But Colletto went 21-42-3 and was replaced by Joe Tiller, whose idea of football travel runs more to Lear jets than Mack trucks. So the 6-2, 230-pound Heygood, who had rushed for 1,272 yards and 18 touchdowns as a senior at Cardinal O'Hara in 2003, found himself out of place at Purdue. There isn't much call for power-running fullbacks in the one-back, pass-heavy spread offense favored by Tiller.

Heygood, who had nine carries for 36 yards as a redshirt freshman in 2005 and four carries for 10 yards in 2006, took stock of the situation and decided he needed to be on the field more than he had been as a backup running back and special-teams player. So he went to Tiller in the middle of last season and volunteered as a candidate to play linebacker.

Midseason position switches are not necessarily rare. Penn State (6-3, 3-3 Big Ten), which hosts the Boilermakers (7-2, 3-2) Saturday in Beaver Stadium, regularly shifts players around in an attempt to maximize its personnel. But seldom does that sort of experiment work so well, so fast.

This season, Heygood has emerged as a force for the revitalized Purdue defense, ranking third on the team with 48 total tackles, 30 of them solos, and an impressive 11 tackles for loss.

"He's done a good job of adjusting,'' Tiller said of Heygood, who had been ranked as the No. 20 high school running back in the nation by Rivals.com coming out of O'Hara. "He enjoys the contact part of it. Really, if he had stayed at running back, he would be more of a fullback-type guy than a tailback type. Those are the type of individuals that excel as linebackers, so it's really not a surprise to us that he's played as well as he has.

"I don't know if it would be completely accurate to say he's our best linebacker at this time, but he's played well in his first full year as a linebacker. Next year he'll be a heck of a player at the position.''

Maybe so much so that he'll draw attention from NFL scouts, who normally don't spend much time evaluating the seldom-used reserve running backs.

"It increases my chances a lot [to make it to the NFL],'' Heygood said of his move to strongside linebacker. "If you look at the style of running backs in the NFL now, they're really quick guys, explosive guys. I have some of those things, but I have more of the attributes of a linebacker as far as my size and my instincts.

"It really helped me a lot for the coaches to allow me to have the chance to go on the defensive side of the ball.''

Hey, it wasn't like Tiller and his staff were throwing a hungry dog a bone. Even though Tiller has made the Boilermakers a formidable force on offense - they're now 82-51 in this, his 11th year, with no losing seasons and nine bowl appearances - their image, rightly or wrongly, has been of a less physical team that gives up points nearly as fast as they score.

Take 2006, when Purdue went 8-6 and was socked for 40 or more points twice, 30 or more six times and 20 or more 10 times. The Boilermakers averaged 26 points and 415.7 yards per game in total offense but gave up averages of 26.7 points and 432.4 yards.

This season, the defensive statistics are much more to the liking of Tiller and Purdue fans. Purdue remains a quick-strike type of team - averaging 35.7 points and 431.2 yards per game - but the defense, despite the loss of pass-rushing terror Anthony Spencer, the Dallas Cowboys' first-round draft choice, is allowing only 21.8 points and 368 yards per outing. OK, so those figures aren't terrific, but they represent a marked improvement over a year ago.

And you'd be right if you guessed that Heygood wants to lower those stats a little bit more by putting up some big individual numbers himself. He feels like he has a little bit of a score to settle against the Nittany Lions, who paid scant attention to him during the recruiting process.

"I had very little contact with Penn State,'' said Heygood, who considered offers from West Virginia, Boston College and Tennessee before settling on Purdue. "I went to their summer camp as a [high school] sophomore. Yeah, I feel they overlooked me." *