Nebraska Football is going to add another running back to the fold.
Ronald Thompkins is officially clear to come to Nebraska. After some questions in regards to his academics, he has finally got those all sorted out and will be in Lincoln on Friday.
When talking about the group of running backs that Nebraska Football possesses, it is easy to forget about Thompkins. After all, the running back position is so deep. Nevertheless, he should be able to be a big part of it. The Nebraska football running game looks to be one of the top groups in all of college football.
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At first glance, his statistics do not exactly pop out at you. In his senior year last year, he played in one game, carrying the ball five times for 51 yards. However, his best year showed that he can be productive. In 2017-18, he played in six games. Carrying the ball 63 times for 414 yards, he averaged 6.6 yards a carry and 69 yards per game. He had four touchdowns on the year in total.
He also proved that he could be a receiving weapon out of the backfield. That was more of his role for Grayson High School. He caught nine passes for 201 yards and a touchdown in 2018-19. Averaging 33.5 receiving yards per game, a 54-yard catch was his longest of the season.
He should be able to add yet another explosive dynamic to the offense. It’s not as if the Nebraska Football running game lacks that to begin with. He will just be another option for running backs coach Ryan Held to use. I suspect that he will be used more in the future then in this upcoming season. It wouldn’t be for a lack of talent, there are just simply too many bodies at the running back position right now.
Brian Christopherson of 247Sports spoke with Kenyatta Watson Sr. a mentor to Thompkins and one of his former coaches. Watson indicated that Thompkins passed all of the academic requirements and worked hard in doing so. This is certainly a step in the right direction for Thompkins. Thompkins finally got the standardized test score needed to come to the Nebraska Football program.
"“He was only one point way. He was close. Very close. We got him into an ACT prep class for the last four months. He took the class. He was diligent. He got it done,” Watson said on Wednesday night. “I’m ecstatic, man, because the kid means so much to me outside of football. He’s always had a really tough upbringing, man. And he’s just such an unbelievable kid. He never complains. Everything is always, ‘Yes, sir’ or ‘No, sir.’ He never looked at what someone else’s situation was like and said, ‘I wish I had that.’ He always grinned through whatever.”"
I am happy for Thompkins. He should be able to be a vital part of the Nebraska Football program. Now that his academic stuff is out of the way at the high school level, he can focus on football. For the first time in a while, Thompkins can breathe a sigh of relief.