Nebraska Football: When does the Huskers version of Travis Hunter get unleashed?

Even before Travis Hunter was a thing, the Nebraska football coaches were talking about using a two-way player more, but he’s been mostly under wraps.

It might seem like Nebraska football is trying to copycat what Colorado was doing in the early part of the season. But the fact of the matter is that the Huskers had big plans for Tommi Hill before Travis Hunter ever burst onto the scene in the Buffaloes’ game against TCU.

During fall camp, Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule talked about Hill often. He and the other coaches saw potential on both sides of the ball from the former Arizona State transfer.

The question now is, are the Cornhuskers ever going to be able to use him the way they talked about? The way they teased?

To a very limited extent, they have started to do just that. Hill has played both wide receiver and corner in a couple of games so far this season. However, he’s played on the offensive side of the ball quite a bit less in 2023 than he did in 2022.

Offensively, he’s participated in just three offensive snaps so far this year. One against Minnesota, none against Colorado and two against Northern Illinois. Conversely, he’s seen 16, 15 and 27 snaps on “D.”

Nebraska football struggling to use their Travis Hunter-esque weapon

The Husker coaches can certainly be forgiven if they haven’t used Hill the way they thought they might before the season started. Poor play and injuries at quarterback has Marcus Satterfield scrambling for an offensive gameplan that will generate points.

It’s also not all the coaches’ fault. Satterfield dialed up a deep pass play to the defensive back/wide receiver in the game against Northern Illinois. Heinrich Haarberg didn’t have the touch needed to connect with an open Hill.

So when might the Nebraska football team start going to the Tommi Hill well a bit more often? It seems unlikely it will happen this weekend. Against Louisana Tech it feels as though the Huskers will be looking more to see what Jeff Sims is capable of doing while also getting Haarberg more comfortable in the offense.

It’s Week 5, when the Michigan Wolverines come to Lincoln that we might see a bit more creativity. Certainly Nebraska football is going to be looking for ways to keep Jim Harbaugh and company on their heels.

I wouldn’t be shocked at all if we see some key plays drawn up for Tommi Hill in that game. Whether they’ll work is a whole other question.