NIU heads on the road for the first time this year to take on Big Ten foe Maryland, the fourth meeting between the programs.

The Huskies opened the year with a 19-17 win against Holy Cross, while the Terrapins blew out Florida Atlantic, 39-7. Freshman quarterback Malik Washington was 27-for-43 with 258 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in Maryland’s win.

The teams last met in Maryland in 2004, a 23-20 win for the Terps. NIU won 20-13 in DeKalb the year before. Maryland won the first meeting in 1996, 30-6.

The Terps have won 16 straight nonconference games, the longest such streak in the country.

Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. Friday on BTN. Here are three things to know about the game.

Hammock looking for sharper offensive execution

In the first game of his seventh season as NIU’s head coach, Thomas Hammock said there were some positives on the offensive side of the ball.

But there are some areas he wants to see improved. He said the running backs can be more physical and do more after contact.

He also said he’d like to see sophomore quarterback Josh Holst play better. Holst was 12 for 18 for 101 yards, no touchdowns and an interception.

“I think he understands that,” Hammock said. “I thought our line actually played pretty well considering we had four new starters. Quarterback had time in the pocket. We had a run game going. ... So I want to get some more guys involved in the passing game. We have guys who can make plays. We’ve got to find them.”

DeAree Rogers and Jaylen Poe combined for 12 of the Huskies’ 14 catches on the day. Some of that, Hammock said, was Holst’s ability to see coverage and get the ball to the proper spots.

But some of it, he said, comes down to route running by the receivers. If the defense is in a Cover 2 and the receiver is supposed to put a move on a safety to get open, they have to execute that move, he said.

“It’s a lot of people, a lot of things involved with getting the ball distributed the correct way,” Hammock said. “What I can tell you is we have guys that are very, very capable of making plays with the ball in their hands. Now we have to get them to execute the assignments the way we need them to so we can go out there and play the way we need to play on offense.”

Growing pains on special teams

Even though Dev’ion Reynolds returned a kickoff for a touchdown in a play that changed the trajectory of the game, special teams miscues were costly throughout the win against the Crusaders.

Hammock said the biggest issue was six players on the kickoff team never played a college football snap before. That inexperience showed. He said it was a chain reaction from losing 16 players from last year’s team to Power 4 rosters.

“You have the least amount of returning production in college football and then thinking everything is going to be exactly how you want it to be. That’s like an oxymoron, right?” Hammock said. “So there will be growing pains.”

Hammock: Why go to Maryland to play a Big Ten team when there are two in-state Big Ten teams?

It’s Hammock’s third game against a Big Ten team in his tenure at NIU. They lost 35-11 to Nebraska in 2023 and 44-8 to the Huskers in 2019. They also lost 63-10 to Michigan in 2021.

They have lost four straight to Big Ten teams as a program, but went 4-1 against the league between 2013 and 2017, capped with a win at Northwestern. They last played Illinois in 2010.

“If I had a preference I’d rather play the Big Ten teams in state,” Hammock said. “We’re flying to Maryland, which is fine. Northwestern flew to Tulane, they could have drove easily to DeKalb and saved some money. Illinois played Western Illinois, and they could have easily played Northern Illinois.”