Antario Brown went down with an injury in the second quarter, with Gavin Williams and Jaylen Poe taking over the NIU ground attack. And after trailing by six at halftime with 118 yards on the ground, the Huskies pulled out a 34-20 win behind 249 second-half rushing yards.

After a lightning-fast start to the game that put the Huskies up seven after 50 seconds when they didn't even start with the ball, NIU faded later in the first half against UMass. But in the second half, the team found some consistency and came back for a win.

NIU held its last two opponents to under 200 yards of offense. The Huskies lost both games thanks to six total turnovers. They’ll search for their first win since beating No. 5 Notre Dame when they take on UMass (1-4). The game kicks off at 11 a.m. on CBS Sports Net.

NIU joining the Mountain West for football may just be a bunch of rumors and may never materialize. But it seems like there's a lot that makes sense and could benefit more sports than just football.

NC State threw a steady stream of pressure at quarterback Ethan Hampton — enough, in fact, to knock Northern Illinois back to .500.

The NIU offense struggled and turnovers led directly to two NC State touchdowns as the Huskies lost their second straight game, 24-17 to the Wolfpack.

The Mountain West Conference has notified the MAC of its interest in NIU and Toledo in joining the league as football-only members, according to Brett McMurphy of Action Network in a social media post on Thursday night.

NIU coach Thomas Hammock had a very important message for his players after losing to Buffalo. That, facing a former coach and forcing turnovers are three big storylines heading into Saturday's game at NC State.

NIU coach Thomas Hammock told his players during the week the only way they would lose to Buffalo on Saturday was if they lost the turnover battle. They lost the turnover battle 2-1, and the No. 23 Huskies lost to the Bulls 23-20 in overtime.