December
13, 2005
NIU TB Garrett
Wolfe Earns Five Post-Season Honors From collegefootballnews.com
DeKalb, IL
--- For a diminutive-sized guy who missed three games this season,
Northern Illinois University junior tailback Garrett Wolfe did more
than okay for himself with CollegeFootballNews.com this week.
Thanks to some
rather un-diminutive rushing statistics, the 5-foot-7, 177-pound
Wolfe earned a carload of post-season individual honors. Is (1)
Honorable Mention All-America, (2) Mid-American Conference Player
of the Year, (3) First-Team All-MAC, (4) team Player of the Year,
plus (5) being ranked the No. 1 performer in the Mid-Am by CollegeFootballNews.com
good enough?
“Garrett’s
something special,” said Huskie head coach Joe Novak. “He
really is. When he was injured, we weren’t the same offense,
the same team. Maybe he was a bit under the national radar this
year after missing those three games, but then you consider that
he rushed for over 700 yards against three consecutive bowl-eligible
teams at the end of the year, that is awesome. Garrett is a big-time
playmaker, no doubt in my mind.”
Wolfe (Chicago
/ River Grove Holy Cross)---the nation’s top National Collegiate
Athletic Association Division 1-A rusher this season at 175.6 yards
per game and the No. 1 active career rusher in 1-A football at 161.8
ypg.---gained 724 yards in Northern Illinois’ final three contests
after coming off a left knee sprain that forced him out of the line-up.
“He’s
not all that big, but he’s large enough to carry the load for
one of the nation’s best rushing attacks,”
described CollegeFootballNews.com on its MAC Player of the Year
ranking on its website. “Despite missing three games with injury,
Wolfe ran for 1,580 yards and 16 touchdowns and was a solid receiver
catching 20 passes for 222 yards and a score.”
CollegeFootballNews
also rated Wolfe’s 277-yard, five-TD performance against Western
Michigan in the MAC West Division title-clinching game as the league’s
“Best Performance.” No. 1 exploded for a game-high 177
yards in the Huskies’ 35-17 triumph in the Toledo showdown.
In the MAC Championship game, Wolfe established a new single-game
rushing mark with 270 yards versus Akron. Earlier in the year against
two bowl teams, he posted 148 ground yards versus Michigan and 245
more against Northwestern.
Currently ranked
No. 1 in major-college rushing, No. 2 in NCAA all-purpose yardage
(200.2 ypg. average), and No. 5 in 1-A scoring (11.3 ppg.), Wolfe
could become the third Northern Illinois major-college rushing kingpin
in school history. In recent years, bowl statistics have been included
in yearly NCAA numbers so Wolfe needs to maintain his rushing lead
through the post-season games. The other Huskie national rushing
champions include fullback Mark Kellar (1,719 yards in 1973) and
tailback LeShon Johnson (1,976 yards in 1993). NIU tailback Michael
“The Burner” Turner was the NCAA ground-gaining runner-up
in both 2002 (1,995 yards) and 2003 (1,648 yards). Between Wolfe
and Turner, Novak’s team has boasted the last four MAC individual
rushing crowns.
In November,
Wolfe was named First-Team All-Mid-Am by the league’s coaches
for the second year in a row. The breakaway Northern Illinois tailback
also made The Sporting News National Player of the Week vs. WMU,
plus MAC West Division Offensive Player of the Week vs. Michigan,
vs. Toledo, and vs. Western Michigan in 2005. A year ago. Wolfe
rushed for 1,656 yards, garnered Honorable Mention All-America honors
fromCollegeFootballNews.com and CNN-Sports Illustrated, and earned
four MAC West Offensive Player of the Week citations.
In 2006, Wolfe
can become only the third runner in Mid-Am gridiron history to win
three consectuve league rushing titles---joining Miami (OH) runningback
Travis Prentice (1997-99) and Western Michigan runningback Jerome
Persell (1976-78).
(For further
information, please contact Mike Korcek)
