Nebraska Football: Huskers did right by managing Wan’Dale Robinson

Nebraska football used Robinson the right way.

Over the course of this Nebraska football season, something was bugging me at the beginning of it. Nebraska was not using Wan’Dale Robinson enough within the offense, and at the time it didn’t make sense to me. Now, it does.

When you look at his workload from the beginning of the season to the end of the season, you’ll definitely see that Nebraska football used him a lot more towards the end of the year. He had 10 touches in total through the first two weeks of the season, and in hindsight that was a very smart thing to do.

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After being used a ton last year, I wrote during the summer that Nebraska football now had the depth to take some the pressure off Robinson. In terms of the amount of bodies Nebraska had, that was true. However, the production from those bodies did not always follow suit. Even still, Nebraska’s plan to rest Robinson worked out well.

He had 120 yards against Illinois, 117 yards against Iowa, 119 against Purdue, 98 against Minnesota, and 103 in the season finale against Rutgers. You could definitely tell that he was one of the fresher players on the field, at a time when wear-and-tear were beginning to take their toll. In a shortened season in the middle of a pandemic, things were that much more difficult.

On the year, he put up respectable numbers. With 461 receiving yards and 240 rushing yards, he truly did it all for the Nebraska football program. The versatility he had last year was present yet again. It made for some fun afternoon viewing, that’s for sure

The tactic to kind of ease Robinson into the season was frustrating in terms of not getting him the football. However, it made perfect sense in the end. Robinson was able to save his best games for last, and that allowed him to maintain that same speed and explosiveness at a position he played very physically.

Kudos to the coaching staff for managing his snaps. It will be interesting to see if they do that again next year, and I think it would be a smart thing to do. You want to make sure you manage the wear-and-tear of your best players properly.

Nebraska finally figured out how to manage Robinson’s time on the field effectively. This is a strategy that I think will suit them well going forward.