LINCOLN — Another 1,000 yards for I-back Roy Helu and the Nebraska career rushing chart would read like this:
Mike Rozier. Ahman Green. Eric Crouch.
And then Helu.
Even Helu says that seems a little strange. Statistics aside, the senior from Danville, Calif., isn’t sure that he’ll be able to accomplish enough to be associated with the program’s legendary figures.
“I’ve heard that before. It’s weird,” he said. “I haven’t done anything spectacular here, to be honest.”
Maybe Helu will feel differently at season’s end. Maybe.
He says he’s set high standards for himself, secret goals that he’ll ultimately use to make his own judgment about his career.
Helu admits that he played football as an early teenager with aspirations of becoming an all-time rushing leader at his college.
Rozier is in no danger of losing that title at Nebraska with 4,780 career rushing yards. Green’s total is 3,880. Crouch is at 3,434.
Helu has 2,159 career yards, all but 209 of which came during his injury-plagued sophomore and junior seasons. A 1,000-yard senior season would move him past Calvin Jones, who ranks fourth on the career chart with 3,153 yards between 1991 and 1993.
Helu doesn’t think far ahead, because he knows how dangerous that can be. There are too many variables, namely his health.
In 2008, Helu labored through fall camp and the early portion of his sophomore year with an aching shoulder. The same nagging pain haunted him most of last season.
The shoulder has been fine so far this preseason, and Helu assumes that his now-seasoned partners at I-back — sophomores Rex Burkhead and Dontrayevous Robinson — will help limit the pounding his body will take.
But then again, Helu doesn’t want to act selfishly. Running backs get banged up. That’s football. For Helu to have a true team-first approach, he has to play through pain, even if it ends up jeopardizing his individual chase of records, awards and recognition.
That’s what Helu said he struggled to do last year. It’s the explanation for his statistically roller-coaster season.
He ran for 169 yards against a stingy Virginia Tech defense. He carried the ball a total of 12 times in a loss to Iowa State and a win over Baylor. He then averaged 130 yards in a three-game stretch before getting just 13 carries in the final two games to Burkhead’s 34.
“I don’t think I handled it the best I could,” Helu said. “I tried to. I tried to keep tough. It was so hard. But it’s in the past. You just have to keep moving.”
So that’s what Helu is doing. He’s working toward the future, one that could be special for the battle-tested I-back.
“I haven’t done what I wanted to do here yet,” he said.
