Mississippi State football welcomes the Northern Illinois Huskies to Starkville, hoping to move to 4-0 to start off 2025. The Huskies are 1-1 on the year, and HC Thomas Hammock's program has plenty of familiarity with pulling off upsets of more talented teams. Just last year, they went on the road and beat a Notre Dame squad that eventually played for the national title.
They're not a pushover, and while they don't look quite as strong this year, they'll be ready to compete on Saturday. What do you need to know about the Huskies?
Northern Illinois Huskies Preview
Offense has rarely been a strength for Northern Illinois in recent years, but so far the Huskies are off to an especially rough start on that side of the ball. They're averaging just 14 points per game and 279 yards per game. The reality is there's just not much talent offensively. QB Josh Holst has been quite underwhelming (192 yards, 4.8 YPA, 0 TDs, 1 INT), the OL has struggled, and there's a lack of weapons in the receiving corps.
Where NIU does have offensive talent is at RB. Chavon Wright and Telly Johnson Jr. are a legitimately good duo. Wright, a diminutive DII transfer, has run for 167 yards while Johnson Jr. has 153, each finding the endzone once. Despite poor blocking in front of them and defenses having no reason to respect the pass, they're capable of making the occasional play on their own.
Defensively, the Huskies are much more respectable. They've allowed just 18.5 points per game and 278.5 yards per game to start the year, and that includes holding Maryland to 20 points in College Park. The defensive front can create disruption with a strong DE duo in Roy Williams and Jalonnie Williams and outstanding LB Quinn Urwiler. So far, the rush defense has surrendered just 74 yards per game. They're more average against the pass, though there are solid pieces in the secondary.
Despite the impressive numbers defensively thus far, it's worth noting that their two opponents aren't exactly world-beaters offensively. Holy Cross is 0-3 with three awful offensive games. Maryland averaged less than 5.0 yards per play against a bad FAU defense to open the year, and they also left some points off the board against NIU. This isn't to say the Huskies aren't actually good on defense, but Mississippi State should provide much more of a challenge to them.
How does Mississippi State matchup with Northern Illinois?
This should be a favorable matchup for the Bulldogs. While State's rush defense was certainly poor in the second half against Arizona State, they've been sound at defending the run in five halves of football thus far. With NIU's RBs being the only real threats to watch for, there's no reason not to key in on taking them away and force a struggling QB to make throws against what's been an impressive Bulldog secondary.
On the other side of the ball, MSU WRs Brenen Thompson and Anthony Evans III are much more dangerous playmakers than the NIU secondary has had to contend with. You can expect them to get open, and though State may not be able to lean on their run game as much as they'd like against a good Husky front, they should be able to do enough offensively to pull away here. MSU can't expect to just cruise through this game, but if they can limit the NIU run game and strike fast on offense, they should get the win.