Jerry Kill is certainly buying into home field advantage, and can you blame him?

Twenty-two thousand fans showed up for last week’s Homecoming matchup versus Toledo. Prior to this week’s Bowling Green game, Kill sent out a student-wide e-mail encouraging students to once again come out in full force for the game.

I can’t say the student body was out in full force Saturday, as the total attendance was only 17,163. When I looked back to see how many seats were filled, it wasn’t what I expected. I mean this in both a good and a bad way.

With it being the weekend after Homecoming and the Huskies team that has been on a roll and back to 2006 form, I thought there would be another 20,000-plus crowd in attendance.

Then I saw the weather in DeKalb on Saturday. It was cold, it was windy and the flags at Huskie Stadium looked more like sheet metal than nylon.

Even though the weather was pure football weather, NIU fans (many of them at least) don’t like to sit out in the cold and watch the game. It’s understandable in a way. The game was on television and Huskie Stadium doesn’t sell beer (if they did, it’d be cheaper outside anyway).

To give my full credit to those in attendance, you were loud. I made sure to catch the game on Comcast afterward to see if I could hear the fans, and I could, at least those of you warm enough to scream.

This was a big game for NIU before hitting the road to face ranked Ball State. In college football, teams need to win home games, and it’s tough to win home games when the crowd isn’t behind that team. That, and the Huskies were coming off of a big win and the Toledo hangover needed to be avoided with a win over the Falcons.

Whatever home field advantage was present at Huskie Stadium on Saturday certainly helped out.

The offense was far from the juggernaut form at it was a week ago, so the Huskies needed the loud, aggressive fans.

The Huskies’ next home game is Nov. 12 against defending conference champion Central Michigan, a week after Ball State. So if you’re not in class that Wednesday night, be there.