The running back, has been the key to the Nebraska football program since its inception. We bring you the 10 best seasons of a Huskers running back ever.
The Nebraska football team has a number of talented running backs on the roster. Will any of them put together the kinds of seasons that will go down as one of the best ever when the smoke clears?
That’s almost always the question when talking about the Huskers. Some of the best players in the history of college football have come through Lincoln.
The Cornhuskers’ offense has long led to great seasons on the ground. That makes it hard to say exactly who had the best individual seasons.
Despite the degree of difficulty, we’re taking up that task today. When looking at the best seasons ever, we are indeed looking at individual performances.
Some of these years will be coming alongside winning years that really stand out. Other seasons included eye-popping statistics despite the fact that the team as a whole had rather unimpressive years.
Most of the best seasons came in the last 50 years for obvious reasons. With more games, comes better total performances.
We’re not trying to grade on the curve, so guys who played more games are going to get more attention. If you disagree with this list, if you think there’s a running back that had a better season not on the list let us know.
Keep in mind when it comes to this list of the best seasons in Nebraska football history that we’re talking about running backs only. Jamal Lord and his 1,400 yards rushing at quarterback don’t make the list.
Neither does Eric Crouch and his Heisman campaign. Those seasons are bound to be on another list. Let us know where and who we missed on this list or if you think one season should have gone higher.
When talking about Nebraska football running backs that get overlooked, Keith Jones has to be at the top of the list. He’s in this list because the former I-back put together insane seasons before the Cornhuskers had achieved greatness.
Because the Huskers went 10-2 in 1987 and lost in the Fiesta Bowl, the season has sort of been lost to history. People might not also remember just how good Jones was at times in 1987 because his final numbers were not eye-popping.
What gets the running back on this list is the fact that he had some of the best single games in the history of the program while having one of the best single games in the program.
Jones finished the year with 1,232 yards and 13 rushing touchdowns. Because he played in an offense that didn’t throw the ball much at all, he had just one catch for three yards.
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Still, 7.2 yards per carry is pretty darn impressive. When you consider that the man known as “End-zone Jones” had one game where he had 248 yards on the ground (eighth all time) and one where he had 240 yards (10th all time) it makes sense that his standout season makes the list.
That season got him drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the sixth round of the NFL draft. While he didn’t get much NFL experience there were a few games where he showed his stuff, finishing with over 100 yards in his pro career.
Rex Burkhead was one of the best of the best of this new generation of Nebraska football running backs. The real downer about Burkhead is that he had some injury issues that derailed his senior season.
The year before, he put up a year for the ages, rushing for 1,357 yards and 15 touchdowns. He added 21 catches for 177 yards and another two touchdowns. That means he total 17 TDs on the season and had more than 1,500 total yards.
2011 was a bit of a frustrating season as Bo Pelini’s defense started falling down on the job. The record was still plenty good though as Burkhead led the offense from the ground.
Among the fantastic single season was one game in particular that stood out. The Huskers trailed Ohio State by quite a bit, they couldn’t get their offense or defense on track.
Then Burkhead busted out one of his patented runs and the game began to change. It turns out that the win was the biggest comeback in the history of Nebraska football at the time.
If there is one negative about this season, and one of the reasons it’s so low on the list, it’s because Burkhead had a ton of carries to get those yards. His 4.5 yards per carry are plenty good, but they are among the worst on this list.
Mike Rozier was a heck of a Nebraska football player even before his Heisman campaign. While people remember that season, as well they should, they tend to forget the kind of numbers he put up the season before.
In 1982, the eventual Heisman winner carried 242 times for 1,689 yards and 15 touchdowns. While the Cornhuskers weren’t putting the ball in the air all that much, he still managed to make the most out of his receptions.
With only six catches and 46 yards, Rozier still managed to find the end zone two more times. Can you imagine a season where a running back had over 1,700 total yards and 17 touchdowns and no one talks about it?
Obviously, the eventual runaway Heisman winner did quite a bit to make people forget with his next season. It’s no wonder why he eventually had a couple of 1,000 yards seasons in the NFL.
Mike Rozier was one of the best backs to ever carry the ball for the Nebraska football team. The fact that he managed to put up an insane season that has been largely ignored is truly one of the weirdest parts of Cornhusker history and Husker lore.
When talking about Nebraska football running backs that tend to get overlooked, Ken Clark has to be included on that list. Despite the fact that he had one of the most productive seasons in Cornhusker history, he’s largely forgotten.
Part of the problem is that like Keith Jones, Clark played during a period of time when the Huskers were good, but not top of the college football world good.
That has to be a reason why a season where a back rushed for 6.5 yards per carry is largely ignored by fans these days. In 1987, Clark carried 232 times for 1,497 yards and 12 touchdowns.
He added six catches out of the backfield for 75 yards. Like Burkhead long after him, Clark was one of those guys who couldn’t really follow up on what was a great junior season.
In his senior campaign, he missed a few games and tallied just over 1,100 yards. That’s one of the reasons why his junior year was so memorable. Clark went on to try his hand in the NFL with the Colts but he didn’t stay in the pros all that long before his football career came to an end.
He’ll still always have one of the best single seasons in Nebraska football history to look back on.
Most Nebraska football fans know the tragic story of Lawrence Phillips. One of the most talented players in college football during the mid-nineties, he had some off the field issues in Lincoln that only got worse once he was out from under the watchful eye of Tom Osborne.
The story of Phillips is always going to include questions about just how good he might have been if he could have straightened out his life.
Phillips burst onto the national scene in 1994 with insane numbers after putting up pretty good ones the year before.
