Kewan Lacy remembers the play well.

He and his older brother, Gerald, were with a few friends in the back yard playing tackle football. No pads, no gear, just a group of young boys messing around like young boys tend to do, being rough with each other and a football. Kewan got the ball and saw there was one person between him and the end zone: Gerald.

Brother vs. brother. And the Lacy boys got after each other.

“I jumped over my brother and scored. Everybody went crazy. I remember that to this day, I’ll never forget,” Kewan told Inside Nebraska.

It’s backyard moments like that one which helped Kewan, one of Nebraska’s verbal commitments to its 2024 class out of Lancaster, Texas, develop into the player he is today. Fast forward the clock to present day, and the three-star running back Lacy is one of the crown jewels of the Huskers’ class, even if he’s technically not the highest-rated recruit.

Turn on the film and it’s obvious: Lacy is a straight-up steal for Matt Rhule and Co. out of Texas, a state the Huskers are aggressively trying to heavily mine once again for talent. If the Huskers can hold on to Lacy's commitment and earn his signature on signing day, it would be a massive deal.

Lacy does it all as a true three-down back. At 6 feet and 205 pounds, he’s a well-built athlete who runs a 10.79-second 100-meter dash and can bench 315 pounds and squat 495. He can be a downhill, violent runner between the tackles. He has legit track speed, which allows him to run away from defenders. According to Reel Analytics, an AI-powered sports technology and data company, Lacy reached a blazing 21.5 miles per hour on a 68-yard touchdown catch last season.

But what makes Lacy a potential star in the Big Ten is his ability to turn into a receiver when needed. He knows how to run routes like a wideout on the outside or in the slot and has the hands to make him a receiving threat out of the backfield. And with that 205-pound frame, Lacy knows pass protection and blitz pickups are important traits of young running backs who get to see the field early in their college careers.

Lacy is a great example of what Nebraska offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield wants on his roster — dynamic athletes comfortable doing multiple things. Guys like Lacy will help Satterfield build the “positionless” offense he’s talked about since being hired to call plays in Lincoln.

“You have a quarterback, and you have your offensive line, but receivers can play running back and running back can play receiver. Tight ends can play running back, they can play receiver,” Satterfield said earlier this year. “We're going to find what guys can do well, and we're not going to pigeonhole themselves into a spot just because it says tight end or it says wide receiver. We're going to find what they do best and get them in those positions."

To understand who Lacy is and what Nebraska will get if the Huskers are successful in fending off other programs that will without a doubt continue recruiting him, it’s good to know what drives him.

Family is a good place to start.

“My family means everything,” said Lacy, who was born in Tyler, Texas. “It’s all you really have at the end of the day. So my family, it gives me extra motivation.”

No one knows Kewan better than his mother, Kendra. She has three kids: Gerald is the oldest and can play some football, too — he’ll be a true freshman defensive back at Stephen F. Austin this fall. Ajah Bendy is the little sister and youngest sibling. Then there’s Kewan (pronounced Kee-wan), the middle child.

“He’s like the calm in the storm,” Kendra said of Kewan.

Kewan’s nickname — one that’s still used today — is Fat Fat because he’s always been big. Bigger than his older brother. That allowed him to always play against older kids in youth football. He could hold his own.

Before his running back days, Kewan played linebacker because of that size. Gerald was smaller and quicker, so he played running back before finding his home as a defensive back. When the two would go against each other at practice, teammates would get excited.

“Kewan was always the one who said, ‘If no one on the team can take you (Gerald) down, I’m going to take you down,’” Kendra said with a laugh.

Gerald certainly played a role helping Kewan grow, both as a person and football player. The brothers attended Nolan Catholic High School in Fort Worth when Gerald was a sophomore and Kewan a freshman.

While Kewan was ready to carry the rock to start his high school career, like so many freshmen, he had to wait his turn to have a role on varsity. When he arrived at Nolan Catholic, there were two older, more established running backs: four-star Emeka Megwa and Sergio Snider, who boasted over 20 college offers. Megwa wound up committing to Washington and transferring to Oklahoma. Snider is at Houston.

“I just really took notes from them and just saw how they did it,” Kewan said of his first season at Nolan. "I was on the sideline for my freshman year, so I just watched them and when it was my turn I was ready to go.”

Kewan's offseason between his freshman and sophomore years is something he’ll never forget because it was crucial for his development. When the world was shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kewan went to work.

