Of the 105 players on the NIU football roster, 63 of them are from Illinois. Their hometowns range from Chicago to Rockford to Sycamore.

Pretty much every NIU football player lives within two hours of NIU’s campus.

However, one of NIU’s freshman is rare in that he comes from a town 962 miles away from DeKalb.

True freshman running back Me’co Brown comes from Moss Point, Miss., just a few minutes from the Gulf of Mexico.

In January of 2008, Brown was walking the halls of Moss Point High School when he was called into an office. Sitting in the office was NIU defensive backs-special teams coach Jay Sawvel.

When Brown saw Sawvel’s NIU gear, one thing came to his mind.

“That’s the school Garrett Wolfe went to,” Brown said.

Brown talked to Sawvel about NIU and then sent film and stayed in contact. Brown came up for his visit the first week of February, just a few days before national signing day on Feb. 6.

“I loved the players, I loved the atmosphere, and I really loved the coaches,” Brown said. “I felt home.”

Brown says that he has always liked the idea of going to school away from home, and that he doesn’t really mind the fact that he’s almost 1,000 miles away from his hometown.

“I love it, it’s something I wanted to do ever since I was younger,” Brown said. “Just go away from home and play football. Home is home. Home is always going to be home.”

However, being near the Gulf of Mexico, there is a part of Northern Illinois that Brown isn’t quite used to — the cold.

“I’ve played in cold weather. I came for my visit,” said Brown, standing inside the Yordon Center, away from the chilly air at Huskie Stadium. “I’m looking forward to it though. I always wanted to stay someplace where it snows.”

Of the 13 members of NIU head coach Jerry Kill’s first recruiting class, only two have seen game action so far this season.

Brown is the only true freshman to see significant action; five games into the 2008 season, leading the Huskies in carries while serving as the team’s main kickoff and punt returner.

Brown’s coming out party came in the Huskies’ 37-0 win over Eastern Michigan on Sept. 27, where he ran for 111-yards on 17 carries before leaving the game with a foot injury – the injury wasn’t serious, and Brown played in last Saturday’s contest at Tennessee.

“He’s certainly made some plays for us early in his career,” Kill said. “He comes from a tremendous program and was a tremendous recruit for us to get.”

At Moss Point High School, Brown was a star, rushing for 1,331-yards and scoring 20 touchdowns his senior season. He was also a member of the Mississippi All-Star Classic Team and the 2007 Class 4A Most Valuable Player.

That being said, Brown wasn’t sure if he was even going to play this year, due to the possibility that the coaching staff would red-shirt him.

“I basically found out [I wasn’t red-shirting] towards the end of training camp,” Brown said. “I came in wanting to play. I was going to do anything I needed to do to play.”

“He worked hard in the summertime and was ready for camp,” Kill said. “He can make plays. We knew if we had a guy that can make plays, we weren’t going to red-shirt him.”

Instead of sitting on the sidelines for the 2008 season, Brown leads the team in rushing yards with 235 in a crowded Huskie backfield that includes Justin Anderson, a 1,000-yard rusher in 2007, and Montell Clanton, who started out last season as NIU’s starting tailback as a true freshman.

“I expect a lot out of myself,” Brown said. “I got a lot of help from the older guys. I thank them and respect them for that.”