Is Nebraska football’s running back situation sustainable?

As the Huskers rested up over their bye weekend, there was no truly insulating from the football around them. Past opponents clashed and future opponents impressed as Nebraska got healthy, preparing to turn a 5-1 start to its season into much more down the road. Let’s drop into coverage:

Heading into the season, the Nebraska coaching staff didn’t hide that they were still searching for the right mix of playing time at running back.

After all, the room had a unique mix of talent as Rahmir Johnson and Gabe Ervin Jr. returned from season-ending injuries, Emmett Johnson looked to build on a strong freshman season and Dante Dowdell entered the fray as a transfer from Oregon.

“I think we’re gonna play them all,” head coach Matt Rhule said before the season. “We’ll play them all.”

While Nebraska played all four running backs in its season-opening win over UTEP, that formula wasn’t what the Huskers hoped to follow for the remainder of the season.

“I personally don’t want to go through a season with four running backs; I want one or two guys that can go out there and carry the ball, pass protect and be physical,” offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said at the time.

Six games into the season, Nebraska’s running back rotation is clearer — but it’s not yet the model of consistency the Huskers may have hoped for.

There was always going to be an odd man out in the room but consider me surprised that it was Ervin who has not managed to make a major impact. After all, Ervin was explosive whenever he saw the field in years prior and ran well in his brief time as NU’s lead back in 2023.

Ervin has played just 17 snaps this season and one in the last three weeks, a 4-yard carry against Purdue where he lined up at fullback.

Meanwhile, Dowdell and both Rahmir and Emmett Johnson have had their moments as the lead back in the ever-changing rotation. When NU needs the tough yards, it often turns to Dowdell, whose 74 rushing attempts are more than double the amount of any other Husker.

But when teams clog up the interior — as Purdue did when it limited Dowdell to 2.3 yards per carry on just nine attempts — the one-track back is rotated in favor of the shifty Rahmir Johnson or the combination of power and speed that Emmett Johnson possesses.

There are different personnel groupings, plays and game situations that impact the way Nebraska utilizes its running backs. However, the situation still feels fluid, which could cause problems over the final half of the season.

Of Nebraska’s final six opponents, only Wisconsin and USC rank outside the nation’s top 20 run defenses. Consistency on the ground will be needed, especially in the next two weeks against an Indiana defense (83.8 yards per game) and Ohio State defense (86.3 yards per game) which both rank inside the top 10.

Opponents who scout the Nebraska defense will see a unit formidable in many ways — but none more so than NU’s success at generating pressure up front.

The Huskers’ 20 total sacks on the season are among the top 10 nationally, while NU is also generating the fourth-most sacks per game against FBS opponents. And what truly makes the Husker pass rush so successful is the number of different players who can generate an impact.

Twelve different Huskers have recorded at least half a sack this season, with Ty Robinson and James Williams each notching four apiece.

ProFootballFocus grades are not a perfect way to evaluate player performance, but they do show trends over the course of multiple games. Among edge rushers, Nebraska’s Princewill Umanmielen and MJ Sherman have two of the top 20 best pass-rushing grades in the Big Ten, with Robinson and Nash Hutmacher also falling within the top 20 among interior defenders.

Lower the number of snaps needed to qualify, though, and Williams suddenly emerges as the Big Ten’s sixth-best graded edge rusher on pass-rushing plays. A true pass rush specialist, just 21 of the 107 snaps Williams has played this season were running plays.

With no game this weekend and no practice from Friday to Sunday, several members of the Nebraska coaching staff spent part of their bye week on the recruiting trail.

Rhule and linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek made a notable recruiting visit on Thursday to see Overland Park (Kansas) Blue Valley linebacker Dawson Merritt, an Alabama commit who has long been one of NU’s top 2025 recruiting targets.

The Huskers built plenty of momentum with Merritt over the summer only for the four-star prospect to choose Alabama in late June, seemingly ending his recruitment process. However, Merritt still took a gameday visit to Lincoln for Nebraska’s win over Colorado — and the Husker coaching staff doesn’t appear ready to close the book either.

Rhule also saw another future recruiting target at the game in 2028 Blue Valley wide receiver Baron Marshall. Currently a freshman, Marshall was among Nebraska’s visitors for the Rutgers game and earned a scholarship offer from the Huskers afterward.

With Rhule and Dvoracek in Kansas City, director of player personnel Keith Williams was also recruiting within Missouri over the weekend, on the other end of the state in St. Louis.

Over the next six games, a key goal for Nebraska will be to commit fewer penalties. The Huskers have been whistled for the second-most penalties in the Big Ten, with the only team to commit more, Washington, having played seven games already this season.

The company Nebraska is keeping shows how damaging the extra penalties can be. Of the six Big Ten teams committing seven or more penalties per game, only two — Nebraska and Washington — have winning records.

The remaining four teams — UCLA, Purdue, Maryland and Michigan State — have a combined record of 1-12 in Big Ten play, with that lone win coming from Michigan State over Maryland.

It was a wild weekend of football across the Big Ten Conference, including a game where a Purdue team Nebraska had easily handled two weeks prior nearly came back from a 24-point deficit in an eventual 50-49 overtime loss to Illinois.

Wisconsin dominated Rutgers for a blowout win and Iowa even put together a 40-point performance of its own in a win over Washington.

The biggest matchup of note for Nebraska, however, was the top-5 clash between Oregon and Ohio State which came down to the game’s final play. Oregon held on for the one-point win, sending an Ohio State team into its bye week with plenty of time to prepare for the Huskers.

Then there was USC, which also suffered a ranked loss to a key Big Ten contender Penn State. Head coach Lincoln Riley has now lost at least three games in each of his seasons with the Trojans — and with a 3-3 record at the moment, pressure is mounting on Riley to deliver a strong finish to USC’s season.