It’s been eight seasons since the NIU football team opened their season at home.

That streak will come to an end as the Huskies start their highly-anticipated season Saturday night when they take on Army at Brigham Field.

One of the goals of NIU’s senior players is to defend their home turf. The matchup against the Black Knights will be the Huskies’ first test if they want to follow through with that plan.

“That’s one of our goals this year… to win the first game of the season,” said NIU starting quarterback Chandler Harnish, “We want to have an undefeated year, and we can’t go 14-0 without going 1-0 first.”

Besides holding down the fort at Huskies Stadium, Saturday night’s game has implications in other areas as well.

If NIU can pull off a victory, first year head coach Dave Doeren will become the first head coach to win his NIU debut since Jerry Pettibone did in 1985.

The last time the Huskies opened the season at home was 2003 when they upset the No. 15 overall team in the nation, the Maryland Terrapins.

“As a first-time head coach and as a team that’s talked a lot about what the season means to them, we’re all anxious to get on the field and see where we’re at and to play against someone besides ourselves and get into the competition phase of what the season’s all about,” Doeren said.

There has been a lot of hype surrounding the Huskies entering the 2011 campaign.

NIU has numerous players on preseason award watch lists: Harnish, Scott Wedige, Trevor Olson, Sean Progar and Tommy Davis.

With these nationally recognized players, there have been numerous predictions of the Huskies winning the MAC West, and even the MAC title.

“You think you know who you are, but until the lights come on, you want to see them in that competition phase,” Doeren said. “Some guys are going to be better than you thought they were, while others might freeze a little bit.”

The Black Knights are a team that tries to play spoiler each year with its unique offensive scheme.

Army runs a unique triple option offense, which ranked just behind the Huskies rushing attack last season with 251.6 yards per contest.

“[The Army offense] presents some problems,” Doeren said. “You’re playing cut block on every snap. Just the schemes, the way they’re run, it’s a different offense. That’s why you see three or four teams run it, and most of them have pretty good success with it.”

Army fullback Jared Hassin returns from a 1,000-plus yard season including eight touchdowns, and quarterback Trent Steelman returns as the team’s top rushing scorer with 11 touchdowns.

“These are two experienced players and so we got to come out there with the mindset that these guys can’t get hot,” Davis said.