2017 RB

[Red_Alert]

No depth chart released yet. That tells me nobody is special enough to stand out above the rest. There are a plethora of average running backs across football. Only a handful that are considered star RB's. Nebraska is not even ranked in the Top 50 by Athlon when considering RB's by comittee. That being said you're not gonna have much success winning your Big 10 division without a good running game. I had high expectations for Ozigbo as a true freshman (2015). I thought he showed the most natural instinct for finding running lanes and making people miss. However, he was nothing special through mid-season last year and was injured the last half of it. Not sure if him losing out to Newby wasn't just a learning the playbook issue.
Do you think it'll be another RB by Committee (no 1,000 yd rusher), or who do you think will get the sole starting role and why?

Here is the roster...

#5 Jaylin Bradley (true FR)
#18 Tre Bryant (true SO)
#21 Mikale Wilbon (redshirt JR)
#22 Devine Ozigbo (true JR)
#24 Sean Lambert (redshirt FR) walk-on
#28 Adam Taylor (redshirt SR)
#32 Tanner Haas (redshirt FR) walk-on
#37 Wyatt Mazour (redshirt SO) walk-on

 

[HuskerinBig10]

1. Tre Bryant.
2. Devine Ozigbo, short yardage situations.
3. Wilbon for screens.

Not sure if you saw any games last year while you were cavorting in those sand countries, but Tre Bryant has a nice burst at the line of scrimmage.

IMHO, he was average as a kick returner but was the best RB of the bunch that is here in 2017. Ozigbo seemed to not care last year. He probably thought he was the starter automatically, and was depressed when Newby became the man.

Wilbon the coaches seemed to hate in 2016. He reminds me of Darren Sproles, but that is about it. He has not shown that he is Darren Sproles. I hope the coaches give him a chance to prove himself.

I know people are talking up Bradley, but I would rather Bradley get his head around going to school instead of giving him one year of pressure then he misses out because of not having the college thing down.

I hope to see Mazour get some touches. Either on kick offs, punt returns, maybe a screen.

 

[Footballnut]

Mazour is a special teams guy at best, I think we'll see him at kick-offs maybe. However, I think it's pretty clear that Tre Bryant is the #1 guy... Wilbon and Ozigbo are 2a and 2b followed by Jalen Bradley.

 

[Red_Alert]

1. Tre Bryant.
2. Devine Ozigbo, short yardage situations.
3. Wilbon for screens.

Not sure if you saw any games last year while you were cavorting in those sand countries, but Tre Bryant has a nice burst at the line of scrimmage.

IMHO, he was average as a kick returner but was the best RB of the bunch that is here in 2017. Ozigbo seemed to not care last year. He probably thought he was the starter automatically, and was depressed when Newby became the man.

Wilbon the coaches seemed to hate in 2016. He reminds me of Darren Sproles, but that is about it. He has not shown that he is Darren Sproles. I hope the coaches give him a chance to prove himself.

I know people are talking up Bradley, but I would rather Bradley get his head around going to school instead of giving him one year of pressure then he misses out because of not having the college thing down.

I hope to see Mazour get some touches. Either on kick offs, punt returns, maybe a screen.

I saw the games that started at 11:00am or 2:30pm live. If they were night games I was snoozing so DVR'd and watched them the next day.

Hoping the Ozigbo thing was just the playbook and another spring and fall is enough to get his head wrapped around it.

Either way, it seems Nebraska won't have a feature back and that doesn't bode well for Big 10 play.

 

[psaboy]

I would like to see Taylor get a chance to play, kid has hung in there for years.

 

[corn train]

The committee is whack, sounds like the guy starting will be just cause someone has to do it, the RB numbers from last year we're probably the worst that I can recall ever for a starting I Back. Not splitting carries with TA should bolster those numbers and hopefully a healthy OL but the committee nonsense needs to stop

 

[Red_Alert]

1. Tre Bryant.
2. Devine Ozigbo, short yardage situations.
3. Wilbon for screens.

If you know that then competent defensive coordinators are sure to know it too.

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

I don't see as though anyone is going to get the majority of the touches this year.

I think we'll see different backs featured in different games.....situational type of deal.

It probably won't make sense to we the viewers at times. Probably will be a week by week, practice by practice thing.

 

[HuskerPower52]

My vote is Adam Taylor

 

[AHFox]

Wilbon has the best short area quickness of all the backs we have right now. To me he also is the best home run threat we have. Tre Bryant at times looks like a decent back last year. But I'm not that impress with his acceleration. He looks like he should be a slasher but I haven't seen him make very many good cuts in games and accelerate through the hole. Ozigbo is a nice back but he's not a starter.

 

[Exorbitant]

This by committee crap is ridiculous. Even if two of the backs are even then toss a coin to pick one who will start.

 

[HuskerPower52]

I'm a hundred percent okay with three running back rotation. For the first half or even into the third quarter but I'd like to see two backs emerge during a game

 

[FNG]

I see it as
1. Tre Bryant between the 20's.
2. Devine Ozigbo short yardage situations and goal line!
3. Mike Wilbon 3rd back and screens

 

[corn train]

I hope we never have a starting I Back, there it is

 

[tometom]

I see it as
1. Tre Bryant between the 20's.
2. Devine Ozigbo short yardage situations and goal line!
3. Mike Wilbon 3rd back and screens

ugh, if you can see it, then so can other teams. I think it will be more of a this series is Bryant, this series is Ozigbo, this series is Wilbon, and if one gets hot and starts doing good things, that back will play more series than the others and thus take over as the leading RB.

the way ozigbo trimmed down in the offseason, if he can handle the screen game, i think he could emerge as the feature back.

 

[HuskerCradle2Grave]

I hope we never have a starting I Back, there it is

 

[corn train]

Seriously though, even without the benefit of spring and fall camp my choice would have been Tre. Zigbo idk, he faded away last year even before the mysterious injury. Wilbon is in his 4th year now, was scout team MVP 2014 redshirting, he's not starting again I see, if he hasn't figured it out by now...

Without TA eating 70% of the RBs work it might be easier to define the pecking order, however given the last 8 months it seems to me one of those guys should have made his move, which just didn't happen according to DL.

 

[White Rat]

I read somewhere quoting Mike Riley stating along the lines that the RB's would not get equal carries and one will get the majority. I think it was on the Hail Varsity site, I'll try to find it.

 

[tometom]

i think that's what he "wants", but if one guy can't take the bull by the horns, he isn't going to get it.