Managing snap counts will be a priority for Ruud in 2019

In 2018 Nebraska had three different linebackers that played around 800 snaps. After that, only two other linebackers played more than 200 snaps, with 290 being the next highest.

As inside linebackers coach Barrett Ruud sizes up the numbers from last season, he knows that's not a winning formula to continue to play guys 80+ snaps per game.

When Ruud looks at his inside linebackers heading into 2019, he feels like that depth should improve, mainly with the rise of juniors Collin Miller and Will Honas this August.

Honas played four games in 2018 before suffering a season-ending knee injury at Michigan, while Miller has been primarily a special teams players that has seen limited work at linebacker.

Both players have taken a big step in the right direction and that should give Ruud the ability to play Honas and Miller with senior Mohamed Barry.

"I think those guys are playing too good to keep any of them off the field," Ruud said of Honas and Miller. "I think it’s going to be important that we play all three of those guys a lot, that’s Mo (Barry), Collin (Miller) and Will (Honas).

"Because of our offense we’re going to go fast and we’re going to play a ton of plays on offense, but in turn, you play more plays on defense. And I don’t want to have two guys play 85 snaps a game, I’d rather have three guys playing a lot of snaps like 50 to 60. And that’s a normal football game 15 years ago. I think those guys are playing so well that anybody could step out on that grass and take command of the defense and make a bunch of plays and I’m going to rely on them to do that."

With redshirt freshman Joseph Johnson and true freshman Nick Henrich out with injuries this August, it's opened the door for others like freshmen Luke Reimer and Jackson Hannah to get more reps as well.

You still get the impression today though there's a sizeable gap between inside linebacker three to four on the depth chart.

"Probably a little bit yeah," Ruud said when asked if there was a big gap between his top three inside backers to the fourth guy. "Luke (Reimer) has done a really good job as far as his playmaking ability, he just has to keep learning the defense. He’s done a great job though so far and now it’s a matter of keeping him going."

When Ruud reflects how the game of football has changed, the days of playing your starters every snap on defense are no more.

Back in his playing days, he might have taken every snap, but today, you need ideally four guys ready to go.

"My senior year of college I think we had a couple of those 85-90 snap games but that was when our offense couldn’t get going, but back then it was rare that you played more than 65 snaps," Ruud said. "I think in the NFL I had a couple of 80 snap games and I was in the cold tub for a week after that.

"If you have the luxury to play guys more like 55 to 60 snaps a game that keeps them so much more fresh for the rest of the season and they can help on special teams a little bit as well so it’s going to be really important that we have more depth than we had last year."