Imani Cross

NUinID said:
Imani Cross would have been a great back in Nebraska's vintage offenses of the 80's and 90's. He reminds me a lot of Dan Alexander, but he is not that fast. Ken Clark might be a better example. He just doesn't fit into the scheme that they are running. I think he would look really good in Michigan States backfield.
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I've heard him referred to as "Dan Alexander 2.slow" by a radio head.

 
Maybe - just maybe - despite being an extremely large and strong individual and, by all accounts, a great person with a great attitude and work ethic, he's simply not a particularly good running back, relatively speaking.

 
Good running backs not getting enough carries because we have too many good running backs isn't something I'll complain about.

Even without Ameer and with a more pass-happy Riley, I think our consortium of RBs will put up similar rushing totals to last year.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
cornographic said:
Warrior10 said:
cornographic said:
Real nice spin move on the TD. He's a junior, he'll continue to get more chances under Riley, I presume. Someone invariably gets injured @ the RB position, making room for others.
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He's a Sr.
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Hmm, heard the BTN say he was a Jr.
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He's a senior because we have had 4 years of "Imani needs to get more carries" threads.
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Not much more time to make a splash, then.

 
Yeah, I think he's not in the plan for a big senior year. I was hoping to see him get 8-10 carries a game his senior season.

I'm a friend of his mom, and he's the reason I started following Nebraska the past four years. Growing up, Nebraska was the first team to catch my interest with their national championship seasons in the early seventies. Then the 95 team, perhaps the best team of all time, made me a fan all over again.

When Imani went to Nebraska I was ecstatic that I would be watching him perform on my favorite team of all time.

I was not an active board member until a little while ago. When the Imani bashing started becoming more frequent play on the board. Probably started when he went laterally for the safety. Shorty thereafter, there emerged a vocal contingent of Cross detractors. There is no shame in playing behind a Heisman trophy candidate, and Ameer was one of the best running backs of all time at Nebraska. But he didn't start out that way. Imani had the work ethic in the weight room and Ameer hit the weights and became AMEER, and I believe Imani should get some credit for being a great teammate. I've been impressed with the way he has handled himself.

Newby and Wilbon are both great running backs and I don't fault Riley for doing what is in the best interests of his program and cultivating backs that will be with him a while. None of that bothers me. But does hearing the negative comments about Imani on this board bother me? A bit. "Imani is slow, he's like Dan Alexander slow, he's not very good, etc. etc. "

He's not slow, he's not as fast as Newby, but he's like mid 4.5 forty, probably pretty close to Dan Alexander speed. If you rewatch the 2013 MSU game when he ran 50 yards for the TD, the Michigan State Defender had a great line and should have been able to catch him, but Imani outran him.

Dan Alexander is probably a pretty good comparison. If Imani had the opportunity given to him to carry as many times as Dan, I think he would have put up similar career numbers. Just checking, Dan had a 6.3ypc average on about 690 carries with 20 career TDs.

Imani is 223 carries for 5.4ypc and 23 TD's. I was hoping to see him get 100 carries this year but that was probably wistful thinking. do I think if he was given as many changes as Dan, in a wide open field, he could have averaged similar numbers? Yes, i do. Imani's accomplishments stand on their own merits.

I enjoy watching Nebraska football. I have since 1970 went I first returned to the states (military brat) and got to watch them win two national titles.

I enjoyed watching Ameer shred defenses. I enjoyed Newby's big day. Love seeing Wilbon emerge as a rising star. And of course, I have enjoyed watching big 32 put it into the endzone. Personally, I think Nebraska has been lucky to have him. He could have had a starting role at most other schools.

GBR!

 
id love to see a game where Cross is a feature back, as with any good rb I feel they need a good lather going before you really see what they are capable of.its hard to get a lather with a few carries a game.Id also like to see him use his size and power more effectively , he runs at times high and goes down easy. that being said I feel the same about Taylor Wilbon Nabity Ozigbo ect ect. we are so deep at the rb position its crazy. lots of potential studs playing the waiting game and im sure someone will move on soon.

 
xlbder said:
Yeah, I think he's not in the plan for a big senior year. I was hoping to see him get 8-10 carries a game his senior season.

I'm a friend of his mom, and he's the reason I started following Nebraska the past four years. Growing up, Nebraska was the first team to catch my interest with their national championship seasons in the early seventies. Then the 95 team, perhaps the best team of all time, made me a fan all over again.

When Imani went to Nebraska I was ecstatic that I would be watching him perform on my favorite team of all time.

I was not an active board member until a little while ago. When the Imani bashing started becoming more frequent play on the board. Probably started when he went laterally for the safety. Shorty thereafter, there emerged a vocal contingent of Cross detractors. There is no shame in playing behind a Heisman trophy candidate, and Ameer was one of the best running backs of all time at Nebraska. But he didn't start out that way. Imani had the work ethic in the weight room and Ameer hit the weights and became AMEER, and I believe Imani should get some credit for being a great teammate. I've been impressed with the way he has handled himself.

