The 2021 Northern Illinois Huskies football team represented

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...

during the 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Huskies were led by third-year head coach

Thomas Hammock Thomas Hammock (born July 7, 1981) is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at Northern Illinois University (NIU), a position he has held since January 2019. Prior to being named the head coach of his alma mater, he served as ...

and played their home games at

Huskie Stadium Brigham Field at Huskie Stadium is a college football stadium in the central United States, located on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. Opened in 1965, it is the home field of the NIU Huskies of the Mid-Amer ...

in DeKalb, Illinois as members of the West Division of the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

(MAC). With a win over Buffalo on November 17, the Huskies clinched the West division championship and a place in the

MAC Championship Game The MAC Football Championship Game is a football game between the winners of the East and West divisions of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) to determine the conference champion. History The game has been played since 1997, when the conferenc ...

. In the MAC Championship, the Huskies defeated Kent State to win the MAC championship, their first since

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

. The team was picked to play in the

Cure Bowl The Cure Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game that has been played in December of each year in Orlando, Florida since 2015. It was originally held at Camping World Stadium before moving to Exploria Stadium in 2022. The Cure Bow ...

against Coastal Carolina on December 17. On November 9, the school announced that Hammock had signed a contract extension through the 2026 season.

Previous season

In a season initially canceled and then reinstated with a limited schedule due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the

Huskies Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...

finished the 2020 season 0–6 in a conference-only schedule to finish in last place in the West Division.

Offseason

Transfers

As a result of the limited season in 2020 due to COVID-19, the NCAA granted a waiver to allow athletes to transfer to another school and be eligible immediately without having to sit out a season. In April 2021, the NCAA further made one-time transfers for all college athletes to be eligible immediately. As a result, transfers were much more common this year than in prior years.

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

quarterback Rocky Lombardi, who started six games for the Spartans in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

, announced he would transfer to Northern Illinois.

Preseason

In the league's annual preseason poll, the Huskies were picked to finish in last place in the West.

Schedule

The Huskies played

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

and

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

at home while traveling to

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

and

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

for non-conference games in 2021. Source

Rankings

Game Summaries

vs. Georgia Tech

References

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by t ...

Northern Illinois Huskies football seasons Mid-American Conference football champion seasons

Northern Illinois Huskies football The Northern Illinois Huskies football team are a college football program representing Northern Illinois University (NIU) in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. NIU football plays its home games at Huskie Stadium on the ...

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