The impossible made possible. But how? NIU football’s biggest star, Michael Turner, didn’t exactly look like a Heisman hopeful Thursday night.

Turner wiped his face clean of all the pre-game sweat right before the opening kickoff and looked like he had the pressure of all 28,018 fans packed into Huskie Stadium on Thursday night. “Turner the Burner” wasn’t his usual firing inferno but rather a piece of kindling gently crackling in the wind.

He did have his moments – a 42-yard screen pass setting up a go-ahead score in the second quarter – and Turner did get a lot of the team’s buzz with 90 yards rushing (he needed 30 carries to get them). But he didn’t play like the nation’s top returning rusher, nor did he have a great game. But, then again, neither did a lot of the Huskies.

What does this mean? The win against No. 13 Maryland wasn’t a fluke. Sure, Maryland was handcuffed by penalties in the second half – six for 60 yards, – but possibly the ACC refs were just trying to look impartial after putting the shackles on NIU in the first half – four for 48 yards.

The hang-time Maryland punter Adam Podlesh put on his kicks allowed the nation’s top punt returner, Dan Sheldon, to rack up a monstrous 8.7 yards per return. Turner under 100 yards rushing and Sheldon a non-factor in punt returns: Tell that to Vegas before the game and I’m sure the pendulum starts to tilt even more to the half-shelled creature.

As fate would have it, none of the Vegas oddsmakers knew what the Terps were in for. And, contrary to what they said, neither did the Maryland players themselves.

In the post-game press conference, the Terps’ players acted like they knew Huskie Stadium would be a complete madhouse. They said they knew to expect more of NIU than a simple directional school in the midwest stuck in the boonies. But there’s no way an ACC school, with Florida State on the schedule for next week, comes into DeKalb, Ill. to face a mid-major school and doesn’t take them for granted in the least bit.

Now, the Huskies find themselves in the Terps’ … shell.

It happened last year, the exact same scenario, when NIU topped an ACC opponent, Wake Forest, in overtime. That game also was at home, and to start the season nonetheless. In their next home game, the Huskies invited in a Division I-AA school, Western Illinois. Perhaps still on a high from the win against Wake Forest, NIU lost 29-26.

Come Saturday, waiting for NIU will be Division I-AA team Tennessee Tech. Not a powerhouse by any means, but NIU coach Joe Novak and his crew should take note of Maryland.

“I like the maturity of this team,” said Novak, in response to if his team would be ready for Tennessee Tech and be focused. “We can count on our senior leaders. I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

To Novak’s left was growing veteran quarterback Josh Haldi. The junior emphatically shook his head side to side, as if to say he wouldn’t let NIU come into the game halfheartedly.

Let’s hope they don’t, because with Alabama up next after Saturday, that could serve as NIU’s Florida State, and Tennessee Tech could be a lesser version of the Huskies.

Realistically, Tennessee Tech is garbage and no Western Illinois from a year ago. But don’t tell that to the Huskies, they need to be focused.