The countdown is on.

In twenty-four days, the Huskie football squad will put their current eight-game home winning streak on the line against Eastern Illinois in their season opener.

“I’m excited about this season,” head coach Jerry Pettibone said. “I think we’ve got a chance to be a great team. Everything is there for us to realize our goal, and that is to go to a bowl game.”

Last year’s team finished at 9-2, the best mark in Pettibone’s five years at NIU. That team set or tied 31 school records, including most total yards (4,502), most rushing touchdowns (40), most overall touchdowns (46), most points (344) and most extra point kicks (37). For his success, Pettibone was named The Sporting News 1989 Independent Coach of the Year.

Yet they were snubbed by the election committees of every bowl game in the country.

“We felt we were a bowl-worthy team last year,” Pettibone said. “We had one of the top rushing offenses in the country and we finished 9-2.”

The key to NIU’s success this year is quarterback Stacey Robinson. He was suspended for academic reasons during spring practice and his status for this fall won’t be known until the end of this week after finals, according to Pettibone.

Robinson set 14 individual school records last season, and also set two national records while tying a third. His 1,443 yards rushing broke the single-season mark of 1,315 held by Dee Dowis of Air Force. He also had the best single-season rushing average by a quarterback, 131.2 yards a game, surpassing the 118.2 yards a game held by Tampa’s Fred Solomon. Along with Brian Mitchell of Southwest Louisiana, Robinson tied Solomon’s single-season mark of 19 touchdowns.

Gone from the 1990 Huskie defensive picture are four starters, linebacker Ron Delisi, cornerback Brett Tucker and tackles Ted Hennings and Phil Bucaro. That would be quite a load for any team to lose, but Pettibone isn’t worried.

“I’m not concerned about the defense,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of good players and they practiced well this spring. I’m convinced that they’ll go out and work hard during fall camp to get better. They’ll be ready to go.”

The schedule facing NIU this season is a tough one. Seven of the eleven teams had winning records last year and two, Nebraska and Fresno State, appeared in bowl games. This is the year in which the Huskies will host their first Big Eight guest, Kansas State, will play at Huskie Stadium.

“I think it’s a great schedule,” Pettibone said. “It’s just about as good a schedule as this team could want. Having to play the caliber of teams that we have is going to give us the opportunity to prove to ourselves and to the country that we have the type of team I think we’ve got.”

Are you thinking ahead to playing Nebraska and Northwestern?

“The biggest game we’ve got right now is Eastern Illinois,” he said. “We’re not going to pick out any special teams along the way, since that would be a big mistake.”

The game at Northwestern on September 29 is currently being considered by ESPN for a national telecast, as part of their Big Ten package.

Fall camp for the Huskies begins this Friday when the veterans report to the team. Physicals will be held Saturday and the players will be tested on Sunday. Two-a-day practices will start next Monday, and on Thursday the team will drill with full pads.

The NCAA says the first three days of practice must be used as a conditioning period where no pads will be used, according to Pettibone.

The fall drills will end on Saturday, Aug. 25, and beginning Monday, Aug. 27, Pettibone and his staff will hold regular game-week practices.

The prospect of improving on last year’s 9-2 mark has Pettibone looking forward to 1990.

“We need to keep improving the team overall, we’ve got a lot of experience on our team,” he said. “Our expectations are high for this season and the worst possible thing we can do is be complacent. We need to continue to work hard and set day-by-day goals that will help us prepare for Eastern Illinois.”