NIU coach Joe Novak needs you.

The 6:05 p.m. Friday home game against Bowling Green will put the Huskies on the national stage, and Novak wants to show the nation how loud NIU students can be.

“I want to challenge the students to go out to the game and be louder than they have ever been,” Novak said.

Student pickup for the game is at 2,100 tickets as of Tuesday. For Southern Illinois, it was more than 4,000 at this point in the week.

“I know it’s different being that it’s a Friday night game, but this is Bowling Green on ESPN,” Novak said. “This is the game of the season for our team and our university, and we need our fans to be out there with their ThunderSticks, screaming and yelling.”

More than anything, Novak wants to see the entire football team run over to the student section like they did after the win against Maryland last season.

Novak said his players feed off the student fans, being as they, too, are students and it means so much to them to have their peers out there behind them.

The game also puts NIU in a position to show off its team and university to potential recruits. Even though many will actually be playing for their high school teams, the coverage is still priceless, Novak said.

“If we have the fans out there then recruits will see that and that can only make our program better,” Novak said. “If recruits see what kind of fans we have here at NIU, then it will only make our football team better in the future.”

Novak has issued the challenge to all of NIU, and he is hoping the students take up the call to fill the stands with red and shake the stadium Friday.

“People from other universities come up to me and tell me how hard it is to play [at NIU] because of our fans,” Novak said. “They all wish they had what we have, and now is the chance to show it off not just to our conference, but to everybody. We need your help. In our biggest game, don’t back down now.”