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When talking production, Wolfe comes up big
By
Rick Armstrong STAFF WRITER
DEKALB — It's one college game program that doesn't lie.
When the Huskie Illustrated at a Northern Illinois University football game lists Garrett Wolfe at 5 feet, 7 inches tall, believe it.
"I've had people meet me and say, 'I thought you were 5-5 because it says 5-7 in the program and they always lie,' " the senior tailback said with a smile.
"And I've had a lot of people say, 'You're smaller than I thought.' "
The 175-pound Wolfe has reason to be amused. Size may matter in college football, but Wolfe is living proof there's no stopping you if you have the talent.
Doubt it? Check out page 82 of the Aug. 21 Sports Illustrated College Football Preview issue. There's Wolfe, holding the ball and striking a Heisman Trophy-like pose and flashing the ever-present smile.
The magazine describes him as "one of the nation's most electrifying runners" and features him in its portfolio of Big Men on Campus. He's made several watch lists for national awards and was named a Playboy Preseason All-America, among others.
Wolfe's numbers, which have been piling up since he burst onto a national stage Sept. 24, 2004, at Huskie Stadium in a game televised by ESPN2, are legit.
Called upon to sub for injured starter A.J. Harris, Wolfe rushed for 204 yards in the second half against Bowling Green State. It was the fourth game of the season. He had seen limited duty before that, primarily as a third-down back, rushing nine times for 24 yards at Maryland in his college debut, 12 for 45 at home against SIU and 13 for 33 at Iowa State.
Novak and his staff were concerned about Wolfe's size and durability. He went on to lead the team, finishing the season with 1,656 yards (6.5 average) and 18 TDs.
Those concerns proved warranted last year when Wolfe missed three games following arthroscopic knee surgery for a meniscus cartilage tear and dealt with a painful shoulder injury.
He still gutted it out, rushing for 1,630 yards and 16 TDs in nine games. That included 148 at Michigan, 245 at Northwestern and for a Mid-American Conference championship game-record 270 against Akron.
He has great vision to find the smallest of openings and excellent moves that leave defenders grasping at mid-air in his wake.
"When you watch him on film, his vision stands out," said senior quarterback Phil Horvath. "It's almost like he knows ahead of time the hole will be there."
"He has an unbelievable knack to set up blocks," said assistant head coach Sam Pittman. "He's as good (a running back) as I've been around, and I've coached for three different Big 12 teams."
Wolfe is also strong enough to move the pile in short-yardage situations.
"I think a lot of people just assume, because of my stature, that I don't wanna be physical. That I won't attack or I won't hit," Wolfe said. "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but after I've run through them a couple of times, I think they change their tune."
Teammates are impressed.
"It's just amazing he can take that hard of hits that many times in a game and he jumps up and goes back at it some more," said 6-7, 315-pound senior tackle Doug Free.
Last year, Wolfe felt some of those hits. He said his shoulder popped out of place seven times.
"The most pain was against Toledo," he said. "But that's because I hadn't played in a game in five weeks when it happened. ... There was some healing and scarring in there (while he recovered from the knee surgery). It was on the last play of the game and it hurt so bad. But it went away after about 45 minutes, after it calmed down."
The hits weren't the worst, he maintained.
"It always popped out at the most awkward times, when I was in an awkward position," he said. "It never popped when things got real physical."
Novak is still wary of using him too much.
"We've got to be smart (this season)," he said. "There may be some times he carries 35 times in a game, but I hope not."
Wolfe, who says he isn't worried about taking that first hit, is anxious to begin. He insists he doesn't take that much punishment.
"Things always seem worse than what they are," he said. "I know it may seem like I'm taking a lot of shots, and granted, I may be taking some, but we do a good job of conditioning. A lot of them I dodge. And some, I attack instead of being attacked. ... It's really not as bad as it looks."
With another big season, Wolfe could end up as the Huskies' career rushing leader. He needs 1,705 yards to overtake current leader Michael Turner (4,941 from 2000-03). It's within reach, if he stays healthy.
So is his ultimate goal of playing in the NFL.
Asked to compare himself to a pro back, he chooses Atlanta's Warrick Dunn.
