For Record-Setting Back, Respect Is Earned a Yard at a Time
<DIV ="byline">By THAYER EVANS</NYT_BYLINE>
<DIV ="timestamp">Published: August 26, 2007
<DIV id=article><NYT_TEXT>
CHADRON, Neb., Aug. 17  The most productive running back in college football plies his trade in a dusty, one-stoplight town of 5,300 that boasts the nation's largest fur-trading museum.
But the diminutive Chadron State College senior tailback Danny Woodhead savors his relative anonymity, and he has not let the 14-hour bus rides and other quirks of Division II football slow his run to a record.
The 5-foot-8, 200-pound Woodhead begins the season needing 989 rushing yards to break the career, all-division
N.C.A.A. rushing record of 7,353.
Last season, he became the first player in N.C.A.A. history to surpass the 2,700-yard barrier in a single season, despite not playing in the second half of three games. With his 4.43 speed and shifty moves, he has made this remote northwestern Nebraska town  it is more than 100 miles from the nearest major airport  a destination for curious N.F.L. scouts.
"The things that he does on the football field I've never seen anybody do," Colorado School of Mines Coach Bob Stitt said. "You would compare him to a Barry Sanders-type runner. He's one of those guys that you work all week to stop and everyone knows he's going to carry the ball 30 times, but he still gains 200 yards."
Along the way, Woodhead has become the first student at the college to receive a full athletic scholarship. He is also the reason the fifth-ranked
Eagles will make their inaugural national television appearance in October.
Woodhead's success has also caused heartache among some
University of Nebraska fans. They wonder why a player that the former Cornhuskers Coach Tom Osborne called "one of the most productive backs ever" in Nebraska high school history is not playing for the Big Red.
After all, Woodhead still holds seven state records, including those for career rushing yards and touchdowns, in Nebraska's largest division.
Yet he never received an invitation for an official visit, let alone a scholarship offer, from an N.C.A.A. Division I-A school because of doubts about his size.
"I am who I am," said Woodhead, an academic all-American last season who is a math education major with a 3.72 grade-point average. "I'm not going to change it. I just bring what I have."
Born in North Platte, Woodhead was home-schooled until his freshman year of high school. A diehard Nebraska fan, he said he cried when the Cornhuskers lost to
Florida State in the 1993 national championship game.
Woodhead was named state player of the year as a senior at North Platte High School, when he led Class A with 2,037 yards and scored 31 touchdowns. That year, he was also the state's top scorer in basketball, at 26 points a game, and led the soccer team in scoring in the spring.
Before his senior year, Woodhead attended Nebraska's summer football camp. He said he had several conversations with Nebraska's coach at the time, Frank Solich, who encouraged him to walk on as a kick returner. "It was tough to swallow," he said.
Instead, Woodhead committed in December 2003 to Chadron State, where his parents had attended college and where his older brother, Ben, was then playing football. He made his decision after Solich had been fired but before the current Nebraska coach, Bill Callahan, was hired.
"We held our breath for the entire process," Chadron State Coach Bill O'Boyle said. "I was hoping a Division I wouldn't offer him."
Northern Colorado Coach Scott Downing, who was Nebraska's recruiting coordinator when Woodhead was a high school senior, said the Huskers considered offering him a scholarship.
Downing, whose team plays Chadron State next month, said he had no regrets about the decision to pass on Woodhead.
"Could he be productive in the Big 12? I don't know," Downing said. "You're talking about a young man that's four years later playing at Chadron State, and he hasn't played against Texas the last time I checked."
Woodhead has rushed for more than 200 yards in 17 of his 33 collegiate games. His junior season was highlighted by 215 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns in a road victory against Montana State, a Division I-AA program that had held Colorado to 106 rushing yards in an upset the previous week. He finished the season with 2,756 rushing yards, 38 total touchdowns and won the Harlon Hill Trophy, given to the nation's top Division II player.
"He's done a tremendous job," said Solich, who acknowledged that he might have missed on Woodhead early. "That's not a complete surprise. I think he would have had a chance to have success no matter where he went."
Woodhead said he never second-guessed his decision to attend Chadron State, whose most famous N.F.L. alumni is the former
Buffalo Bills receiver Don Beebe.
"Honestly, this has probably been the best opportunity for me," Woodhead said. "I don't think I would have gotten this opportunity at any other place."
Woodhead is a devout Christian who wears a red bracelet that says "JESUS NATION," but his friends also describe him as notoriously sarcastic and a prankster; he dressed as a Chippendale dancer at a Chadron State basketball game last season and is known for playing video games naked in his off-campus house.
"He's just such a goof," said the Chadron State senior wide receiver Landon Ehlers, who lives with Woodhead. "He just doesn't seem to realize how big of a deal he is and how good he is."
But N.F.L. teams do, which is why scouts from the Bears, Eagles, Falcons and
Texans have all traveled to Chadron to meet Woodhead. Gil Brandt, the former Dallas Cowboys executive and an analyst for
nfl.com, said he projected Woodhead as a second-day pick in the N.F.L. draft.
"Everybody knows where Chadron, Nebraska., is now," Brandt said.
Along with the rushing record, Woodhead needs 2,164 yards and 24 touchdowns to break the all-division records for all-purpose yards (9,512 yards) and scoring (658 points). Yet he insisted this season was about wins, not individual achievements. He said he still struggled to comprehend his success, but knew his fanfare would heighten with each yard gained.
"He's a huge celebrity in the whole state of the Nebraska," Chadron State quarterback Joseph McLain said. "Everywhere you go, if you're wearing something with Chadron, people ask you about Danny Woodhead."
