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UAB vs. Northern Illinois: Boca Raton Bowl preview and predictions

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer
UAB’s Spencer Brown has 16 rushing touchdowns. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
UAB’s Spencer Brown has 16 rushing touchdowns. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)

UAB (10-3) vs. Northern Illinois (8-5)

Location: Boca Raton | When: Dec. 18 (8 p.m. ET) | TV: ESPN | Line: UAB -3

HOW THESE TEAMS GOT HERE

UAB: The resurgence of UAB football has been awesome. The Blazers won 10 games just two seasons removed from being a nonexistent football program. Even NIU fans have to think that’s pretty dang good. UAB lost in Week 2 to Coastal Carolina but reeled off eight-straight wins to move to 9-1 before losing to Texas A&M in Week 13. UAB lost to Middle Tennessee State in the final week of the season but advanced to the Conference USA title game to beat the Blue Raiders in a rematch 27-25.

Northern Illinois: NIU started the season 0-2 with losses to Iowa and Utah. 0-2 turned into 1-3 with a loss to Florida State in Week 4. When the MAC schedule got going, NIU got rolling. The Huskies won six-straight games before losing to Miami (Ohio) and Western Michigan to end the season. Yeah, this sounds kind of familiar. NIU won the MAC West and beat Buffalo 30-29 in the MAC title game. Yeah, this is really familiar.

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WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH

Both teams earned the right to be called the best in their conferences. While neither plays the most exciting brand of football — both boast strong defenses and offenses that aren’t the most explosive — this should be an intriguing matchup between two of college football’s best non-Power Five coaches in UAB’s Bill Clark and NIU’s Rod Carey.

Northern Illinois quarterback Marcus Childers has 21 total TDs. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Northern Illinois quarterback Marcus Childers has 21 total TDs. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Spencer Brown, RB, UAB: Brown has rushed for 1,152 yards and 16 touchdowns this season. He’s broken the 100-yard mark on six occasions and was sorely needed in that first matchup against Middle Tennessee State when he had just one carry for zero yards. He bounced back with 31 carries for 156 yards in the title game and scored a touchdown too. He’s scored in 11 of UAB’s 13 games. Both of the games where he hasn’t scored a touchdown have been losses. There may be a correlation there.

Marcus Childers, QB, NIU: Childers has thrown for 1,996 yards and rushed for 496 yards. He’s tossed 15 passing touchdowns and leads the team with six rushing touchdowns despite being the third-leading rusher. Childers was fantastic in the MAC Championship Game win over Buffalo with a 21-of-33 for 300 yards passing performance and four passing touchdowns.

WHAT’S ON THE LINE

UAB: The Blazers have never won a bowl game and are looking to make a school-record 10-win season a school-record 11-win season.

NIU: While the Huskies go to bowl games quite often, they don’t win them. At least not recently. NIU hasn’t won a bowl game since 2011. That’s a five-bowl losing streak.

PREDICTIONS

Nick Bromberg: UAB 23, NIU 16
Sam Cooper: NIU 27, UAB 24
Pat Forde: NIU 17, UAB 16

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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