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Iowa football is favored by 31.5-points over Northern Illinois in Saturday's season opener at Kinnick Stadium. 

That's a large point spread, and if you put both rosters next to each other, there likely isn't much they have in common. The Hawkeyes hope to build off a stellar nine-win 2025 campaign, while the Huskies went 3-9 and now have to grapple with a coaching and conference change. 

There's a chance this one gets out of hand early, but as the saying goes, anything can happen on any given Saturday. 

Here are some Northern Illinois players to keep an eye on this weekend: 

QB Taron Dickens 

NIU's quarterback battle remains undecided, but one would think highly-anticipated transfer Taron Dickens will get the starting nod after flipping from North Carolina late in the offseason. Dickens was a star at the FCS level for Western Carolina last season, throwing for over 3,500 passing yards and 38 touchdowns. There were a pair of 500-yard games mixed in to those nine successful starts, and Dickens threw for over 200 yards in each game (Iowa hasn't had a 300-yard passer since 2019).

The Huskies may have some trouble getting their offense going against an unproven, but talented Iowa defense, but one thing that could help them tread water for awhile is Dickens' dual-threat ability. The 321 rushing yards in 2025 were an average mark for such a quarterback, but when you go back and watch the tape, you'll see that he has great escapability and a strong ability to make plays on the run. 

If Dickens loses the competition, it's because Ean Hamric has had more time to learn the playbook. The Charleston transfer threw for over 1,200 yards and rushed for a team-high 485 yards last year, so he's a name to monitor, too. 

RBs Telly Johnson Jr. and Chavon Wright 

While Northern Illinois sorts out its quarterback competition, the winner of the job does have the comfort of having a strong returning running backs corps as their security blanket. Getting Johnson back was a major win for this Husky offense, as Johnson tallied a 712 rushing yards and four scores in 2025. 

You can't forget about Chavon Wright, either. He was the Huskies' leading rusher last season, collecting 875 yards and five touchdowns on 45 carries. Running the football clearly wasn't a problem for NIU last season, and it'll likely have to lean on it to have any chance of competing with Iowa.

WR DeAree Rogers 

Explosive playmaking in the passing game was a foreign concept for the Huskies last season. They averaged just 17.1 points per game, 98.8 passing yards per game, and their leading passer Josh Holst didn't even register 700 passing yards for the entire season. 

Interim head coach Rob Harley will be the first man to tell you that his team needs to throw the football better this year. Any success through the air obviously starts at the quarterback position, but having leading wideout DeAree Rogers is a great step in the right direction, too. Rogers registered a respectable 506 yards and three touchdowns last year, and that number only has a chance to increase with the dual-threat quarterback talent on the roster. 

Mammoth Defensive Line 

Harley's experience is on the defensive side of the ball, and Northern Illinois is going to need that unit to remain strong if it wants to have a bounce-back campaign in 2026. 

The Huskies yielded 24.3 points per game last season, but most of the best players on the defensive side of the ball either graduated or transferred to Power Four programs. There's definitely plenty of unknowns with this group, but Northern Illinois just may have one of the tallest defensive lines in college football. 

Who knows if they'll all be on the field together, but take a look at the size of these three guys: Mississippi Valley State transfer James Bradley (6-foot-5, 240 pounds), Johnston, Iowa native Micah Cook (6-foot-6, 251 pounds), and Garden City Community College transfer Joseph Nnamuchi (6-foot-7, 235 pounds). All are edge rushers, so it will be interesting to see how Harley and Co. utilize them against Iowa.

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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at bradschultz@roundtable.io

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