Nebraska’s depth, or lack thereof, at the running back position is a bit concerning this Spring.
The Huskers only have three players with any sort of game experience going through practice in senior walk-on Wyatt Mazour, sophomores Maurice Washington and Jaylin Bradley, and redshirt freshman walk-on Brody Belt has been seeing some reps. Out of those four, Mazour and Washington have been limited.
With plenty of reps to go around, the time has never been better for someone like Bradley to take advantage and make a big jump. On Monday, Nebraska offensive coordinator Troy Walters spoke about the competition that is taking place across the board and mentioned Bradley as someone who has accepted the challenge.
“It’s an open competition and guys are battling,” Walters said about the running back battle. “Jaylin Bradley had a good winter. He’s in shape, he’s running, he understands the offense. Brody is doing a great job out there. I think across the board this spring our focus is competition and guys earning positions and earning their spot. You see that and you see the excitement and every day we’ve just got to keep getting better.”
After seeing some limited playing time as a true freshman, Bradley was a non-factor last season, which led to him taking a redshirt. Running backs coach Ryan Held explained what he wants to see from Bradley this spring and for him it started with having a solid winter of conditioning.
“I want to see him be more consistent in everything that he does,” Held said about Bradley. “Being able to understand the play, be more physical, make better second level, third level decisions, and generally just make more plays. He’s had a good offseason and he’s had a good start to spring camp and he’ll get some good reps this spring camp, so we’ll see what he can do.
“He needed to be more explosive, be quicker, be faster, the whole nine yards, which is obviously the emphasis for everybody, but for him in particular. He’s at a pretty good weight right now, I think. He bought into the offseason program and he had a lot better spring this year than he did last spring, for sure.”
Held went on to say that the time for Bradley to really make a name for himself is now, given the amount of reps he will be getting through the remainder of spring practice. He has stressed to Bradley to take advantage of the opportunities now because, once fall camp comes around and all of the newcomers have joined the team, the makeup of the running back room will be much different.
“He’s getting at those opportunities,” Held said about Bradley. “Again, the more reps you get, the better you’re going to be. We need to see what Jaylin can do. He’s a guy that has shown signs of really good things. We’ve got to be more consistent with that.
“Again, come fall, there’s more guys coming. So, this is your opportunity and you better make the most of it because, come the fall, I also have to see what these guys can do because I have to get them up to speed. So, take advantage of every rep you have right now. You couldn’t ask for a better situation right now to show what you can do.”
