CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Virginia ran 29 handoffs to running backs in its Week 2 loss at North Carolina State. None went to Harrison Waylee.

So when the Wyoming transfer – the NCAA’s active career rushing leader – heard from people close to him after that game, many had the same question.

“‘Why did you transfer there?’” Waylee said he was asked repeatedly.

His answer?

“I’m bought in,” he said.

Waylee’s commitment to UVA paid off for both sides Saturday. 

In the Cavaliers’ 55-16 domination of FCS William & Mary, Waylee posted the 14th 100-yard game of his college career, one that started with two seasons at Northern Illinois and one at Wyoming. 

He ran for 150 yards and three touchdowns, including a school-record 97-yard burst in the third quarter. That was part of a record-setting day for the offense, which posted 700 total yards for the first time ever.

“The O-line was just moving,” Waylee said. “All the credit to them. Without them boys, I wouldn’t have ran 97 yards or anything.”

Monster games are nothing new for Waylee, a 5-foot-10, 212-pound Iowa native. He started his career with three seasons at Northern Illinois, then spent the last two at Wyoming. As a sophomore in 2021, he rushed for 179 yards and two scores against Wyoming, his future team. 

In 2022, still with Northern Illinois, he ran for a career-high 230 yards and three touchdowns against Ball State.

He kicked off his Wyoming tenure with three-straight 100-yard games, including a 110-yard effort at Texas, his boyhood favorite team, in his Cowboys’ debut.

Last year, a knee injury cost him the first eight games of the season. In his first outing back, he rushed for 170 yards against New Mexico.

“I just get hungry. I just want to keep running,” Waylee said of his most productive outings. “I just want to have the ball in my hands. When I get rolling, I want it to be a running game. Every play is going to be a running game. I’m not going to let them stop me.”

But on Sept. 6 in Raleigh, N.C., Waylee’s hunger went unsatisfied. 

A week after getting 18 yards on seven carries, and scoring his first UVA touchdown, Waylee wasn’t a part of the game plan.

Instead, Virginia (2-1) leaned on Xavier Brown and J’Mari Taylor.

“There’s a lot of running backs, so there’s competition,” Waylee said. “It’s good competition because we’re just feeding off each other, trying to get better every day. Whoever does the best does the best. And you just have to come back the next day and compete again.”

For his part, Virginia coach Tony Elliott said Waylee should have had a bigger role against the Wolfpack. 

“I apologized to him. We should have got him in the game,” Elliott said. “But he handled it well. He didn’t complain. He didn’t say anything. He just showed back up to work.”

Waylee didn’t sulk because he viewed it as just another learning experience in a career chock full of them.

“This is teaching me to be better in so many ways,” he said. “So, I have no problem with not getting any touches last week.”

That’s Waylee’s unassuming nature. When Elliott announced to the players recently after a practice that the NCAA active career rushing yardage leader was on the team, Waylee had no idea.

“I’m thinking it’s J’Mari,” Waylee said. “I don’t really pay attention to my rushing records. I just want to go out there and play.”

When gets the chance. And he did on Saturday.