OXFORD — Miami’s quest for a second consecutive bid to the Mid-American Conference championship game continues.
The RedHawks have won five straight and host the Northern Illinois Huskies on Tuesday night in an 8 p.m. kickoff to be aired on ESPN. Miami (6-4, 5-1 MAC) controls its own destiny.
“It will be a fight for every inch next Tuesday,” RedHawks coach Chuck Martin said. “It’ll be a knock-down drag-out. If you don’t like to be hit, it’s not going to be a good place to be. If you don’t want to play physical, you’re going to get your tail kicked in.
“Every yard, every mistake you make is going to be magnified because the yards are going to be tough to come by.”
Here are five things to know heading into Tuesday’s game:
1. About Northern Illinois
Northern Illinois is 6-4 overall, 3-3 in MAC play and the only team to beat Notre Dame all year.
Offensively, the Huskies are led by a strong rushing attack that averages 219.7 yards per game. Antario Brown (70.9) and Gavin Williams (63.1) handle most of the rushing work each week.
“They really run the football,” Martin said. “They’ve always been able to run the football. … They’ve got fantastic tailbacks, a really good offensive line. They really know how to schematically create mismatches or create angles or create edges with what they do in the run game.
“So, not only are they good with their personnel in the run game, but they’re really good with structure. They always do things that make it difficult to defend the run. And then like every team, like us, that likes to run the ball — they take their shots and make big plays in the pass. “
The Huskies allow 18.5 points per contest and have 28 sacks on the season — both tops in the MAC.
“They really, really, really play good defense,” Martin said. “They suffocated Notre Dame for four quarters on defense. They’re not similar to us as far as structure, but similar to us as far as defense. They’re no-frills. They line up, and they get after you.
“They’re not trying to out-scheme you. They run their base stuff every week, and they have a nice package. But they have really good players that execute their package and play really hard and know how to run their defense.”
2. Series history
The RedHawks lead the all-time series by a narrow 11-9 margin and have won the last three meetings dating back to 2018. Each of the last three meetings have been one-score contests.
This is the fourth time the two teams will compete for the Mallory Cup — which began in 2018 — honoring Bill Mallory, one of the all-time great MAC coaches.
Mallory was 64-31 all-time as a head coach in the conference for both Miami and NIU. His 64 wins and .674 win percentage rank eighth in conference history.
Mallory is the only football coach in history to win a championship with two different MAC schools. He also won MAC Coach of the Year in 1973 with Miami and 1983 with NIU.
3. Explosive offense
Miami’s offense has been explosive in the big-play category the last five weeks. From weeks 1-5, Miami had 12 plays of over 20 yards.
During their current five-game win streak, the RedHawks have 26 plays of over 20 yards — with 11 of those coming on the ground.
“We’ve played better, obviously,” Martin said. “We’ve gotten in a good groove. I think we played good the first three weeks of the season. We just didn’t have anything to show for it.”
Quarterback Brett Gabbert is averaging 16.4 yards a completion over the past five games (60 completions for 986 yards).
When Mozee has rushed for over 100 yards, the RedHawks have not lost.
4. Gabbert in the history books
Gabbert went over 10,000 career passing yards last week against Kent State. He now ranks third in program history with 10,041 passing yards, sixth in completion percentage (.591) and second in passing touchdowns (77).
Gabbert, who missed the last six games of the 2023 season with a leg injury, has made 48 starts in his career and is all over the Miami record books.
Gabbert is also 17 yards shy of 500 career rushing yards and is responsible for 84 touchdowns (77 passing, 7 rushing) as a RedHawks quarterback.
In conference games only, Gabbert leads the MAC with 15 touchdown passes and is second in touchdown to interception ratio (15:1). He hasn’t thrown an interception in his last 100 passes, the second-longest stretch of his career (current best is 129 back in 2021).
5. Monsters of the MAC
The Miami defense has been living up to its standard during MAC play. In conference games, Miami’s defense ranks near the top in every statistical category.
The RedHawks rank third in scoring (16.5), second in total defense (282.7), first in rushing (93.7), fourth in passing (189.0), fourth in sacks (17), first in interceptions (9) and third in redzone defense (81.3%).
“We always like to come in fast, come out hot,” Miami linebacker Matt Salopek said. “That’s kind of been our mentality on the defensive side of the ball all season.”
Salopek, the reigning 2023 MAC Defensive Player of the Year, has 478 career tackles and has surpassed 100 stops in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Salopek has 86 tackles on the season — which is 14 tackles shy of becoming the first RedHawk in program history to have four 100-tackle seasons — and his 478 tackles ranks seventh all-time in program history.
