Fresno and Northern Illinois both played Illinois this year so we do have something to gauge this game on. Fresno came up with the upset while Northern Illinois did not. However Fresno did play that game at home while Nill had to travel to play there game. Overall I don't put too much weight into that game. I do however look at the schedules and Fresno plays in a tougher conference one where they had to play Boise, Hawaii, and Nevada and they played a much tougher non-conference schedule that featured Illinois, Miss, and Cinci while Northern Illinois played Iowa State and bottom feeder Minnesota.
Northern Illinois comes into this game after a colossal gag in the MAC Championship game which they lost as 17 point favorites. Now they have to follow that up without their head coach Jerry Kill who took the job in Minnesota and interim coach Tom Matukewicz who has really nothing to coach for since the new coach is already hired. On the other side Fresno has plenty to play for and they are used to playing in bowl games. Fresno gets healthy with Andrew Jackson arguably the best blocker on the team returning as well as Robbie Rouse who could steal the show here. The key is to stop Northern Illinois running game and Chris Carter will help to do his best as he ledt he WAC with 11 sacks and 16.5 tackles for loss. Illinois ran all over Fresno but they still hung on to win. I think Robbie Rouse has the better running game between the two featured backs and I think Ryan Colburn will back up his performance that he had against Illinois.
