How this Rochester grad helped Southern Illinois pull off an upset of Northwestern

EVANSTON — Overlooked by every FBS football program, Nic Baker brought down one from a Power Five Conference on Saturday.

The 2018 Rochester High School graduate led Southern Illinois, an FCS program, past Big Ten Conference’s Northwestern 31-24 in a stunning upset.

"We saw some stuff we could take advantage of," Baker told The Associated Press. "We love our wideouts. They can do it all and we trust them and they trust me. To come out here and get the train rolling was huge, especially against a team like Northwestern."

More:Rochester QB-WR duo help Southern Illinois to record-setting performance

Baker’s touchdown pass to Jacob Garrett for the second time broke a tie with 12 minutes, 28 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Garrett caught Baker's toss to cap a 19-play, 74-yard drive to put the Salukis ahead by a touchdown and SIU (1-2) beat a Big Ten opponent for only the second time. A Missouri Valley Football Conference member, Southern Illinois' other win over a Big Ten foe was against Indiana in 2006 when coach Nick Hill was their quarterback.

"I'm just excited to see it from a different lens as a coach," said Hill, who's from Du Quoin about 20 miles north of Southern Illinois' campus in Carbondale. "I just kind of stood back and was able to watch them kind of enjoy it."

Because Baker stands at 5 feet, 9 inches, The State Journal-Register's Large School Football Player of the Year in 2017 and Male Athlete of the Year in 2018 didn’t get the kind of college offers he hoped.

“I always thought I was going to play baseball in college because I didn’t think anybody was actually going to give me a chance (to play football collegiately),” Baker told The State Journal-Register in 2018.

Rochester coach Derek Leonard said he thought college programs might eventually regret not extending Baker more consideration.

"I've never been so sure someone could be successful at the next level (than with Baker)," Leonard said in 2017. "I just know. I don't know what Drew Brees looked like; I don't know what Jimmy Garoppolo looked like. I don't know what some of those kids looked like in high school, but the kid doesn't have a flaw.

In 2018, Leonard told the SJ-R, “Outside of the height, if you went down the Madden (video game) quarterback (attributes) — instinct, speed, awareness — he doesn’t have a weakness. It’s crazy. Now that doesn’t mean everything’s 100, but you know, decision-making and vision, I’ve never seen anything like it. Even at the point I had to tell him things just one time a lot of times. His arm strength is 100, his decision-making is great (and) his vision (is great).”

SIU made it 31-17 when Baker pushed up the middle for a 1-yard score with 5:09 left after Northwestern quarterback Ryan Hilinski fumbled at the Wildcats’ 10-yard line.

The Salukis needed the extra score. Hilinski capped a late 16-play, 75-yard drive with a fourth-and-goal touchdown pass to Malik Washington with 1:19 left.

Baker finished with three touchdowns and 241 yards on 23-of-34 passing. Garrett had 47 receiving yards to go with his two scores. Four of his completions went to a pair of familiar faces. Avanté Cox and D'Anté Cox, twin brothers who graduated from Rochester in 2017, combined for five catches and 46 yards.

Tyce Daniel also scored off a Baker pass as the Salukis' air game lifted them to the win. SIU finished with 96 total rushing yards.

More:Rochester's Avanté Cox named FCS First Team All-American

But the big difference in this one: Southern Illinois played a tighter, tidier game. The Salukis committed one turnover; Northwestern made four and they were costly.

"We settled down and played outstanding defense," Hill said. "We took care of the ball and we got turnovers and we competed at a super-high level. We had a daunting task today, to come up staring 0-and-3 in the face if we don't beat a Big Ten school. Man, they battled. It was fun to watch the competitiveness."

Baker and Garrett stole the show from Hilinksi, who entered averaging 374.5 yards in two previous games. Hilinski threw for more than 300 yards in each of them but settled for 214 in this one on 27-of-43 passing.

Northwestern (1-2) had 528 total yards in its opener and 511 in its second game. SIU held the Wildcats to 380.

"The defense was just making it tough on them and made it easy on us when they would get turnovers and stuff like that," Baker said.

"We just seemed to have too much inconsistency offensively with our ball security," Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "Our inability to hit explosives like we had been through the first couple of weeks.

Northwestern's Evan Hull rushed more than 100 yards again, gaining 124 on 25 carries and adding eight catches for 33 yards. He entered leading the nation with an average of 235 all-purpose yards per game.

Led by Baker and Garrett and some timely defensive plays, Salukis were plucky in their ninth game ever against a Big Ten opponent. SIU hosts North Dakota on Saturday in their MVFC opener.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Rochester grad leads Southern Illinois football past Northwestern