DeKALB | After a difficult triple overtime defeat (40-34) against Univeristy of Wyoming last week, the Huskies had a tough time getting anything started Saturday in Tampa, Florida by a score of 48-17 against the University of South Florida Bulls.

This was the first time the Huskies started off the season losing back to back games — both of which were also on the road — since the 2008 season when they lost to Univeristy of Minnesota 31-27 and Western Michigan University 29-26. The Huskies had a rough start to the game as they were trailing 14-0 after the first quarter and were never able to fully recover, especially after senior quarterback Drew Hare went down with an injury in the third quarter.

The Huskies trailed 27-0 late in the second quarter before cutting the deficit to 20 points with a four-yard rushing touchdown by senior wide receiver Aregeros Turner.

South Florida had two breakout stars in this game. Their senior running back Darius Tice ran for 120 yards on 19 attempts and a touchdown. Junior quarterback Quinton Flowers also had a stellar game. He went 21 out of 33 with 355 yards passing and two touchdowns.

NIU Head Coach Rod Carey knew these were the playmakers they needed to contain in this matchup.

“He’s an elusive guy,” Carey said of Flowers. “He throws the deep ball well and can run. They got us on some big plays; those are things we have to correct.”

The Huskies, sporting their Sept. 11 commemorative uniforms which were red, white and blue inside the NIU helmet logo, were outplayed, losing the total offense battle 658 to 318 yards. NIU defense allowed South Florida to convert more than 50 percent of their third down chances while the Huskies went five for 18 in their opportunities.

Hare was shut down only passing for 96 yards on thirteen completions with Ryan Graham, backup redshirt sophomore quarterback, having nine completions for 65 yards and a touchdown.

The Bulls also kept senior wide receiver Kenny Golladay in check after having more than 200 all-purpose yards against Wyoming. The wide receiver only had four catches for 43 yards.

“They ran the ball, we didn’t run the ball well enough; we couldn’t convert on third down and they did,” Carey said. “We’ve got to coach better, we’ve got to play better. It’s two games; we’ll take 24 hours to learn from this and put it away, that’s what we do.”

The Huskies have their season opener 2:30 p.m. Sept. 17 at Huskie Stadium against San Diego State University.