Harrison Waylee breaks 200-yard mark in NIU’s loss to Ball State

MUNCIE, Indiana – When Northern Illinois needed 3 feet on third down at the outset of the second quarter, Harrison Waylee burst through a gap for 52 yards.

That put NIU two touchdowns ahead of Ball State in its Mid-American Conference opener Saturday.

He showed he could punch the pigskin across the goal line from in close, too, on a 1-yard plunge with 8:38 left in the third quarter.

The sterling show from the sophomore looked destined to salt it away – until it didn’t. The Cardinals rattled off 16 unanswered points for a 44-38 double-overtime victory.

Waylee’s third-quarter score gave the Huskies (1-4, 0-1 MAC) a 17-point edge.

When the Huskies sought 3 yards on third down, he let the play develop with the slightest of hesitations as his big men opened a crease for a 68-yard score. That stretched the advantage to 10 points with 6:43 remaining. The coast looked clear for the Huskies to snap a three-game skid.

Waylee racked up a career-high 230 yards after toting the rock a career-best 30 times for an average of 7.7 yards.

“I thought he played well today,” fourth-year coach Thomas Hammock said. “I thought he was locked in. He had a great week of preparation. Obviously the line did a great job, tight ends did a great job. Then, when he had a chance to win one-on-one matchups, he took it to the house.”

Waylee’s breakout performance followed a season-ending injury suffered after five starts last year that was described as an upper-body injury by Hammock.

“He started last year like this, then he got hurt,” Hammock said. “But obviously this year we hope to keep him healthy the whole season. I think he can be very, very productive.”

Coming into today, Waylee’s single-game best was 179 yards against Wyoming last year.

He has eclipsed 100 yards rushing six times, across 16 games that date to 2020 with NIU. It was his first time in triple digits since Sept. 25, 2021, against Maine.

The underclassman tallied his first three-score game and found the end zone for the first time since Week 1 to notch his ninth career touchdown.

“We’ve known him a long time. He continues to get better,” Hammock said. “Just proud of his effort, proud of what he’s been able to do. He gave us a chance in this game today.”

The Huskies came out with a concerted emphasis on getting Waylee touches. He didn’t feel that shifted when the score tightened up and a 21-0 lead vanished.

“I think our offense stayed the same way the whole overtime because we just kept pounding the ball,” Waylee said. “We’re going to have to stay consistent to win games. Starting off fast, we just [have] to maintain our speed of the game and not slow down.”

Waylee, a tough runner to bring down because of his shiftiness complemented by his burst, stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 192 pounds.

The sophomore lauded the guys in the trenches who paved the way for the Huskies to amass 332 yards on the ground, more than four times Ball State’s 77.

“What I’ve learned about myself is that I can be a leader, and I need to be a leader for this team,” Waylee said. “Without my O-line, I’m not who I am really. The chemistry here is great, the offense here is great for a running back. Can’t be anywhere better than this really. Our offense is mostly a running offense. We have our passing that opens up the running game for us. We have big O-linemen that protect us and move the ball and get us to where we need to get. Our heart of our offense is definitely our O-line.”