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Chad Spann gained 54 net yards against Miami. Below, Armand Robinson scores the winning touchdown. Left, Chandler Harnish and Austin Boucher both had good games. Bottom, Austin Moore celebrates a Miami championship. Photos by Nate Thompson.

The final outcome ultimately turned on a play in which the RedHawks faced a 4th-and-20 from their own 38-yard line with 1:52 remaining. Redshirt freshman quarterback Austin Boucher, making the third start of his career, rolled left under pressure and unloaded a pass down the middle. The ball was tipped by linebacker Tyrone Clark and bounced into the hands of MU wideout Chris Givens. 

The 31-yard play resuscitated the RedHawks, giving them a first down at the NIU 31. After a two-yard loss, Boucher beat a blitz by finding senior Armand Robinson all alone near the middle of the field. He quickly raced the final 25 yards for what proved to be the winning score with 33 seconds left.

“The guy that was on me blitzed, so I changed it to a slant route, and Austin put it right where it needed to be,” Robinson said. “It was an unbelievable play, and I still can’t believe it happened.”

“We were in a blitz situation, and we had a guy not get over the top where he needed to be,” Huskies Head Coach Jerry Kill said. “Those things happen sometimes, but we certainly wish it wouldn’t have.”

NIU moved the ball down field after the kickoff, but quarterback Chandler Harnish was sacked by Austin Brown as time expired.

“You knew it was going to be a dogfight until the last seconds,” Boucher said.

Asked about the big play to Givens, Boucher answered, “Sometimes its better to be lucky than good,” but he quickly added “We put ourselves in position to have it happen.”

Kill indicated the Huskies also put themselves into their position by making several mistakes that came back haunt them. “Both teams played hard, and they made a few more plays than we did,” Kill said. “We dropped a couple passes that we had an opportunity at (scoring on).”

“They executed. They played their tail ends off, and they played a great game,” senior linebacker Alex Kube said of Miami. “It hurts. It’s painful. But coach has done a great job of training us to make sure we can move on. … We’ll bounce back from this, and we’ll play the bowl game, and we’ll play it tough.”

The loss was déjà vu for Huskies fans as NIU lost in the final minute of the championship game for the second time in two appearances. Northern Illinois squandered a 24-10 lead to start the fourth quarter of the 2005 title tilt when Akron tallied the game winner with 17 seconds remaining.

NIU entered this year’s championship game as solid favorites. While the RedHawks had done well (7-1) in league play, they nonetheless got their ticket to the championship game only a week earlier when Kent State upset Ohio University.

Northern Illinois, on the other hand, went undefeated (8-0) in MAC action. It entered the championship game with a nine-game winning streak and averaged 65 points per game over the final three contests.

The two teams met in 2009, with NIU posting a 27-22 victory at DeKalb. Running back Chad Spann ran for 156 yards on 21 carries and scored two touchdowns in that game. The senior followed 2009 with a stellar senior season which earned him the Vern Smith Leadership Award, which goes to the league’s top football player.

Spann, who scored 20 touchdowns and averaged 103.2 ypg, this year, picked up 11 yards on his first two carries against Miami Friday, but he netted just 54 total yards with no TDs on the night as the RedHawks defense made him their No. 1 target. The attention, however, opened up some opportunities for the Huskies passing game.

Miami stopped NIU on the opening drive and then served notice it was ready to play when running back Thomas Merriweather ripped off a 47-yard run on the first play. The 5-10, 214-pound senior also came up big at the end of the 8-play, 80-yard drive, scoring from one yard out on a fourth down play.

It was the first of several gambles for both teams during a tight contest that was leveraged by a missed PAT following Merriweather’s opening score. Mike Krause was credited with blocking the kick.

Northern Illinois’s response to the MU touchdown was swift as junior quarterback Chanler Harnish hit sophomore Martel Moore on a 69-yard bomb three plays into the Huskies second possession. With the Michael Cklamovski PAT, Northern Illinois took a brief lead.

Merriweather’s 25-yard scamper was the biggest gain of a 6-play, 77-yard drive that reclaimed the lead for Miami on the following possession. Freshman Tracy Woods covered the final seven yards and Trevor Cook converted his second PAT kick.

NIU responded much as they had following Miami’s first touchdown. Harnish found Martel behind his defender for a 27-yard TD.

Cklamovski’s kick put NIU back in front, and with 1:17 left in the first quarter, it began to appear as if the game might turn into an offensive slugfest. However, the defenses settled in during a scoreless second period.

Miami regained the advantage after intermission, taking the opening kickoff and moving 82 yards in 10 plays. Boucher ran for one first down and threw for two others in the drive. Woods caught a 33-yard swing pass out of the backfield and Robinson pulled in passes for six and 25 yards.

Robinson’s 14 receptions and 176 yards were both career highs, and the receptions tied the school single-game record. “He made some really tough catches,” Haywood said.

The RedHawks were back in front, but owned a precarious six-point lead at 20-14. They had a chance to increase that advantage after Anthony Kokal recovered a Martel fumble at the NIU 44 with 9:30 left in the period. Miami stalled, however, and faced a fourth down from at the Huskies five-yard line.

Haywood, who said he was concerned with the kicking game, elected to try a fake. Holder Mike Sherpenberg tried to squirt through a hole in the middle of the line, but Clark closed in and tackled the senior at the NIU two-yard line.

“I still think it was a good call right now,” Haywood said after the game. “Did we execute it right? No.”

Scoring opportunities were more infrequent in the second half as Northern Illinois turned up the pressure on Boucher with blitzes. “We were able to do some things to get them off balance,” Kill said.

As with its previous two scores, NIU turned to the pass for its final TD. Harnish lofted a 39-yard pass to Willie Clark at the goal line, and the Huskies jumped into the drivers seat with a successful PAT that gave them a 21-20 lead.

Overall, Harnish completed 15-of-28 for 281 yards and three touchdowns while being sacked three times.

Miami still trailed by one with under four minutes left when it faced a 4th-and-10 at its own 49-yard line. Haywood said afterward that if it was a 4th-and-5, he would probably have gone for it. But with 10 yards to pick up, he let Zac Murphy kick away.

Murphy’s punt was downed at the NIU three, and the RedHawks defense held to force an NIU punt from its own end zone. “They really did a good job of building field position,” said Kill, who felt Murphy’s punt was a big play in the contest.

Taking over at its own 48 with 2:48 remaining, the RedHawks chances looked bleak after Boucher was sacked for a 10-yard loss on the second play. Two plays later, however, the freshman found Givens with the tipped pass and Miami went on to score the winning touchdown. A try for the two-point conversion failed.

“What an outstanding accomplishment by these young me – to overcome the adversity in which they were involved, from going 1-11 to being 9-4 and winning a MAC Championship,” said Haywood, whose team posted the biggest turnaround among teams in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision this year.

Asked about Boucher, who completed 26-of-46 for 333 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions while being sacked five times, Haywood said. “It was a tremendous job on his part.”

The 2010 MAC Coach of the Year noted coaches opened up the playbook more each week for Boucher, who took over after Second Team All-MAC quarterback Zac Dysert was injured Nov. 10 at Bowling Green. “This game, he got the complete package,” said Haywood, who credited Boucher’s preparation. “That man studies more tape than any other man in the organization.”

Fresh off his championship performance, Boucher said, “I’ve visualized this moment so many times. … It’s good to have Miami football back to where it is supposed to be.”

Both Miami and Northern Illinois will be headed to bowl games.