Northern Illinois
0-2Mountain West · Huskie Stadium · 23,595 · 17,582 avg in 2026
LastL 24–28 vs Illinois State · Sat Sep 12 · Avery Jones 2 sacks, 2 TFL, 8 tackles
Nextat Arizona · Sat Sep 19 · 10:30 pm ET · Arizona Stadium · Arizona by 34.5 · first meeting on record · Game preview
Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2
All 87 stats
FBS rankings · 2026 season · all stats vs 136 FBS programs
| Player | # | G | Cmp/Att | Pct | Yds | Y/A | TD | INT | Rate | ZPR | QBR | Adj ANY/A | Sack% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +0.25 EPA/play | 5 | 2 | 31 / 41 | 75.6 | 289 | 7.0 | 1 | 2 | 133.1 | — | 31.7 | — | — | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||||||||
| +0.00 EPA/play | 14 | 2 | 5 / 13 | 38.5 | 20 | 1.5 | 0 | 1 | 36.0 | — | — | — | — | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||||||||
| Player | # | G | Car | Yds | Avg | TD | Long | Stuff% | 10+% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +0.15 EPA/play | 45 | 2 | 30 | 99 | 3.3 | 1 | 14 | — | — | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||||
| Player | # | G | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Long | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +1.11 EPA/play | — | 2 | 6 | 89 | 14.8 | 0 | 36 | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||
| Possession Receiver · +0.56 EPA/play | 1 | 2 | 12 | 77 | 6.4 | 1 | 15 | |
Yards by week → Possession ReceiverReliable target who converts on critical downs. Not flashy; consistently productive. 37 of 58 WRs we've classified this way this season. Season receipt Yards / reception6.5 bottom 6th percentile · FBS WRs, min. 12 receptions Reception volume12 bottom 16th percentile · FBS WRs, min. 12 receptions Trait fingerprint Plays like View DeAree Rogers's full player page | ||||||||
| Player | # | G | Tot | Solo | TFL | Sack | Hur |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0 | |
| 50 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 11 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player | # | G | Tot | Solo | Ast | TFL | Sack | PD | INT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balanced Linebacker | 57 | 2 | 19 | 10 | 9 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 0 |
Balanced LinebackerSolid in every phase without a signature dimension. 46 of 84 LBs we've classified this way this season. Season receipt Tackle volume19 56th percentile · FBS linebackers, min. 15 tackles PD rate5.3% 74th percentile · FBS linebackers, min. 15 tackles Trait fingerprint Plays like View Kimar Nelson's full player page | |||||||||
| Coverage 'Backer | 44 | 2 | 18 | 6 | 12 | 0.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Coverage 'BackerCarries tight ends and patrols the middle of the field in coverage. 21 of 84 LBs we've classified this way this season. Season receipt PD rate5.6% 76th percentile · FBS linebackers, min. 15 tackles Sack rate0.0% bottom 26th percentile · FBS linebackers, min. 15 tackles Trait fingerprint Plays like View Jack Murray's full player page | |||||||||
| Player | # | G | Tot | PD | INT | TFL | Sack |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| 14 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 12 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 29 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 5 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2 #5 FBS | 1 | 0 |
| Player | # | G | FG M/A | FG% | XP M/A | Pts | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | 1 | 1/1 | 100 | 3/3 | 6 | 40 |
| Player | # | G | No | Yds | Avg | Long | In20 | TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | 2 | 16 | 677 | 42.3 | 55 | 0 | 2 |
Net average is unavailable — CFBD's punting feed carries gross yards only, with no return-yardage or touchback deduction.
| Player | # | G | No | Yds | Avg | TD | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Possession Receiver · +0.56 EPA/play | 1 | 2 | 4 | 59 | 14.8 | 0 | 26 |
2026 stat leaders · Northern Illinois
through 2 games
2026 stat leaders · Northern IllinoisKimar Nelson leads Northern Illinois with 19 tackles through 2 games.
How They Play · 2025Northern Illinois fields a struggling run-heavy offense behind a leaky, bend-don't-break defense.
Percentile vs all FBS, based on this season's per-game production. Bar = where this team ranks — right is better.
Northern Illinois reads strongest in explosive plays allowed (top 21%) and passing epa allowed (top 24%); the crux lives in success rate, where Northern Illinois sits at the 3rd percentile.
offense · strengths lead
defense · higher bar = harder to play against
hidden math · special situations
Home-field advantage · Northern Illinois · 2018–present · FBS opponents
Northern Illinois is worth +1.5 points more at home than on the road.
Bottom tenth of FBS, 9th percentile of 133 programs
41% at home, 40% away against FBS opponents since 2018 (15–22 home, 19–29 away). Interval ±3.7.
Our model gives every stadium the same flat 2.3-point home edge — per-team modelling was tested and did not survive scrutiny (why) — and the books use about 3. Against the closing line, Northern Illinois has beaten the number by −5.6 more at home than away over 74 games — inside the ±6.8 that many games can resolve. Results here cannot tell the flat number apart from the building, and that is the honest reading of nearly every FBS stadium.
Huskie Stadium seats 23,595 and has averaged 44% full (10,333, 25 games reported). Visitors get here easily: a median 267 miles trip since 2018, the 19th-shortest of 135 FBS venues. There is no travel penalty on visitors here either way. For the home side it is genuinely home ground: 32% of the 2026 roster (35 of 108 located players) grew up inside 100 miles of the stadium.
Edge = half the gap between average home margin and average road margin, FBS opponents only, non-neutral games since 2018; the interval is 95%. Market line: closing spread, seasons with lines on file. Trip length is straight-line miles from the visiting team's campus to the venue, measured across all 44 home games since 2018.
More in this tab
Scheme claims
Fourth-quarter reliability, corrected
Northern Illinois's 4th-quarter offense, before and after garbage time
Raw Q4 EPA/play ranks 53rd percentile in FBS. Strip out snaps taken with a blowout margin and it climbs to the 89th — the correction is the finding, not a footnote.
Ratings
Comparable teams
Most similar programs · Northern Illinois
Most similar programs · Northern IllinoisReads like
Matched on how the programs are built — tier, prestige band, kind of fanbase, conference, voice and roster size — not on this season's stats. A calibration, not a prediction.
Conditions
57°F average kickoff temp; 6% of games had measurable precipitation; 11 mph average wind.
Based on 66 home games with weather data.