NIU head coach Jerry Kill came right out and said it last week.

He doesn’t care how many people show up to his games — he just likes playing at home.

Kill also said that college football should be played on Saturday. He won’t be getting everything he wants this week, as NIU takes on the Eastern Michigan Eagles tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Huskie Stadium.

This is the second of three straight home games for the Huskies (5-3 overall, 3-1 MAC), who are 3-1 at Huskie Stadium this season. It is also the first game not being played on a Saturday for NIU, causing a shortened week of practice.

Eastern Michigan (0-8, 0-4) has an even tougher turnaround. While the Huskies played at home Saturday afternoon, the Eagles played Saturday night on the road at Arkansas.

Travel fatigue could be a factor for EMU. When the Eagles set foot in Huskie Stadium Thursday night, they will have traveled over 2,082 miles in under a week.

“I think it would have been tough [to deal with traveling on a short week],” NIU quarterback
DeMarcus Grady said. “We don’t have to worry about being on the bus or traveling issues. Being at home, we’re more comfortable; we’re able to set our own practice times. I think that helps us out a lot.”

Grady figures to get his third straight start at quarterback for NIU, as Chandler Harnish had still not been cleared for practice as of Tuesday’s weekly press conference.

On paper, it doesn’t look like EMU will put up much of a fight against NIU.

The Huskies are in possession of the MAC’s top rushing attack, putting up 206 yards per game on the ground. EMU has the nation’s No. 120 ranked rushing defense, allowing 277 rushing yards per contest.

The Eagles also have allowed 37.38 points per game.

One of Kill’s top priorities is to make sure that his players don’t buy into the hype of statistics and media predictions.

“I think [Kill] does a great job preparing us for that,” Grady said, “not really focusing on their stats and just playing Huskie football, and doing what we know we’re capable of doing.”

While the players aren’t buying into how EMU has struggled to stop the run thus far, Kill is taking a different approach.

The second-year head coach of the Huskies believes that the Eagles’ schedule, which includes non-conference games against Arkansas, Michigan and Northwestern, had as much to do with any hardships they’ve faced as a lack of execution.

“They didn’t have any [FCS] games,” Kill said. “They’ve played four [FBS] teams. That’s the only thing the matter with Eastern Michigan. They play better competition than anybody; they play hard. [When] you play that kind of competition, it’s hard on you.”

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.