Most potential lost by injury

[TGHusker]

Really thought Matt Herian was going to have a breakout year in '05 but then he hurt his leg. Never was the same after that.

I think Herian could have been our 'all time' TE without the injury. He was never the same.

 

Burkhead would have had great #s also.

 

DPE - I hope he can come back the same. He will be huge with this offense if he is.

[NUinID]

As others have said. Matt Herian and Taylor Martinez are the to recent players that come to mind. Herian was a ligit 4.5 guy in the forty before that terrible injury. Remember he sat out all of the rest of that injury season and all of the next season before coming back and being a shell of his former self. He would have been no later than a 2nd rounder. People were actaully talking about him leaving school after his jr. year. It really was too bad.

 

Martinez never looked as good after the high ankle sprain against Missouri. He was good after the injury but never that great. Just remember what he did against Washington and KSU with his feet and then what he did against Okie St. with his arm. He never looked that good again.

[ColoradoHusk]

 

 

 

 

I forgot about DuBose. He was one of my favorite players. We were loaded at IB back then. Keith "End Zone" Jones was a great nickname.

Nebraska running backs were so fun to watch back then. I loved them getting a simple toss, or option pitch, or following their blockers on the counter-trey and then getting the corner on the outside. If people think that running the ball is "boring football" they never watched Nebraska teams in the 80s and 90s.

Agree 100%. Watching the option run as a well oiled machine was a thing of beauty. and then all of a sudden the QB fakes the pitch steps backs and throws - open all day long.

The play action pass off the option fake was my favorite play of all time under Osborne. Gill and Steve Taylor would run that play to perfection, and it was so pretty.

[broganreynik]

Steve Octavien. The first game, or half, he had was phenomenal. Then he broke his leg in that game, and was never the same

[Landlord]

I think people are misremembering Taylor's injury problems a bit.

 

The ankle against Missouri continued to nag him the rest of his career as far as never quite getting back to that level of acceleration and burst, but his sophomore year he was hobbled by turf toe (which led to the hilariously mocked throwing motion examples), and then his junior year was supposedly "healthy" as far as we know. Then he had, I guess it was never publicly disclosed exactly, a broken foot or something from kicking the locker his senior season that they tried to hide and also publicly diagnose as turf toe.

 

That ankle injury took him down from the "we've never seen anything like this before" level of athlete he was, but that foot injury his senior year was pretty tragic - he was putting up amazing, efficient numbers through 3 games, improving upon his already highly improved junior season. It's too bad.

[Blackshirt96]

Lawrence Phillips would've won the heisman if he hadn't been suspended during the 1995 season.

I don't think stupidity counts as an injury.

[Blackshirt96]

Martinez by a long shot. He was putting up video game type numbers, but once he got hurt he lost that quick burst to top end speed!

I agree with this. I also think it was the reason for his horrible throwing mechanics. I think the throwing problems really developed with him trying to play injured and not being able to step into his throws. We also didn't have a coach on staff to help him move forward. Here is a video of the first 4 games. Really watch Martinez throw before his injury. It wasn't perfect, but it was much better then any other time in is career.

 

[Blackshirt96]

This would be my vote. Matt was on his way to a great Jr season before he broke his leg. Still was 2nd team all big 12 only playing half the games. He missed a whole year & came back, but was never the deep threat he once was.

 

http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=998

[TGHusker]

 

I forgot about DuBose. He was one of my favorite players. We were loaded at IB back then. Keith "End Zone" Jones was a great nickname.

Nebraska running backs were so fun to watch back then. I loved them getting a simple toss, or option pitch, or following their blockers on the counter-trey and then getting the corner on the outside. If people think that running the ball is "boring football" they never watched Nebraska teams in the 80s and 90s.

 

Agree 100%. Very exciting to watch the option unfold before your eyes. Thinking the QB was going to keep it and all of a sudden you see the FB going up the middle or the ball flipped to the RB at the very last possible moment.

 

Matt Herian's injury. I think he was on track to be our top TE of all time until he broke his leg.

[Elf]

What are the injuries that prevented a Husker player from being All American? My top three are

• Deangelo Evans - IMO, he could have won the heisman without the stomach injury. Potentially the best RB ever at NU
• Taylor Martinez - IMO, he wins at least one heisman without the ankle injury
• Terry Rogers - maybe not a heisman winner, but he looked as quick as Barry Sanders to me when he was healthy.

Love him, hate him, or something else entirely, Lawrence Phillips is the best running back to ever play at NU. I think we can all agree that he had some pretty serious issues off the field but he was a very special player on the field.

[Swiv3D]

 

 

Martinez by a long shot. He was putting up video game type numbers, but once he got hurt he lost that quick burst to top end speed!

I agree with this. I also think it was the reason for his horrible throwing mechanics. I think the throwing problems really developed with him trying to play injured and not being able to step into his throws. We also didn't have a coach on staff to help him move forward. Here is a video of the first 4 games. Really watch Martinez throw before his injury. It wasn't perfect, but it was much better then any other time in is career.

 

Oh what could've been.

 

Still remember him scoring his first touchdown and this lady sitting behind me at the stadium asked "why isn't Cody Green starting?" The guy who sits in front me proceeded to turn around and say "because Martinez is fast as hell."

[MichiganDad3]

Does anyone know what Martinez's 40 time was prior to injury?

[Count 'Bility]

Taylor Martinez if he only had a qb coach.

 

yes. Im expressing a lot of disdain for Beck today.