Ohio State is college football’s boogie man this season, and Northern Illinois is trying to pretend the Buckeyes are not hiding right around the corner.
NIU is focused on its season-opener against UNLV on Sept. 5, but it is difficult to ignore the fact the Huskies travel to defending national champion Ohio State on Sept. 19.
“It’s easy to talk about, well, the schedule and how it lays out. We’ve looked at it. We’re certainly not dumb,” NIU coach Rod Carey said during Thursday’s Media Day at Ditka’s Restaurant in Chicago.
“You’ve got to look at the whole picture, too. But to do your work you have to have the ability to focus on one thing … you can’t do that. You have to focus on one thing. And that’s how we have really done it and it has been successful.”
The Huskies, who are coming off an 11-3 season, are defending Mid-American Conference champions. The idea of heading to Columbus, Ohio, has to be at least in the back of the minds of the players.
“We had an open and honest conversation with senior leadership, and with the team,” Carey said. “And I let our leadership counsel voice their opinion a little bit. And then we’re on to the next one. Because they understand that, OK, there is that out there and people want to talk about that one and all that stuff. But they understand that our process has been what has made us successful.”
Junior quarterback Drew Hare says the Huskie players are on board with the idea of deflecting attention away from Ohio State for now.
“Everybody has thought about it, I will say that,” Hare said. “But like Coach said, we have had an open conversation about it. Got it out there. You know, let it get done. But since then, I really do feel like we have been focused on just Week 1.”
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