LINCOLN — Nebraska’s running back room is not built on paper. Only one of the five scholarship backs was a true blue-chip guy in high school, and true freshman Jamarion Parker is banged up. The others — Emmett Johnson, Kwinten Ives, Mekhi Nelson and Conor Booth — arrived at NU with modest-to-good recruiting fanfare. And yet this is the position group (along with tight ends) that Nebraska chose not to supplement this offseason through the transfer portal. NU signed three transfer wideouts — one of whom is already gone — and a backup quarterback, but no running back. The Huskers appear to believe, greatly, in what they have, no matter what the recruiting profile says on paper. “We’re a different world now with the portal and everyone’s kind of like an immediate fix type deal,” running backs coach EJ Barthel said. “But, traditionally, it’s all about development.” Historically at Nebraska, that’s been sort of true. You had guys who developed into stars — Ken Clark, Correll Buckhalter, Roy Helu. But NU used to sign such elite backs — blue chip after blue chip, often out of Omaha Central High School — that excelling on the field early wasn’t a challenge. Calvin Jones rushed for 294 yards at Kansas as a freshman. Ahman Green scored on the first play at Colorado as a freshman. Ditto for David Horne’s 128 yards and four touchdowns at Texas A&M in 2002. Even Rex Burkhead, at Missouri in 2009, made a crucial third down conversion that opened the door to an unforgettable monsoon-drenched comeback. Burkhead and Ameer Abdullah were the last great Husker backs to share the field at NU. Since Abdullah’s departure in 2014 — when he was a Doak Walker Award finalist — Nebraska has had just one back eclipse 1,000 yards (Devine Ozigbo) and one, fullback Andy Janovich, get drafted. What had been “Running Back U” morphed into “So Who’s The Starting Running Back Again?” Maybe that’s changing. Johnson is the unquestioned starter heading into 2025. I thought he earned that role, through his play in late 2023, heading into last season. But it wasn’t until the last four games of 2024 — coincidentally, the games called by Dana Holgorsen — that Johnson truly got the spotlight, rushing for 314 yards and catching 23 passes. “Emmett’s Emmett,” Holgorsen said last week. “He’s playing well.” The 5-foot-11, 200-pound junior’s recruiting profile lists one power conference offer out of high school — Nebraska. Ron Brown — an interim running backs coach back in late ’21 between Ryan Held’s firing and Bryan Applewhite’s hiring — sealed the commit, though Scott Frost must have signed off on it. Applewhite brought in junior college signee Anthony Grant and his own freshman, Ajay Allen. Those two led the backs in carries in 2022, followed by Jaquez Yant and Gabe Ervin. Allen transferred in spring ’23; Nebraska coaches were fine with that — they didn’t love his ball security. Johnson still started the 2023 season as the fourth-string guy who, according to Barthel, had tons to fix, including a habit of looking the carry into his hands instead of looking at the defense. Two springs and 1,009 rushing yards later? “He went from a guy who was developing in the room, to now developing on the field, to now progressing, to, now, a guy, he’s solidified,” Barthel said. “He’s at the top of his game right now. He’s literally what we stand for as a program. If you look at what we talk about in recruiting and talk about, trying to build the program, he’s a guy that represents that.” Ironically, so is the guy Johnson shared the starting role with last season, Dante Dowdell. He arrived last spring, Barthel said, with only a handful of carries at Oregon, where he’d been a scout-team running back. “He wasn’t getting coached well,” Barthel said. “So when we got him he was basically a high school freshman. So, through the course of spring, the course of summer, training camp, you saw what the kid could do on the field.” Dowdell had fumble issues, but he led the team with 614 yards and an impressive 12 touchdowns. He was not fun to tackle. The portal opened and Barthel said teams could see “the trajectory” Dowdell was on after one year at Nebraska. Kentucky won that bidding war. “I’m not trying to take credit for his work — that’s not what I’m saying — but that process is happening now with Mekhi and Kwinten,” Barthel said. “We’re fairly confident they’ll hit that trajectory as well.” Ives — 6-foot-3, 212 pounds — is the back designed to take Dowdell’s place. He spent his prep years making big runs all over the field; he’s had to retool his game to work in between the tackles, especially in the red zone. He had to gain 30 pounds, too. “Lots of eating and lots of lifting,” Ives said. Ives didn’t have any power conference offers before Barthel signed him to Nebraska. Neither did Nelson, who signed with NU in summer ’24 rather than return to St. Thomas More Prep School in Connecticut. The 6-foot, 185-pounder could almost play slot receiver, he’s so shifty and fluid in the open field, but he’s instead a back we’ll know little about until the season arrives, perhaps by design. He’s likely to be NU’s No. 3 guy. Several years — Ozigbo in 2018, Rahmir Johnson in 2021, Emmett Johnson in 2023 — that ends up being the Huskers’ top guy by November. “That third guy’s gonna