
Nine years after beating Iowa State in DeKalb, the Huskies gained another home victory over a team from a BCS conference. Northern Illinois mounted a furious fourth-quarter comeback to pull out a 30-23 victory over Kansas in Huskie Stadium.
The Huskies (3-1) trailed 23-13 at the start of the fourth quarter, but scored 17 unanswered points to knock off the Jayhawks. For the second straight week, the Huskies received a big fourth quarter to pull out a victory.
“I’m proud of the way we finish games around here,” NIU coach Dave Doeren said. “I think it’s the way they’re coached; the way they believe in the leadership that our players have taken, and taken themselves, on the field. I can look at every man eye-to-eye on the sideline and know that I’m going to get what I want out of them, what I ask of them, in the fourth quarter.”
The Huskies got the best out of Charlie Weis-coached Jayhawks to claim their 11th all-time victory over a BCS program.
The back-and-forth nonconference clash featured NIU leading 13-10 at halftime, but Kansas quarterback Dayne Crist and James Sims engineered a second-half comeback.
NIU quarterback Jordan Lynch reverted back to his fourth quarter tricks to lead the Huskies back. Lynch recovered from throwing an interception that led to a touchdown with a short pass to Martell Moore, who raced 65 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown. Lynch helped the Huskies amass 455 yards, averaging 5.61 yards per play to mark the third consecutive 400 or more yards game for the Huskies.
The Huskies drove 44 yards for the tying field goal in the fourth, and won the game with a 53-yard drive on their next possession after a 2-yard touchdown run by Leighton Settle. Lynch sparked the Huskies with 134 yards rushing to go along with 235 passing.
“When we do what we have to do, and we play mistake-free football, there’s not a lot of teams that can stop us when we’re on the page,” Lynch said.