If there's an easy way out of the coach's doghouse, Southern Illinois running back Isaiah Mack has figured it out.

Benched for the first half of this week's game against Northern Illinois, possibly the biggest on SIU's schedule, Mack exploded in the second half to lead the Salukis back from a 31-14 halftime deficit.

Mack rushed 14 times for 108 yards and 2 touchdowns, and also pitched in 99 yards on 3 receptions for another touchdown.

Southern held NIU on the opening drive, and on the ensuing drive, quarterback Eric Sullivan found Jonathan Lewis for a 41-yard touchdown catch, and SIU lead 7-0.

But the remainer of the half was almost all NIU. The Huskies ran off 31 unanswered points, before Sullivan found Sean Howard for an 84-yard touchdown with less than 30 second remaining in the half, to cut the halftime deficit to 31-14.

Backup running back Jason Hayes started out well filling in for Mack, but saw limited carries as the Salukis fell behind. Hayes finished with 13 yards on 7 carries, and also caught 3 passes for 26 yards.

"Jason did very well for us," said SIU head coach Turk Battle. "We weren't expecting him to go for 100 yards, but we didn't expect him to do anything that might get us in trouble. Thank goodness for that, because the defense did fine with that."

Mack wasted little time in getting back into the coach's good graces. On SIU's opening drive of the second half, Mack carried for 25 yards, including a 13 yard scamper into the end zone to cut the NIU lead to 31-21.

NIU could hardly get out of it's own way for much of the third quarter. After going three and out and allowing SIU to cut the lead to 3, NIU fumbled their next possession in their own territory. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Sullivan found Lewis, and SIU took a 35-31 lead.

Southern answered the NIU run with 35 unanswered points of the own, mounting a 42-31 lead going into the 4th quarter.

Northern found it's rhythm in the 4th quarter, as quarterback Antwan Cochran hit wide-out John Abdullah from 27 yards. The Huskies converted the 2-point play to cut the lead to 42-39.

NIU stopped the Salukis on their next drive, and appeared to be on their way to a go-ahead score. However, Cochran was knocked out of the game, and after completing his first pass, backup Marcus Washington was intercepted by SIU left end Derron Swaggart. SIU would take the ball into the endzone, salting the game at 49-39.

"I guess I should have benched him earlier," said coach Battle of Mack's second-half performance.

SIU improves to 3-5 on the season. Southern will try to make it two in a row next week at Florida International.