Spring Practice Notes

Mavric said:
The more I hear Held talk, the more I'm sure Ozigbo will basically never see the field.

Not that I think he should have really been on the field the last two years.  But especially in this offense.
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I agree, which makes me feel somewhat sympathetic for his comments following Mike Riley's departure. I think he genuinely felt/feels he wasn't given a fair chance at times in recent years (at least, that's how I interpreted some of his comments) and that this would be the chance he needed. Unfortunately, I think guys like Bell, Bradley, a healthy Bryant and a Washington all have a leg up.

 
Enhance said:
I agree, which makes me feel somewhat sympathetic for his comments following Mike Riley's departure. I think he genuinely felt/feels he wasn't given a fair chance at times in recent years (at least, that's how I interpreted some of his comments) and that this would be the chance he needed. Unfortunately, I think guys like Bell, Bradley, a healthy Bryant and a Washington all have a leg up.
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I guess I don't remember the comments.

But it's my opinion that he was given more opportunities than he deserved.  He was consistently out-performed by other running backs but he kept getting more chances.  

 
Mavric said:
I guess I don't remember the comments.

But it's my opinion that he was given more opportunities than he deserved.  He was consistently out-performed by other running backs but he kept getting more chances.  
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Just curious but who out-performed him?  Newby was the RB in '15 and '16 with Devine coming in to spell him.  Last year it started out with Tre until the injury.  Wilbon done to much dancing and had ball issues hence why Devine came in. 

 
Stumpy1 said:
Just curious but who out-performed him?  Newby was the RB in '15 and '16 with Devine coming in to spell him.  Last year it started out with Tre until the injury.  Wilbon done to much dancing and had ball issues hence why Devine came in. 
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Out performed isn't the term I would use, either. That suggests there were other options, when, IMO, we are talking about a group (aside from possibly Tre) of under performing running backs. 

 
Mavric said:
I guess I don't remember the comments.

But it's my opinion that he was given more opportunities than he deserved.  He was consistently out-performed by other running backs but he kept getting more chances.  
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I did a quick search and the only thing I could find was the below tweet from Parker Gabriel, but, I could've sworn Ozigbo tweeted something himself around the time of Frost's hiring that was more direct and more detrimental to Riley.


As for getting more opportunities than he deserved, I think that's a tad dicey. He was Nebraska's leading rusher in 2017. Sure, he did have significantly more carries than Wilbon, but I never felt Wilbon necessarily proved he deserved the lion's share of the carries either.

 
Stumpy1 said:
Just curious but who out-performed him?  Newby was the RB in '15 and '16 with Devine coming in to spell him.  Last year it started out with Tre until the injury.  Wilbon done to much dancing and had ball issues hence why Devine came in. 
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No, Ozigbo was the starter for the first half 16 and continually got more carries than Newby despite Newby out-ypc-ing him in every game.

 
Mavric said:
But it's my opinion that he was given more opportunities than he deserved.  He was consistently out-performed by other running backs but he kept getting more chances.  
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Problem is, Riley had a very different definition of a running back's performance. One interview that always stood out to me was a few years ago when Bryant first arrived, Riley was just gushing about him. But there wasn't a single word about how well he ran, all Riley could talk about was how good Bryant was at pass protection. Riley paid lip service to the ground game, but I think we all know he was really all about passing, and the rest was just window dressing. And to him, an RB's ability to take a hand-off and run was maybe his third most important trait behind pass protection and catching passes out of the backfield.

Consequently, I expect this year's RB depth chart to be dramatically different than last year's. In particular, I think we'll see more from Wilbon, and possibly Bradley as well.

 
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Stumpy1 said:
In '16:

Newby - 190 carries for 879 yards

Ozigbo - 97 carries for 493 yards
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Yes, they finally figured it out and benched Ozigbo for much of the second half of the season.  Which is why Newby had a lot more carries for the whole year.  But in the first half of the season - which is what I said - Ozigbo was getting the most carries.

 
Mavric said:
Yes, they finally figured it out and benched Ozigbo for much of the second half of the season.  Which is why Newby had a lot more carries for the whole year.  But in the first half of the season - which is what I said - Ozigbo was getting the most carries.
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1st 4 games (Fresno St., Wyoming, Oregon, Northwestern):

Newby: 32 carries, 187 yards (5.84 ypc)

Ozigbo: 66 carries, 283 yards (4.29 ypc)

Last 9 games (rest of BIG Ten slate + Tennessee)

Newby: 158 carries, 692 yards (4.38 ypc)

Ozigbo: 31 carries, 129 yards (4.16 ypc) no stats in 4 games, was slowed somewhat by injuries

 
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