Northern Illinois looks to add "Boneyard Victory" at Kentucky

When Northern Illinois pulls off a surprising upset, they give a dog a bone. The Huskies take that old saying literally.

The Northern Illinois football locker room is decorated with 17 bones, commemorating their victories over Power Five opponents. Each bone has the score from what they call a “boneyard victory.”

Sadly, the worldwide web does not share an origin story for the term “boneyard victory.” In other bad news, they aren’t actual bones. A locker room tour of the facility in 2012 (that looks like it was made in 1999, with accompanying Jock Jams) shows the cartoonish commemorations of the upsets.

Northern Illinois head coach Thomas Hammock collected a boneyard victory as a running back for the Huskies, a 42-41 win over Wake Forest in 2002. He is 1-4 in such games as a fourth-year head coach, most recently defeating Georgia Tech 22-21 to kick off a MAC Championship campaign in 2021.

Nine of Northern Illinois’ 17 boneyard victories have happened in the last 12 years. The Huskies have defeated a team from every Power Five conference, except the PAC-12. The program has only one win against an SEC opponent, defeating Mike Shula’s No. 21 Alabama 19-16 in 2003, their last win over a ranked non-conference foe.

The Huskies are 6-33 against teams ranked in the AP Poll. Northern Illinois’ most recent win over a Top 25 opponent was in 2015, a 32-27 win over No. 20 Toledo. Kentucky must bring its A-game to ensure it does not become a historical footnote in the Huskies’ boneyard.