The big game for the NIU football team this season was last Saturday in Nebraska. And although the Huskies lost that game 48-17, they still have to line up nine more times this season. No matter how bad the loss was to the Cornhuskers, it leaves the Huskies with a 1-1 record and a chance at having a winning season.

Head football coach Jerry Pettibone believes his team learned a lot from this experience, despite the loss.

“Our players understand now what it takes to compete on that level of football,” Pettibone said. “The only way that you can get better is you’ve got to play the best. If you don’t, you never have a yardstick of where you are and what you need to do to get to where they are.”

The Huskie head coach isn’t just happy that his team learned something by playing perennial powerhouse Nebraska; he also saw many things on the field that made him optimistic about the future.

“We saw a lot of very positive things on the film,” Pettibone said. “We saw some guys that played hard and competed well against a nationally-ranked team. We saw mistakes that were made, but they weren’t made from lack of effort. They were technique type things that can be corrected. I was encouraged by everything that happened over there.”

After a battle like the Nebraska game, there’s a tendency for morale to be down. But the Huskies refuse to hang their heads low. The team realizes it has nine more weeks to rebound.

“One game does not make a season, and certainly a loss to a great team like Nebraska is not devastating to us at all,” the Huskie head coach declared.

“It’s a tough loss, but we went up there and shocked a lot of people,” said senior linebacker Ron Delisi. “This game’s over with now. We got nine games left and we’ll put it all on the line again. We should beat every team on the schedule.”

Nebraska was a top program for the Huskies to face. Their next opponent, Kansas State, may be one of the worst. K-State hasn’t won a game in over two seasons and is the only major Division I college football team to boast over 500 losses in its history. Will the Huskies be flat after playing one of the biggest games of their lives?

“Every weekend you got to bear yourself to play a good football game.” Delisi said. “You can’t overlook them (Kansas St.) because if you overlook somebody, you get beat.”

The Huskies will have a week off before returning to action against K-State on Sept. 23. The time off is something the Huskies can definitely use.

“We’re a little dissapointed in ourselves, and we’re all tired. But we’re looking forward to the open date,” said lineman Ted Hennings. “We can just relax, but we’re going to practice hard. It’ll be a little more relaxed then last week.” It may be a little too early to be thinking rematch, but the Huskies do play Nebraska again next season. Pettibone feels this year’s game can only help the Huskies next year.

“They know what it’s like to run out there, and there’s 79,000 and a sea of red. They heard the band play, they heard the roar of the crowd,” Pettibone said. ” And now it’s not something they have to build up in their imagination. They know what it will be like.”

With a week off and the bulk of the season to come, you can bet the Huskies aren’t going to dwell on one game. After all, a 10-1 season could put them in a bowl game and make for a great rematch next season against Nebraska.

Following the first-ever matchup with KSU, the Huskies return home to face intra-state rival Western Illinois at Huskie Stadium. The week after that, homecoming takes center stage as another state rival invades Dekalb. This time the Salukis of Southern Illinois face the Huskies. NIU boasts a 47-24-10 homecoming record over the 82 years the event has taken place. In the stadium, NIU is 13-9-2 for homecoming games.

Looking to future home opponents, the Huskies welcome the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (Oct. 21), Southwestern Louisiana State (Nov. 4) and the University of Toledo (Nov. 11) to DeKalb.

The only way that you can get better is you’ve got to play the best. If you don’t, you never have a yardstick of where you are and what you need to do to get to where they are.”

Jerry Pettibone, head football coach