One win sure can push a team into the national spotlight.

After being picked as high as 45th nationally by The Sporting News, NIU surged into the national rankings after its 20-13 upset over then No. 13 ranked Maryland.

The Huskies received 43 votes in the Associated Press poll and 26 in the USA Today/Coaches Poll, which was good enough for 30th and 33 nationally.

This is the highest ranking for the Huskies since 1989, when coach Jerry Pettibone’s team checked in at No. 26 in the now-defunct UPI poll.

MAC vs. BCS

After week one of the college football season, the MAC was 1-6 against teams from the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) conferences.

The only win came in NIU’s upset.

“Other people in this conference have stepped up,” Novak said. “Playing close was nice, but it was time we did our share.”

However, the MAC did finish with seven wins.

One of those wins was Kent State’s upset over Akron, the only conference game of the week.

Boogie online

Think Michael Turner is the only Huskie to have his own Web site?

Think again.

Junior free safety Lionel Hickenbottom now has his own version of www.turnertheburner.com.

Hickenbottom’s site, www.lionelhickenbottom.com was a mystery to even Hickenbottom.

“Someone gave me the Web site,” Hickenbottom said. “I think it was some of my friends from home.”

The site features a profile, updated game stats and a section where the fan can give input on just how good Hickenbottom is.

Hobbled Huskies

After dealing with injuries all of last year, the Huskies again will have to deal with the injury bug, at least this week.

Quarterback Josh Haldi is nursing a sore back and wide receiver Dan Sheldon has a sore left knee, but both are expected to play against Tennessee Tech.

“I might have been hit that many times, but they hit me pretty hard,” Haldi said. “We were able to get the ball off, but we knew it was coming. It’s part of the game.”

As for Sheldon, the injury was a little more scary for him.

“My leg went numb from the knee down,” Sheldon said. “I didn’t know what happened. When I came back it was still painful.”

X-Rays came back negative on both players, but Sheldon will have further testing on Thursday.