Bradley makes the most of his first true opportunity
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - All season true freshman running back Jaylin Bradley has been patiently waiting for his opportunity.
Despite the fact Nebraska had three veteran running backs coming out of Fall Camp, the coaching staff still saw enough from the Bellevue West product to burn his redshirt.
The problem was over the first 7 games Bradley really wasn't given much of an opportunity to show what he could do. That all changed on Saturday night at Purdue when head coach Mike Riley called on Bradley in the second half in the Huskers 25-24 win at Purdue.
“I think that you guys probably saw it from his past in high school, but I think everybody kind of got a chance to see what we’ve been talking about tonight,” Riley said of Bradley. “He’s got some real burst, he’s got great feet, great vision – it’s pretty exciting.
"We didn’t get a lot in the running game, but what he did might have made a big difference in the game.”
Bradley finished with a team-high 42 yards on 7 carries, including a 20-yard burst in the second half. Before that, the Huskers longest run of the night from Devine Ozigbo and Mikale Wilbon was just 4 yards. Bradley also added three catches for 31 yards, giving him 73 yards on 10 offensive touches.
On a night where not much was going well for NU running the football, Bradley at least gave them something.
“I think I did pretty good,” Bradley said. “I think I made the most of my moment. Earlier in the week Coach (Reggie) Davis said he was going to put me out there to see what I could do. I had to show him what I could do, and I did pretty good I guess.
“I have just been waiting for my time to come. When it came I had to make the most of it.”
The question now is did Bradley show enough Saturday at Purdue to potentially take over the starting role over the final four games?
His biggest liability continues to be pass protection, where on one play in particular he released on a check down instead of staying into protect quarterback Tanner Lee on a crucial third down pass play that resulted in a sack.
“There was (play) in particular where we ran right by a guy,” Langsdorf said of Bradley. “I think that’s probably a little bit of being a freshman and the learning curve. I think overall though he handled the protection stuff pretty well.
"I like the way he runs. He runs hard. I think he’s got some ability to make a guy miss and he’s tough enough to run some people over too.”
Langsdorf also gave the indication following Saturday's win in West Lafayette that we are probably going to see more of Bradley down the stretch.
“I just think over the bye week and giving him more work and the fact that we had played him and he’s not redshirting, we wanted to get him more touches,” Langsdorf said. “I thought he responded. I thought he went in there and gave us a little spark on a couple of the runs he hit right before half. It’s good to see.
"He runs hard, and he does a nice job with the run after the catch. He had a nice couple of catches and he made a guy miss and gave us some good minutes.”