SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - The Notre Dame football team will be welcoming an unfamiliar opponent to the House that Rockne Built on Saturday afternoon.

The Northern Illinois Huskies went 7-6 overall last year and 5-3 in the MAC. They are led by redshirt junior quarterback Ethan Hampton, who threw for over 300 yards and five touchdowns in their 54-15 win last week against Western Illinois.

Huskies meeting Irish for very first time

Looking ahead to this week’s matchup, it’s the first time the Huskies are traveling to South Bend and their first time playing a ranked opponent since a 31-23 loss to Kentucky in 2022.

Head coach Thomas Hammock and the team are grateful for the opportunity.

“It’s a litmus test to see where you’re at, right?” Hammock said. “There’s not going to be too many more teams on our schedule better than Notre Dame, so what a great opportunity. We have to go out there and compete and show where we’re at, and that should give us a confidence boost heading into conference season.”

This is also the Huskies’ first time in school history having a game broadcasted nationally on network television.

NIU returns 32 seniors to 2024 roster

One of the uncertainties heading into this season for Notre Dame was the lack of experience along the offensive line.

NIU has a lot of experience across their defensive line, with all the starters being juniors and seniors.

Despite the inexperience for Notre Dame’s offensive line, NIU defensive tackle Devonte O’Malley says they aren’t preparing any differently.

“Their O-line is a young group, but we’re just not going to look past them just because they got ‘x’ amount of starts,” O’Malley said. “We prepare throughout the week the right way how we do every week. We don’t just change anything up just for the opponent, we prepare the same way every week.”

Kickoff for Notre Dame’s tilt against Northern Illinois is set for 3:30 p.m. EDT. You can watch the game right here on WNDU.

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