For NIU football’s sophomore wide receiver Sam Hurd, his pinnacle as a Huskie football player, so far, came last season at DuSable Hall when asked for an autograph by a fan and classmate.

When fellow wide receiver P.J. Fleck was a freshman four years ago, he had no such experiences.

“When I first got here, you didn’t really tell people you were on the football team,” said Fleck, a fifth-year senior. “They’d say, ‘Oh, we got a football team?’ Now, you walk around with your head held high.”

When NIU kicks off against top 25-ranked Maryland at 6:35 p.m. today at Huskie Stadium, a sellout is expected. The game will be broadcast nationally on Fox Sports Net.

“It will be the best-covered Northern Illinois event in the school’s history,” said Mike Korcek, NIU’s sports information director for the past 32 years.

The TV show “48 Hours,” which will chronicle the life of former NIU offensive lineman Shea Fitzgerald, who died in June at the Chicago porch collapse, is one of many media outlets that will be at the game.

“Am I supposed to put the Washington Post in the stands?” Korcek said. “It’s even tighter than Toledo or [Bowling Green] last year. I may have to put [Chicago Bears General Manager] Jerry Angelo in the stands because the press box is so full.”

While there still are minimal paid seats left, and no seats for the student section have been sold (students are admitted for free on a walk-in basis), the Premier Club section of middle and red seats on the west side are sold out for the first time ever, Korcek said. If the game does sell out, students will be put in the upper corners on the west side of the stadium.

The hype for this season – NIU being named preseason No. 1 in the MAC – was always something NIU coach Joe Novak saw when he first arrived here in 1996. But along the way, he didn’t always fully trust his plan.

“I was hoping for it to get to this point,” Novak said. “I had a lot of doubts and doubted a lot though.”

The extent of the build-up has been a little overwhelming for him.

“Everywhere I go people just seem really excited about our Huskies,” he said. “There are so many bad things out there in the world, that for our school and our town to gather around our team like this is something really positive.”