Newby and Wilbon are both great running backs and I don't fault Riley for doing what is in the best interests of his program and cultivating backs that will be with him a while. None of that bothers me. But does hearing the negative comments about Imani on this board bother me? A bit. "Imani is slow, he's like Dan Alexander slow, he's not very good, etc. etc. "

He's not slow, he's not as fast as Newby, but he's like mid 4.5 forty, probably pretty close to Dan Alexander speed. If you rewatch the 2013 MSU game when he ran 50 yards for the TD, the Michigan State Defender had a great line and should have been able to catch him, but Imani outran him.

Dan Alexander is probably a pretty good comparison. If Imani had the opportunity given to him to carry as many times as Dan, I think he would have put up similar career numbers. Just checking, Dan had a 6.3ypc average on about 690 carries with 20 career TDs.

Imani is 223 carries for 5.4ypc and 23 TD's. I was hoping to see him get 100 carries this year but that was probably wistful thinking. do I think if he was given as many changes as Dan, in a wide open field, he could have averaged similar numbers? Yes, i do. Imani's accomplishments stand on their own merits.

I enjoy watching Nebraska football. I have since 1970 went I first returned to the states (military brat) and got to watch them win two national titles.

I enjoyed watching Ameer shred defenses. I enjoyed Newby's big day. Love seeing Wilbon emerge as a rising star. And of course, I have enjoyed watching big 32 put it into the endzone. Personally, I think Nebraska has been lucky to have him. He could have had a starting role at most other schools.

GBR!
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Nice post, I agree with you on a lot of things. Imani Cross will be a beloved Husker no matter how many carries he gets this year. He has been nothing but a team player the whole time he has been here and deserves our admiration.

 
macroboy said:
How many of these threads are you going to start? We get it. You love you some Imani Cross. You are not alone.

Two coaching staffs seem to see him as exactly what he is.
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Just out of curiosity, why do members seem to get put off when someone starts another thread with a similar subject? the old ones get buried so fast. It really makes no difference to me but have been wondering why that is a pet peeve of some. BTW, I'm not meaning to come down on anyone if that's how they feel, just would like to understand the frustration.

 
Omaha_Style said:
macroboy said:
How many of these threads are you going to start? We get it. You love you some Imani Cross. You are not alone.

Two coaching staffs seem to see him as exactly what he is.
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Just out of curiosity, why do members seem to get put off when someone starts another thread with a similar subject? the old ones get buried so fast. It really makes no difference to me but have been wondering why that is a pet peeve of some. BTW, I'm not meaning to come down on anyone if that's how they feel, just would like to understand the frustration.
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It all depends on the topic and how thoroughly it's been discussed. There's also a measure of how cluttered you want the board to get with specific discussions. If there's nothing new to add to a thread, then why start a new one about the same subject? If there's a thread already existence, why didn't someone search for it and post in there?

That's the generic answer. It's all very case-by-case. I'm not being condescending with this next part of my post, I promise - I'm just offering up my own perspective. As someone who has been a regular contributor here since 2008, the 'why isn't Imani Cross seeing more playing time' discussion is one of the most dead-beaten horses on this board. Multiple threads have had several discussions regarding this topic and it's been analyzed from just about every angle imaginable.

So, the question becomes, what value is gained from starting another thread about it? All it ends up doing is rehashing old arguments about as stimulating as stapling your ears to the floor, all while pushing other, fresher, more engaging content off the front page and into the board's black hole where threads don't get near as much traffic.

 
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Dan Alexander, before he blew out both knees as I recall, ran about 4.48 his freshman year and was about 6-3 and 240 lbs. Even after his knees were rebuilt, he had decent speed. He probably was faster amazingly in the 60 or even 100 yard dash than the 40. Dan had decent 'home run' speed but around his time, we had so grown accustomed to I Backs with 4.4 speed (Aman, Phillips, Childs, Benning, Simms, DuBose, and on and on and on) Deangelo Evans was a good back but Frank played him injured his frosh year (a groin issue related to excessive squat lifting it was theorized at the time). Most I Backs over the years were clearly faster than Imani and most of our recent backs. Ameer was exceptionally quick but his straight away speed was not exceptional. You prefer of course for your I Backs to run 4.4 electronics. 4.55 is really too slow today as many teams have LBs that run near 4.6 and it makes it hard to turn the corner on runs to the outside if your backs are not speedy. The quick backs like Ameer and Corey Ross (about 4.7 slow) have to run inside mostly as they just can't turn the corner often times.

I personally feel Imani is about as fast as our other backs but may not be as quick and can't make people miss in the backfield if they break through the line of scrimmage. A back that can get back to the line of scrimmage instead of losing 2 or 3 is a great value with a mediocre o line.

 
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