3 Nebraska football players with surprisingly good spring games

Nebraska football spring game surprise number one: Janiran Bonner

Fullback
Redshirt freshman

Janiran Bonner signed with the Huskers in 2022 after mostly playing wide receiver in high school. However, he redshirted and didn’t play a down for Scott Frost or Mickey Joseph, and there was some talk that he might move to tight end under Matt Rhule.

Instead, it appears that the new staff has a new role intended for her entirely. It’s been called a kind of hybrid position, but on Saturday, it was very clearly just a fullback position, and he played it quite well.

Bonner had the first carry of the game, a fullback trap that went for seven yards. After that particular play, the game was stopped so that the ball could be handed to Frank Solich. But that wasn’t the only time that Bonner was able to make an impact.

He actually ended up carrying three times for 13 yards and also caught a pass for 11 yards. It’s safe to say that some Nebraska football fans wondered if offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield was just blowing smoke when he talked about bringing back the fullback position, but the spring game showed it’s a real thing for the Cornhuskers, and Bonner showed he might be quite a weapon at the position as he also laid a couple of excellent blocks.