The last time NIU won the MAC football championship, Ronald Reagan was president, the Cold War was raging and McDonald’s McNugget was introduced.

So when NIU (9-3, 7-1 MAC) takes the field against the Ohio Bobcats (9-3, 8-2 MAC) in Detroit Friday, it will try to be the first team since 1983’s championship squad to win the title, something 28 teams before them failed to achieve.

“We’re playing for the last 28 teams that have been at NIU that haven’t won it,” said NIU coach Dave Doeren. “That’s kind of [been] our rallying cry: Let’s do something that no one’s done here for 28 years.”

NIU has reached the championship game three times since 1983. The pressure to win is felt by all, especially after the Huskies loss to Miami (Ohio) last year, but the players say they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“There’s always pressure every week, but it’s want you want,” said NIU defensive tackle Nabal Jefferson. “I would do this for a hundred years, a thousand years; I would do this every year if I had to.”

Despite the mounting pressure, NIU safety Dechane Durante said there will be no difference in how the Huskies usually prepare for an upcoming game.

“There hasn’t been really any difference in preparation,” Durante said. “We just wanted to get indoors and practice indoors this week because the game is in Detroit at Ford Field. Last year, we had a lot of guys cramp up, so we’re trying to get a feel for playing indoors. But as far as practicing goes, everything is pretty much the same. We’re going to approach it like any other game.”

MAC Title games are traditionally hard fought. What makes the game even more interesting, however, is that the Huskies may have to figure out how to beat themselves as Ohio and NIU have very similar styles of play.

“If you’re going to compare them [to anyone], you’d compare them to us,” Doeren said. “They run a lot of the same plays on offense. We have similar quarterbacks and similar skills. We have an offensive line, both of us, that’s physical and big, and defensively, we’re both 4-3 teams that play a lot of the same coverages.”

The similar quarterback Ohio has is sophomore signal caller Tyler Tettleton.

“He really doesn’t [compare to any other quarterback we’ve faced]. He’s faster than any of them. When he runs, he’s very dangerous,” Doeren said. “We haven’t really seen a guy, in my opinion, that runs as much as him.”

Tettleton broke 11 Bobcats single season records this year and ranks third in the MAC with 26 touchdown passes. Talent surrounds him in wide receiver LaVon Brazill and running back Donte Harden, but it may be Ohio’s defense that will help the most. This season, Ohio allowed opponents to convert five times on fourth down. The Bobcats’ red-zone defense held opponents to 32 scores on 39 chances. Doeren said the Bobcats’ defensive statistics don’t lie.

“They’re very sound,” Doeren said. “Statistically across the board, they’re in the top half in most categories. They’re anywhere from third to fifth in almost every defensive stat.”

While Ohio will pose challenges to the Huskies on both sides of the ball, NIU proved it has what it takes to win close games, and due to a new approach, it may have an edge over the Bobcats in the fourth quarter.

“Our thing is to finish games, and in the beginning we had a hard time finishing games,” Jefferson said. “Our coaches have brought together a four quarter approach, so we look at it quarter by quarter. When the fourth quarter comes, we have to bring it up a little bit, and it’s a matter of knowing that if you do this, you’ll win the game. If you make that stop, you’ll win the game, so it’s a matter of getting ready for it and picking up your level even more to where you can make that play at the last second and finish the game.”

In back-to-back years, both of these schools have lost the MAC Championship: Ohio in 2009 and NIU in 2010.  Both teams will be hungry to avenge their losses, but the senior NIU players who experienced the painful loss last season seek redemption.

“We have unfinished business in Detroit,” said senior NIU linebacker Jordan Delegal. “As a senior class, we’re ready to end this the right way. Not even do it for us, but for the rest of the team. For Huskie Nation out there, it’s been 28 years since the last one. It’s about time.”