12/13/2021 football Edit

Running back Ashton Hayes decommits from Nebraska and will sign with Cal

Sean Callahan • InsideNebraska

Publisher

Sean Callahan has worked with Rivals.com since 2000, and has been the Publisher of HuskerOnline since 2007. He also reports for KETV Channel 7 in Omaha, NET's Big Red Wrap-Up and KFAB Radio in Omaha.

Ashton Hayes has been Nebraska's only running back commit since June.

On Monday the Reno (Nev.) McQueen product officially decommitted from the Huskers, switching his pledge to Cal.

The news was first reported by the Omaha World-Herald.

“The new staff coming in doesn’t really know Ashton,” McQueen head coach Jim Snelling told the Omaha World-Herald. “It just appeared to be a little bit better fit (at Cal). Ashton and his family were a little bit concerned about it.

"Talking with Coach Frost as well, he actually understood the situation and said, ‘You know what? You’ve still got a scholarship here,’ but encouraged Ashton to take a look and make sure he was 100% sure. The staff that recruited him at Cal was still there.”

Back in October, former NU running back coach Ryan Held attended Hayes' game in Reno. Held, and three other Husker assistant coaches were fired by Scott Frost a couple of weeks later.

Currently, the Big Red does not have a coach assigned to running backs, but this past week an offer was made to Richfield (Minn.) Holy Angels Emmett Johnson, who also took his official visit to Lincoln.

As a senior, Johnson rushed for 2,513 yards and 42 touchdowns in 11 games, to go along with 85 tackles and 13 TFL's on defense.