Can you hear it?

Wait a second … listen.

There it is, that chant again.

Do you hear it?

“Overrated.”

It’s one of few things running back Garrett Wolfe hasn’t managed to shake in his time at NIU.

But it doesn’t matter anymore.

With one game left in his college career, the MAC’s Offensive Player of the Year doesn’t need to be told where he stands among the best.

“If I’m overrated, does that mean Ohio State’s defense is overrated?” Wolfe said.

After going for 285 total yards and a touchdown in NIU’s first game this season at No. 1 Ohio State, Wolfe continued to grab national acclaim.

In a loss to Ohio, Wolfe ate up 196 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Games of 263, 198, 353 and 162 yards followed as he racked up 13 touchdowns.

But then came the “four-game slump,” where Wolfe rushed for 190 combined yards.

Though the 177-pound Chicago native posted totals of 203 and 164 rush yards in his last two games, it wasn’t enough.

Last week, the Sporting News — which named Wolfe its Player of the Week after reeling off 353 rushing yards against Ball State — listed Wolfe under its “Start the overrated chants” section. The publication said Wolfe’s performances couldn’t “get him a ticket to the DeKalb Winter Festival, let alone the Downtown Athletic Club.”

“The media is what it is,” Wolfe said. “I have more respect when it comes from someone with credibility. It’s easy to observe and write about something.

“What I’ve done in my three-year career, there’s probably only 10 other guys that have done it. If that means I’m overrated, then they should erase me from the records.”

Three seasons, 5,722 yards and 57 touchdowns later, there are still those who believe Wolfe isn’t the real deal.

But Wolfe is the last person onlookers will see making excuses.

He realizes how big a loss senior tight end Jake Nordin was to the Huskies’ rushing attack, but refuses to make his hamstring injury a reason for poor performance.

However, Wolfe will admit opponents’ defensive designs to stop him were a reason for his decline.

“It’s hard to run into nine guys,” Wolfe said. “Against Temple, we came out with four wide receivers, and they still played a 4-3 defense. People just don’t do those types of things.”

Wolfe became the focal point of NIU’s offense, and teams made it their mission to stop him. And yet Wolfe still led the NCAA with 1,900 rushing yards.

But even that wasn’t enough to land Wolfe as one of three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, given to the nation’s best running back — an award which has historically has gone to the leading rusher.

Nothing Wolfe has done has been enough to land him in the upper echelon of NCAA football’s best players. Recently, NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said Wolfe would be a second-day pick in April.

Wolfe leads all of college football in rushing, yet “the experts” have him going after the third round.

“I don’t expect anyone to give me anything,” Wolfe said. “I know I’ll get an opportunity, whether it’s on the first or second day, or as an undrafted free agent. I’m gonna take it. But if I can’t, I don’t deserve it.”

Wolfe said he holds a firm belief that everything happens for a reason.

And it’s this faith that keeps him going; waiting for his next shot to silence chants that fuel a raging fire deep inside ­— a fire that won’t burn out until he’s silenced every last doubter.