Friday Night Drive’s 2022 Offensive Player of the Year: Tyler Vasey

Prairie Ridge fullback Nathan Greetham enjoyed when he took handoffs from Tyler Vasey and pounded out yards for the Wolves’ vaunted offense.

Greetham carried 231 times for the Class 6A state runners-up, gained 1,385 yards and scored 14 touchdowns.

But there were plays he loved just as much, perhaps even more, when Vasey meshed with him, pulled the ball back and took off. Greetham still was going to get hit, but he knew it would be worth something.

“The funniest thing is all the times I’d carry out my fake, everyone would be tackling me, right?” Greetham said. “And I would look up and see Tyler just running and juking out everybody. That was really funny. They’d be like, ‘You don’t have the ball, man?’ They’d be down. It was pretty funny.”

Vasey’s speed and elusiveness devastated opponents. The 6-foot, 170-pound senior ran 355 times for an IHSA-record 3,887 yards and 52 touchdowns while leading the Wolves to the Class 6A state championship game and a share of the Fox Valley Conference title with Huntley and Jacobs.

Vasey not only set the IHSA season rushing mark, but his total was the best in the nation and tied for 13th-best ever, according to MaxPreps. For his amazing season, Vasey is the 2022 Friday Night Drive Offensive Player of the Year.

“It was one of those seasons you really didn’t expect,” Vasey said. “Going into the first summer camp, we lost a few key players from the year before, and it’s just one of those things where you have to to develop kids.

“We had a freshman [Luke Vanderwiel] and a sophomore [Jack Finn] who both didn’t have varsity experience. We played in a state championship with a bunch of younger kids. We had a bunch of seniors who really did their jobs being leaders. It was just crazy, insane how we developed everybody and where they were at at the end of the season.”

[ Check out Friday Night Drive’s 2022 Team of the Year ]

Vasey was always quick to laud the work of linemen John Fallaw, Ethan Goudschaal, Henrik Nystrom, Angel Rodriguez and Zach Helland, along with tight ends Logan Miller and Braedon Hatter.

Everyone around the FVC knew Vasey, who missed time with injuries as a sophomore (broken collarbone) and junior (broken arm), was going to be a force running the Wolves’ triple-option offense. But no on saw the historic season coming, perhaps until the playoffs.

“Leading rusher in the state [for a season] and leading rusher in the nation. That still blows my mind,” Wolves coach Chris Schremp said. “When you think of all the teams and running backs out there running with the football, that he got the most yards, that’s just unbelievable. I never thought we’d have that, even as much as we run the ball.”

Vasey had an outstanding season going until Week 8 against Crystal Lake South. In Weeks 8-12 he shifted gears. He zoomed past the all-time single-season state record of 3,325 yards – set by Lexington’s T.J. Stinde in 2009 – in Prairie Ridge’s 69-28 victory over Harlem in the 6A quarterfinals.

He ran for 481 yards and eight touchdowns in the win. He had five touchdowns of 40 or more yards.

“That was one of the best moments, seeing him play in the Harlem game,” Greetham said. “He had a really, really good game. We knew going into that game it was a tough crowd. They brought 500 cowbells, it was going to be a really loud stadium. Their D-line was 6-0 and all over 200 pounds.

“When our blocks were going well and seeing Tyler run for that many touchdowns and that many yards was really crazy.”

For the season, Vasey had 20 touchdowns of 40 or more yards. He had seven touchdown runs of 70 yards or longer. He averaged 33.6 yards per touchdown run.

Vasey said it took the offense a little while to get going, but by the third game, a 35-7 win over Huntley, the Wolves felt pretty good.

“Once we beat Huntley, I think everybody was kind of like, ‘This team’s the real deal,’ " Vasey said. “We played Jacobs and lost (42-35) and had two major injuries in that game. You always hate to lose, but it always makes your team better. You know the feeling of defeat.

“That made us work way harder throughout the rest of the season because we can lose. We have to perform at our best. That Jacobs (loss) kind of sprung us to almost our max potential.”

The Wolves were no match for East St. Louis in the 6A title game, a 57-7 loss that was the most lopsided in program history. But Prairie Ridge still had made it there, and the loss was to a team some consider the best in the state, regardless of class. There was a reason East St. Louis scheduled three out-of-state opponents – all among the best programs in the country – to open the 2022 season.

Vasey had a tough game and took some big hits. Twice he had to leave momentarily, then returned.

With 4:44 remaining in the championship game, Schremp called timeout. Vasey had gone out to the huddle with the offense, but the coach had seen enough. He called Vasey to the sideline so he could receive one last ovation.

As Vasey walked over, he and Schremp hugged for several seconds.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know if a lot of people knew what I was trying to do for him,” Schremp said. “I explained it to our coaches, and they got it. I wish the fans would have understood more at the beginning. It was a disappointing game. He got hit pretty hard. I was trying to give him something in that moment that was positive. I felt we owed him something.”

Vasey appreciated the gesture.

“It was special for me because that was it for me in high school,” Vasey said. “In the moment, I guess I kind of knew what was going on. I didn’t know how meaningful it actually was. It was really meaningful, just to show what our team is like and how coach Schremp loves his players. He kind of wanted to give everybody a chance.

“He called timeout, it meant a lot to me. I got to hug coach Schremp, he’s one of my favorite people in the world. He and I talk so much now. He’s another figure in my life I can look up to.”

Vasey is taking the basketball season off to heal and get ready for baseball this spring. He plays shortstop and bats near the top of the order for the Wolves.

Vasey visited NCAA Division I Northern Illinois University and D-III powerhouse Wisconsin-Whitewater so far for football. He also may look at schools for baseball.

Perhaps some of the highest praise Vasey receives is comparisons to the Prairie Ridge player whose school season rushing record he broke. Former quarterback Samson Evans ran for 2,211 yards in 2016 and helped the Wolves to back-to-back Class 6A state championships in 2016 and 2017.

Evans now plays running back at D-I Eastern Michigan.

“Everybody wants to compare him to Samson. They are uniquely different,” Schremp said. “Samson could grind them out or hit the big one. It just seemed like Tyler could always hit that big play whenever you needed it. I know we’re going to miss and cherish him a lot more next year when he’s not on the team, having that instant offense. It was amazing and a big reason why we went as far as we did.”