2021 Fall Camp Notes - Running Backs

[Born N Bled Red]

2 minutes ago, Nebraska55fan said:

By the end of the season

 

Ervin

Yant

Scott

Morrison

 

 

Stepp- doesn't complete season

Johnson- transfer portal

 

2 minutes ago, Undone said:

 

Pretty much perfect build, excellent fit for the B1G...just wondering if he could really make it click this early on in his young career here for 2021. I am also excited about this kid though.

 

My point is unless anyone is given the chance to be THE guy for 20 carries a game, no one's going to click and we are having this same conversation next year, for the 4th year in a row.

[MyBloodIsRed16]

6 minutes ago, Undone said:

 

Pretty much perfect build, excellent fit for the B1G...just wondering if he could really make it click this early on in his young career here for 2021. I am also excited about this kid though.

I liked what I saw in the spring game.  He seems like the most complete back.  He looked a step or two faster than the other guys and still has good size and got some yac.  Seemed to have good vision too.  Should improve with reps

[MyBloodIsRed16]

5 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

 

My point is unless anyone is given the chance to be THE guy for 20 carries a game, no one's going to click and we are having this same conversation next year, for the 4th year in a row.

Frost said he doesn't want it to be a committee.  That's good to here.  So hopefully someone decides they want to be the guy and step up in camp and run with it.

[Nebraska55fan]

Ozigbo 2018

 

A lot of people give the Oline credit for a good bit of Ozigbos increase in production that year. While the line was better than 2019 and 2020- give Ozigbo a good chunk of the credit. 

 

Go back and carefully watch the film. You will see LOTS of 2-3 yard gains that could have easily been 3-4 yard losses. Ziggy consistently had to shake off defenders in the backfield all by himself. Very tough to do when you're just getting the ball and haven't had a chance to accelerate a bunch or even hit his landmarks. Stellar season. 

 

Personally I was shocked at his improvement- I fully expected Wilbon to take the job and had zero faith in Old Mans Knees Bryant. 

[runningblind]

20 minutes ago, MyBloodIsRed16 said:

Ervin is my pick to click

 

17 minutes ago, Undone said:

 

Pretty much perfect build, excellent fit for the B1G...just wondering if he could really make it click this early on in his young career here for 2021. I am also excited about this kid though.

Running back is a position you can make hay as a freshman.  Ervin and Morrison are the ones built to be high carry backs and we need one of em to succeed. Stepp and Yant aren't going to be the answer more than change of pace or short yardage.  Yant is just too big for 3 downs.

[Decoy73]

2 minutes ago, Nebraska55fan said:

Ozigbo 2018

 

 

Go back and carefully watch the film. You will see LOTS of 2-3 yard gains that could have easily been 3-4 yard losses. Ziggy consistently had to shake off defenders in the backfield all by himself. Stellar season. 

 

 

People should go back and rewatch the Wisconsin game in 2018.  IIRC, Wisky struggled to stop him in the first half.   In the second half, we very inexplicably essentially quit feeding Ozigbo the rock and lost the damn game.   I’m still on board with this staff, but that was simply poor coaching.  
 

What’s the point of this?  It doesn’t matter who carries the ball if the coaches haven’t learned to stick with a good running attack when it’s working. 

[Nebraska55fan]

1 minute ago, Decoy73 said:

People should go back and rewatch the Wisconsin game in 2018.  IIRC, Wisky struggled to stop him in the first half.   In the second half, we very inexplicably essentially quit feeding Ozigbo the rock and lost the damn game.   I’m still on board with this staff, but that was simply poor coaching.  
 

What’s the point of this?  It doesn’t matter who carries the ball if the coaches haven’t learned to stick with a good running attack when it’s working. 

Good post, I completely agree. 

 

Im a Frost supporter- but Im very disappointed with how we play after the break. 

[Mavric]

1 hour ago, Nebraska55fan said:

 I said chronic injury and behavior issues. In less than 3 minutes I found 4 links on Jurgens being injured in 4 different years- it's right there in the post. He was consistently injured even during HS- I saw him play a number of times in different HS years- always coming out or not playing due to injuries. It is what it is- I HOPE he can make it through an entire season. 