Instead of sitting around and playing video games, Lacy sold those video games and controllers and used the money to buy workout equipment. He bought a bench and weights. He got up before the sun in the mornings to run. He wasn’t going to stand on the sidelines again.

“He turned my whole garage into a weight room,” Kendra said. “He got a bench, the bars, the weights, the ladders, the cones, the parachutes. He just wanted to work out. When he went back to school, everyone was like, ‘What have you been feeding this kid?’ I would say, ‘Listen, he’s been working out.’”

After that freshman campaign, Kendra saw something brewing inside her son. Ultimately, it’s what led him to have the mindset he currently has: If he wants to play, he needs to give the coaches reasons to play him.

“From the ninth grade to the tenth grade, he busted his tail,” Kendra said. “So when he went back to school his sophomore year, he always said, ‘I’m never going to sit on the sidelines again.’ He just did not like it.”

The bigger and badder Kewan earned his spot on varsity sophomore year and racked up 1,352 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns. He averaged 10 yards per carry and had six games where he gained at least 100 rushing yards. He did all that while sharing reps in the backfield with another running back and a running quarterback.

“I just felt like the team I had around me and the coaches, they really believed in me and they gave me the ball,” Kewan said. “When I got the thousand yards, I didn’t really notice. I was just having fun, playing football.”

The Lacy brothers transferred to Lancaster after the 2021 high school season. The Lacys have family in Lancaster and several of Kewan and Gerald’s childhood friends were there at school and on the team.

But there was just one thing about the move: Lancaster already had an upperclassman running back who held Power Five offers in Kyson “Sipp” Brown, who has since committed to Kenny Dillingham and Arizona State.

Having both Brown and Lacy on the team was a good problem to have for Lancaster, and it was also a blessing in disguise for Lacy. It was at Lancaster where he further developed his skills as an all-around threat.

“I didn’t really play much receiver at Nolan, so when I got to Lancaster, there were two running backs and we were the two best athletes on the field, so we had to be on the field at all times,” Lacy said. “So if I was at running back, he (Brown) would be at slot. If I was at slot, he’d be at running back. I just had to get better, and that just made me more versatile. I got comfortable playing on the outside or the slot as a receiver.”

Leon Paul III is going into his third year as the head coach of Lancaster. It’s a program several big-time head coaches visit. Alabama’s Nick Saban, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, Oklahoma’s Brent Venables, Miami’s Mario Cristobal, TCU’s Sonny Dykes, Arkansas’ Sam Pittman. You get the idea.

Paul didn’t know anything about the Lacy brothers when they first showed up. The two just walked into the building and wanted to play football.

“I was like, ‘OK, these kids look athletic,’ and then when we went to lift weights and do football, I saw it. I was like, ‘They’re talented,’” Paul said.

Once the summer hit and Lancaster was holding its conditioning drills, Paul was blown away by what he saw from the 205-pound Lacy. Paul, who played cornerback at Panhandle State University in Oklahoma back in the day, likes a team conditioning test of 16 110-yard sprints. He uses it to see what kind of shape his team is in.

But Paul has a rule for those sprints: every skill player must finish each of the 16 110-yard runs in 15 seconds. What he saw from Lacy, who at that time was the new kid, was impressive to say the least.

“When he made all of them within 11 or 12 seconds,” Paul said, “and he was in the front and not the leader, but he was in the front and he worked like a leader, that’s when I got on the phone with a lot of colleges and was like, ‘Hey, Kewan Lacy is more than just an athlete. If you get him, the character of your locker room increases. The integrity of your locker room increases. He’s just different.’”

Once word got around Lancaster that Lacy could not just play, but really play, Paul started getting questions. "How are you going to handle that situation? Kyson Brown is a four-star running back." Paul knew he needed to have both Brown and Lacy on the field at the same time. So that meant both players were going to learn how to play receiver.

Percy Harvin and Deebo Samuel. Those are two of the examples Paul gave Lacy during discussions about how he was going to be used in Lancaster’s offense.

“At the end of the day,” Paul said, “I told him, ‘If you really want to be marketable, and marketable as far as the next level, there are going to be true, pure running backs. But those guys aren’t going to get as much opportunity as you will because college coaches want a running back who will run through A gap, they want someone who can pass protect and they want someone who can catch the ball out of the backfield. And then what you add is your speed — now you can go out there and play outside receiver and you’re going to be physically bigger and stronger than any corner to where, if we throw you a little stop route, now a corner has to tackle you, and if they don’t it’s six points.”

