DeKALB | Welcome to the elite Garrett Wolfe.

Of the thousands upon thousands of running backs to ever play college football, only eight have ever rushed for more than 1,000 yards in the first five games of a season.

Marcus Allen did. So did Barry Sanders and Ricky Williams. And with his 353-yard performance against Ball State, Wolfe joins this unique group.

But just adding his name wasn’t enough for Wolfe. After five games, the tailback has 1,181 rushing yards — the most a NCAA Division I-A running back has ever had after the first five games of the season. The previous record was set in 1988 by Sanders when he played for Oklahoma State.

The scariest thing: Wolfe could have broken 1,200 yards.

The box score will show the senior scored three touchdowns on runs of 53, 51 and 48 yards.

What the box score doesn’t show is that Wolfe had two touchdown runs of 70 and 45 yards that were erased due to holding penalties.

But penalties couldn’t hold back the 5-foot-7 senior the whole day. With 31 carries, the Chicago native rushed for a new career high ­— and in doing so broke his own school record.

Wolfe set the old record back in 2004 when he ran for 325 yards against Eastern Michigan.

But that was then and this is now.

In 2004 Wolfe was just emerging as a starter. Two years later, he’s anything but. His name is on Heisman lists and in Sports Illustrated. And his latest performance garnered him a nomination for the Cingular All-America Player of the Week Award and the Walter Camp Award for being the national player of the week. In other words, the attention is endless.

And the senior continues to show he’s humble with the whole situation.

“The running game is more a testament to our offensive line,” Wolfe said. “You could plug any one of our backs in there.”

While this may be true, this is an untested hypothesis. And why test it?

Wolfe only needs 165 yards per game for the rest of the regular season to become the fifth best single-season rusher in the history of the NCAA.

“I really believe he is the most intuitive football player I’ve ever seen,” NIU coach Joe Novak said. “He’s a natural.”

And Novak isn’t alone in realizing Wolfe’s talent. ESPN analyst Mark May said if the season was to end Saturday night, his vote for the Heisman would be Wolfe.

May’s pick isn’t that surprising though. Out of the eight other running backs to have ran for over 1,000 yards, three have gone on to win the Heisman – Allen, Sanders and Williams.