There aren’t many times a MAC athlete leads the nation in a statistic, let alone have talk that one day he’ll be playing in “the league.”

But that’s what NIU will have to face Saturday as it goes against Miami (Ohio).

However, it isn’t one of the RedHawks linebackers that fits this bill, and it isn’t any of their skill players. It’s not even one of their linemen.

No, the player the Huskies face this week that might be in the NFL one day is punter Jake Richardson.

“Any time you can kick the ball 60-yards in the air and hang it for 4.4 seconds, you’re special,” said NIU coach Jerry Kill.

Richardson leads the nation with an average of 48.1-yards per boot. After a sub-par weekend, the senior holds first place by only a 0.8-yard margin over T.J. Conley of Idaho.

Oh, and that bad weekend against Temple – his worst performance of the years so far – Richardson punted the ball seven times for an average of 40.4-yards per punt.

Not too bad for a bad day.

“He’s got great technique. He’s been coached well,” Kill said. “He’s got an explosive leg.”

The punter’s best game this season came against Michigan as he punted seven times for 377-yards, or an average of 53.9-yards per kick.

His longest kick that day traveled 74-yards, breaking his previous long of 69-yards against

Northwestern two seasons ago.

But what makes Richardson more dangerous than just his strength is his accuracy and control of the ball.

“He just catches it and lets it rip. His foot hits the right spot of the ball and it’s going to fly,” NIU

punt returner Me’co Brown said. “He puts the ball in the perfect spots.”

With 197 punts and 8,414 punting yards in his career, Richardson proved he can be an effective weapon for the RedHawks.

However, NIU has also shown that it can be a punter’s nightmare this season.

The Huskies have blocked three punts in five games this season.

However, blocking Richardson won’t be NIU’s main focus of attack.

“It’s one of those things when you have a good punter like this, that the most important thing we have to do is do a good job catching it and not let that ball bounce and give up field position,” Kill said. “We’ll work it and try to do some things and try to create some pressure: try to make him uncomfortable.”

Brown said he and the other punt returners have practiced a little differently this week in preparation of Richardson.

“Coach Fleck has brought us up some extra yards and then kicked it over our heads so then we ran back, opened up and squared our bodies on it so we caught it right,” the freshman said. “You just got to catch it, get vertical and hopefully I’ll have more room to run. I’ll just do what I have to do.”