Battered, bruised, cut and sore, the NIU football team is by no means at full strength heading into Saturday’s game at Kent State.

“We are a little beat up,” said NIU coach Joe Novak. “We’ve got some injuries, and we’ve got some players out, but it’s that time of the year. I think most football teams are nicked up a little bit. We’ve got our fair share out, but we’re still going to come out and play tough, and that’s the important thing.”

With four and possibly five key players out, along with several that are nursing injuries, NIU (2-3, 0-2) will need its depleted line-up to come out strong against Kent State (1-4, 0-2).

Among those out is junior offensive tackle Tim Vincent, who sprained his ankle in practice this week.

“I’d like to think that if Timmy doesn’t play on Saturday that we’ll see him out there next week,” said Novak.

With a knee problem, junior nose tackle Eric Didesch is hoping to get back into action next week, but won’t be at 100 percent.

Also on the wounded list senior quarterback Chris Finlen, who had four stitches put into his hand during last week’s Marshall game, but continued to play and will suit up against Kent State, as well.

“Chris is really battered up,” said Novak. “But you won’t hear a word about it from him.”

While Finlen is still practicing and will play in the game, junior defensive end Joe Busald will be out for at least a few more weeks, said Novak, with a serious knee problem.

Also with knee problems, starting cornerbacks Randee Drew and Lionel Hickenbottom are both out indefinitely, said Novak.

Despite his setback and being forced to the sidelines, Hickenbottom stays positive: “We’re going in with a winning frame of mind on offense and defense. We’ve just got to stay together as a team.”

Despite the Golden Flashes only having won against 1-AA Bucknell, NIU is not sleeping on its Mid-American Conference foe.

“It’s not going to be an easy game, they are better than what people think,” Novak said. “They have a veteran defense, and offensively they’ve got a very talented freshman quarterback (Joshua Cribbs). So we are going to have to play well defensively.”

Looking to learn from past mistakes, Novak blames last week’s loss to Marshall on himself but feels that the team is looking good going into this weekend.

“We didn’t play with any emotion last week,” Novak said. “I’m responsible for that. We put a lot of emotion into the Toledo game, and we felt that was a big game and then when we didn’t win it, it’s hard to get that emotional peak every week. Even though it was Marshall and the whole deal, we were flat.

“We’re not good enough to not play with a lot of emotion. So we’ve got to come back this week and try to get that back, and we’ve worked hard this week and it’s going to be a good game.”