Football Faces Northern Illinois Saturday in DeKalb, Ill.

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University football team will play its second straight Mid-American Conference road game when it matches up with the Northern Illinois University Huskies, Oct. 24. Saturday's contest will be played at Huskie Stadium in DeKalb, Ill. with kickoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT.
   The Eagles (1-6, 0-3 MAC) are coming off of a 63-20 setback at nationally-ranked Toledo. Meanwhile, the Huskies (4-3, 2-1 MAC) picked up their first road victory of the season with a 45-12 triumph at Miami University.
   WEMU (89.1 FM) will provide audio coverage of the game with Matt Shepard and Rob Rubick calling the action on the field. The contest will also be televised on ESPN3.

ALL-TIME VERSUS THE HUSKIES: Eastern Michigan and Northern Illinois are meeting for the 46th time in history. NIU holds a 29-14-2 advantage in the all-time series that dates back to 1927. The Huskies recorded a 28-17 victory last year, Oct. 25, 2014, in Ypsilanti.
   Eastern's last win in the series came Sept. 15, 2007, by a 21-19 margin.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS: With 11 touchdowns this season, senior running back Darius Jackson continues to move up the EMU single-season touchdown rankings. The Sparta, Ill. native already is tied for eighth most and is within four of equalling the all-time mark of 15 held by Kerry Keating (1957) and Ime Akpan (2002).
   Since the 1987 campaign, only nine EMU student-athletes have recorded 10 or more touchdowns in a particular season. Of those players, all but one (Eric Deslauriers - 2004) have been running backs

MANUFACTURING SOME OFFENSE: The 2015 EMU offense is shaping up to be one of the most potent in the history of the program. Through seven games, EMU has tallied a total of 2,868 total yards and 25 touchdowns.
   Given that pace, the squad would finish the season with 4,916 yards and 42 scores, which would both rank in the top three all-time. EMU's high-water mark for total offense is 5,010 yards set during the 2008 campaign, while the 1995 club led by Charlie Batch racked up 48 TDs.
   Through the opening seven contests of 2015, the Eagles have already compiled more touchdowns than they did in five seasons dating back to 1998.

ONE OF THE TOP BACKS IN THE MAC: Senior running back Darius Jackson has been one of the best backs in both the MAC and the country this season. He ranks second in the MAC in rushing this season with 698 yards on the ground, good for 99.7 yards a game. This ranks 19th in the country. Jackson has also totaled 66 points on the season. That is second in the MAC and 26th in the nation. Additionally, 10 of his 11 touchdowns have been rushing touchdowns, which is second in the MAC and 11th in the country.

JACKSON MOVING UP CAREER RUSHING LIST: With his 113 yards on the ground against Toledo, Oct. 17, Darius Jackson now has 1,206 rushing yards in his career since joining the EMU football program, good for 20th on the all-time rushing list. The Toledo contest was the fourth time Jackson surpassed 100 yards in a single game during his career, all coming in the 2015 season.
   With his 698 yards on the ground in 2015, Jackson is looking to become just the 13th back in EMU history to rush for over 1,000 yards in a single season. The current record holder for single-season rushing is Anthony Sherrell, who rushed for 1,531 yards in 2003.

RED HOT IN THE RED ZONE: Eastern Michigan has been one of the most efficient teams in the red-zone through seven games this season, scoring on 19-of-21 (90 percent) attempts, which is good for third in the MAC and 20th in the country. Sixteen of those scores have been touchdowns for the Green and White.

GREAT TACKLING: Senior linebacker Great Ibe currently leads the team and the conference in total tackles, totaling 66 on the season, despite missing one game due to injury. This ranks tied for sixth in the country. Despite only playing in three seasons for the Green and White after transferring into the program, Ibe currently ranks 29th on the all-time tackles list at EMU with 261 stops.

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS: After missing five weeks with a broken jaw, redshirt sophomore quarterback Reginald Bell Jr. returned to his familiar spot under center for the Eagles at Toledo, Oct. 17. Bell, who last year accounted for 53.5 percent of the Eagles offense, wasted little time making an impact as he marched EMU down the field for back-to-back scores to give the Green and White an early 6-0 edge over the No. 22/25 ranked Rockets.
   Bell finished the contest 16-of-26 passing for 121 yards, while adding 28 yards on the ground.

