Dekalb, Ill. ? Northern Illinois was off to its best start in years. The Huskies had upended Maryland, blown out Tennessee Tech and were on the verge of their first-ever national ranking.

And, unbelievably, many were still unimpressed.

“I had a lot of people grumbling to me, ‘Boy, you guys didn’t play very good.”‘ coach Joe Novak said following a 42-17 win over Tennessee Tech. “I knew then we’d arrived because we’re grumbling and mumbling about a 25-point win. A couple of years ago, I’d have prayed for any kind of win.”

After years of failure that included a 23-game losing skid, Northern Illinois has turned things around in a major way.

The No. 20 Huskies are 3-0 and ranked for the first time in school history after wins over then-No. 15 Maryland and last Saturday’s 19-16 road victory over No. 20 Alabama.

Novak called the Bama win the biggest of his career, and the overtime victory against Maryland was a close second.

Entering the season, Northern Illinois had two wins over ranked teams in its entire history. One of those came last year against Bowling Green.

Turnaround personal

For Northern Illinois, a small school 60 miles west of Chicago that is surrounded by cornfields, the sudden turnaround is personal. Most of the team consists of players like seniors P.J. Fleck and Michael Turner: local kids who grew up hoping to play for the big-time schools that they’re now beating.

Northern Illinois coach joe novak, right, celebrates with a staff member after his team upended Alabama. The Huskies won 19-6 last Saturday at Tuscaloosa. They'll take on another foe from a major conference today when they play host to Iowa State.

“I take a lot of pride in it,” said Fleck, the team’s leading receiver. “I was here when we had tough times. There were some times when the whole team said, ‘I don’t know about this. We’re losing a lot of games.”‘

It took awhile for that to change.

The Huskies were 1-10 under Novak in 1996 and fell to 0-11 the next season as a new member of the Mid-American Conference. The losing skid stretched to 23 games in Novak’s third year, and even the upbeat coach was beginning to wonder whether he had failed.

“We lost 23 games in a row. That’s over two years of football,” he said. “I doubted myself. I doubted the coaches. I doubted the players. I doubted my wife. I doubted the janitor — you look at everything. There were many nights that I went to bed and said, ‘Maybe I’m in over my head. Maybe I can’t do this.”‘

Gradually, UNI got better.

The Huskies won twice in 1998 and improved to 5-6 the next year. They posted their first winning record in 10 years in 2000, and followed that up with back-to-back winning seasons and tied for first in the West Division of the MAC.

The preseason favorite to win the MAC this season, the Huskies returned most of their top players from last year — including one of the nation’s most explosive running backs.

Turner, a 228-pound senior, is averaging 127 yards a game rushing. He ran for 156 yards against an Alabama defense that had been allowing only 50 yards a game on the ground.

Turner, from North Chicago, has been hyped by the school as a Heisman Trophy candidate after averaging 159.6 yards a game last year — including five games of more than 200 yards.

Northern Illinois was the only school to offer Turner a scholarship out of high school. Illinois, a school he desperately wanted to play for, took a brief look at him but passed.

“That’s all I saw on TV — the Big Ten. That was a great dream of mine. Unfortunately I didn’t get that, so I’m making the best of things here,” he said. “It’s a good feeling knowing that you were overlooked, being the underdog and doing great things on the field to make people wish that they had you now.”

No bowl since 1983

Now he fears being passed over again, this time in the postseason. Coming out of the MAC, it’s likely the best the Huskies can hope for is the Motor City Bowl or GMAC Bowl. Northern Illinois hasn’t been to the postseason since 1983.

Even if the Huskies finished the regular season undefeated, their strength of schedule would probably keep them out of the BCS.

None of which sits well with Turner and his teammates, who face another team from a BCS conference today when they play host to Iowa State.

“That’s the most frustrating thing about it, that we have to win our conference to guarantee a spot in a bowl,” he said. “Other teams can lose up to five games and still make a bowl over us.”