BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Memorial Stadium was nearly silent as Northwestern outside linebacker Tim McGarigle laid motionless on the turf for several minutes early in Saturday’s game.
The NU trainers huddled around the 6-foot-1 sophomore and the game was stopped for about seven minutes in the first quarter. The crowd of 27,213 gave McGarigle a standing ovation when he finally rose to his feet, and shortly after he was carted off the field NU announced that McGarigle had suffered a concussion.
“It puts everything in perspective when your brother is down and he’s not moving around,” running back Jason Wright said. “Everything doesn’t matter anymore. This truly is only a game.”
McGarigle was injured when he leapt over a blocker and tripped up Hoosier running back Chris Taylor on a first-and-10 near midfield.
As McGarigle laid on the turf after the play, NU coach Randy Walker came out and stood close by as the trainers worked on the linebacker.
“It didn’t look good to me from afar,” Walker said. “I don’t like going out there, and I don’t handle things like that well.
“But they were trying to get him back, so it wasn’t a neck. Those are the things that are scary.”
HELL’s ‘Rells: NU has new kickoff returners:
The ‘Rells.
Sophomore running backs Terrell Jordan and Derell Jenkins replaced Jeff Backes and Jason Wright on kickoffs Saturday.
“They’re affectionately known through our building as ‘the Rells,'” Walker said. “It’s nothing against Jeff Backes and Jason Wright, they’ve been very good back there, but they’re both playing a lot of football.”
With Wright, who starts at running back, and Backes, who plays cornerback, fielding kicks, the Cats averaged 18.5 yards a return.
Wright was sixth in the Big Ten with 20.5 yards a game, but against Ohio State Wright stepped out of bounds at the two-yard line after fielding a kick.
“I got pulled because I didn’t get the job done,” Wright said.
But Walker insists that he didn’t replace Wright and Backes because of their performance.
“I want to get more touches to Terrell and Derell,” Walker said. “And [returning kicks] was the answer for that.”
Jordan had three returns against Indiana for 73 yards and Jenkins had one run back for 10 yards.
After the game Walker said he was pleased with the two players, who combined to average more than 20 yards a return.
“I want to continue to get the ‘Rells their touches,” Walker said. ” I want to get them as much playing time as we can.”
Inches to go…: With four rushing touchdowns Saturday, Wright moved into third on NU’s career rushing touchdown list with 25. Damien Anderson tops the list with 38, Darnell Autry had 35 and Zak Kustok had 22 … With 141 yards rushing, Wright moved into sixth on NU’s all-time leading rushers with 1,957 yards … Kunle Patrick’s high school coach at Poly Prep Country Day, Dino Mangiero, is now Indiana’s director of football operations … Pat Durr’s first quarter interception on Saturday was the second of his career. He had an interception against Illinois in 2000 … NU’s last overtime game was a 15-13 win at Duke on Sept. 18, 1999.
