The NIU football team is used to seeing red. Just not as much red as what awaits them at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.

The Huskies take on the Badgers at 6 p.m. Saturday night on the Big Ten Network. The filled seats at Camp Randall Stadium are expected to exceed 80,000 when NIU coach Jerry Kill leads his team out of the visitor’s locker room to try and beat a team that was undefeated at home last season against non-conference opponents.

To put the size of Camp Randall into perspective, NIU would play in front of a home crowd of about 31,000 if Huskie Stadium reached capacity. In short, Camp Randall is Huskie Stadium on steroids. But Kill isn’t worried about the crowd.

“It’s hard not to get juiced up whether they’re cheering you or booing you,” Kill said. “It’s a fun atmosphere to play.”

As far as how the Badgers are feeling, Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema said his team is ready for the challenge.

“We’re excited about the week we have this week with Northern Illinois, a very good football team that has done good things the last couple years, and we’re excited about the opportunity,” Bielema said. “It’s going to be a good challenge for us Saturday and one we’re looking forward to.”

If the Huskies have any plans of winning Saturday, the running game is going to have be instrumental to their success.

“There’s no doubt for us to have a chance to win, we’re going to have to run the ball,” Kill said. “And [Wisconsin is] going to say the same thing.”

That means running backs Me’co Brown and Chad Spann will have to be ready for a big workload. So will quarterback Chandler Harnish, proclaimed a “dual threat” by Bielema, who led the team in rushing yards last season.

Harnish said the running game will help him when it comes to attacking the Badgers’ secondary through the air.

“We obviously need to run the ball well,” Harnish said. “And if we can do that, it will open up the passing game, and if we can just execute the small things, I think we’ll be just fine.”

Kill couldn’t agree more.

“You can’t give Wisconsin anything, you just can’t,” Kill said. “We have to play very, very solid football and good fundamental football, and if we do that, we’ll be in the game.”

A win Saturday would start debate as to whether this would be the biggest win in NIU’s football history, considering it would be done on the road in such a hostile environment.

Harnish added his two cents on just how big it would be.

“It would be a huge win because Northern Illinois football right now is known for 2003 when they beat Alabama, when they beat Iowa State, Maryland, all those games,” Harnish said. “And we want to be known for 2009 when we beat Wisconsin.”

All comments are moderated before being published. We will not edit your comments, but we also will not approve those that are abusive, off-topic, attack another poster or contain information we know to be libelous or false.

During peak weekday viewing times, most comments will be reviewed within six hours. For more detailed information, click here.

After submitting your comment, check below for a confirmation message.

• Your name:
• Enter text from image:
  

• Your comment:

* 300-character count. HTML formatting will not display.