NIU football (2-2) will take on Central Michigan (1-3) in its first MAC game of the season.

The Huskies will look to win for the first time at CMU since 2005. The Chippewas have dropped three games in a row to Kentucky, Western Michigan and Michigan State, all by wide margins.

Despite its modest foe, NIU head coach Dave Doeren said Central Michigan will still challenge NIU.

“Even though they haven’t gotten off to the start they’ve wanted, they’ve played really good football with some good teams,” Doeren said. “Their defense is still battling and keeping them in games. They play hard. They’re sound. It’s going to be a good Midwestern game.”

The Chippewas have some talent, especially in junior wide receiver Cody Wilson, but there will be a lot of freshmen playing in maroon and gold Saturday.

“They’ve gone through a lot of young players, similar to how we have, defensively,” Doeren said. “They had seven freshmen on the field at one time last week against Michigan State.”

Central Michigan historically had some good teams, and went 12-2 in 2009. However, the Chippewas finished 3-9 last year. This year they rank near the bottom of every offensive category.

Besides freshmen with inexperience, the play of Chippewas quarterbacks could be to blame for the poor offensive output.

CMU started A.J. Westendorp in place of the struggling starter Ryan Radcliff against Michigan State last week. The change resulted in Westendorp getting picked off twice in four attempts, and promptly put Radcliff back under center.

“There are times when our quarterbacks look really good, and there are times when we miss routine plays,” said Chippewas head coach Dan Enos on CMUchippewas.com. “We need a guy who can make the routine plays and a guy that can make a special play once in a while for us.”

NIU comes off its first win in three games after a 47-30 victory over Cal Poly, in which the Huskies’ defense allowed 23 second half points after leading 34-7 at halftime, causing doubts about the stamina of the defense.

Even though NIU allowed teams to score late in games, Enos said the Huskies’ defense is still a formidable unit.

“We’re going to see a very good team,” Enos said. “NIU has struggled on defense against Wisconsin and Kansas; Those are two very good teams. So they’re very good on defense, and are a very experienced team with a lot of seniors on both sides of the ball.”

This matchup has the status of a rivalry game, as the Chippewas look to make up for the 33-7 loss from last year in DeKalb.

“We’re definitely looking to get these guys back [for the loss last year], especially since we’re playing them at home,” said Central Michigan senior tight end David Blackburn in an interview with CMUchippewas.com.

The Huskies are also excited to start MAC play and said their intensity level for this game will be sky-high.

“It happens to be the conference opener and it’s at Central Michigan where we haven’t won,” said NIU defensive tackle Nabal Jefferson. “We have a lot of extra motivation to be better than last week and [to] be better than last year in our conference.”