Matt Rhule breaks down Nebraska's running back depth chart

Nebraska fall camp is now well underway, giving coach Matt Rhule a little more time to evaluate his running back room. He had addressed the group at the beginning of fall camp, and it was clear he liked what he had available.

The Cornhuskers had already essentially settled on a starter at the position, but there’s a lot of development happening behind that guy. Rhule broke it down.

“I think Emmett (Johnson)‘s clearly the running back No. 1,” Rhule said at the start of camp. “Kwinten (Ives), he pulled up a little bit lame today I think, so we’ll see where he’s at. As I’ve said, it’s going to take three, four guys to get through the season. And so there’s a lot of work to be done at that position.”

One easy way that Nebraska can help quarterback Dylan Raiola continue to get more comfortable is by providing him a little more in the ground game. The team finished ranked 96th nationally in rushing offense a year ago, gaining just 130.6 yards per game on the ground.

There are options, though. Good ones.

“Mekhi Nelson‘s as explosive a guy as I’ve been around,” Rhule said. “It’s just putting the whole thing together for him in terms of he’s another young player, as we just talked about. Kwinten, I’ve talked about him a lot, just putting it all together. (Isaiah) Mozee coming over, Kenneth Williams, Conor Booth. I mentioned Jamarion (Parker)‘s out, but there’s a lot of guys that, we put Kenneth out there to return the opening kickoff against Boston College. We think he’s an explosive player.”

The challenge for Nebraska is getting everyone up to speed in all facets of the game. Rhule certainly has some guys that can make a difference as the primary ball-carrier. But what happens when it’s not in their hands?

“What we need at running back in this offense is you can’t be just a runner,” Rhule explained. “You’ve got to be able to protect, you’ve got to be able to catch the ball out of the backfield. So you’ve got to be an all-around back. It’s not just, hey, give me the all-around runner and then on third down go to the third-down back. We want to be multiple, so there’s a lot of tactical things those guys have to improve on.

“So it’ll be a position that we’re counting on (running backs coach) EJ (Barthel). I mean EJ’s an excellent coach, we’re counting on him to get those guys ready.”