If you are a college football fan, then you’re probably aware that former Husker RB Dante Dowdell, who is now at Kentucky, had 14 carries for 129 yards and 1 TD with a 9.2 yard per carry average against Toledo Saturday. Last Season Dowdell was Nebraska’s leading rusher with 614 yards, 12TDs and a 4.3 yard per carry average.
If you watched the Notre Dame vs Miami game, then you saw RB Marty (CharMar) Brown carrying the ball for the Hurricanes. Brown ended up with 15 carries for 54 yards with one touchdown and had 2 receptions for 27 yards.
After rushing for 1,181 yards and 15 TDs last season at North Dakota State, Miami snatched Brown up in the transfer portal. When looking at transferring, Brown, an Omaha Creighton Prep product, narrowed his choices to two schools, Miami and Nebraska. Like Kentucky, Miami brought out a bigger bag than Nebraska and Brown ended up in Miami.
After seeing Emmett Johnson touch the ball 32 times against Cincinnati, 25 carries for 108 yards and 7 receptions for 27 yards, along with his backups only getting 4 touches, I’m guessing there are people in Nebraska who wished they had dug up some more cash, either to keep Dante Dowdell or to make sure Marty Brown ended up in Lincoln.
Since Dowdell and Brown aren’t at Nebraska, that means there will be running back tryouts over the next two games to see who the clear number two back is going into the Michigan game on September 20th. Rhule has gone out of his way to let fans know how much they like their running back room. But where there is smoke there is fire, and with moving both Vincent Genatone and Isiah Mozee to the running back position in the fall, there’s reason for concern. The talent may be there, but as of now it isn’t translating to the field. Rhule can say whatever he likes, but fans are going to doubt Nebraska’s running backs until they see otherwise. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Show me, don’t tell me.” The running backs have two weeks to convince fans Matt Rhule’s talk is real.
Until then, candidates for number two are Mekhi Nelson, Isaiah Mozee, and Kwinten Ives. This is Ives’s third season, and we’ve heard numerous times how much potential he has, but an injured hamstring has slowed him since the beginning of fall practice. Don’t look for Ives to see a lot of action over the next two games as they want his hamstring issues fully resolved by the Michigan game. However, he may get a few carries against HCU to knock off the rust.
Mekhi Nelson and Isiah Mozee will get the bulk of the work to solidify a true number two. Holgorsen talked Nelson up a couple weeks before the Cincy game, but Nelson got blown up in pass protection in KC and didn’t see action afterwards. Just out of high school Mozee saw his first college action. He’ll need time to adjust to the speed of the game and get his bearings. In all truth, experience is what this trio is lacking, not talent. What they need is to see the field and get reps at toting the rock.
If the score of either game against Akron or HCU gets out of hand, expect Kenneth Williams and Conner Booth to see action as well.
Numbers that tell the story
Nebraska beat Cincinnati by three points and while it’s hard to be disappointed with a win, fans expected more from the atmosphere created at Arrowhead. In Holgorsen’s defense, it was the first game of the season, however fans remember him commenting a week or so ago that he thought this offense could be explosive. In his press conference yesterday, he admitted he was not happy with only scoring 20 points and the lack of explosive plays. DC John Butler also talked about the defense needing to play faster and for the defensive line to attack rather than thinking too much. He suggested that Cincy’s QB took a page from the high school game and rushed the ball when not knowing what else to do. His defense wasn’t ready for the move, and he had to adjust to the improvisation.
While disappointed, fans need to be patient. The Huskers will iron things out and be prepared for Michigan. Still, seldom does a team put up the following numbers and only win by three.
- Nebraska had 78 offensive snaps.
- 9 offensive possessions.
- Four possessions consisting of 10 or more plays.
- Ran over 35 plays on Cincinnati’s side of the field.
- Converted 10/18 third downs.
- Almost doubled the time of possession, having control of the ball for over 39 minutes.
- QB Dylan Raiola went 33/42 passing for 243 yards and 2 TDs.
- Raiola completed 11 passes in a row.
- Emmett Johnson rushed for 108 yards and had 27 yards in receptions.
- Cunanan made two field goals, one of 52 yards and another of 22 yards.
- Won the turnover battle (+2), one interception and one forced fumble.
- Only allowed a total of 69 yards passing.
On the opposite side of the coin there are numbers that say the Huskers could have just as easily lost this game.
- Nebraska only averaged 5.8 yards per pass completion.
- Gave up 3 sacks.
- Only had one play of over 20 yards.
- Had 0 sacks defensively.
- Only 2 tackles for losses.
- Allowed QB Brenden Sorsby to rush for 96 yards and 2 TDs.
- Allowed RB Tawee Walker to rush for 53 yards on 7 carries for a 7.6-yard average.
- Allowed RB Evan Pryor to rush for 29 yards on 5 carries for a 5.8-yard average.
- Allowed a total of 202 yards rushing and 2 TDs.
- Cincinnati averaged 7.0 yards rushing per carry.
We’ll have to wait and see how good the Bearcats really are, but they played the Huskers tough and provided a good learning experience for a young Husker team. Rewatching the game, they’ll identify the things that need worked on and with home games against Akron and Houston Christian, they’ll have the opportunity to improve before Michigan.
Go Big Red!
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