A Comprehensive Outlook – Nebraska Runningbacks – 2021

**Runningback Trends and Predictors**

This is my second time going through and reviewing these articles from 247- this is probably some of the most informative articles that 247 publishes regarding trends of recruiting and how they project to the NFL. Runningbacks tend to be the most black and white for projecting High School results to the NFL.

These articles are a bit dated, but stand true through the 2019 draft.

Summarizing the articles:

**• Production**

* Runningbacks drafted in the top 100 of the 2018 draft, ran an average of ~1900 yards in their senior season.
* Runningbacks drafted in the first round since 2013 averaged at least 8.2 ypc their senior season of high school.
* From 2013 to 2019, RB’s drafted in the 1st round averaged 34 TDs as seniors.

**• Size**

* The average drafted RB height in 2018 was 5’11, 200lbs. No runningback drafted in 2018 was over 6’.
* From 2013-2019, only one RB drafted in the first round was over 210lbs in high school.

**• Testing Numbers**

* Testing numbers don’t matter that much from high school. Barkley and Penny ran the 40 yd dash in the 4.6 range in high school. Nick Chubb ran a 10.7 in the 100 meter dash.
* That being said, 1st round RB draft picks from 2013-2019 ran sub-11 second 100m dashes.

**• Development & S&C Matters**

* Barkley and Penny both ran in the 4.4 range in their combine. The originally only ran a 4.6 in high school. Being able to train, getting faster and more explosive was key for them.

**• Recruit Ranking**

* Recruit ranking generally matters. Rashaad Penny is the only non 4* or 5* recruit drafted in the first round from 2013-2019. Rashad Penny was rated an 84 by 247.

So, what does this tell us about Nebraska’s runningback room? A little bit.

We have one player who matched the production of 1st round draft picks in high school and that is Sevion Morrison- he ran for 1798 yards at 9.82 YPC, scoring 29 total TDs. Not quite as many TD’s as the first round draft picks, but fantastic nonetheless. His height is not prototypical.

Will Nixon surprisingly comes close from his senior season. Although a Wide Receiver at Nebraska, he ran for 1837 yards and 27 touchdowns as a senior (unsure YPC, have literally done everything short of contacting his old coach). He is also a prototypical height at 5’10- which explains why he may be the heir to the mythical Duck-R.

Behind Morrison, in terms of projecting production it is: MS3, Johnson, Ervin, Stepp, and Yant.

Unfortunately, none of them match the production of a top 100 pick RB drafted in 2018- however, there is always exceptions. Additionally, these backs- particularly MS3- come close. Just remember, Ozigbo in 2018 ran for 1000+ yards at 7ypc and went undrafted. This team doesn’t need a future 1st round draft pick to be very successful at the position.

On a positive note, the spring game showed the runningbacks were developing. We saw solid play from every runningback that played and saw improvements from a guy like MS3. We saw our backs making the correct decisions/cuts as the play developed.

**Articles**

[The evaluation trends that shaped the 2019 NFL Draft](https://247sports.com/college/nebraska/Article/Recruiting-evaluation-takeaways-from-the-NFL-Draft-131988350/)

[What the 2018 NFL Draft taught us about RB evaluations](https://247sports.com/college/nebraska/Article/2018-NFL-Draft-helps-us-rethink-how-to-evaluate-running-back-recruits-118887784/)

