The Huskies head west, to the blue turf of Boise, to take on the Bulldogs for just the sixth time.
The Northern Illinois Huskies and Fresno State Bulldogs, a pair of teams ravaged by the transfer porter, will square off in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl this Monday afternoon.
The teams have had almost a month off, both last playing on November 30th. The Huskies (7-5, 4-4 MAC) won three of their last four games to secure a trip to Boise while the Bulldogs (6-6, 4-3 Mountain West) find themselves on the opposite side of the spectrum, having lost three of their last four games.
Game Notes
- Time and date: Monday, December 23, 2024 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time
- Location: Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho
- TV options: ESPN
- Gambling considerations: NIU (-3), with an over/under of 39.5.
All Time Series
This will be the sixth meeting between the two schools with the Huskies holding a slim 3-2 lead.
The teams first met in 1972, with Fresno walking into Huskie Stadium in DeKalb and earning a 9-6 win in a field goal fest. The very next year, in 1973, NIU repaid the favor by heading Fresno and claiming a 24-15 win.
The teams wouldn’t meet the next sixteen seasons but then, in 1990, with the Bulldogs ranked #24 in the country, NIU would pull off one of the biggest top-25 upsets of all time. The Huskies ran all over the Bulldogs, amassing a school-record 733 rushing yards en route to a 73-18 beat down. The 55-point win still ranks as one of the largest margin of victories over a top-25 team in NCAA history and was the first time the Huskies defeated a ranked team at Huskie Stadium.
However, the teams would once again meet the very next year, with NIU traveling to Fresno, and the Bulldogs got some semblance of revenge. Fresno State earned a 55-7 blowout win of their own and finished the season 10-2.
It would be another 19 years before the teams met again. In their most recent meeting, which also took place in Boise, Chandler Harnish and Chad Spann led the Huskies to a 40-17 win over the Bulldogs in the 2010 Humanitarian Bowl.
Getting to Know the Bulldogs
Photo by Ian Maule/Getty Images
The Bulldogs started the season strong, winning five of their first eight games, but have struggled in the home stretch and have dropped three of their last four games. And, to make matters worse for the Bulldogs, they have lost most of their offensive production to the transfer portal.
Fresno has lost a lot of players to the portal as well. Their starting quarterback, Mikey Keene, is gone. Two of their top three receivers, Jalen Moss and Raylen Sharpe, are gone. Two of their best cornerbacks, Julian Neal and Al’zillion Hamilton, are gone and a third, Cam Lockridge, will miss the bowl game. One of their better linebackers, Phoenix Jackson, is gone.
Without Keene at quarterback, it will be either Joshua Wood or Jayden Mandal, under center and neither of which have attempted many passes this season. The pair has attempted a combined eight pass attempts, with Wood going 2/5 for 15 yards with an interception and Mandal completing as many passes to opponents as he has to his team – going 1/3 with eight yards and a pick. Wood, however, can use his legs effectively, as he has 26 rushes for 86 yards and five touchdowns.
Their leading receiver, Mac Dalena, is leaving for the NFL Draft but should play in this game. He has 58 receptions for 947 yards and eight touchdowns. But the Bulldogs don’t have much behind him, as their second and third leading receivers have transferred out, leaving tight end Richie Anderson as the team’s second leading receiver with 17 catches for 142 yards. Cheldon James is listed on their two deep as the second wide out and, on the year, he has just two catches for 41 yards.
Their ground game is mostly intact but has been ineffective this season. They do bring their two leading rushers into the game – Elijah Gilliam and Bryson Donelson. Donelson will get the start and has 62 carries for 380 yards and two scores while Gilliam, in limited carries the last three games, has 466 yards and eight TDs on 121 carries.
On defense the Bulldogs do have their two leading tacklers playing – linebackers Tuasivi Nomura and Malachi Langley. Nomura has a team-leading 97 tackles on the season, with six tackles for loss, four pass break ups, and a fumble recovery. Langley has tallied 75 stops and four TFLs on the sesaon, with three sacks, two forced fumbles, and a team-leading six quarterback hurries.
With out Hamilton, Neal, or Lockridge, the Fresno secondary is depleted. That trio combined for 26 pass break ups and nine of the Bulldogs’ 14 interceptions. However, former Kent State Golden Flash, Dean Clark, will start at safety. Clark is third on the team, with 58 tackles, and has three pass break ups, 2.5 TFL, two sacks, and an interception.
Up front, the Bulldogs have lost defensive linemen Gavriel Lightfoot and Jacob Holmes leaving Devo Bridges as their best threat at getting pressure. Bridges has 46 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and six quarterback hurries.
Getting to Know the Huskies
Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images
The Huskies, much like the Bulldogs, were not immune to the transfer portal and will look very different from the team we saw during the regular season, as can be seen in the two deep depth chart here. NIU will be playing without their starting quarterback, running back, wide receiver, defensive tackle, and safety, among others.
With quarterback Ethan Hampton transferring to the University of Illinois, Josh Holst will once again get the start with Jalen Macon backing him up. Holst, on the season, is 47/81 (58%) with 411 yards, an interception, and has added 165 rushing yards and a TD on 33 carries.
Holst does have most of his receiving options returning for the bowl game. They do lose Trayvon Rudolph, who leads the team in receiving yards by a single yard – with 392 – but Cam Thompson will play. Thompson has 391 yards on his 28 receptions and has a team-leading three TD receptions. Grayson Barnes and Andrew McElroy will also play. Barnes has 281 yards and two touchdowns on 25 catches while McElroy has snagged 24 passes for 243 yards.
Halfback Antario Brown is not listed to play so Telly Johnson and Gavin Williams will split the carries, as they have done for the last few games. Johnson has come on strong in the final third of the season and has 424 yards and four TDs on 85 carries while Williams leads the team with 135 carries and 741 yards and also has four scores.
Defensively the Huskies have some big gaps to fill. They lose defensive linemen Skyler Gill-Howard, Jalonnie Williams, and Nevaeh Sanders and defensive backs Amariyun Knighten and Santana Banner.
NIU’s two leading tacklers, linebackers Jaden Dolphin and Christian Fuhrman, will play. Dolphin has 55 stop, 2.5 TFL, and a pick while Fuhrman has 54 tackles, 3.5 TFL, and an interception.
While they do lose three strong players up front, NIU does still have Roy Williams and Devonte O’Malley on the D-line. The duo has combined for 14.5 sacks and 18 tackles for loss. Both ended the regular season with 37 tackles with O’Malley adding a team-high eight sacks and 11.5 TFL, and also netting four QB hurries, a pass break up, and forced and recovered a fumble.
Nate Valcarcel and JaVaughn Byrd will still lead the secondary, with Jordan Hansen replacing the departing Santana Banner as the the other safety. Hansen is no stranger to playing and has 20 tackles with 1.5 TFL this season, while Valcarcel has a team-high eight pass break up along with 50 tackles, two sacks, two TFL, two picks, and a fumble recovery. Byrd has 39 stops, three break ups, and forced a fumble.
Prediction
The Bulldogs have a very depleted offense going against a very stout defense, even with the key losses. The Huskies have a run-heavy, grind-it-out offense that struggles to score but should still be able to move the ball.
With Holst having a lot more in game experience, the Huskies look to have the edge in backup quarterbacks, which could make or break the outcome of the game.
But, as with all NIU games, this will probably come down to the final possession and be a very close, very low scoring affair.
Fresno State – 17
NIU – 21