After Northern Illinois lost a conference title and its head coach, Tom Matukewicz's first objective was to make the Huskies' bowl trip fun. He constantly cracked jokes. He made the coaches go one-on-one in practice. No matter what happened, Matukewicz was going to take a lighter approach. "I had a lot to do with the fun part," Matukewicz said. "I wanted them to walk out and have a good time." The reward? That came Saturday night when the Huskies closed out the best season in school history in resounding fashion. Quarterback Chandler Harnish ran for two touchdowns and threw for another, and Northern Illinois made Matukewicz a winner in his only game in charge with a 40-17 victory over Fresno State in the uDrove Humanitarian Bowl. Northern Illinois (11-3) earned a school-record 11th victory and ended an emotional two-week stretch that started with a loss to Miami, Ohio in the Mid-American Conference title game, then was compounded 48 hours later by the departure of head coach Jerry Kill for Minnesota. Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=303520278