In Lacy’s first season at Lancaster, the junior rushed for 730 yards — he averaged six yards per touch — and 11 touchdowns while also catching 15 passes for 226 yards and three scores. He helped Lancaster to a 9-3 finish and a second-round Class 5A Division I playoff appearance.

“His IQ as a running back and knowing how to maneuver and how to manipulate ‘backers and D-linemen inside the box, to get them to go where he wants them to go so he can get back to the other direction, is phenomenal,” Paul said.

That extra bulk Lacy added when he lived in the weight room? He felt it helped him on the field.

“It helps me when taking licks. I remember my sophomore year, I was still in the middle of it so I was still small. When I got hit I would feel it,” Lacy said. “But now, with gaining the weight, everything is getting easier now.”

The first Nebraska coach to reach out to Lacy and start a real relationship was receivers coach and fellow Texan Garret McGuire, or, more commonly referred to as “Coach G.”

“He can just relate. He’s young, so he knows what’s going on now. It’s like talking to another player, another teammate,” Lacy said of McGuire.

McGuire is someone who many Husker fans questioned following his hire. The 24-year-old doesn’t have the experience other coaches have — coaching Nebraska's receivers is his first job in college football — but recently he’s shown he has the recruiting chops to reel in talented playmakers like Bellevue West receivers Isaiah McMorris and Dae’vonn Hall, as well as four-star Miami (Fla.) Palmetto receiver Jacory Barney Jr.

Many in Texas don't need any convincing, though.

“Garret McGuire, when I say I’m so impressed with him, people think just because he’s young he might not have an impact,” Paul said. “I’m telling you right now, when he and I talk, he has all of my respect. He has the same respect and the same attention that I gave coach Saban when coach Saban was down there. Garret McGuire is going to be the future of college football if you ask me. Just with his intelligence, his approach, his professionalism. I’m excited for him.”

Said Kendra of McGuire: “Coach G, that’s my guy. He grew up in east Texas, his vibe and energy, he’s just a fun guy to talk to. If he’s in the area, he’s going to make sure to try to see us. Just a fun-loving guy. He didn’t only develop a relationship with one son, he developed a relationship with both of them. If we went out there, yeah he might have been there to see Kewan, but he also made it a point to talk to G (Gerald). He always made it feel like family.”

After McGuire got the ball rolling, Nebraska’s running backs coach, E.J. Barthel, went to see Lacy in person for a track practice and weight-room session this past spring. Paul remembers Barthel turning to him after watching Lacy run.

“Coach Barthel was like, ‘Coach, I have to have him,’” Paul said, “and I said, ‘Yeah, he’s the truth. At 205 pounds he runs a 10.7 (100-meter dash). He’s different.’ I think E.J. did a great job as far as not just recruiting him and saying, ‘We want to offer you because we’re Nebraska,’ but E.J. was pretty much saying, ‘What can Nebraska offer to you as far as off the field, here’s what we can do for your education.’”

Kendra is a seasoned vet when it comes to the whole recruiting thing. She’s juggled both her sons’ recruitments at the same time, so she has plenty of experience when it comes to college coaches wanting to talk to her. When coaches recruit a player, it’s always smart to recruit mom, too.

“It’s like, ‘OK, I’m on the phone with this coach, this coach is texting me, I’m talking to this coach.’ For the past two years, I’ve been talking to all kinds of college coaches,” Kendra said.

Kendra knows it’s one thing to text or call with a coach, and another to actually meet them and see what they’re like in person. She wants to put a face to a name when it comes to the future of her sons.

Barthel, as well as others on the Husker staff during the Lacys' official visit, made the impression Kendra was hoping for. When you’ve been on as many visits as Kendra has the past two to three years, you pick up on things and realize how everything usually plays out.

A lot of it is the same message.

“We really had to decipher, ‘OK, do they really mean what they say or is this just part of the script?’” Kendra said of the recruiting process. “Because for us, on my end, it gets scripted. You’re getting asked the same questions, you’re being told the same stuff.”

Lacy took officials to Arizona State, Baylor, Houston and a couple unofficial visits, one of which was to Ole Miss. The recruiting process has been full of pressure at times.

“At first it was fun coming in, but then toward the middle of my junior year and coming into my senior year it got a little stressful,” Lacy said. “I have 40-plus offers, so there’s just coaches from every school hitting me up like, ‘Kewan let's talk, Kewan let’s get on the phone.’ So it was stressful at times but you have to push through it. It’s all a blessing. You work for all of this so you have to know what comes with it.”