MULDER FROM DOWNTOWN: Senior kicker Dylan Mulder booted another 50+ yard field goal against Toledo, Oct. 17, with a 51-yard kick. It was the second 50+ yarder of the season for Mulder after he kicked a 52-yard field goal against Old Dominion, Sept. 5. This marks just the third time in program history that a kicker has hit two or more 50+ yard field goals in a season. The previous two were Don Vesling in 1985 and Andrew Wellock in 2004.

ALL-TIME GREAT EMU KICKER: Senior kicker Dylan Mulder will go down as one of the greatest kickers to suit up in the Green and White, as his name is near the top of a few EMU all-time records. He is fourth in career extra points made (90), fifth in career field goals (32) and fifth in career points (184).

BACK TO THE LAND OF LINCOLN: The Eagles will play in the state of Illinois for the only time this season. A total of eight Eagles hail from the Land of Lincoln. The football players on the EMU roster include: Austin Barnes (Fairview Heights, Ill.-O'Fallon), Cole Gardner (Batavia, Ill.-Batavia), Pat O'Connor (Chicago, Ill.-Saint Rita), Jake Hurcombe (Lincolnshire, Ill.-Stevenson), Nick Dillon (Lincolnshire, Ill.-Adlai Stevenson), Malysha Flanders (Lombard, Ill.-Glenbard East), Austin Bray (Ottawa, Ill.-Aurora Christian) and Darius Jackson (Sparta, Ill.-Sparta).

A YOUTHFUL MOVEMENT: Eastern Michigan has played 29 players who have donned the Green and White in a game for the first time this season. The 29 players include 6 "true" freshmen, 10 transfers (junior college four-year college) and 13 redshirt freshmen. In keeping with the youth movement, EMU has had a total of 12 players earn their inaugural start as a Eagle through the first six games of the 2015 campaign.

STEADY EDDIE: Freshman wide receiver Eddie Daugherty had 107 yards receiving against Akron, Oct. 10. This was the third time in his young career that he has gone over the 100-yard plateau in a game. He currently leads the team in receiving yards with 382 yards through the air.
   Nationally, the Mentor, Ohio product is one of just seven freshmen to rank inside the top 100 in receiving yardage. He joins Middle Tennessee's Richie James, Texas A&M's Christian Kirk, SMU's Courtland Sutton, Georgia State's Penny Hart Alabama's Calvin Ridley, and Wake Forest's Cortez Lewis as the only freshmen on the NCAA's weekly ranking summary.

SPREADING IT AROUND: The EMU passing attack has spread the wealth with six different receivers having 15-or-more receptions. EMU is one of just six schools nationally to accomplish that feat through the first seven contests.

# of Receivers with 15 or More Receptions
Seven – Texas Tech, Washington State
Six – Arizona State, Bowling Green, Cal, Eastern Michigan
Five – Arizona, Boise State, BYU, East Carolina, Mississippi St., Southern Miss, Wake Forest, WKU

TWO-MINUTE DRIVE MASTERS: Of Eastern Michigan's 25 touchdowns scored this season, 13 of them have been scored in less than two minutes, which is good for 52 percent of its TDs. This ranks 16th in the FBS, and ranks ahead of some of the most potent offenses in the country including Texas Tech, Bowling Green and Oregon.

WESTERN UNDER THE LIGHTS UP NEXT: Following the two-game conference road swing, EMU returns to "The Factory" at Rynearson Stadium for a Thursday night lights game with in-state rival Western Michigan, Oct. 29. WMU holds a 30-18-2 all-time advantage in the series, yet EMU has won three of the last four meetings.
   The contest will be televised nationally by CBS Sports Network. Ben Holden will handle play-by-play while Jay Feely provides analysis with John Schriffen on the sidelines.

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Players Mentioned

Austin Barnes

Reginald Bell

Austin Bray

Eddie Daugherty IV

Nick Dillon

Malysha Flanders

Cole Gardner

Jake Hurcombe

Great Ibe

Darius Jackson

Dylan Mulder

Pat O'Connor

Eastern Michigan Athletics