The consensus of the Huskies football coaches and players coming into Saturday’s 6:35 p.m. game against Kansas State is that the Wildcats are a much improved team from last year’s 1-10 record.

“Kansas State is a good football team. They’ve done a real good job of building the team from where it was last year and really adding a lot to it,” Huskies head coach Jerry Pettibone said. “Several of the players we played against last year have been replaced by better players. And the ones that are back are playing with a lot of confidence. I’m really impressed with their team.”

The Wildcat defense has done a complete turnaround from last season and comes into DeKalb with the No. 2 scoring defense (6.5 ppg) in the country and a 2-0 record.

“We’re coming up against a different team than we beat last year. They’ve got an emotional defense that plays hard,” NIU offensive coordinator Mike Summers said. “They replaced some veteran players from a year ago that had been a part of their losing and now they have some new faces that are happy to be part of the defense. I think they’re much improved on defense from an attitude standpoint.”

Is the Huskies offense ready for the improved KSU defense?

“Now that we’ve lost two games in a row, teams don’t respect us anymore and we’re hungry to gain that respect all over again,” NIU quarterback Stacey Robinson said. “I think our attitude is going to be different for every game from here on out.”

The Wildcats offense is led by senior quarterback Carl Straw (22-38 with 395 yards passing) and running back Pat Jackson (193 yards on 32 carries and four touchdowns). Straw’s favorite receivers are wideout Michael Smith (six catches for 136 yards) and split end Frank Hernandez (nine catches for 224 yards).

“They’re going to throw the ball. They’re going to drop back and throw the ball to Smith and Hernandez,” Pettibone said. “They’re going to run the ball with Jackson when they’re in the I-formation or the one-back set. He’s going to be their threat to run.”

Summers is looking to improve on last week’s performance.

“We have had three great days of practice and we’re committed to putting our football team back on track,” he said. “All we can do is put our best team on the field against their best team and see if we can win. We feel confident that we can do that. We don’t feel we did that last week against Toledo.”

Pettibone has been impressed with the squad’s practices this week.

“We’ve got some leaders on this team that really stepped forward this week and worked harder and challenged their teammates to get back to the fundamentals of working hard and earning the right to go out there and play on Saturday,” he said. “The practices have been very competitive and very good, and as a result of that I feel we’re going to go out there and play as capable as we can on Saturday night.

Pettibone feels that the attendance for Saturday’s game is important.

“I hope the student body will realize what a big event this is. This is the first time a Big Eight team has come to Huskie Stadium. They’ve got an excellent team and it should be an exciting game. Certainly the students coming to the game wearing red and black and supporting the Huskies can have a significant influence on the game.”