But the Nebraska visit was different from the others. Kewan felt it. So did Kendra.

“Once we actually got there and met all of the coaches, it was just a different feeling,” Kendra said. “When we got there, the love, it just felt real and genuine. It was a different feeling.”

Nebraska was also the first program that separated the parents from the recruits for most of the the visit. The recruits didn’t stay at the same hotel as their parents. They didn’t go out to eat together often. Throughout the whole visit, the only time Kendra and her father, Clinton, got to see Kewan was when they were all at the school, taking in meetings and tours.

“At first, I didn’t understand. I was like, ‘What is all this about?’ It wasn’t until after that I realized why they would do that,” Kendra said. “It gave them time to reflect and take in the things that were being said to them and form their own opinion.”

After being separated during the visit, Kendra was thinking to herself Nebraska was it, the Huskers were the answer. But she didn’t know what Kewan was thinking because there was never a moment where a real discussion could’ve happened. When the two reunited, she got her answer.

“That Sunday when we all met up for breakfast and we were doing the exit meeting, when he committed I was shocked and surprised,” Kendra said. “But it was like, ‘Dang, he felt the same way as we felt.’”

>>> RELATED: Texas RB Kewan Lacy commits to Nebraska

Kendra has always coached her boys to understand that, when you know, you know. If you feel in your gut that the school you’re visiting is right for you, follow it. That’s what Kewan did.

“I feel like they have everything I need to be successful — the coaches, the culture, the fans, the people. That’s just the place to be, Nebraska,” said Kewan, who also mentioned he has a cousin in high school who lives in Omaha.

Lacy said he didn’t know anyone on his official visit outside of Barthel, McGuire and his family members. So when he arrived, he got to meet and talk with all the position coaches, even the ones on defense. Some of the highlights of his visit were the meetings and discussions with Barthel and Satterfield.

“I like his mindset. When we were in the meetings on my official visit, he was like, ‘The details, the details — that’s what’s going to make you great,’” Lacy said of Barthel. “And I really like how he coaches.”

Said Lacy of Satterfield: “Him and Coach G, they were saying I can catch the ball out of the backfield so it’s going to be hard for people to guard me, even if I was in the slot or on the outside. They were telling me they’re going to put me on the outside and slot because I’m versatile. That’ll make it hard for somebody to gameplan against.”

Another part of Nebraska’s pitch to Lacy? A FaceTime call with former Husker running back Ahman Green.

“It meant a lot,” Lacy said of getting to chat with an all-time Husker great. “He was one of my favorite running backs to watch and play with on Madden. We just talked about his time at Nebraska and what made him choose staying home.”

And then there’s Rhule, the architect of this whole thing. Consider mom a fan.

“He’s just a really authentic guy. He’s like, ‘Look, I want your son,’ and pretty much put it all out on the table, saying, ‘This is what I can do, this is what I’m going to do, this is the plan,’” Kendra said. “And it wasn’t just him — the whole staff, they just laid everything out on the table to where you could tell they were being their authentic self. There was no beating around the bush. The transparency is what I liked.”

Kewan committed to the Huskers on the Sunday of his official visit. When the moment came and he decided to pull the trigger, not every eye in the room was dry. Rhule and Barthel looked like they were about to shed a tear. Kewan did too, and Kendra remembers pulling his hair back to get a better look.

“I could tell that, in that moment when he made that decision, everybody was so happy. I was happy, but I was still in shock like, ‘Oh my gosh, did you just do this?'” Kendra said. “It was an exciting moment, it was heartfelt. You could literally feel the love in the room. He was super excited and Matt was so cool, down to earth and just raw, real and uncut, and that’s really the only thing you can ask for.”

Currently, Lacy is busy training for his senior season. That involves working out under the direction of Josh Hicks, owner of 3 Hunnid Fitness in Dallas. Hicks has trained several Division I athletes and even some in the NFL, like Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott.

Several factors drive Lacy, the Huskers' dynamic recruit from Texas who was built from rough backyard football games with his brother. But family trumps all of them.

“He’s so unselfish,” Paul said. “He wants to make sure that one day his mom doesn’t have to work so hard. He wants to make sure his little sister gets taken care of. His life is not just about him. He’s working for a purpose, and I think that’s what makes him so special.”

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