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

And, surprisingly, 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. The Huskies try for their third straight win over a BCS conference team when they face Iowa State (2-1) at home today.

Novak called the Alabama win the biggest of his career, with the overtime upset of Maryland a close second. Entering the season, Northern Illinois had two wins over ranked teams in its history -- and one of those came last year against Bowling Green.

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 they're now beating.

"I take a lot of pride in it," said Fleck, the team's leading receiver. "I was here when we had tough times."

It took awhile for times to get better.

Making the slow climb

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, Northern Illinois 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 in Turner.

Turner, a bullish 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.

Heisman mention

Turner, from North Chicago, has been hyped by the school as a Heisman Trophy candidate after he averaged 159.6 yards a game last year -- including five games of over 200 yards.

But Heisman Trophy campaign or not, he and his teammates stand to be passed over when bowl games are scheduled.

Coming out of the MAC, it's likely the best the Huskies can hope for is the Motor City Bowl or GMAC Bowl -- regardless of their record. Northern Illinois hasn't been to the postseason since it played in the 1983 California Raisin Bowl.

Even if the Huskies finished the regular season undefeated, their strength of schedule would probably keep them out of the Bowl Championship Series. Nearly all the other bowls are locked in to taking a team from one of the major conferences.

None of which sits well with Turner and his teammates, who face another team from a BCS conference in Iowa State on Saturday.

"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."

And if the Huskies finish 13-0?

"I think we should definitely go to a bigger bowl," Fleck said. "You have to give us some type of consideration, for a team that could beat three BCS teams -- two of them that might still go to a big-time bowl. Why shouldn't we if we beat all those teams?"