NIU's 0-7 Huskies Head to Las Vegas With 5-0 Record Against UNLV

Northern Illinois has won all five of its games against UNLV, and the Huskies take that unblemished series history to Las Vegas on Saturday with a 0-7 overall record and a 0-3 mark in Mountain West play. The programs last met in 2015, when the Huskies won 38-30 in DeKalb. NIU also beat the Rebels 48-34 in Las Vegas in 2014 and 62-14 in DeKalb in 1995, when both schools belonged to the Big West Conference.

The Huskies rank in the bottom 10 nationally in 16 statistical categories: six on offense, six on defense and four on special teams. They sit at 138th, last among all teams, in red-zone offense, kickoff-return defense and third-down conversion defense. UNLV arrives at 4-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play after a three-game winning streak ended with a 41-31 loss at Air Force on Oct. 24, a game the Rebels led in the third quarter.

Junior running back Telly Johnson Jr. entered the season as a preseason candidate for the Doak Walker Award. He has rushed for 502 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 5.28 yards per carry, which ranks 50th nationally and fifth in the Mountain West. His 71.7 yards per game rank 65th in the FBS. As a team, NIU ranks 132nd in rushing at 100.1 yards per game.

Interim coach Rob Harley attributes the gap to game flow. The Huskies have trailed often and thrown more passes as a result. "We've made it an emphasis and we've had a chance to go hit some big plays," Harley said. "It's there. I don't know if the numbers are necessarily indicative of what's going on in the flow." In last week's 56-21 loss at Hawaii, Johnson carried four times for 3 yards in the first quarter and finished with 63 yards on 14 carries.

Harley said the staff is spending less time on scout-team drills and more time running first-team offense against first-team defense in practice. "We're going to raise the competition in practice and just put them in those situations that are hard to create," Harley said. "Those things just naturally pop up when you're going against each other." He said the goal is not perfection, but avoiding catastrophic errors: if 75 percent of plays are good and the rest average, the Huskies can compete.

Junior defensive back Yassine Falke intercepted his fourth pass of the season early in the fourth quarter against Hawaii, picking off Micah Alejado. Falke leads the Mountain West and ranks third nationally with 0.57 interceptions per game. "He just kind of has a knack," Harley said. "He's found himself near the football and made some big plays." NIU scored a touchdown on the drive that followed the interception to cut the Hawaii lead to 49-21.