————————–

***Marvin Scott III (2020 Recruit) – 5’9, 210lbs***

**Spring Game**

Rush | Yards: 75 | Atmpts: 11 | Avg: 6.8 | TD: 1

Receiving | Yards: 0 | Rcpts: 0 | Avg: 0 | TD: 0

**TFr**

Rush | Yards: 62 | Atmpts: 24 | | Avg: 2.58 | TD: 0

Receiving | Yards: 17 | Rcpts: 2 | Avg: 8.5 | TD: 0

**Senior (HS)**

Rush | Yards: 1477 | Atmpts: 192 | Avg: 7.7 | TD: 18

Receiving | Yards: 110 | Rcpts: 9 | Avg: 12.2 | TD: 0

***Rahmir Johnson (2019 Recruit) – 5’10, 185lbs***

**RFr**

Rush | Yards: 30 | Atmpts: 8 | Avg: 3.75 | TD: 1

Receiving | Yards: 33 | Rcpts: 6 | Avg: 5.5 | TD: 0

**TFr**

Rush | Yards: 64 | Atmpts: 21 |Avg: 3.04 | TD: 1

Receiving | Yards: 12 | Rcps: 1 | Avg: 12 | TD: 0

**Senior (HS)**

Rush | Yards: 1334 | Atmpts: 211 | Avg: 6.3 | TD: 11

Receiving | Yards: 140 | Rcps: 9 | Avg: 15.6 | TD: 1

***Gabe Ervin Jr. (2021 Recruit) – 6’1, 190lbs***

**Spring Game**

Rush | Yards: 58 | Atmpts: 12 | Avg: 4.8 | TD: 0

Receiving | Yards: -2 | Rcpts: 1 | Avg: -2 | TD: 0

**Senior (HS)**

Rush | Yards: 1041 | Atmpts: 147 | Avg: 7.08 | TD: 17

Receiving | Yards: X | Rcpts: X | Avg: X | TD: X |

(3 for 63 in championship)

***Markese Stepp (2021 Transfer, 2018 Recruit) – 6’0, 235lbs***

**Soph**

Rush | Yards: 165 | Atmpts: 45 | Avg: 3.7 | TD: 3

Receiving | Yards: 28 | Rcpts: 3 | Avg: 9.33 | TD: 0

**RFr**

Rush | Yards: 307 | Atmpts: 48 | Avg: 6.39 | TD: 3

Receiving | Yards: 0 |Rcpts: 0 | Avg: 0 | TD: 0

**TFr**

Rush | Yards: 33 | Atmpts: 7 | Avg: 4.71 | TD: 0

Receiving | Yards: 7 | Rcpts: 1 | Avg: 7 | TD: 0

**Senior (HS)**

Rush | Yards: 975 | Atmpts: 124 | Avg: 7.9 | TD: 17

Receiving | Yards: 24 | Rcpts: 4 | Avg: 6 | TD: 0

***Sevion Morrison (2020 Recruit) – 6’0, 210lbs***

**Spring Game**

Rush | Yards: 38 | Atmpts: 8 | Avg: 4.8 | TD: 0

Receiving | Yards: 12 | Rcpts: 1 | Avg: 12 | TD: 0

**TFr**

Rush | Yards: 0 | Atmpts: 0 | Avg: 0 | TD: 0

Receiving | Yards: 0 | Rcpts: 0 | Avg: 0 | TD: 0

**Senior (HS)**

Rush | Yards: 1798 | Atmpts: 183 | Avg: 9.82 | TD: 26

Receiving | Yards: 276 | Rcpts: 8 | Avg: 34.5 | TD: 3

***Jaquez Yant (2020 Walk-On) – 6’2, 225lbs***

**Spring Game**

Rush | Yards: 64 | Atmpts: 9 | Avg: 7.0 | TD: 1

Receiving | Yards: 0 | Rcpts: 0 | Avg: 0 | TD: 0

**TFr**

Rush | Yards: 0 | Atmpts: 0 | Avg: 0 | TD: 0

Receiving | Yards: 0 | Rcpts: 0 | Avg: 0 | TD: 0

**Senior (HS)**

Rush | Yards: 583 | Atmpts: 99 | Avg: 5.88 | TD: 10

Receiving | Yards: 15 | Rcpts: 2 | Avg: 7.5 | TD: 0

—————————

***Spring Game Film***

**Markers**

1:40 – MS3

2:40 – MS3

3:09 – MS3

4:24 – MS3

4:55 – MS3, TD

6:35 – Morrison

7:28 – Morrison

7:53 – Morrison lead block, miss

12:30 – Ervin

15:30 – Ervin

17:35 – Ervin, big gain

20:55 – Yant

21:55 – Yant

25:30 – MS3, block

26:39 – MS3

27:50 – Ervin, reception for loss

29:10 – Ervin

30:20 – Ervin

30: 55 – Ervin, missed catch

32:11 – Ervin

32:50 – MS3

39:10 – Ervin

41:57 – Ervin, overthrown

50:44 – Morrison

51:19 – Morrison, big gain

51:47 – Morrison

53:02 – Morrison, reception

53:30 – Yant, big gain

53:55 – Yant

54:15 – Yant, TD

55:58 – MS3

56:20 – MS3

56:41 – MS3, big gain

57:09 – MS3

1:01:10 – Ervin, runs into back of OL, should have bounced outside (credit to Kpai’s positioning)

