Published: November 05, 2008 10:27 pm      

McClellan returns to scene of crime

Surprisingly, Albert McClellan said few people have brought up the career game he had at East Carolina two years ago.

That’s OK. He remembers it well.

“I had a great knee at the time,” McClellan said Tuesday, jokingly.

McClellan, of course, is in the midst of his return season after missing all of 2007 with a knee injury. He was Conference USA’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2006, and the game he had at ECU went a long way toward that honor.

It was a rough day for Marshall, which lost 33-20 in Greenville, N.C. But McClellan did all he could to give the Thundering Herd a shot. The 6-foot-2, 252-pound defensive end had a school-record 6 1/2 tackles for loss, including 3 1/2 sacks.

He finished with nine tackles while also forcing two fumbles.

“My motor just didn’t stop running that game,” McClellan recalled. “Coach (Mark) Snyder told me he expected a great game out of me.

“He really encouraged me and I guess that encouragement stuck with me because I kept going full tilt.”

McClellan and Marshall will return to ECU Saturday under far different circumstances than two years ago. The Herd (4-4, 3-1) is tied with the Pirates (5-3, 3-1) for first place in the East Division standings. Kickoff from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium will be 3:30 p.m.

Whichever team wins will be in the driver’s seat to advance to the C-USA championship game Dec. 6.

“We’ve still got our destiny in our own hands,” McClellan said. “We’ve just got to do what we do and keep (our goals) in front of us.”

McClellan has been a mainstay on a defense that is much improved from a year ago. He is eighth on the team with 35 tackles, four for a loss of 28 yards, including 2 1/2 sacks.

“I’m having an OK season,” McClellan said.

“I haven’t made a lot of mental errors on paper when it comes to schemes. I just try to do what the coaches ask of me.”

It would be hard to ask McClellan for a repeat performance of his day at ECU, but he’s willing to give it a shot.

“I hope I have another game like that,” he said.

— E-mail:

gfauber@register-herald.com