"I think we're very similar in size and he's more physical than people give him credit for," Wolfe said. "He's not a dancer. He gets down. He knows and understands the fastest way to the end zone is a straight line, not in here and out there. ... You gotta get upfield and get going."
Wolfe knows, though, pro teams will have the same concerns about him come draft day that Novak and his staff had.
"I do know that no matter what I do, I can never be a first-round pick," he said. "I'm just hoping to squeeze into that first day (rounds 1-3)."
It could be to a lucky team. Because he just may have first-round heart.
Northern Illinois Football
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Wolfe on the prowl
By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Northern Illinois tailback Garrett Wolfe prides himself on the fact that he's only about a half-inch shorter than Northwestern's Tyrell Sutton.
Evidently the two have measured themselves back-to-back because Hoban product Sutton is listed as 5-foot-9 and Wolfe at 5-foot-7. But in the world of college football, Wolfe stands just as tall as Sutton, who made a splash last season as a true freshman.
Coming off a 1,580-yard season in 2005, Wolfe is the nation's leading returning rusher in NCAA Division I-A. He gashed Michigan for 148 yards on 17 carries and a 76-yard TD in the Huskies' opener a year ago. He outrushed the Wolverines' Mike Hart 148-117 and Sutton 245-214. In the Mid-American Conference championship game, Wolfe pounded Akron for 270 yards on 42 carries in a 31-30 loss.
Now the task of stopping him falls to top-ranked Ohio State, which lost nine starters from a defense that was the country's stingiest against the run. Wolfe, a senior who wears No. 1, could dash the Buckeyes' national title hopes Saturday at 3:30 p.m. before a sellout crowd at Ohio Stadium.
``We feel like he may be the best back we face,'' OSU senior defensive tackle Quinn Pitcock said.
``There may be teams with better offensive linemen, better quality players. But he seems like he does a lot of work himself.
``He's got a very keen eye for finding the gap that's open. Most of his big plays he's untouched. He's got a strong lateral cut and once he gets out in the open nobody can stop him.''
Northern Illinois quarterback Phil Horvath said Wolfe's vision is amazing.
``Watching film you'll see the line and there will be nothing there,'' Horvath said. ``It's almost like he knows ahead of time. All of a sudden a hole will open and he'll be through it. It's crazy.''
Huskies coach Joe Novak said he was crazy not to realize what he had in Wolfe at the start of the 2004 season. Wolfe had been around for two years, sitting out one as a redshirt and the second when he didn't meet academic requirements. But Novak looked at Wolfe's short, now-172 pound frame and figured his body wouldn't survive more than 10 to 12 carries a week.
Eight times in the past two seasons, Wolfe carried 30 or more times in a game. Against Eastern Michigan in 2004, he ripped off 325 yards on 43 attempts. In two years, Wolfe has totalled 3,236 yards, averaged 25 carries a game and 6.5 yards per rush. And he played all of last year with a partially dislocated right shoulder that required surgery in January.
``He does things I'd like to take credit for, but it's not coaching,'' said Novak, a Mentor High School graduate who began his career at Warren Western Reserve High School. ``He's got a great feel for the game, he's got great vision. I've been around Anthony Thompson at Indiana, I've been around good backs. Garrett is not the biggest, but he's extremely instinctive.
``For the number of times he's carried the ball, he really has stayed healthy. He missed three games with a knee last year, but any football player is going to have that possibility.''
Wolfe isn't sure why he's been so durable.
``I guess it's good genes,'' he said earlier this month at an NIU media day in Chicago. ``I'm a lot stronger than I look. I hit the weight room very hard.''
Doug Free, the Huskies' 6-foot-7, 312-pound left tackle, said the team feeds off Wolfe's toughness.
``He's a very vocal leader,'' Free said. ``He might have just gotten hit pretty good, you'd think a lot of guys would come back and say, `Oh, boy, that was a big hit.' He comes back, he's jumping around. He brings a lot of enthusiasm and keeps everybody running together.''
While Wolfe admitted 2005 was a physically painful year, he had the determination to endure. Part of that comes from his size.
``I've always been the small guy,'' he said. ``I've always had a chip on my shoulder. Every time I meet someone, it's an audition.
``With all due respect to the people who do take me seriously now, I still don't believe everyone across the country takes me seriously. That's something I'm not too concerned with. But every situation I've been in, I've been productive.''
