**Official Roy Helu Thread**

I got a kick out of the announcers on Saturday saying how they didn't think the rest of the Big XII knew about Roy's true speed, so this was coming as a shock to Missouri. I kept thinking, what is it about the runs he had against Washington and Kansas State that make people think he's not fast? Helu turned on the jets in both games and blew away from DBs.

Seriously, if they're watching film and they don't know how fast Helu is, that's exceedingly poor preparation on their part (the announcers, I mean).

 
knapplc said:
I got a kick out of the announcers on Saturday saying how they didn't think the rest of the Big XII knew about Roy's true speed, so this was coming as a shock to Missouri. I kept thinking, what is it about the runs he had against Washington and Kansas State that make people think he's not fast? Helu turned on the jets in both games and blew away from DBs.

Seriously, if they're watching film and they don't know how fast Helu is, that's exceedingly poor preparation on their part (the announcers, I mean).
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Yeah. And Roy has been playing in Big 12 for how many years now? Sometimes announcers say the dumbest things.

 
knapplc said:
I got a kick out of the announcers on Saturday saying how they didn't think the rest of the Big XII knew about Roy's true speed, so this was coming as a shock to Missouri. I kept thinking, what is it about the runs he had against Washington and Kansas State that make people think he's not fast? Helu turned on the jets in both games and blew away from DBs.

Seriously, if they're watching film and they don't know how fast Helu is, that's exceedingly poor preparation on their part (the announcers, I mean).
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To be honest before the Washington game I didn't realize how fast he was either. He's been pulling away from db's with angles. I do recall reading threads his freshman and sophomore year about him not having break away speed.

 
Helu has always shown to be a fairly reliable running back when it is needed most of him. Helu's biggest problem has (and seemingly always will be) durability. In two consecutive seasons he has been hampered by injuries during the season. Also, in the past two seasons, he has been limited in the bowl game because of injuries.

The only thing other thing I usually critique on Helu is that he doesn't seem to hit the hole as hard as Burkhead overall. It usually seems Burkhead can get more out of little as opposed to Helu, who usually only turns in something special when the hole is wide open in front of him.

That said, Helu showed great vision Saturday and showed durability. Great performance.

 
i remember about 3 years ago on this board before Helu got a real shot at a load of carries. I think he had a pretty good spring game or something, people started to recognize that he could be pretty good. I have liked him a ton since he started to prove himself 3 years ago (2008 season).

Overall since the departure of the other regime, Helu has probably been our most consistent offensive threat at any positon. His numbers are great for a 4 year career, and if he hadn't been nicked up a time or two, and Watson would just give him the damn ball, they would've been better.

Burkhead is good too and does his thing his way, but overall...Helu has much more to offer.

 
Nebraska's Roy Helu, Jr. has been named the Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week, announced by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.
Junior Helu, Jr., a running back from Danville, Calif., rushed for a school record 307 yards and scored three long touchdowns as No. 14 Nebraska defeated No. 7 Missouri, 31-17. Helu, Jr. scored on runs of 66, 73 and 53 yards as the Huskers improved to 7-1 and 3-1 in the Big 12. Helu, Jr.'s rushing total is the most by any FBS player this season. He follows teammate Taylor Martinez, who was last week's Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week.
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from the BIG XII Website

 
Going into this season Helu needed to match his previous season and he would be a top 5 career back. After his awesome game against Missouri he may reach that mark with a few games to go. It is so nice to see him playing healthy and it is obvious that he has improved over previous seasons as well.

 
BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA said:
Going into this season Helu needed to match his previous season and he would be a top 5 career back. After his awesome game against Missouri he may reach that mark with a few games to go. It is so nice to see him playing healthy and it is obvious that he has improved over previous seasons as well.
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Agreed. It seems like he's healthy and playing his best at the right time for us. Just knowing that he doesn't have to do it all himself seems to have really energized him.

 
When he is healthy, his straight-away speed with pads on is as fast as any RB I have seen in Lincoln. I don't care about his 40-yard-dash time, 100-meter time, etc. He can really fly with his pads on when healthy. That was not a slow Mizzu D.

 
Enhance89 said:
Helu has always shown to be a fairly reliable running back when it is needed most of him. Helu's biggest problem has (and seemingly always will be) durability. In two consecutive seasons he has been hampered by injuries during the season. Also, in the past two seasons, he has been limited in the bowl game because of injuries.

The only thing other thing I usually critique on Helu is that he doesn't seem to hit the hole as hard as Burkhead overall. It usually seems Burkhead can get more out of little as opposed to Helu, who usually only turns in something special when the hole is wide open in front of him.

That said, Helu showed great vision Saturday and showed durability. Great performance.
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This most definitely used to be true, but not this year. Roy figured out how to use that extra weight, and he has been running like an absolute horse all over the field. Nobody is bringing him down one-on-one anymore, he has been plowing hard into defenders all year.

I am I said:
i remember about 3 years ago on this board before Helu got a real shot at a load of carries. I think he had a pretty good spring game or something, people started to recognize that he could be pretty good. I have liked him a ton since he started to prove himself 3 years ago (2008 season).

Overall since the departure of the other regime, Helu has probably been our most consistent offensive threat at any positon. His numbers are great for a 4 year career, and if he hadn't been nicked up a time or two, and Watson would just give him the damn ball, they would've been better.

Burkhead is good too and does his thing his way, but overall...Helu has much more to offer.
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I remember before the '08 season, there was a depth chart released either during spring ball or right at the beginning of fall camp, and it had Lucky and Roy listed as co #1's, and everyone on this board FREAKED OUT, coming up with theories about how our offensive staff can't evaluate talent well and how there was no chance Roy would have challenged Lucky for playing time. Well....here we are now :)

 
I'm of the opinion that Roy is the 3rd best RB in NU history behind Phillips and Rozier. If he would have got to play in the offenses of the 80's and 90's and had an O-line that matched those O-lines, he could have some staggering numbers.

 
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I feel like he could have done this more often if he had more carries throughout the season.

He got a couple 100 yard games this year on about 10-12 carries.

 
I think it's pretty clear that Roy Jr. doesn't get the kind of respect demanded by someone with his talent level. However, he isn't really utilized to his full extent on this team this year because of the emergence of Taylor. Plus he's battled injuries. That being said, even before this weekend I saw and heard national pundits on the internet and on TV who sang his praises and called him a player that would likely blossom at the next level and could surprise some people with how good he turns out to be. He just isn't gonna get the same kind of press now because he won't put up huge production week in and week out. My two cents.

 
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