Welcome Back Huskies!

As the head coach of YOUR Northern Illinois Huskies football team, it is my pleasure to welcome all new and returning students to campus for the 2010-11 school year. We are so glad you are here and hope you are looking forward to getting the year started off right with some Huskie Football!

Your Northern Illinois football team has been working hard to prepare for the 2010 season. There is a lot of excitement around our football team this year as we have been picked to win the Mid-American Conference West Division by many publications and in the league’s preseason poll. Each of our last two seasons have ended with a bowl game and the team is focused on bringing home a MAC Championship in 2010.

We can’t accomplish our goals without your help. We need a full house and a loud crowd! We are counting on our students to continue to make Huskie Stadium one of the toughest places to play in the Mid-American Conference. Come to the games, get there early and be loud.

We have five games at Huskie Stadium this year. There are four Saturdays and one Tuesday night when we need you to stay here in DeKalb, pack the stands from kickoff to the final whistle and make as much noise as possible. I want to see you in the stands behind our team and I want to see you there for the WHOLE GAME. Our team feeds off of your energy.

This season, we’ll have Thunderstix, the Dance Cam and more. Tickets are FREE to all Northern Illinois full-time students and are distributed on campus the week of the game. The first home game is Saturday, Sept. 11 versus North Dakota, we will play Temple – the team picked to win the overall MAC title – on Oct. 9 at home and the Homecoming game is Oct. 16 versus Buffalo. On Oct. 23, we have a chance to knock off defending MAC Champion Central Michigan at Huskie Stadium, and the home schedule closes out on Tuesday, Nov. 9 when we will take on our nemesis, Toledo, on ESPN2.

This is your Huskie football team and we need YOU to be the difference makers for your team this year.

We can’t wait for the season to get started and hope you feel the same. Let’s all have a great 2010!

Go Huskies!