Chris Finlen could not be any happier about the way the offensive line played Thursday night.

The offensive line only allowed two sacks in the Huskies’ 20-17 win, while enabling the Huskies to run for a total 200 yards & 177 coming from Thomas Hammock.

“They did a great job,” Finlen said. “They seemed to get a little tired at the end, but the conditioning during the summer definitely paid off. Thomas Hammock rushed hard and that made a big difference.”

Despite rushing for career yardage against South Florida, Hammock wanted to give the credit to the offensive line.

“They held their own tonight,” Hammock said. “Coming into the season there were a lot of questions about the offensive line. They stepped it up big in the second half.”

Tim Vincent thought otherwise, though.

The senior offensive lineman said most of the yards came from Hammock himself and not from the line opening up holes.

“We were kinda dragging at the end of the game,” he said. “But I was proud how the whole offensive line sucked it up at the end of the game and put together some successful drives.”

Beutjer looks at NIU: According to Chicago Sun-Times reports, former Iowa quarterback Jon Beutjer plans to apply to NIU.

The former USA Today’s Illinois Player of the Year also plans to apply at Virginia and applied at Illinois Thursday. He needs to be enrolled by the 12th day of classes — Sept. 7 in the case of Illinois and Sept. 14 for NIU — to be eligible to play next fall. Iowa has to give its consent for each school he explores, the Sun-Times said.

NIU in the NFL: Ryan Diem, Jermaine Hampton and Justin McCareins made their respective teams after the NFL announced their final cuts Sunday.

Hampton, an undrafted free agent, and Diem both made the Indianapolis Colts squad, while McCareins stayed on with the Tennessee Titans. Diem and McCareins, who caught three passes for 109 yards and a 57-yard touchdown pass, were both drafted in the fourth round.

Cameron Saulsby was released by the Carolina Panthers and McAllister Collins was let go by the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Television exposure: The Huskies’ game against Illinois Saturday will be on WLS/Channel 7 in Chicago. Kickoff will be at 11:10 a.m.

The last time NIU had a game on television was last year, when the Huskies’ 52-22 loss against Western Michigan was televised on FoxSports.