1:03:47 – Morrison, Black beats his block and slows Morrison in backfield

1:04:07 – Morrison, Alston beats his block

1:04:54 – Morrison slips on cut inside, hurts ankle

1:05:24 – Yant

1:05:45 – Yant

1:06:05 – Yant

1:06:45 – Yant

1:10:00 – Ervin, tackled for loss, Jackson makes a play

1:19:36 – Ervin

1:20:00 – Ervin, holding on play erases gain

1:21:40 – Ervin

1:22:10 – Ervin, Hutmacher blows up the play, causes turnover on downs

————————–

***Marvin Scott III***

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/1817829/5ba682999a9c0b09a8de9619

**What I See**

MS3 is a shorter, well-built back. He weighed in at 207lbs during spring testing, landing top ten in the 10-yard split. This should be unsurprising with his size and testing numbers he put up in high school. In his junior (high school) film, he’s capable of running over and bouncing off tacklers. He regularly drags defenders and pushes the pile. His cuts are decent; however, he tends to lose a good amount of speed when doing so.

His 2020 campaign left a lot to be desired and was cut short by a false-positive at Purdue and presumed injury earlier in the season. MS3 had a few decent runs, however, at times made incorrect reads, hitting the wrong gaps, or the OL hung him out to dry – a theme we saw throughout the season. He played with a lot of intensity and effort. He ran really hard, fought for extra yards and even ran through some tackles. He made key blocks on plays and was a team player through and through.

During the spring game we saw that he improved on his break-away speed, acceleration and body positioning going into contact, making one on one tackles difficult to bring him down. MS3 ran through the correct gaps and maximized his yardage- he made it a priority to plant his feet and turn downfield, we saw this from many of our runingbacks during the spring. He had the best spring game of the runningbacks. Going into next season, MS3 will need to improve his breakaway speed, top speed, and continue making the right gap reads that he did during the spring game to be an effective back for this team.

————————-

***Rahmir Johnson***

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/7602468/5c21ab3cda513d064055b645

**What I See**

Rahmir Johnson is a shorter back that took time to get his body right to play college football. His high school film is characterized by shooting open gaps, making correct cuts and using his elite speed and acceleration to score TD’s. He can chop his feet to make short cuts to follow his blocks and create ideal angles, but appears to lack the ability to make large jump cuts and keep his speed. In his film he is patient and follows his blockers, playing off their hips and puts defenders in position to attack off the side of his hips by making stutter steps and small cuts. I wouldn’t consider him a physical back, but he has shown some ability to break tackles.

His 2020 campaign was short and he wasn’t given much of an opportunity to make an impact. Many of the passes to him were off target, causing him to be dropped behind the line of scrimmage for a loss. He showed promise in the Iowa game, scoring a TD where he did an excellent job following his blocks, made the correct cut and fought his way into the end zone. Unfortunately, the Iowa game demonstrated a weakness of his, his lack of ability to plant his foot and cut downfield, or bounce he way around defenders using a jump cut and accelerate out of it.

If Johnson sticks at Nebraska to try and get a hold of the position, he’ll need to continue building up his body and get stronger particularly in his hips to break those off hip arm tackles he’s good at creating. The biggest improvement Johnson needs is adding a good jump cut to his repertoire and being able to plant his foot to turn downfield and accelerate. These are two key elements to being able to run effectively in the zone run that he must have. The third element is getting and staying healthy.