Wolfe hopes the Buckeyes are thinking about their trip to Texas on Sept. 9 and will overlook him. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
``Most teams cannot hold him under 200 yards,'' Buckeyes linebacker John Kerr said.
Middle linebacker James Laurinaitis said Wolfe's size can be a disadvantage for OSU.
``You can't see him behind that huge offensive line,'' Laurinaitis said. ``The fact that he's small, he's played big in every game he's played in. It doesn't matter how big you are if you have that heart and that drive. It should be an interesting challenge for us.''
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Tiny tailback might be handful for Buckeyes
By Jon Spencer
News Journal
COLUMBUS -- Garrett Wolfe can run, but he cannot hide -- not anymore.
The pocket-sized, rocket-quick tailback from Northern Illinois likes to cast illusions by disappearing behind his linemen and then re-appearing -- poof! -- in the end zone.
But now, thanks to a 1,580-yard season and this week's high-profile opener at No. 1-ranked Ohio State, he's on everybody's radar. Sports Illustrated portrayed him as a "Big Man on Campus," figuratively-speaking, of course. There were features stories on him this week in USA TODAY and the New York Times. ESPN's "GameDay" made its way through the maze of cornstalks to middle-of-nowhere DeKalb to talk to Wolfe on campus about Saturday's showdown with the Buckeyes.
Even Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith has called. They became friends at a Playboy All-American banquet in Phoenix in May."The first time I met Garrett, it was more of a brotherly feel in the way he came off," Smith said. "It wasn't ... 'We got you in the opener and our rivalry and game starts now.' I got to know him as a person."
On Saturday, Smith's teammates on the other side of the ball will get to know Wolfe as one of the most explosive and surprisingly durable backs in the nation.
Despite carrying only 177 pounds on his 5-foot-7 frame, Wolfe averaged 27 carries last season. He missed three games with a knee sprain, but came back and rushed for 724 yards and nine touchdowns in the final three games, including 270 yards on 42 carries in a 31-30 loss to Akron in the Mid-American Conference championship game.
Nine times last season his right shoulder popped out and trainers popped it back into place so he could stay on the field. He had surgery after the season, which must have worked because the shoulder hasn't buckled under the strain of that huge chip he's been lugging around.
All players in the unheralded MAC wear one under their pads, from the small, overlooked guys like Wolfe to his hard-to-miss but lightly-recruited body guards like 6-7, 312-pound Doug Free and 6-5, 304-pound Chris Acevedo.
"Those guys from the Big Ten are out there thinking about the NFL and worrying about their knees," Wolfe said to the New York Times. "In the MAC, we don't worry about our knees."
Wolfe proved he can do more than go eyeball-to-eyeball with two of the Big Ten's best -- if height-challenged -- backs in Michigan's Mike Hart and Northwestern's Tyrell Sutton. Even though NIU lost to both teams last year, the Huskies rolled up nearly 1,000 yards in total offense. Wolfe out-gained Hart 148-117 and Sutton 245-214. He had a 76-yard TD run against the Wolverines.
"It's his burst," Ohio State defensive tackle David Patterson said. "I've seen his game against Toledo where he made a guy miss and went 70 yards to the house. He's a full-strider ... look out."
Wolfe spent two years just trying to get on the field. He redshirted in 2002 and an academic oversight kept him sidelined the following season. Then he had to convince coach Joe Novak he could handle more than 10 to 12 carries without snapping like a twig.
How's this for arguing your case: Eight times in the past two seasons, Wolfe has carried 30 or more times in a game. Against Eastern Michigan in 2004, he ripped off 325 yards on 43 attempts. He dashed Western Michigan's dreams of playing for an MAC title last season by rushing for 277 yards and five TDs on 36 carries.
Wolfe averaged 175.6 yards last season, making him the nation's top returning rusher. He finished second in 2005 behind Memphis' DeAngelo Williams, with Washington State's Jerome Harrison, USC's Reggie Bush and Minnesota's Laurence Maroney rounding out the top five. All four are in the NFL.
"He does things I'd like to take credit for, but it's not coaching," said Novak, a Mentor, Ohio native. "He's got a great feel for the game, he's got great vision."
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