2021 Fall Camp Notes - Running Backs

Nebraska55fan said:
By the end of the season

Ervin

Yant

Scott

Morrison

Stepp- doesn't complete season

Johnson- transfer portal
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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.
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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.

 
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.
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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

 
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.
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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.

 
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. 

 
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MyBloodIsRed16 said:
Ervin is my pick to click
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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.
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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.

 
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. 
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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. 

 
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. 
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Good post, I completely agree. 

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

 
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. 
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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.

 
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.
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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.

 
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Nebraska55fan said:
Please name these players who have overcome chronic injuries or chronic difficult behavior issues during the Frost era. 
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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.

 
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.
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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" 

 
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. 

 
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. 

 
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