Recap |  Final Stats

Dec. 23, 2014

NIU dropped its third consecutive bowl game to fall to 5-10 all-time in bowl games and 4-5 as a major college team (since 1969). NIU's last bowl win came in the 2012 GoDaddy.com Bowl game in Mobile, Alabama (38-20 over Arkansas State).

Northern Illinois finishes the season with an 11-3 record and sees its seven-game winning streak (since Oct. 11) snapped. The Huskies have won 11 or more games each of the last five seasons.

Junior Juwan Brescacin opened the scoring with his sixth touchdown catch of the season, grabbing a 19-yard pass from Drew Hare with 7:33 to play in the first quarter. Brescacin also had a touchdown catch in the MAC Championship game.

NIU gave up a kickoff return touchdown for the second time this season. Arkansas had a 97-yard kickoff return TD to start the game on September 20 in Fayetteville.

Sean Folliard recorded his second and third solo sacks of the season. In the second quarter, the Crystal Lake, Illinois, native dropped Rakeem Cato for an eight-yard loss, then he sacked the Marshall QB in the third quarter for a six-yard loss. Folliard finishes the season with 3.5 quarterback sacks.

NIU recovered its own onside kick for the first time since the 2013 Orange Bowl versus Florida State, when Jamaal Payton gathered in the second half kickoff that Tyler Wedel successfully onsided.

Marshall's 52 points scored in the Boca Raton Bowl were the most given up by the Huskies since September 20 when Arkansas scored 52 in a 52-14 win over NIU. Their 52 points is the most ever surrendered by NIU in a bowl game.

Marshall became just the fifth NIU opponent this season to score more than 24 points in a game.

Cameron Stingily scored his 14th rushing touchdown of the season and has scored at least one rushing touchdown in seven of the Huskies' last eight games. Stingily scored on a 24-yard run for the Huskies' second touchdown to post the longest TD run of his career.

Freshman Christian Hagan set an NIU bowl record with three field goals. The Omaha, Nebraska, native converted on kicks of 19, 30 and 31 yards, topping the previous best of two set by Mike Cklamovski (2010 Humanitarian Bowl vs. Fresno State), Chris Nendick (2004 Silicon Valley Classic vs. Troy) and Vince Scott (1983 California Bowl vs. Cal State-Fullerton).

Christian Hagan also finished the season a perfect 23-of-23 in PATs, becoming the eighth Huskie in program history to have a 1.000 conversion percentage on extra points in a season. The last NIU kicker to finish a year perfect in PATs was Mike Salerno in 2008.

With Marshall's first-quarter punt, the Huskies set a school record for most punts by an opponent. The 2014 team finishes the year with 76 punts forced, topping the 73 punts in 2012.

With 78 plays against the Thundering Herd, the 2014 Huskies tied a program record for most plays in a season with 1,073. The 2013 squad originally set the school record, while this marks the fourth-straight season NIU has run 1,000 or more plays in a single season.

With 63 yards, Da'Ron Brown moved into fifth in NIU's single-season receiving yards chart with 1,065 in 2014, surpassing P.J. Fleck and Hugh Rohrschneider.

The Huskies set a school bowl record with 25 first downs against Marshall in the Boca Raton Bowl. The previous best was 22 against Fresno State in the 2010 Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho.

NIU's 2014 senior class finishes its career tied with the 2013 seniors for most wins by a class with 46. The 19-man senior class also is the only class to have won three MAC Championships at NIU with titles in 2011, 2012 and 2014.