In his collegiate debut, NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish passed for 326 yards and two touchdowns.

To have similar results this weekend, Harnish will have to beat Western Michigan (0-1) cornerback Londen Fryar.

Huskie head coach Jerry Kill knows his redshirt freshman will face an aggressive defense, which will pressure the quarterback.

“[WMU is] going to zone dog you, they’re going to blitz you, they’re going to bring five to the side, they’re going to bring six to the side – it is what it is,” Kill said. “You’re going to get pressure in football. That’s the way people are playing right now. Everybody’s zone dogging and that’s a problem, it’s always an issue.”

With pressure coming from linebacker and safety blitzes – along with linemen dropping into coverage – Harnish will have an opportunity to challenge WMU’s secondary.

Although NIU (0-1) would like to have a more balanced attack than it did against Minnesota, Kill said his team has to work around what the defense is giving them.

“We want to be a much more balance offense, but we took what the defense gave us,” the first year coach said of Minnesota. “They played us a lot of cover one to stop the run game, and we had a mismatched and we took advantage of it.”

However, the key to exploiting this mismatch is for the wide receivers to beat out the defensive backs in a one-on-one battle. This is where Fryar comes into play.

After the 2007 season, the cornerback was named a First Team All-MAC Defensive player. It marked the second time the 5-foot-11 192-pounder was selected for the honor. Not to mention the senior has only played on the defensive side of the ball for the past two seasons.

“When we first got here we ended up having to play 34 freshmen and we started 14 at one time or another. We were just lacking talent over on the defensive side of the ball, and [Fryar] wasn’t really flourishing as a wide receiver as much,” said WMU head coach Bill Cubit about moving Fryar from wide receiver to cornerback. “I told the defensive guys if he goes over, he starts, so be prepared for that.”

In the past, NIU has been able to limit Fryar. But, this limitation has been to eight tackles, one broke up pass and an interception.

In order to produce a more balance attack, NIU will have to prove that it can challenge Fryar, and the whole WMU secondary. This will limit the Broncos think twice about blitzing. Hence, if the Huskies can beat Fryar, and the rest of the secondary, the result should help to open up the running game against an aggressive defense.

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