Nebraska Football: Getting Dedrick Mills involved is the right idea
Nebraska football wants to get the running back more touches.
As the Nebraska football coaches held their Zoom calls on Wednesday, there were a couple things that really stuck out to me. One thing in particular made a ton of sense to me. They Nebraska football offense coaches talked about working hard to give running back Dedrick Mills the ball. This is what I have been wanting from the offense for quite a while.
Look, it’s obvious that the passing game is not as functional as it should be right now. That is certainly a cause for concern. In the meantime, Nebraska football should be working hard to establish the running game. It sounds like the coaching staff is working hard to emphasize that.
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On the season, Mills has 28 rushing attempts for 84 yards and two touchdowns. One statistic is particularly frustrating in my opinion. Mills is only averaging 3 yards per carry, and that’s not entirely his fault. Some of that is the product of struggles of the offensive line.
In any event, he had his best game of the season against Northwestern, and we saw him put together some really strong runs. He finished the game with 19 carries for 59 yards and a touchdown. A 15-yard rush was his longest of the afternoon.
One thing I have noticed about the offense in particular is that they have not developed any rhythm to the running game. They have focused a lot on passing the football over the past couple of weeks. That is certainly understandable given the weapons Nebraska football has on the unit.
Nevertheless, in my opinion it’s been making it really hard for Mills to be able to get into a rhythm. We saw exactly how he does when he gets a rhythm. The Wisconsin game last year was a great example of that.
The coaches may be sharing the same line of thinking. It sounds like Nebraska football is focusing on getting the running back some more touches.
"“Dedrick, specifically, just keep giving him the rock,” said Husker offensive coordinator Matt Lubick. “Because sometimes specifically as the game goes on, those two and three yard gains all of a sudden turns into six, seven yard gains. He’s one of those guys too that gets better as the game goes on. Because he’s going to bring it every single snap.”"
I would love to see the consistent use of the running game come to fruition. I think it’s going to help Nebraska football moving forward. We saw how much Mills succeeded last year when he was given ample opportunities. The same thing could happen this year.
Next. Three Nittany Lions to watch out for. dark
In any event, it makes sense for Mills to get the football. The running game has played decently over the first couple weeks of this season. If it is not broken, why fix it? Giving Mills the rock would be the best chance for Nebraska football have a consistent rhythm offensively.