So, whatever happened to Northern Illinois?
The school that thundered into the Top 25 for the first time since 2013 after upsetting Notre Dame as a four-TD underdog back on Sept. 7, then lost to Buffalo in its encore performance. But Monday NIU spent the afternoon on the blue turf in Boise, Idaho, playing Fresno State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
Which NIU coach Thomas Hammock made even more famous — sort of — by describing the postgame french fry victory bath his players gave him as, well, “You know, that was the best dump of my career.”
Perhaps Irish coach Marcus Freeman, who handled the Frosted Flakes shower last December in the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl a little more eloquently, might be of some assistance.
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But the team that nearly extinguished Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff inclusion became the rallying point that fueled an 11-game winning streak heading into a Jan. 1 CFP quarterfinal matchup between the 7 seed Irish (12-1) and 2 seed Georgia (11-2) in New Orleans. That’s the second-longest active win streak in the FBS to Oregon’s 14.
The Huskies, meanwhile, won four of their last five games to finish 8-5, capped by Monday’s come-from-behind 28-20 double-overtime victory over the Fresno State Bulldogs. Or was it “Bulldongs?” The ESPN graphics crew repeatedly showed the latter reference during the broadcast.
Northern Illinois played the game without two of its notable contributors to the Irish upset. Quarterback Ethan Hampton was one of five Huskies starters, along with a handful of reserves, who opted out to hop into the transfer portal. He landed at Wake Forest, then relaunched after Demon Deacons head coach Dave Clawson resigned, before settling on Illinois.
Running back Antario Brown, on the NFL’s radar, missed the final three regular-season games with an injury, then missed the bowl game. Against Notre Dame, he gashed the Irish defense for two receptions for 125 yards and a TD, and 99 rushing yards on 20 carries.
The Huskies outrushed the Irish that day, 190-123.
It’s one of the things NIU continued to do well, sitting at 16th in rushing offense and 20th in rushing defense nationally heading into the bowls and CFP postseason. In fact, Northern Illinois did a lot of things well on the defensive side of the ball — fifth in total defense, second in third-down conversion defense, 15th in pass-efficiency defense, 20th in sacks, among them.
The only four teams ahead of the Huskies currently in total defense are or were all in the CFP.
Where NIU eroded post-ND was on offense — 117th in pass efficiency and 95th in scoring offense being two of the statistical eyesores. Turnovers hurt the Huskies in tight games as they finished 85th in turnover margin.
Maybe Freeman owes Hammock a phone call after all is said and done.
And then again maybe they’re even.
All you need is ...
Almost lost in the spectacle of Jeremiyah Love’s 98-yard TD run Friday night in the 27-17 CFP first-round dismissal of Indiana is the 50-year-old school record he deleted and is now putting some distance to.
The sophomore has now scored a rushing TD or more in 13 consecutive games, two more than Wayne Bullock did back in the 70s and something no other FBS running back has done this season.
But what about the bigger picture nationally?
The NCAA doesn’t list consecutive games with a rushing TD (or more), but it does list consecutive games with at least one TD of any kind. And that mark has been held since Dec. 31, 2002 by Virginia Tech’s Lee Suggs, at 27 straight games.
Love also blipped over the 1,000-yard mark for the season (1,057 and counting) on Friday night, the 21st 1,000-yard season in ND history. And he’s climbed to No. 2 nationally in yards per carry at 7.42. New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier is No. 1 at 7.52, and his season is over. So is his career as a Lobo, as he’s transferring to Utah for next season.
As impressive as Love’s numbers were against Indiana, the nation’s No. 1 rush defense coming into the ND matchup, so was the effort he had to simply be available to play.
Not only did Love put in the work to recover from a knee injury sustained in the Nov. 30 regular-season finale at USC, he battled illness in the days and hours leading up to Friday’s night’s victory.
“We didn’t do anything for him. That was all him,” Freeman said Monday during a press conference at Notre Dame Stadium. “He is a tough individual that had some flu-like symptoms and did what it took for him to go out and perform.
[ND associate athletics director of strategic and football communications] Katy [Lonergan] showed me an interview. At least he kept his clothes on in pregame warmup, not like some of those wideouts.
“He’s a competitor, man. There was nothing that was going to prevent Jeremiyah Love from playing on Friday. He played at a high level, too.”
More than a mantra
“Next man in” sure looks good on a T-shirt and sounds good in a soundbite, but Freeman has made it a lifestyle that’s continued to show itself time after time this season.
Just on the defensive line alone, the Irish lost vyper ends Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore to season-ending knee injuries in September, backup interior D-lineman Jason Onye for personal reasons shortly thereafter, 2023 All-American Howard Cross III for most of November, though he’s back.
And now defensive tackle Rylie Mills, after suffering a playoff-ending knee injury Friday night against the Hoosiers.
“You don’t prepare them in a week. They’ve been preparing every single day all season long,” Freeman said of backups Gabe Rubio and Armel Mukam, who move up to the top of the depth chart. “That’s why every rep you do in practice matters and is evaluated.
“Because you don’t know when that rep is going to be thrust against Georgia. You have to prepare in a way in practice that you’re, one, improving, but, two, you’re ready if your number’s called. We got a lot of guys that prepare that way and that will have a bigger role.”
Mills was so key in so many facets on the Irish defense, but the most difficult one to replicate may be pass rush. He leads the Irish with 7.5 sacks. To put that in perspective, the only Irish defensive linemen to amass that many sacks or more in a season since ND won its last national title (1988) were All-American Jerry Tillery (8) in 2018 and freshman defensive end Bryce Young’s father, Bryant Young, in 1992 with 7.5.
Squibs
• Unlike routines for bowl games that can accommodate players taking a short break to go home for Christmas, that won’t be the case in playoff mode for the Irish.
“We’re going to celebrate Christmas together,” Freeman said. “It’s an honor, it’s a privilege to be able to celebrate Christmas together with your football program, with your football family and to be practicing for a College Football Playoff game. There’s a lot of college football teams that would want to do that.
“We’ve got to make sure we understand that. Our guys do. None of those guys are thinking about going home — at least they won’t tell me if they are. We’re going to have Christmas together, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
• ND kicker Mitch Jeter went 2-for-3 on field goals against Indiana, with the miss — a 37-yard attempt — being the fourth time one of his kicks was blocked this year. On the ones that have not been blocked, Jeter is 8-of-11, even battling a hip injury for the second half of the regular season.
That included makes from 49 and 33 yards against the Hoosiers.
“The issue from Friday was not the issue from a couple weeks back,” Freeman said of the block. “It was a low kick. We’ve just got to get a little more height on that. Early in the season it was more protection issues than the actual kick [on the blocks].
“Just mis-hit it a little bit low. He really did some good things. Mitch did some wonderful things in that game. Again, his confidence level is high and mine is in him too.”
• Comparing the numbers of the current Notre Dame team on defense to the 1988 national championship team? Pretty similar, actually.
The 1988 national champs ranked third nationally in scoring defense and 13th in total defense. Al Golden's unit is third in scoring defense and eighth in scoring D.
And as far as the three Irish teams recently in the national title chase, 2012 was No. 7 in total defense and No. 2 in scoring defense, 2020 was 23/14 and 2018 was 30/13.
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