The Marshall Thundering Herd and Northern Illinois Huskies are playing live on the college football bowl schedule and the matchup in the Boca Raton Bowl has NIU taking on the C-USA side from FAU Football Stadium in Florida and coverage is on TV from ESPN and streaming on the WatchESPN website starting at 6 p.m. ET.
Northern Illinois comes into the game after a win against Bowling Green to end the season and they are 11-2 after going 7-1 in the MAC. The team now has the chance to get another win against a solid opponent and they are led by Drew Hare, who had 2097 yards and 17 touchdowns this past season. Hare was second on the team with 850 yards and another eight touchdowns and now he will be the key for this matchup.
The Huskies were one of the best rushing teams in the nation, as they were ranked 14th with over 250 yards per contest. The team is averaging 32 points per game this season and they were ranked in the top 40 in points against per game with 23 points allowed. The team has won seven straight games and they ended up going 7-1 in the MAC after losing their first conference matchup with Central Michigan.
Northern Illinois put up over 50 points in their last game and now they matchup with Marshall on the bowl schedule. Marshall comes into the game at 12-1 on the season and they come in after a win against Louisiana Tech and they have Rakeem Cato coming in after leading the team with over 3600 passing yards. The team was 7-1 in their conference and they are one of the top offensive teams in the nation.
Marshall comes in after putting up over 500 yards per game on offense and they were ranked in the top 20 in the nation in passing and rushing yards per game. Marshall was one of the top scoring teams in the nation, dropping over 40 points per game and they also were ranked 22nd in the nation in points against with just 20 allowed per contest. The team was 18th in passing yards per game with 287 per contest and they averaged over 270 yards rushing per game to rank seventh in the nation. The team was fifth in scoring and they only lost once this season.
The matchup they lost was a thrilled, falling 67-66 in overtime with W. Kentucky and now they have Northern Illinois. The team won games big this season, dropping 63 points against Southern Miss and they also had over 50 points against Old Dominion.
Check here for the Marshall Thundering Herd and Northern Illinois Huskies live coverage.