————————

***Gabe Ervin Jr.***

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/10948241/5f8741adb0193116387999d7

**What I See**

Gabe Ervin is a taller, athletic back that appears ready for college football. Under his belt he has two Georgia State Championships, won back-to-back in 5A and 6A, respectively. He is characterized as a no nonsense back with a businesslike approach to the position. He follows his blocks and when the cut to get down-hill needs to be made he hits it hard. In his film him shows great breakaway and top speed. He is more of a one cut back, but has shown some shack and bake action. Even with not being the most well built up back, he shows the ability to fall forward on most tackles made and has an “efficient” stiff arm. One of his greatest abilities in his film is his ability to bounce the ball outside and beat one on one tacklers. He can make an inside step to outside cut and get his feet under him to keep his speed and run around guys. His hip strength and balance are good enough to shed tacklers.

During the spring game, we saw a good amount of this on display- he demonstrated the ability to effectively bounce the ball out around the OT’s and beat a DB one-on-one for a 10+ yard gain. He showed he had a lot of speed coming downhill but was tagged up in the non-contact period on tackles he likely could have broken. Unfortunately, he showed immaturity at times and ran into the back of blocks and missed gaps he could have taken to reduce the loss on a broken play. Going into the fall he will need to continue improving his athleticism and strength, improve his vision in making correct cuts and improve his leverage and lowering his pads when going into direct contact.

———————-

***Markese Stepp***

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/4135936/5a26f969041d6a0ff8280cb3

**What I See**

A powerful, punishing runner. Tackling Stepp isn’t easy and it’s best shown by his performance in the USC game below. He can push piles, run guys over, and has enough speed and acceleration to break long runs. Stepp understands body positioning very well and controls himself going into contact. He is flexible enough in the hips to make jump cuts and accelerate out of them, plant his foot and turn downfield. He runs with very good balance and makes it difficult to for tacklers to hit him high. Most tackles come at his legs and hips.

This offseason he’ll need to get healthy, lose weight and get in better shape for the fall. Missing spring and recovering from surgery has slowed him down. He also needs to improve his top speed and with guys attacking his legs, look to go airborne on low tackles.

———————–

***Sevion Morrison***

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/8315429/5d8eed26dfe2330cf4347561

**What I See**

Morrison is a larger back with elite vision and cutting ability. His film shows impressive ability to find and hit holes with speed. His footwork allows him to confuse and slow tacklers, positioning himself for better contact and with his size- run through arm tackles. Morrison does this by being able to keep his steps short and fast, then explode out of these steps with his large stride. His acceleration is good out of the backfield and in the openfield, however, with his footwork he’s able to maintain his speed and make the cuts needed to beat defenders. He has a natural understanding of how to set up defenders to beat them with speed, a cut or even a spin. His openfield speed is great and is rarely caught from behind when he opens up his gate. He is capable of planting his foot and accelerating to get downfield. One of his best moves is being able to slide forward and laterally, maintain his speed and accelerate out of that move.

During the spring game he was able to maximize his yardage on his carries and catches, and demonstrate his ability to know how fast a defender will get to a spot and how fast he needed to run to beat them there. He showed he was big and strong enough to shake off arm tackles and move up field. This offseason he’ll need to improve his S&C- trimming fat and gaining muscle. His size is already big enough for the B1G. Most important is staying healthy and getting reps.

———————–

***Jaquez Yant***

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/11652649/5de540f8d45eca09e4a846fc

**What I See**

Another strong, powerful back. He has a great understanding of how to enter contact and position himself to get leverage to run through defenders. Yant shows in his film that he will attack defenders while running if it means getting leverage. He has good acceleration and great open field speed, demonstrating his ability to outrun DB’s and LB’s alike to score long TD’s. He has good flexibility and vision, being able to cut and shorten his steps to explode through the gaps in the offensive line that open up. He understand where his pad level needs to be. At times he seeks contact too much, when running away with a mean stiff arm would be enough- which he is very good at.

In the spring game he flexed exactly what he did in his film and the brand of runningback he was. He ran through defenders, made good reads on where to carry the ball, used his speed in the open field and got as many yards after contact as he could. This offseason he’ll need to shed weight and increase his speed, conditioning and acceleration out of the backfield. Being able to plant his foot and turn it up field will be another key for him. He’ll need to improve acceleration out of his cuts if he wants to be a starter.

View Reddit by HeyitsyaboyJesus – View Source