best RB??

[corn train]

Is he even in the top 5 leading rushers for NU? I'd be surprised. He was a good back, but not that good. He didn't have to run many people over cause the O'line had already pancaked half the field.

 

[Red_Alert]

He only played his freshman and sophmore year.

He was suspended the lions share of his junior season and left early for the draft, so no senior season..

 

[HawkeyeHater]

He has the #3 season total behind rozier and Green.........
He and Rozier tie the season record for 100 yard games at 11...
he and Rozier both had 11 consectuive 100 yard games.......


I wouldn't argue with anyone who put Rozier ahead of Lp..........


But it's not like Rozier had a shitty line...............


Lp had 1772 yards as a freshman.................... He was that good.....

 

[HawkeyeHater]

He only played his freshman and sophmore year.

He was suspended the lions share of his junior season and left early for the draft, so no senior season..

1:30, 2:30


I've honestly never seen a back in my life that had the combination of Power, Speed, Vision and Elusiveness that Lp had............

Yes he is a piece of shit......

But he was that damn good.... He was a hyrbrid of Barry Sanders, Emmit Smith and Thurman Thomas all rolled up into one..

 

[Red_Alert]

1:30, 2:30


I've honestly never seen a back in my life that had the combination of Power, Speed, Vision and Elusiveness that Lp had............

Yes he is a piece of shit......

But he was that damn good.... He was a hyrbrid of Barry Sanders, Emmit Smith and Thurman Thomas all rolled up into one..

I don't know that we'll ever see another one either..

Too bad NU couldn't have bottled that shit..

 

[corn train]

He has the #3 season total behind rozier and Green.........
He and Rozier tie the season record for 100 yard games at 11...
he and Rozier both had 11 consectuive 100 yard games.......


I wouldn't argue with anyone who put Rozier ahead of Lp..........


But it's not like Rozier had a shitty line...............


Lp had 1772 yards as a freshman.................... He was that good.....

so I guess I'll be surprised.

He was one of the best as much as i hate to admit it. What a waste of talent though. He would have most certainly won the Heisman had he stayed out of trouble his last year. Dude was ripped when he joined camp right before his senior year, I remember seeing him at a press conference and everyone was like "holy shit"

I don't remember, what was he suspended for his junior year anyway.

 

[HawkeyeHater]

From wiki.........

"The following year, Phillips became an early front-runner for the Heisman Trophy. During the Huskers' win over Michigan State in their second game of the season, Phillips had 206 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns on 22 carries. After two games on the season, he was averaging more than 11 yards per carry and had scored six touchdowns. After the team had returned from East Lansing, Michigan, Phillips was arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Kate McEwen, a basketball player for the Nebraska women's team. Phillips was subsequently suspended from the Husker football team by Head Coach Tom Osborne. The case became a source of great controversy and media attention, with perceptions arising that Osborne was coddling a star player by not kicking Phillips off the team permanently. Osborne defended the decision and stated that to abandon Phillips might do more harm than good. Osborne reinstated Phillips for the Iowa State game, although touted freshman Ahman Green continued to start. Phillips also contributed against Kansas and Oklahoma.

Osborne, despite pressure from the national media, named Phillips the starter for the Fiesta Bowl, which pitted No. 1 Nebraska against No. 2 Florida for the national championship. In the game, Phillips rushed for 165 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries and also scored a touchdown on a 16-yard reception in the Cornhuskers' 62-24 victory. The performance boosted Phillips's draft stock. With Osborne's encouragement, he decided to turn pro a year early.
"

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

I have said it a thousand times......sure those NFL running back greats have accomplished a lot more, but Lawrence Phillips was the most talented running back ever.

People have always disagreed with me and they immediately point to Barry Sanders and Emmit Smith.......just because they had a successful NFL career doesn't mean they were more talented. It just means they were more intelligent.

Nobody has ever had the versatility that Phillips had as a back

 

[jedburks]

LP is by far and away the best RB Nebraska has ever seen.

LP ran for 1,722 yards his sophomore year not his freshman year.

Side bar question. If Roy Helu runs for the exact same yardage as last year (1,147) then he will statistically be the 4th best runner in Nebraska history. He only needs 879 yards to be in the top 5 and 994 to be in the top 4. And technically he would be top 3 for RBs because Crouch is 3rd and he was obviously a QB.

Here is the question, does anyone consider Helu to be in the top 5 RBs of all time at Nebraska? It is weird but I would not.

 

[HawkeyeHater]

Thanks for the correction... I was thinking 94 was his freshman year..

As far as helu goes... he would have to have a much better season than last year for him to be one of the top 5 IMO... he would either need a high td number or over 1600 yrds...

 

[Red_Alert]

LP is by far and away the best RB Nebraska has ever seen.

LP ran for 1,722 yards his sophomore year not his freshman year.

Side bar question. If Roy Helu runs for the exact same yardage as last year (1,147) then he will statistically be the 4th best runner in Nebraska history. He only needs 879 yards to be in the top 5 and 994 to be in the top 4. And technically he would be top 3 for RBs because Crouch is 3rd and he was obviously a QB.

Here is the question, does anyone consider Helu to be in the top 5 RBs of all time at Nebraska? It is weird but I would not.

That just really blows my mind considering the amount of downtime he's had and as poorly as the offense has executed the running game.

No, I do not consider Helu to be one of the top 5 RB's in NU history..But I can certainly be persuaded...

 

[corn train]

wow, after reading the wiki answer I can't believe how much I've forgotten about Phillips and those years.

