Jaquez Yant???

Mavric said:
I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.  I didn't hear Benning's comments but it's pretty hard to separate the RBs struggles from the OL struggles. 

I get people being frustrated but I actually think Held has put together a pretty good RB room this year.  We don't have the absolute stud but we have several really solid options.  It just took awhile to get here because we had almost nothing when he got here and then the stud he recruited (Washington) and another solid option (Bell) both turned into head cases.

There just isn't a lot of separation in the guys we have so that's why we see such big variations from week to week.  No one is significantly better so whoever seems to get an edge, makes a couple things happen early or fits the game plan a bit better gets more run. 

Stepp had one good game against our weakest opponent.  I just think he's probably the most limited in what he can do so he didn't fit the game plan as well the last two weeks.  And we're struggling to block the inside run game so our offensive line is worst at what he does best.  Not a good combination.  Yant is basically the same back as Stepp but not as good and not as in shape.  So there's no reason to play him ahead of Stepp right now.  Maybe in a year or two.  As was mentioned, he basically got the chances this spring because of lack of other options.

Ervin was the #1 guy coming into the season but had no opportunity with his chances early in the Illinois game so it didn't look like as good of a choice.  But when he had more room to run later, he showed he had good moves.  Sucks for him that's he's now out for the year.  But that would seem to be a pretty good find in recruiting by Held to be able to bring in a guy who can show he's worth being the starter as a true freshman over several guys who had been on the field for Power 5 schools in previous seasons.

Johnson seems to have really come on in the last few weeks.  He's probably our fastest back but we saw against Oklahoma that he seems to have figured out how to run through contact much better.  Plus he and Ervin are said to be the best options in pass protection.  With Ervin now out, I would think Johnson will get a lot of chances going forward.

Morrison is basically the odd man out.  He got some chances early but it seems like he's slipped behind Johnson lately.  Maybe Ervin's injury opens the door for him a little more.  But he was good enough to get quite a few chances early in the year.

But we basically have four running backs that are worthy of playing time.  That's a pretty deep RB room if you ask me.  Plus two others (Yant and Scott) who are still options.  Compare that to having Ozigbo, Mikale Wilbon and Jaylin Bradley being the entire RB room when Held got here and I don't think there's any question our current situation is not even comparable to where we were.
Click to expand...
That's a good run down of where we are at.  What's frustrating is that our biggest backs are the worst in pass pro.  That's an area where I would have thought Stepp would have been a good option.

 
No team in the BIG is game planning for Yant, he has no book of work. As long as he can hold onto the ball (if he is having consistent problems with that in practice sure don't play him), not sure why it wouldn't make sense to bring him in on a short yardage down to get the first down. Once a small book is established on short yardage and defenses are thinking handoff to Yant- throw a quick play action pass off of it. He simply is an arrow in the quiver that is different from the rest. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've watched football for a long time and have never seen RB/WR randomness like this staff has done. I know others have outlined it but it makes absolutely zero sense some of the decisions we make on the depth chart. 

Start a true freshman in Ervin game 1 & 2. Stepp starts game 3. Rahmir Johnson starts game 4 -- had 4 carries for 9 yards the week prior. I personally wish Yant and Scott had more carries thus far in the season particularly vs Fordham and Buffalo. Either way with our OL play our RB haven't done much of anything. 

And for the WR everyone in the world knows Betts and Manning should always play ahead of Liewer yet he continued to play and start. This isn't the first year this has happened either. 

 
Our Rb room has to have the lowest confidence in the country.  How do back get better as the game goes if they don't even get a chance. 2 carries here. 3-4 carries there and then disappear. Running backs have to have some sort of stability. 

 
BIG ERN said:
I've watched football for a long time and have never seen RB/WR randomness like this staff has done. I know others have outlined it but it makes absolutely zero sense some of the decisions we make on the depth chart. 

Start a true freshman in Ervin game 1 & 2. Stepp starts game 3. Rahmir Johnson starts game 4 -- had 4 carries for 9 yards the week prior. I personally wish Yant and Scott had more carries thus far in the season
Click to expand...
BaytownHusker said:
Our Rb room has to have the lowest confidence in the country.  How do back get better as the game goes if they don't even get a chance. 2 carries here. 3-4 carries there and then disappear. Running backs have to have some sort of stability. 
Click to expand...


Frost said late in fall camp that he didn't want to have an RB by committee approach. That should pretty much tell you what's going on: the coaches aren't swapping RBs in and out just for s#!ts and giggles, they're doing it because as of right now, they feel that they need to.

 
I have. Been calling for Yant since the spring game. I like how they're using him and then Switching gears with  Johnson it's harder for defenses to go from a big back like Yant to a speedy back in Johnson. But then Johnson plows threw a guy for a TD. Either way this is the offense I think we've all been expecting under Frost

 
BenchCoach said:
Been calling for this for a month…his second carry was the most physical and longest run of the season but what do I know…either way happy the kid is finally getting a real look…he will be fun to watch the next 4 years
Click to expand...
And if HCSF puts him in earlier like you were calling for, 25 lbs over weight and out of shape, he doesn't perform like he did last night..

 
twofittyonred said:
And if HCSF puts him in earlier like you were calling for, 25 lbs over weight and out of shape, he doesn't perform like he did last night..
Click to expand...
I was scrolling thru my Twitter feed and it said Yant came back to campus for fall camp at 258 pounds, after playing the spring at 232.  That's not acceptable for Yant to do that. 

We want the coaches to hold the kids accountable, and that's what Frost did for Yant.  Yant at 245-255 is just a big back who will run straight forward. Yant at 230-235 is a big back with moves (which we saw tonight). Yant at the lower weight also enables him to carry the ball 13 times tonight instead of half that many. I give credit to Held and Frost to make Yant earn his playing time, and Yant for losing the weight he needed to. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Coming out of the Spring game I said it would be Ervin and Yant. He certainly gives this offense a different dimension. I like how he runs. In all fairness to the other backs- the holes in this game werent like anything we saw all season. AND lots less penetration- the game was being played on the Defenses side of the ball- very few times did a defender have to be beat just to make it back to the LOS

 
What a coming out party for Yant. If he can keep his weight down and continue to learn the playbook I can see an illustrious future for him at NU. Every time I've seen him run the ball he just seems to have that little bit extra you don't always see in other backs and and if I'm a DB I wouldn't want to have to try to tackle him when he's coming at me with a head of steam. Looked pretty good blocking in pass protection too.

 
FAzuzafXsAUgQX3


 
Back
Top