Two weeks into spring ball, Huskers have wide-open race for work at RB; who might be emerging? | Football

New Nebraska offensive coordinator Mark Whipple wasn’t trying to rev the hyperbole machine into overdrive before spring break when he answered a question about running back Jaquez Yant, but it raised eyebrows all the same.

Yant, at 6-foot-2 and 245 pounds, is the most physically imposing option in the Huskers’ wide-open race for backfield work, and Whipple, well, he’s been around his share of talented running backs in 40-plus years of coaching, including a three-year stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“He’s got a little bit of Jerome in him,” Whipple said with a laugh, referring to NFL Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis. “He’s not as big as Jerome.”

Yant would have to log a whole lot of tough miles in order to actually put himself in company of The Bus, but Whipple’s point illustrates the unique collection of sizes and skill sets NU has in its backfield this spring.

Rahmir Johnson? More bicycle than bus at 5-10 and 190, but he spent the middle part of the 2021 season as the Huskers’ top back before missing the final two games of the season with a concussion. Gabe Ervin? Still trying to get the wheels all the way back healthy in limited spring work following a knee injury against Oklahoma in September ended his season after just 124 yards (3.4 per carry) and two touchdowns in his debut season. Markese Stepp (177 yards, 3.9 per, two TDs) was limited last year in the offseason and never quite got on track as the fall progressed.

“I think all those guys have got better. The whole group. It’s a good group,” Whipple said. “I don’t think one guy is ahead of the other. They’ve all got a little bit different body type, different things. I think they’ve all got a lot better catching the ball. You’re always concerned about new guys and protection, so we’ve worked hard there.”

The newcomer this spring is junior college transfer Anthony Grant, a Georgia native who ran for more than 1,700 yards last year at New Mexico Military Academy, and has turned heads so far through the first stanza of spring ball.

“I recruited Anthony a little bit when I was at TCU and he has on film what you’re looking for,” new running backs coach Bryan Applewhite said at the outset of spring ball. “He’s tough, he did not shy away from contact, he’s got the burst to get away from people. He has a very good tendency to run behind his pads and he looked like he’s explosive. He was explosive on film. You can see that. Talking to the coaches that he’d been around at the junior college, at the high school and when he was at Florida State, they all said the kid loves football. Now it’s just a matter of him finding his groove.”

Earning playing time at running back, of course, is not solely about rushing ability. Whipple mentioned receiving and pass protecting in regard to spring progress, too. The latter is an area that will improve when Ervin returns to full health. He was NU’s best back in protection last year and it helped him earn early playing time.

Talk with those around the program, and it’s easy to come away with the impression that Grant and Yant have been the most impressive through seven closed practices and that Johnson is likely to be involved, too. Can the others make up ground? Can Ajay Allen or Emmett Johnson shake up the picture when each arrives on campus this summer?

Even if most of the schematics in the run game for Nebraska remain the same or similar — based on what coaches and players have said, the passing game is likely undergoing more change than the ground game — there are still new details, new techniques and more to learn under Applewhite.

“You show them what you want, so when they do something and they run the play exactly how it’s supposed to be ran or they run a technique exactly how you want to do it, you show it,” Applewhite said. “Then you show when it’s not what you want. And every time they get closer and closer to where you want them to be, you keep showing it and reinforcing it, but the one time — here’s the part where it gets hard — the one time they do it right, exactly how you want to do it, now you’ve got to hold them to that standard right now. Because you showed me you can do it once, and if you can do it once, you can do it every time now.

“That’s where I like to apply the pressure right there. Building diamonds or busting pipes. The minute you show me you’ve done it once, now I’ve got you because you showed me you can do it.”