Strong productivity as a HS RB. Will be interesting to see what he does.
Emmett Johnson
- Thread starter inWV
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Very interested in what Emmett can do now and in the future. He’s not as small as Rahmir or as big as Grant or Ervin. My hope is he can excel at both running between the tackles and catching passes out the backfield. Hopefully a Ameer Abdullah type of back.
Ameer was a special college RB, I'd settle for him being just a good one.
Kid is a couple of inches taller than AA and 5 pounds lighter than AA was as a senior. Ameer was also under recruited.
I think a lot of the "name" schools backed off because he wanted to play RB. He was somewhat of a hot commodity as a CB and Bo was one of the few to give him that shot at RB.
He got brought in with two other higher rated RB's. Braylon Heard and Aaron Green? Not sure if that was the year Green got reeled in. The latter two were 4 stars and Ameer was a 3 star. Aaron Green was a can't miss Barry Sanders type it seemed. Turns out Ameer was pretty good.
Ameer was not initially that good at all.. it took years of him working his tail off before he started getting some real success as an upperclassman. He made all of that happen through dedication and hard work.
He rushed for over 1,000 yards his Sophomore year.
And returned kicks his True Freshman year. Even housed 1 pr 2 if i remember right
Ameer was also heavily recruited. There was a massive late push on him by a lot of schools. He was a bit of a late bloomer. Most wanted him at corner. I think back then rivals was also doing lots of rankings. He was really highly ranked in “best in space” category. Top 5. Remeber being afraid of a late Auburn push for him. Think USC was also in play.
Emmett worry is and was his competition and size. Not think enough or not short enough, which ever way you wanted to go.
I’ve been high on him since we recruited him. He seems to have really good vision to me. What’s he going to do when he can’t out athlete his defender? Yet to be seen. Looking forward to finding out.
I’ve been high on him since we recruited him. He seems to have really good vision to me. What’s he going to do when he can’t out athlete his defender? Yet to be seen. Looking forward to finding out.
Nobody wanted him at running back. The only reason he ended up here was because Nebraska gave him a shot there. Pelini straight up lucked out on that one....
Haha come on man at least be accurate
Pelini had guys like Ron Brown around to answer whether Ameer could be a P5 RB.
They recruited him on Defense only. He stuck with Bo because he told him he would play RB.
Looking forward to seeing younger players and what they can bring to the field. Stepping up when the chance comes.
They did not. Emmitt was yet another late scholarship add that previous coaching staffs relied on to fill a class. I think he had an offer or two from MAC schools and from South Dakota, Northern Iowa or schools of that ilk. He was lightly recruited from some reason.
They actually let a pretty good running back recruit go (Ashton Hayes) to bring in Johnson instead.
If he was a bit bigger and faster he would have been a Mike Rozier.
If he was a lot bigger and drank more he’d have been an Andre the Giant
Am i doing it?
I am curious to see how his vision and instincts are. If he can find the creases, he’s going to be very good. In open space, he’ll be hard to track down. That’s where he excelled in high school
Aaron Green turned out pretty good too. Though I'd say Ameer was the right RB for us at the right time.
Ameer may be the most underrated RB ever at Nebraska
#2 all time in rushing yards
#1 all time in all purpose yards (the next closest has 1500 yards less)
He gets over shadowed by Rex Burkhead for unclear reasons even though Rex’s numbers aren’t even close
#2 all time in rushing yards
#1 all time in all purpose yards (the next closest has 1500 yards less)
He gets over shadowed by Rex Burkhead for unclear reasons even though Rex’s numbers aren’t even close
Yeah. He was much better than Rex at the time and I can remember wishing for him to get more carries or get both of them on the field. Rex also is a hell of a football player he just wasn't as good as Ameer. If Ameer had top end speed he would really threatened 2000 and he was on pace to do that until he got hurt. Just needed that 5th or 6th gear and would have been insane.
I don't think he gets overshadowed by Rex at all. Rex was a good back, but I don't think anyone considers him in AA's league.
It sure was nice having multiple legit running backs through most of the Pelini years. Helu/Rex right to Rex/Ameer. Haven't really had one since Ameer graduated.
Agreed. Ozigbo was knocking on the door for one year and I was really excited about Tre Bryant before he got hurt, but we need to get back to getting some stud RB'S. OPS needs to get back to providing some studs again. Just haven't seen the Green, the Childs, the Bennings, etc.
That's interesting. The way I heard it was that they just stopped recruiting Hayes because they had changed their minds about him. And then Johnson was brought in late as a gap filler. Either way, here's hoping that Johnson pans out and proves to be a solid contributor.
