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| Northern Illinois running back Me'co Brown changes directions on a run against Purdue this past Saturday. The Huskies won, 28-21. (Beck Diefenbach - bdiefenbach@daily-chronicle.com) |
Running back Me'co Brown's 150 rushing yards on Saturday was impressive enough, but Brown said at the end of Monday's Mid-American Conference teleconference that he was sick on gameday.
"I felt terrible," Brown said. "I went out there the night before, Friday when we made it up there and my stomach, I wasn't feeling too good. I was coughing real bad. [Running backs] coach [Rob] Reeves told me, 'Michael Jordan played sick and you can do the same.' It looked like at the end of the day it came to be something good."
Brown, who leads the MAC in rushing with 331 yards, said he was feeling about average Monday morning. He also was named the MAC West Offensive Player of the Week on Monday for his performance against Purdue.
NIU coach Jerry Kill had plenty of phone calls to return from fans thanking him for the Huskies' 28-21 victory against the Bolilermakers on Saturday. Kill said he spent a good amount of time Sunday trying to return those calls.
"I've tried to get as many returned as I possibly can," Kill said. "It's great for the fans and our university and ex-players and those things. There's no question about that. In between that I've got to get ready for the next game. I've tried to be cordial on that but I've got to get ready for the next game. But that's a good problem to have."
Kill also said several of those calls have rehashed the fake punt that gave the Huskies a first down in the fourth quarter and essentially iced the game.
Kill addressed the punting situation, as well. Junior Josh Wilber, who averaged 35.6 yards a punt Saturday, was taken out of the game in the fourth quarter in favor of senior kicker Mike Salerno. Salerno punted the rest of the game for the Huskies.
"That was a situation where we needed a pooch punt and I've got a lot of confidence in Mike with the pooch kick," Kill said. "He kicked it down to about the 10 and then our coverage wasn't very good. And then at the end of the game, he's very good at directional punting. We needed a directional punt and we did that last year.
"We'll take a look at that situation throughout the week. [Salerno] certainly [is] capable of doing that. But I've said all along I don't want to do that all the time. We'll see how the week goes and how we'll evaluate our special teams because we've got a few things we need to take care of."
Jarvis released from hospital: Kent State coach Doug Martin said running back Eugene Jarvis (lacerated kidney) was released from the hospital on Sunday.
“We’ve heard from just about every coach in the MAC just wishing Eugene well,” Martin said. “Coach [Al] Golden from Temple called, coach [JD] Brookhart took the trip over to see him in the hospital from Akron. We certainly appreciate that, and a lot of other coaches have called."
RedHawks on the board: In the third quarter of its third game of the season, Miami (Ohio) scored its first points of the season on Saturday at Western Michigan in an eventual 48-26 loss to the Broncos.
Wide receiver Eugene Harris III caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Daniel Raudabaugh with 7:09 left in the third. The extra point was blocked.
"I think that the players really got that psychological monkey off their back," Miami coach Mike Haywood said. "They became a lot more relaxed after they scored that first touchdown."
Quotable: "We'll hydrate now," Toledo coach Tim Beckman on going to play at Florida International this weekend.