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That year he carried the ball for more than 1,700 yards and averaged 6.5 yards per carry. He had no problem finding the end zone either. Phillips scored 16 times on the ground that season.
While the passing game wasn’t anywhere near what it is these days, Phillips was still a pretty good weapon out of the backfield. He logged 22 catches for 172 yards.
After the 1994 season, Phillips was expected to be a Heisman contender in 1995. Off the field issues ended up keeping him out of the lineup for most of the season.
The former Nebraska football star was still drafted in the first round of the NFL draft once he left the Cornhuskers. Unfortunately, things only got worse for Phillips once he left Lincoln.
Nebraska football fans know that Ameer Abdullah was a great running back. They may not realize just how great he was.
It turns out that Abdullah is just a handful of Husker running backs who had one great season and followed that up with another great season right after.
For the former Cornhusker scatback, 2013 was the year Abdullah really burst onto the scene and made the college football world realize he was one of the very best.
The back spent his freshman season as an understudy to Rex Burkhead. In 2012, he was the man as a true sophomore and ran for more than 1,100 yards. In 2013, he improved on that by running for 1,690 yards and nine touchdowns.
He truly was a dual-threat running back as he also caught 26 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns. The combined numbers had him going for 1,922 yards and 11 touchdowns.
The best thing about Ameer is that he really was a threat to go all the way every time he touched the ball. He ended the season by averaging 6.3 yards per touch, whether that was on the ground or through the air.
There is a reason why the slogan whenever a team took on the Nebraska football team was “Fear Ameer.”
Ahman Green not only had one of the best seasons in the history of Nebraska football but he likely doesn’t get enough credit as one of the best to ever put on the pads for the Cornhuskers.
Unlike people like Keith Jones and Ken Clark, Green isn’t sometimes overlooked because he played on squads that have been easily forgotten because they didn’t win anything.
Green is sometimes overlooked because he played during the best era of Nebraska football ever. That era had a ton of great running backs and to some degree that has sapped the excitement over what the Omaha product was able to do on the football field.
His first year as a Husker, he shared time with Lawrence Phillips and still managed to run for over 1,000 yards and 13 TDs. The next season, he saw a dropoff.
Because of that dropoff, it’s safe to say the season he had in 1997 was a bit unexpected. That final year in a Huskers uniform, he ran for 1,877 yards and an insane 22 touchdowns.
Averaging 6.8 yards per carry, Green came just 18 yards shy of 2,000 yards from scrimmage thanks to 14 catches and 105 yards receiving.
Ameer Abdullah is one of two Nebraska football players to make this list twice. He and the man who is number one in this number are the only two running backs who really followed up an insane season, with an arguably better one.
The 2013 season for Abdullah was a sight to see. Somehow, 2014 was even better.
While Abdullah had less yards (by 79) he averaged more per carry and really turned into a touchdown machine. Having nine TDs with over 1,600 yards was impressive in 2013.
Having 19 touchdowns with over 1,600 yards was Heisman worthy had the Cornhuskers been a bit better overall. That’s especially true considering he had 22 catches for 269 yards and three touchdowns.
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On the season, Abdullah finished 1,880 yards and a whopping 22 touchdowns. Back to back great performances allowed the undersized back to get drafted by the Detroit Lions.
His success in Lincoln is likely one of the reasons Detroit has given the former Nebraska football star as many chances to take over their starting running back job as they have.
So far, he hasn’t managed to repeat the kind of success he had in college, but he’s also had problems staying entirely healthy. If he can get healthy for 2018, could we see NFL teams starting to fear Ameer again?
Bobby Reynolds was known as “Mr. Touchdown” for the Nebraska football team thanks to his performance in 1950. Perhaps the most interesting thing about his career is that he was never able to come close to matching that performance.
Reynolds might be the gold standard for running back for the Huskers thanks to that one season. In his first season as a player for the Cornhuskers, Mr. Touchdown carried 193 times for 1,342 yards and a whopping 19 TDs.
Reynolds wasn’t afraid to work hard for his scores, as the run that landed him on our list of best plays in the history of Nebraska football bears out. He wasn’t just a runner either.
Reynolds caught 11 passes for over 170 yards and another three scores. When you consider that he averaged over seven yards per carry and over 15 yards per catch, it’s clear that Reynolds was someone opposing defenses just couldn’t stop.
That’s why Reynolds falling off the face of the earth in his final two seasons was a bit of a shock. In his final two years with the Nebraska football team, he never managed to get as many as 500 yards rushing in a season thanks to a series of injuries. He also never found the end zone again. Despite that, Reynolds was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1984. Imagine having a good enough single season to merit the Hall of Fame.
It’s not just that Mike Rozier was the first (and so far only) running back from the Nebraska football team to win the Heisman that makes 1983 so special. It’s the fact that his numbers were totally insane.
Playing in an offense that was nearly unstoppable, Rozier put up video game numbers. Most Husker fans would likely be able to tell you he passed the 2,000-yard mark, but they may not be able to tell you how easily he did it.
Rozier had 2,148 yards and he had those while averaging an astonishing 7.8 yards per carry. Even more impressive than those numbers is the fact that he had 29 touchdown runs.
Wanna put that into perspective? The Huskers as a team scored 36 touchdowns last season.
No, they didn’t run for 36 touchdowns. They scored seven more times as a team last year than Mike Rozier did by himself in 1983.
Perhaps the interesting thing about the former Nebraska football star winning the Heisman that year is that it’s hard to think it was much of a contest. The only thing more impressive than his 1983 season is that it was a follow up to a year where he ran for almost 1,700 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Next: 10 best plays in Husker history
Plenty of Nebraska football fans would have taken a repeat of his 1982 season without griping even a little bit.