San Diego ? The most exciting ballcarrier on the field, at times, was TCU quarterback Jeff Ballard.

It certainly wasn’t Northern Illinois’ Garrett Wolfe, who ended his career looking more like a third-stringer than the national rushing leader.

Penned in by a bunch of tough Horned Frogs, Wolfe was held to 28 yards, and No. 25 TCU won a Poinsettia Bowl mismatch against Northern Illinois, 37-7, on Tuesday night.

“We stopped him before he got started,” said TCU end Tommy Blake, the leader of one of the nation’s best defenses.

The Horned Frogs stopped Garrett cold, and TCU’s offense kept trotting back onto the field. Ballard ran for three touchdowns and threw for another.

Ballard looked more like a running back as he scored on runs of 10, one and six yards. He threw a six-yard TD pass to tight end Brent Hecht and finished with 258 passing yards.

There was a 100-yard rusher – TCU’s Lonta Hobbs, who had 109 yards and one TD on 18 carries.

“You know, Garrett is a great back,” NIU coach Joe Novak said. “But I don’t care if you’re Superman, if you’re not getting them blocked, you’re not going anywhere. We didn’t block them well enough to give Garrett a chance.”

Wolfe, a senior from Chicago, came in leading the nation with an average of 158.3 yards rushing and 178.9 all-purpose yards.

The Horned Frogs, though, were fourth nationally in run defense after allowing only 67.6 yards per game. TCU kept alive its string of not allowing a 100-yard rusher, one of only four teams to do so this year. Blake had two of TCU’s five sacks.

NIU had terrible field position most of the night, and TCU brought its safeties close to the line to stuff the box against Garrett.

“We did what we could, but they were all over the place,” Garrett said.