ntertaining, yes. Surprising, no. NIU’s come-from-behind victory over Wake Forest was enough to beat the Deacs, but far from impressive.

While everyone – outside of DeKalb – considered Wake a favorite by at least a touchdown, was it wrong to think NIU could, and should, win the game? Face it, NIU is long removed from the days of its 23-game losing streak from 1996-98. And while many students here continue to think “NIU sucks” in every athletic endeavor we play in, Smokin’ Joe Novak and his crew really aren’t that bad, people.

They aren’t so bad that a 42-41 OT win over Wake Forest should suffice.

Wake did have a solid season last year at 6-5 and returned 16 starters. But we had an equal 6-5 mark and returned 18 starters in what is widely recognized as the best team in the Novak Era (1996-present).

Yes, I do realize that the Atlantic Coast is far superior than the Mid-American Conference, but the MAC does deserve some credit. We lost to Wake the last game of last year by a miniscule three points (38-35). Also take into account that while our QB situation wasn’t the surest of things, Wake’s starter was a punter in ’99 and only saw time last year due to a lack of options with injuries.

Also on Thursday, Wake was without 1,000-yard rusher Tarence Williams (broken right foot) and the No. 8 rusher in the ACC last year in Fred Staton (academically ineligible). That would be the equivalent of us missing star tailbacks Thomas Hammock and Michael Turner. Now, would anyone give us a chance if we were without those two?

It turned out to be an incredibly high-scoring game, so either Wake Forest’s offense was extremely underrated, or, NIU’s much-hyped defense isn’t deserving of all that hype. Although star safety Lionel Hickenbottom got inured the fourth play of the game, what was supposed to be our strong point, defense, was definitely lacking.

The Demon Deacons set the tone of the ground game when they ran out onto the field before the game and inadvertently ran over one of our cheerleaders.

Although Wake had no 100-plus yard runners, they did whatever they wanted against us. Even though we had more rushing attempts than Wake, they ran through, over and around us for 355 yards, with two players (Nick Burney and Fabian Davis) averaging 10-plus yards per carry (12.8 and 17.3, respectively) and a team average of seven yards. Remember, they were without the aforementioned Williams and Staton.

While Wake’s passing game wasn’t quite as impressive, they did have two pick-offs to our none, and several open opportunities downfield that a nationally ranked No. 9 defensive secondary shouldn’t allow to happen.

On the bright side, none of Wake’s six touchdowns came on passes, and we held its quarterback, James MacPherson, to 107 passing yards.

Helping to keep the fans in their seats was All-American-candidate placekicker Steve Azar, who nailed a 51-yard field goal with no time on the clock heading into halftime — the most popular time to leave — and a semi-entertaining fire works show at the intermission, as well. Right when Wake looked to run away with the win midway through the third quarter, sophomore NIU quarterback Josh Haldi connected on a 44-yard bomb to true sophomore Dan Sheldon to bring NIU within four — another important seat planter.

While a large portion of the announced 19,653 fans did stick around for the culminating heroics, despite NIU trailing throughout regulation, many also caught the game from their living rooms.

With the game on Fox Sports, I ran into a surprisingly large amount of people who were too lazy to get out and make the trek to Huskie Stadium, but had some inspiring words about the TV broadcast.

“It made NIU look pretty awesome,” said one TV spectator about the game and commercials hyping the DeKalb stores, campus and athletics. On top of that, the Huskies’ coverage on SportsCenter Thursday night was better than anyone could’ve imagined. Michael Turner’s 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown was on Top Plays and the game itself was the second featured college football game and appeared within the first 15 minutes of the program.

A spot in the limelight; something we’re not used to, but definitely could grow accustomed to.