College Football

A Cut Above

Northern Illinois back Garrett Wolfe is cruising toward the rushing title, and he's doing it against programs big and small

IT WASN'T as if every marquee program in the country took a pass on Garrett Wolfe, the Northern Illinois senior tailback who leads the nation in rushing. It was every marquee program but one.

Florida offered him a scholarship in 2002. Considering, however, that it still makes Wolfe profoundly homesick to drive the 60-odd miles from his native Chicago to DeKalb, Ill., going to Gainesville was out of the question. "I wouldn't have been comfortable in Florida," he says. "I need to feel comfortable."

Having rushed for an outrageous 236.2 yards per game this season—the country's second-leading ground-gainer, Ray Rice of Rutgers, is 75 yards a game back—Wolfe, it is fair to say, has found his comfort zone. He certainly seemed right at home in a 40--28 win at Ball State last Saturday, when he carried 31 times for a school-record 353 yards and scored on runs of 51, 48 and 53 yards.

Before you chalk up his garish output to lightweight opponents, recall that in the Huskies' opener Wolfe ran amok against top-ranked Ohio State, piling up 171 yards rushing and another 114 receiving in a 35--12 loss. Last season he gashed Michigan for 148 yards on 17 carries. As Ohio University coach Frank Solich puts it, "He isn't just running up and down the field against air."

Wolfe had a couple of strikes against him as a senior at Chicago's Holy Cross High: He was an indifferent student, and he stood 5'7". After spending his first season in DeKalb red shirting and getting his act together in the classroom, he had to sit out a second season because, as coach Joe Novak says, "we misadvised him," and he ended up an hour short of being eligible.

By the time the 2004 season rolled around, Wolfe had shown so much in practice that, Novak says, "I told anyone who would listen, 'We've got to get this kid the ball 10 or 12 touches a game.'" You think?

Wolfe, then the second-string tailback, filleted Bowling Green for 204 yards rushing in the second half of NIU's fourth game of the season. Seven games later he carried 43 times for 325 yards against Eastern Michigan. While 43 carries was high, even for the workaholic Wolfe, he has averaged 26.4 rushes per game over the last two seasons. How does the 177-pounder absorb that many hits and show up for meetings on Sunday in one piece?

While Novak reports that Wolfe is spinning out of more tackles this season, it's not as if the senior is auditioning for Dancing With the Stars. "You don't see him hopping around, trying to juke people," says senior left tackle Doug Free. That said, "He's got a knack for avoiding big collisions. Nobody ever gets a square shot at him." Well, not usually. Last year Wolfe averaged 175.6 yards on the ground, second-best in the country, but missed three games with a knee injury.