NIU’s Trayvon Rudolph back after missing all of 2022 season

DeKALB – After almost a year without playing football, Trayvon Rudolph said he’s glad to be back.

As the NIU football team continues its first week of fall camp, Rudolph has been on the field for the first time since early last training camp, where a noncontact knee injury ended his season.

“It hurt a lot because I couldn’t help my team out,” said Rudolph, a redshirt junior wide receiver and Crete-Monee graduate. “But it helped me learn a lot of new things. How to teach the young guys things that I see that they probably haven’t seen. They had to step up and play a bigger role than they thought. But being out for a while, it showed me how to train and get in the book more and just like the little things matter.”

Rudolph, still in a brace as a precautionary measure according to coach Thomas Hammock, had a breakout 2021 season. He helped the Huskies win a MAC title and broke some school and conference records along the way.

Against Kent State, Rudolph had a 14-catch, 309-yard performance. Both the receptions and yardage were not only single-game school records, but MAC ones as well.

Rudolph finished the year with 63 catches for 1,109 yards and seven touchdowns. He missed all of 2022 as the Huskies went from MAC champions to last in the MAC West.

Rudolph was far from the only injured player last year as the team struggled to stay healthy. He said the team is looking to show opponents the Huskies are healthy and ready to compete.

“We’ve got a lot of guys people haven’t seen, a lot of new faces,” Rudolph said. “They’re developing, they’re proving every day and staying in the playbook. Having Kacper [Rutkiewicz] as an older guy. He’s making sure everyone’s on their stuff and making sure we’re doing what we have to do to get Rocky [Lombardi, the starting quarterback who missed all but four games last year] in the best position.”

Rudolph made an impact almost immediately when the team opened practice Wednesday, hauling in a long touchdown pass from Lombardi.

Hammock said it’s a sign of what the team missed without him last year.

“You saw him catch a 60-yard bomb down the field,” Hammock said. “He’s just going to add a level of explosiveness to our offense. We want to be balanced this year. We got a quarterback that knows how to distribute the ball, we got receivers that know how to catch it. You’re going to have to decide if you want to stop the run or the pass and we will work off of what defenses try to show at us.”

Rudolph also was named to the Paul Hornung Award watchlist on Thursday, presented to the most versatile college football player. He also made the award’s watch list before last season.

Hammock said Rudolph has matured over the past year.

“He’s definitely grown up,” Hammock said. “He’s got himself in position where he got his grades right. Everything off the field is in order. And now when he comes out here, he can just play free. I think he’s gonna have a big season long as he stays healthy. He’s got a quarterback that could get him the ball and I’m excited to see what he can do.”

Hammock said Rudolph is at 100% and will be available to return both kicks and punts. A formidable kick returner, he’s averaged 23.6 yards per return in his career and has a 100-yard return for a score.

He has returned two punts in his career for an average of 7 yards per return. Hammock didn’t say if Rudolph would be the go-to returner this year, just that he is available for the role if that’s how the coaches decide to go.

Rudolph said this year’s club has a brotherhood that’s like both he’s seen before, and that closeness has him optimistic that the Huskies’ season will more resemble 2021 than 2022.

“Everyone makes sure everyone’s doing what they have to do,” Rudolph said. “Everyone makes sure if you need a hand, it’s like ‘I’m here for you.’ So our brotherhood is unmatched here, and I really love that for us. We could talk to each other. We could joke around. So that’s what makes us the team we are now.”.