 

There isn't any denying his injury history.

 

But he's missed one game in the past two seasons.  That doesn't mean he won't get hurt again but he's been pretty steady for two years now.  So I'm not sure it's as big of a deal as you're making it out to be.

[Mavric]

56 minutes ago, Born N Bled Red said:

My point is unless anyone is given the chance to be THE guy for 20 carries a game, no one's going to click and we are having this same conversation next year, for the 4th year in a row.

 

I mean ... there are very few Power 5 backs who average 20 carries per game anymore.  Last year the complete list was Breece Hall, Larry Roundtree, Mohamed Ibrahim, Jarek Broussard, Jemar Jefferson, Demetric Felton and Austin Jones.  The last four only played in six games.  Ibrahim only played seven.  That's not exactly a Who's Who of running backs.  Seven guys out of 65 teams.

 

For some reason I can't find stats from 2019 that include games played but the only player that had enough attempts to average 20 carries over 13 games was Hall.

 

Those players - and those types of offenses - barely exist anymore.

[BigRedBuster]

1 hour ago, Nebraska55fan said:

Please name these players who have overcome chronic injuries or chronic difficult behavior issues during the Frost era. 

Why does it have to be limited to the Frost era?  He's been here for 3 seasons.  That's not much of a sample size to say someone can't get injured and come back.

 

Adrian Petersen is one that I always think about with this.  He got injured several times at OU.  Would come back and then get injured again.  Then, he goes off to the NFL and has a great career fairly injury free.

[Nebraska55fan]

1 minute ago, BigRedBuster said:

Why does it have to be limited to the Frost era?  He's been here for 3 seasons.  That's not much of a sample size to say someone can't get injured and come back.

 

Adrian Petersen is one that I always think about with this.  He got injured several times at OU.  Would come back and then get injured again.  Then, he goes off to the NFL and has a great career fairly injury free.

 

There are thousands of chronically injured players- only a handful come out strong on the other side as consistent contributors. Lets talk about what we know to be true- close to home NU kids that were chronically injured or with significant behavior issues who have come back to contribute significantly. Not an outlier like super freak Adrian Peterson- we haven't had anything like that here in a very long time. 

 

Heck we could go back to Trey Bryant under smilin mike who had to retire due to "old man knees" 

[Nebraska55fan]

The odds that someone like Stepp gets 600 yards- and gets more than 10 carries per game in 10 of our 12 games is a 50-1 shot. It's not happening. You've got what 5-6 years of data that supports that position. 

[MyBloodIsRed16]

You know a chronically injured player who broke my heart??  Mike Brown.  Was a husker and healthy.  Gets drafted by my Bears.  Then chronic injuries cut his (could have been hall of fame) career short.  Totall bummer

[Undone]

I'm not necessarily defending Frost & Held to a large degree, but Frost has made it clear that at running back they have the requirement of "if you don't block, you don't get the rock."

 

I suppose I can only assume that last year the coaches just weren't seeing anybody outside of Mills that was "doing all the right things." Not sure that Held is intentionally splitting carries evenly each game as part of his best case strategy or if that's just a byproduct of other factors.

 

One of these young guys - could even wind up being Johnson - needs to really step up their game in the field vision department and just make some shifty runs on 1st & 2nd down and take the job. 

[J-MAGIC]

3 hours ago, Undone said:

It's possible that Marvin Scott could really break out and develop some shiftyness to be an "every down, do-it-all back." But as a combination of body type and also with how good his high school tape looked to me I've kind of assumed that Morrison would eventually be our guy. 

 

Is it just me or is basically nobody talking about him?

 

In my opinion the two big-bodied guys we have are unlikely to push us where we need to be at running back. Johnson, while supposedly being one of the top 5 fastest players on the team, hasn't shown a ton of natural RB ability in my opinion. Some might say he hasn't seen enough touches as a Husker to make that judgment and that might be fair but that's just what I've seen.

 

I'll be honest, I see a large running back room with no clear RB1 that sticks out as being someone who launches our offense into the tier it needs to be in right now. Obviously I want to be proven wrong on 8/28.

 

*joins you on the Scott and Morrison hype train*