Pack's Brown gets tough

During Sunday’s team meeting, N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien singled out senior running back Andre Brown for some encouragement.

Brown led N.C. State with 64 rushing yards and four catches for 51 yards in last week’s loss at Clemson. More importantly, he avoided the temptation to bounce out to the perimeter after contact, which has plagued him in the past.

“He was running tough inside,” O’Brien said. “He was getting tough yards. He was going forward. He caught the ball and got hit and made yards after contact. So he was a much more complete back as far as I was concerned Saturday than at any time since I’ve seen him here.”

Brown has been productive throughout his career at N.C. State. He entered the season with 1,772 rushing yards and four games of 100 rushing yards or more.

But last season, he was reluctant to lower his shoulder and get the tough yards O’Brien wanted. To use baseball as an analogy, Brown was swinging for the fences too often and striking out a lot.

O’Brien likes his backs to swing for singles and doubles in the gap.

“Instead of dancing around and trying to get to the boundary as fast as you can, you go forward, take what you can get and keep the chains moving,” O’Brien said. “Because a lot of times in this league, if you can’t outrun guys bouncing to the boundary, you end up losing yards.”

Now, instead of losing yards, Brown is gaining his coach’s praise.