The Northern Illinois Huskies are in position again to make some noise in the BCS out of the MAC conference and on Tuesday the team will try and continue their undefeated run as they host the Western Michigan Broncos at Huskie Stadium and the game will be live on ESPN2 and streaming on the WatchESPN website starting up at 7:00 pm.
Jordan Lynch has once again put himself squarely in contention for the Heisman trophy with the numbers he has put up and now he will play against one of the worst teams in the conference as Lynch tries to stay undefeated at home at Huskies Stadium for his career. Lynch and NIU already have clinched the west division in the MAC and will once again play in the conference title game and they are just one of five undefeated schools left and they have not lost in 24 games, including last week when they defeated Toledo for a victory to clinch the spot. Lynch was once again excellent with three touchdowns in the second half and now the team has won four straight division titles in the conference.
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The team is looking to win 26 games in a row at home and they need this win badly, as the Huskies are currently battling with the Fresno State Bulldogs, as each team needs to try and get into the top 12 of the final BCS standings to get an automatic bid and that is almost what happened last season when NIU played against Florida State in the Orange Bowl. The two teams will only have one automatic bid between them and they can do that by getting into the top 12 or also finishing ahead of a team that is an automatic qualifier in the top 16 of the standings, which happened last season with Louisville, making wins even more important for both teams and for Lynch.
Lynch has continued to rack up numbers for the Huskies, rushing for over 1,400 yards to lead the team with 17 touchdowns and through the air he has 2,418 yards and 21 scores and he still has two more chances to rack up stats with this game against a terrible W Michigan team and then in the conference championship game. Cameron Stingily had over 140 yards in the win last week and now he too is close to 1,000 for the season and the Huskies are trying to continue a home winning streak that has lasted since 2009 and the team hasn't lost within their conference since back in 2011.
The team comes in ranked seventh in the nation in rushing yards per game and points scored with over 40 and they likely will play against Buffalo or Bowling Green in the championship game in the conference. The win over Ball State clinched the title for the team and Lynch comes in after rushing for over 160 yards last week and now he has 10 rushing touchdowns over his past four games, going for over 98 yards in all of them and 100 in three of them. Lynch has been playing well all season and he has multiple rushing touchdowns in four of his past five games and against Central Michigan he had one of the best games of his career, rushing for over 300 yards with three touchdowns and he also added a passing score.
Northern Illinois will host Western Michigan at Huskies Stadium on Tuesday night and the matchup starts up at 7:00 pm on ESPN2 on TV and streaming online from WatchESPN.