After months of build-up, it’s finally here.

The NIU football team opens up its 2007 season by hosting Iowa on Saturday at historic Soldier Field in Chicago.

The sold-out game is slated for a 2:30 p.m. kick-off and has already set a MAC attendance record as more than 61,500 tickets have been sold.

As for the Huskies, they’re just eager to get this show on the road.

“It’s time to play and we are all very excited,” said head coach Joe Novak. “We have had three very good weeks of preparation and we are a lot better football team than we were three weeks ago.”

Awaiting the Huskies will be a Hawkeye team that got the best of NIU in a 24-14 victory last Oct. 28 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa.

In that game, NIU got a good look at Saturday’s starting quarterback for Iowa, sophomore Jake Christensen.

“We are very excited that their quarterback Christensen played against us, that is the only game that he started all year,” Novak said. “We are familiar with him and what he can do.”

On the other side of the ball, NIU quarterback Dan Nicholson steps onto the field as the No. 1 quarterback to start a season for the first time in his career.

Taking over as the starter and playing at Soldier Field has Nicholson ready to go.

“This is the opportunity I’ve always wanted,” Nicholson said. “Coming in with a chance to start the season there; I’m just really excited about it.”

Both teams have their fair share of questions heading into the game regarding an inexperienced offensive line, but one thing Iowa doesn’t have to worry about is its running back situation.

Albert Young and Damian Sims combined for 1,443 yards and will be a challenge for Novak’s defense.

“They do have a young quarterback,” Novak said. “So we are going to have to stop those backs and try and make [the quarterback] make some more plays.”

The Huskies are no strangers to playing in a loud and crazy atmosphere, considering NIU has opened up the last two seasons at Michigan and Ohio State, respectively.

Even though the Huskies are technically considered the home team this Saturday, Iowa fans are expected to greatly outnumber NIU fans. But that doesn’t have Novak worried.

“Who ever executes better wins the game,” Novak said. “They may have more fans there but we’ll have a hell of a lot more there than we did last year against them.”