ohio.
  •  think we will be awful next year. I have a feeling our all-time great QB Jordan Lynch will be coaching in 2027, and we will get back to our normal G6 good team, but right now, we are in a tough spot.
  • Amazing live mascot who is THE BESTEST BOY!
  • For 2026, NIU football has real reasons to be excited. After Thomas Hammock’s recent departure to the NFL, Rob Harley steps in as interim head coach, bringing strong defensive experience from stops at places like Ohio State and Pittsburgh — that continuity could stabilize the program heading into the Mountain West Conference. On staff, OC and QB coach Quinn Sanders arrives with a track record of success as a head coach at Charleston and should energize the offense.

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