Bryant walks away from the game of football

You have to give running back Tre Bryant a lot of credit. Many people doubted if he'd ever step on a football field again, but the St. Louis native gave it one more go this past August.

Bryant played in just two games in 2017 before undergoing season-ending knee surgery.

On Friday, head coach Scott Frost announced Bryant is walking away from the game of football.

“He’s been incredible since we’ve been here,” Frost said. “He’s had some knee issues, but in camp, he looked great. I think he felt great. But I think he just figured out that he can’t do it with the condition that he has. We’re going to support him and help him in any way that we can, but I just don’t think that his knees will hold up right now.”

The knee injury first became a public issue last August when the former Husker coaching staff began giving him rest days throughout Fall Camp.

Bryant still won the starting running back job in 2017, despite his nagging knee injury, and rushed for 192 yards against Arkansas State on 31 carries, and had 107 yards at Oregon in the first half, before never seeing the field again as a Husker.

It was never disclosed what type of knee surgery Bryant had last Fall, but it became apparent over the last few weeks he was not going to be able to fully recover.

“He just had bone-on-bone to some degree in both of them,” Frost said of Bryant's knees. “We were going to try and keep them on a pitch count and only give him so many reps in practice and so many reps in the game.

"He’s good enough to be a great player, and I feel terrible for the kid because I think he had a future in the game and a bright future in the game. But it’s hard.

"Without saying too much, he talks about going home and not being able to sleep at night because of aching and pain in there. This game has to end for all of us at some point. It’s just sad when you see one that has to end too early.”

Bryant finished his Husker career with 471 yards rushing on 94 carries and three touchdowns.