Helu would need to have quite a senior year for that to happen. Hard to say what he could have done last year without the injury. I think if he's healthy this season he could easily put up the best numbers in the Big 12. Depends on what kind of offense Watson will be calling this year. I still don't know what he was trying last season, seemed like a prevent offense for most the year.

 

[HawkeyeHater]

Don't forget about burkhead....... he has shown that he will get some carries... if he isnt the starter that is...

 

[Epic Leprikon]

Surprised I saw no love for Green..had he been injury free...he would have destroyed LP's 1700 yard sophomore mark...combine that with a senior year, might have been the all time NCAA leading rusher.

But to answer the question of who was the best running back ever? Rozier, hands down, LP had the talent, but to pick anyone other than Rozier as "The Best Nebraska Running Back ever"...is a stretch. Phillips had one solid season, so did Green, and don't forget Rozier earned his starting role by bumping Roger Craig to fullback.

 

[AHFox]

I just don't look at numbers but look at what a tailback does for his team. Both Rozier and Phillips could carry a team and strike fear into a defense. Overall though Phillips to me was a more complete back then Rozier. Numbers are not the end all be all.

I pose this question to a lot of you. Say you had two draft pick for an NFL team one on defense and one on offense. The two guys I take and its a hands down pick for me. Lawrence Taylor on defense and Marshall Faulk on offense they change the game and the way things are done in the NFL and there numbers don't show that.

Phillips IMO is the standard that I judge all other Husker I-backs too.

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

When I think of LP the very first thing I think of is big plays.......that guy made big play after big play.

 

[Red_Alert]

No big plays here.. I remember this game like it was yesterday.

Lawrence Phillips vs. Kansas State, 1994

126 yards on 31 carries. That’s almost right at 4 yards a carry. A good day for a running back…not stellar totals, mind you, but a decent, workman-like effort. That is until you stop and look at the situation surrounding those totals. Three weeks before, NU lost Heisman Trophy candidate Tommie Frazier with blood clots. Two weeks before, backup QB Brook Berringer had suffered a collapsed lung which saw him play at about 50% against Wyoming and Oklahoma State. Now, the #2 Huskers were traveling to Manhattan to take on #16 Kansas State. The Wildcats had lost 25 straight to NU. They had a decent QB named Chad May, and NU was countering that with sophomore walk-on Matt Turman.

The Wildcats smelled upset. No way was Turman going to air it out on a windy, rainy, all-around crappy day. The only weapon NU had was RB Lawrence Phillips. The Wildcats were going to put 9 guys in the box, and their tough defense was going to lay the wood to Phillips every time he touched the ball. But Phillips refused to go down. Time and again, he ran behind NU’s “Pipeline” and pounded away at the K-State defense. They tackled him high, and he ran them over. They came at him low, and he bulled through. Arm tackles? Don’t even think about it. Phillips scored the first TD for NU in the first quarter, then NU hung on and played the field position game with the Cats. Berringer did play in the second half, but Phillips still carried the load. Berringer would eventually get better, as would Frazier, but Phillips’ legacy as a workhorse RB would be cemented by this game.

Seven Bad Ass Performances in Husker Football History | Husker Hype: A Nebraska Cornhuskers Blog and Experience

 

[HuskerFan8807]

nice post red alert, i didnt know much about that game as i would have only been like 5 years old, thats a pretty good measure or a back, when he is put into that situation and still puts up very solid numbers

 

[AHFox]

I don't just look at stats to define who the best player was at a certain postion. Stats do play into it but its part of the whole picture. Rozier is the most accomplished I-back to ever play at Nebraska but as I've watched him play and compare him to Lawrence Phillips you can see how much more talent Phillips had then Rozier. But I also look at who is the standard that we compare everyone that came before and who had comes afterward. I compare every I-back to Phillips. I don't with Rozier.

I also look at it like this if I had two NFL draft picks and I could take anyone one player from the everyone who has played this game one on offense and one on defense. These would be the two guys I would take. Lawrence Taylor OLB/DE, and Marshall Faulk why you say they completely change the game. Lawrence Taylor change the way an offense had to take care of it's QB. They made the LT IMO the most important postion on offense. Marshall Faulk at tailback running the football he was special, then you could line him up at WR and he was one of the best in the NFL at that postion. Faulk he change the way a RB is used in the NFL both of these guys are the standard. Same way Phillips is the standard to compare all I-backs at Nebraska

 

[Red_Alert]

nice post red alert, i didnt know much about that game as i would have only been like 5 years old, thats a pretty good measure or a back, when he is put into that situation and still puts up very solid numbers

If I remember correctly LP played that game with a broken finger as well. It was a concern that he might not be able to hold onto the ball in the wet conditions. He carried the load that day as the go to guy 31 times where an offense usually only got off 70 - 75 plays a game. There was no doubt who was getting the ball play after play. We knew it and K State knew it..

In regards to a RB, LP had it all...Durability, balance, field vision, he read his blockers like no other, he had great acceleration, good hands, could cut on a dime, stiff arm, swat a potential tackler to the side, and pound your defense into oblivion if neccessary...

It was said by Terry Donahue (former UCLA coach) as an announcer that the deeper (in the backfield) you can get the ball to a player like LP he's gonna tear your defense to pieces. The reason why is because with his vision he had time to let running lanes develop, and once they did he was through that lane and gone..

Sometimes the NU QB would get LP the ball 5-6 yds back from the line of scrimmage...It was intentional...