Morning Wrap: N.Illinois Wins MAC Football Title Again

Three times in four years would qualify many college football teams as a possible dynasty.

Even in the Mid-American Conference.

The MAC has a dynasty in the making as the Northern Illinois Huskies won their third conference title in the past four years, routing Bowling Green 51-17 Friday night.

The Huskies were led by QB Drew Hare who threw for 218 yards and 2 TD's and ran for another as Northern Illinois rolled up 334 yards running the ball.

The win moves them to 11-2 on the season and while they won't be crashing the College Football playoff, it gets them back to a bowl game. Bowling Green drops to 7-6 on the season.

Your highlights from ESPN.com:

Cupcake Saturday: Can We Swap #MACtion For The Big 10...???

((HT: Big Ten Network))

It was ugly...

Michigan State lost to Oregon as the Ducks scored the last 28 points in Eugene
Notre Dame shut out Michigan
Virginia Tech took care of Ohio State in front of the largest crowd in the history of the Horseshoe

But, it was silly elsewhere...

Rutgers beat Howard
Nebraska needed a late TD to beat McNeese
Penn State barely beat Akron
Minnesota beat Middle Tennessee
Maryland turned the ball over six times but a blocked punt gave them a win over South Florida

The bigger news came from two MAC teams that held on...

Central Michigan sprinted out to an early lead over Purdue in Lafayette and beat the Boilermakers- who are living up to the old nickname of "Pur-don't..."
((HT: CMU Sports))


The other not-so-shocking shocker was Northern Illinois taking care of Northwestern
Defense from guys like Paris Logan helps


So, in a day that could have solidified the Big Ten/12 as one of the power conferences this season, all Saturday did was confuse the issue and give one conference a big "I told you so..." for scheduling prowess. It proved that some teams are bad, some need work, and some just aren't there yet.

Remember The Name Brandon Doughty

((HT: WBKO-TV))

All he did last night for Western Kentucky was break records all night long in their game against Bowling Green...

Doughty threw for a school-record 569 yards and six TD's as the Hilltoppers beat Bowling Green State 59-31 in the head coaching debuts of Jeff Brohm and Dino Babers.

Brohm's Hilltoppers had a school-record 702 total yards against the defending MAC champions.

Here's the wrap on all the records...

UMass Football Asked to Leave the MAC

Insert joke here...

No seriously. The University of Massachusetts and the Mid-American Conference will part ways in 2015. And aside from the requisite jokes being made due to the ineptitude of the Minutemen football program, there's actually a reason for this.

UMass was a football only member of the MAC, the basketball team plays in the Atlantic 10.

According to ESPN.com, UMass was asked to be a full-time member of the MAC, but decided to pass. The problem: The Atlantic 10 is a basketball only conference. And the MAC, well, they wanted all or nothing from the Minutemen.

Read more from ESPN.com RIGHT HERE

So...this has little to no impact on the MAC. They will become a 12-team conference. No big deal, even scheduling in 2016.

UMass has a bigger problem. Perennially one of the worst teams in the FBS (Division 1), they are a bad team now with no home. The school wants to stay where they are, the problem is, where do they go? Most of the smaller College Football programs in the Northeastern U.S are FCS (1-AA) teams. There are several that play in FBS, but they are all in power conferences. None of which would have any interest.

Not a huge story on the Sports landscape here, but an interesting one never the less and one that further enhances a question we often ask: What happens to the non-power schools in the FBS after the playoff and split happens?

And no, there's not a simple answer....

BUZZER BEATER: Look What Brown Did For Toledo

That would be Julius Brown, who led the Rockets with 20 points and provided the dagger to the Buffalo Bulls.

Thanks WTVG-TV, Toledo, OH

13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports
"When I released the ball I couldn't see where it was." Brown said. "I didn't see it go in actually."

Not only did Julius Brown's buzzer beater defeat Buffalo 67-65 it capped off what was a big night for the junior guard from Markham, Illinois.  Earlier in the game Brown became the 42nd Toledo Rocket to score 1,000 points in a career.

Toledo maintains a three way tie for the top of the MAC Western Division with a couple of directional Michigan schools, Eastern and Western.

The Rockets face MAC Eastern Division leader Akron Saturday on the road.

MAC 0-2 Yesterday With Northern Illinois And Bowling Green

((HT: ESPN))

Both games went to the end, but in the end, both MAC squads were season-ending losers yesterday in Detroit and San Diego...

Let's start with the back and forth game in Detroit where FOSG Niki Noto was patrolling the sidelines...

