The Kent State Golden Flashes and the Northern Illinois Huskies meet Friday in college football action from Huskie Stadium. Here’s a Northern Illinois vs Kent State prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Northern Illinois vs Kent State pick.
Kent State Golden Flashes Betting Preview
The Golden Flashes have had a pretty rocky year so far, winning just four games. The first victory of the year came versus Merrimack in the opener, then came a string of four defeats versus Texas Tech, Buffalo, Florida State and Oklahoma in succession. Kent State went 3-2 over the next five games, taking losses to Toledo and Ball State in that time with wins otherwise versus UMass, Bowling Green and Akron. The Akron victory was a 42-35 overtime affair on November 11.
Back on November 19 in their latest outing, the Golden Flashes took on Central Michigan. Kent State was trailing 14-3 by halftime and got outscored 14-13 in the fourth quarter on the way to a 28-16 loss in the end. QB Dru DeShields finished 14-of-28 for 185 yards total, and leading rusher Gavin Garcia logged 77 yards on 15 carries. Tops in receiving during the losing effort was Wayne Harris with three catches for 56 yards along the way.
Northern Illinois Huskies Betting Preview
Over on the Huskies’ side, they’ve had an even more difficult year in 2025. Northern Illinois also won their opener, taking it 19-17 over Holy Cross. Northern Illinois would hit a string of losses after that however, dropping to Maryland, Mississippi State, San Diego State, Miami-OH, Eastern Michigan and Ohio before finally getting another win over Ball State. Since then it’s been a 1-2 run with a win over UMass on November 12 sandwiched in between losses to Toledo and Western Michigan during that time.
In the Western Michigan matchup on November 18, the Huskies jumped out to an early 10-0 lead but were trailing by the break. NIU didn’t end up getting any closer and fell 35-19 in the end. Brady Davidson threw for 73 yards and a score on 5-of-8 passing and Chavon Wright led the rush with 21 carries for 92 yards. Rickey Taylor added three catches for 53 yards and a touchdown in the losing effort as well.
Kent State Golden Flashes @ Northern Illinois Huskies Betting Trends: Week 14
Northern Illinois Huskies Player Prop Facts
- Brady Davidson has recorded a 130.0+ passer rating in two consecutive games – equal-longest streak in the FBS.
Kent State Golden Flashes Player Prop Facts
- Heading into Week 14, Dru DeShields ranks 4th in the league for TD:INT ratio (8.00) this season.
Matchup/League Facts
- Northern Illinois ranks 135th among FBS teams for Q4 points per game this season (3.0).
- Northern Illinois ranks 134th among FBS teams for H2 points per game this season (6.6).
- Kent State has suffered the equal-most road losses by a margin of 30+ points of any FBS team this season (4).
- Kent State has suffered the most road losses by a margin of 35+ points of any FBS team this season (4).
Northern Illinois vs Kent State Prediction
I’ll take a stab on Northern Illinois, but realistically I’m not touching this one. There’s very little to get excited about here as each team plays out their schedule. The Huskies are coming off another rough showing versus Western Michigan in their latest appearance. NIU posted just 78 passing yards with 13 first downs and went 2-of-14 on third-down tries. On defense the Huskies surrendered 393 total yards—with 361 of those coming on the ground—along with 25 first downs and 7-of-11 on third downs. Northern Illinois hasn’t cracked 21 points all season long outside of the UMass game, so they’re having massive issues scoring.
As for Kent State, they gained 274 yards with a tepid 89 rush yards, 20 first downs and 4-of-13 on third-down tries in their latest loss versus Central Michigan. The Flashes have been below 17 points in three of the last five games, losing all three of those. A lot of different things could happen in this matchup, but it’ll likely be a fairly low-scoring affair if the trends hold.