For one half of football, the NIU Huskies looked like a team that could compete in one of the country’s toughest conferences. They trailed by just four points at halftime on the road against the unbeaten Mississippi State Bulldogs.
But unfortunately, NIU has starred in that movie before. And, of course, it all fell apart.
The Huskies (1-2) surrendered 24 points after halftime as Mississippi State basked in the cowbells of victory on Saturday, rolling to a 38-10 victory at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi. It marks NIU’s worst loss since a 44-12 drubbing by Akron in the 2022 season finale.
After holding its previous six opponents to 20 points or fewer, the Huskies had their streak broken early in the third quarter after Mississippi State put up a six-play, 75-yard scoring drive to go up 21-10. The Bulldogs dominated the yardage battle 452-267, fueled by a 292-yard rushing performance. Running back Fluff Bothwell had a 101-yard day on the ground, while Davon Booth finished with two touchdowns.
“Obviously, they ran the ball effectively against us, but you really have to pick your poison,” head coach Thomas Hammock said postgame. “We can sit there and stop the line, and they can throw for 400 yards.”
NIU held Mississippi State veteran quarterback Blake Shapen to a season-low 160 passing yards and sacked him twice, but struggled to contain him out of the pocket. Shapen frequently slipped from defenders as he finished with 51 yards.
Meanwhile, NIU quarterback Josh Holst turned in arguably his best performance of the season, completing 61% of his passes for a season-high 135 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Holst’s first touchdown of the new campaign came on a 24-yard connection to Lenoir-Rhyne transfer DeAree Rogers on the first play of the second quarter, putting NIU ahead 10-7.
Holst nearly had his second touchdown pass on NIU’s first drive of the second half but overthrew Gary Givens III on a post route to the end zone. Four plays later, Holst was intercepted in the end zone by Bulldogs safety Isaac Smith.
Despite only putting up 10 points, Holst said he felt like NIU had a great game offensively.
“I just feel like we’re right there, and everybody knows what we’re capable of,” Holst said. “We’re super close to breaking through.”
A tale of two halves
Saturday’s clash in Starkville was a tale of two halves for the Huskies, who outgained the Bulldogs 170-148 and won the time-of-possession battle 17:44-12:16 in the first half.
NIU opened the day with a 30-yard field goal by Andrew Glass on its first drive to take an early lead. Mississippi State responded with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that culminated in a 10-yard touchdown run by speedy wideout Brenen Thompson, putting MSU back on top.
After Holst’s TD pass to Rogers, the Huskies tried to pull a fast one on the Bulldogs with an onside kick, but it was recovered by Mississippi State in NIU territory. The defense then failed to get a fourth-down stop near midfield and was penalized for defensive pass interference one play later to set MSU up in the Huskies’ red zone. Shapen finished the drive with a 1-yard TD pass to tight end Seydou Traore. Both teams traded punts twice to give NIU possession with 35 seconds in the first half before Holst kneeled out the remaining time.
Once the second half hit, Rogers said NIU became “lackadaisical.”
“We thought we were going to come out, and they were still going to be scared of us, or something like that,” Rogers said. “We’ve just got to keep our foot on their neck from here on out with the rest of these teams
Mississippi State fired out of the halftime break with a six-play touchdown drive. Bothwell opened with a 22-yard run before Shapen completed three consecutive passes — including a 45-yard deep shot to Jordan Mosley — to set up Booth’s first scoring run.
NIU answered with an offensive drive that marched all the way to Mississippi State’s 16-yard line. After losing 4 yards on a second-down carry, Holst tossed his second interception of the season to erase any chance of scoring points.
Pouring it on
From there, the Bulldogs continued to stack scoring drives. MSU added a 48-yard field goal from Kyle Ferrie before capping its next two offensive drives with rushing touchdowns — a 6-yarder from Booth and a 1-yard punch from Xavier Gayten.
With the Huskies trailing by four touchdowns with under five minutes to go, they sent in true freshman quarterback Brady Davidson to relieve Holst and take his first college snaps. The former three-star recruit completed one of his two passes for 7 yards and took a sack on what would be NIU’s final offensive play before Danny Vuckovic attempted his third punt.
The Bulldogs bled off the remaining 2:35 with five consecutive rushes to finalize their third straight home victory — and their first 4-0 start since 2014. NIU, on the other hand, drops to 1-2 as it prepares to return home next week to finish non-conference play against San Diego State.
Even with an improved offensive showing, Hammock knows his team needs more. But now, at least there’s something to build off of.
“We put our defense in a bad spot in the second half by not controlling the game, not putting points on the board, not staying on the field in situations,” Hammock said. “We have to play better offensively. But I thought, for a half, we played well. Now, we’ve got to put two halves together.”