James Conner rushed for 229 yards and even played some rush defensive line in the final series as Pitt finishes 7-6 after a 30-27 win over Bowling Green at Ford Field. Conner broke the record of Tony Dorsett for yards in a bowl game as head coach Paul Chryst played 60 minutes of smash-mouth against the Falcons.

"After the last game, Coach told me they wanted to unleash me on both sides of the ball, so I've been getting a lot of reps both ways," Conner said postgame. "I was pretty tired by the end, but I wasn't going to tap out. They kept giving me the ball, so I just kept running."

Here's your highlights...


The nightcap was in San Diego- and, for the record, the flower is pronounced "point-set-uh..." everyone...

Not "poin-set-e-uh..."

And Jordan Lynch was put up against a top-10 NCAA defense in Utah State that had to rely on its defense with the injury to talented QB Chuckie Keaton. The Aggies held the Huskies to 99 yards rushing and won 21-14 over the 23rd ranked team in the country.

Aggies running back Joey DeMartino had 23 carries for 143 yards and a TD. Safety Brian Suite intercepted a pass and recovered a Jordan Lynch fumble. Lynch finished 80 yards short of 2,000 yards on the year. He could have become the first QB in NCAA D1 history to pass and run for 2,000 each in a season.

Here's your mainly defensive highlights...

Jordan Lynch Is Working The Outside Lane

((HT: XOS Digital))

Northern Illinois QB Jordan Lynch finished 7th in the voting last year for the posing-stiff arm trophy that the best player gets in Division I...

With all these efforts that he's trying to put on the board, it looks like NIU is trying to get him as much attention as possible when the voting actually happens...

Like today...

Lynch had four touchdown passes, one touchdown run and one touchdown catch as they beat Eastern Michigan 59-20...

Here's the highlights of the Huskies win...


NIU (8-0, 4-0 in Mid-American Conference) won its 24th consecutive home game and their 21st straight against a MAC opponent.
NIU's 8-0 start is the program's best since 1965...

The HQ thinks it's safe to say the other front runners for that trophy may do the same kinds of stunts as we go further in the year...

Jordan Lynch Couldn't Be Stopped By Central Michigan

It was a record setting day for Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch.

Lynch threw for 155 yards and a touchdown, an OK day throwing it.

Lynch ran for 316 yards and that's an FBS record for rushing by a quarterback in NIU's 38-17 win over Central Michigan.


"We had a few good plays going in the game that we knew that would work," Lynch told the Dekalb, IL Daily Chronicle. "They stopped it early on and then we started doing different window-dressing to it. Before you know it we're flying up field and we're hitting the A gap."

Any good quarterback who runs for over 300 yards had help.  The Husky offense line was awesome according to Lynch.

"The holes were so wide open; it was nothing I did," Lynch said.

Lynch had to break the school record to break the FBS record. Back on October 8th, 1990 Northern Illinois quarterback Stacey Robinson ran for 308 yards in the Huskies 73-18.



It was such a great win and performance by Robinson back then the fans tore down the goal posts before the game ended.

Michigan Almost Gets Zipped By Akron.

Terry Bowden almost, almost got his first signature win as the head coach of Akron.

Heck the Zips almost pulled off one of the biggest upsets ever in college football.

Michigan fans were having Appalachian State flashbacks.

Akron was leading Michigan 24-21 very late in the fourth quarter until Fitzgerald Toussaint scored the go-ahead touchdown with 2:49 left in the game.


 The Zips were not done though. Akron quarterback Kyle Pohl drove the Zips inside the Michigan five yard line with 3 chances to win the game. On their third chance Pohl was hurried by Michigan linebacker Brennen Beyer and the pass fell incomplete.

 

And Michigan survived at the Big House 28-24.

"That's a tough one." Pohl said. That happened fast. It was a good call by Coach. We had what we wanted. If it was a half-second more, maybe I could squeeze it and make a better throw."

"This is embarrassing for the University of Michigan football team." Michigan Senior offensive lineman Taylor Lewan said.  "Yeah, we won the game. We're 3-0. That's great. It was embarrassing. It was embarrassing"

"We almost lost to Akron, no disrespect to Akron, but we almost lost after coming out and having a great win last week in front of the whole world, and we come out and almost blow it"  Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner said.

Akron almost pulled it off but calling it a moral victory won't console head coach Terry Bowden.

"It was a wonderful game to watch. I am sick for my players, for how long they played and how hard they played and how well they played, to not come away with a victory." Bowden said. " I have been fortunate in my lifetime to be a part of some big wins and that would have been the biggest. I am sorry for our players because they have worked so hard and been through so much. But I told them they had a chance to play the game of a lifetime and they tried."