happen,” Holgorsen said. “I’ve never went into the season where the third guy’s not a reality and the fourth guy’s not a reality at some point.” It’s likely Nebraska surveys the summer portal for backs, especially if the House vs. NCAA settlement lawyers opt to grandfather in the 105-man roster limits vs. an immediate hard cap. But a smaller room this spring has helped Johnson’s backups get the reps they need as he prepares to be Nebraska’s top guy. He, too, entered the portal this winter. He wasn’t wrong to do so, but he announced his return to NU Dec. 8. “I know he wavered — I know there was some pressure on him with the portal and stuff like that — but he’s a guy who believes in what we’re doing,” Barthel said. “And the coaching, with him, transitions to the field.” Since Ozigbo rushed for 1,082 yards back in 2018, 27 Big Ten players have crossed the 1,000-yard threshold. Nationwide, 258 players have hit 1,000 yards. It’s time for Running Back U to rejoin the chat. On with the Rewind. Dana Holgorsen's telling comment Nyziah Hunter plays “physical,” according to Holgorsen. That’s a good trait for a 205-pound receiver, Holgorsen said. “I’ve coached 210-pound guys who don’t play physical,” Holgorsen said. “Nyziah does.” Holgorsen said something else, too, that catches your attention. “He ran by a corner on a go route, which I haven’t seen since I’ve been here,” Holgorsen said. “As a wideout actually running by somebody and catching it over his shoulder. That was encouraging.” And telling about what Nebraska had rolled out in 2023 and 2024 at receiver. Trey Palmer ran by guys routinely in 2022, and Zavier Betts did it at Oklahoma in 2021. Holgorsen knows the position extremely well, and NU’s receivers coach, Dakiel Shorts, is Holgorsen’s protégé. It’s fair to say Nebraska has its best evaluators of receivers since Mickey Joseph in 2022. Nebraska's Director Cup standings Nebraska Athletic Director Troy Dannen is in position to receive a bonus tied to NU’s finish in the Learfield Director’s Cup. Dannen’s bonus structure kicks in if the Huskers land in the top 30 of the standings. After strong showings in wrestling and indoor track and field, Nebraska is 24th in the standings after the completion of the first set the winter sports. NU will score points in women’s gymnastics and bowling, too, which could put its placement higher. Nebraska was 33rd after the fall sports. Last year, NU finished 22nd — its best finish in 15 years — but Dannen wasn’t eligible for a bonus because he’d arrived in March. NU put the bonus into the contract of former A.D. Bill Moos, and it’s remained there since. Wisconsin, whose women’s hockey team won the national title, is third overall nationally and tops in the Big Ten, followed by Ohio State (4th), USC (5th), Penn State (8th), Michigan (16th), Minnesota (18th) Nebraska and Washington (28th) in the top 30. Iowa is 51st. Creighton is 83rd. The Huskers should creep into the top 20 once bowling — the team finished third, which is worth 83 out of 100 possible total points — is factored in. From there, NU’s performance will be dictated by how the Huskers perform at outdoor track nationals and in softball, which is driving toward a NCAA at-large berth regardless of how the Big Ten tournament unfolds. For Nebraska baseball, a NCAA berth boils down to winning the Big Ten tournament after losing another series at Iowa. That’s if NU makes the Big Ten tournament; right now, it’s outside the 12-team bracket. The Huskers’ remaining Big Ten series: Northwestern, at Maryland, Minnesota, Michigan, at Purdue. Nebraska had better plan on winning 10 of those 15 games to feel totally safe about making it to Omaha for the league soiree. Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington — the Big Ten’s four West Coast newcomers — should comfortably make the Big Ten tourney. Those will be some new, pretty uniforms at Schwab Field. Nebraska finished 2-7 against those teams in league play. Husker softball hasn’t faced any of them yet. Nebraska could see Nico Iamaleava Speaking of the Bruins and Trojans, they might be the top two landing spots for Nico Iamaleava, the Tennessee quarterback who reportedly wanted double what he was making in NIL money after helping the Volunteers to a College Football Playoff berth. He apparently wasn’t making progress in the negotiations, didn’t show up for practice on Friday, and got shown the door by his head coach, Josh Heupel, just hours before UT’s spring game. “We're moving forward as a program without him,” Heupel said after the spring game. “I said it to the guys today: There's no one that's bigger than the Power T (logo), and that includes me. They hear me say that a lot inside that team room. “This program has been around a long time with a lot of great coaches and great players who laid the cornerstone pieces for the tradition that is Tennessee football. It's gonna be around a long time after I'm done and after they're gone.” The college football punditocracy on social media, as it is wont to do, embraced the macro politics of the matter, blaming the NCAA for something members failed to embrace years ago while comparing the Iamaleava’s request to that of a coach leveraging his success for a raise. The micro conflict is more interesting; basically, Tennessee decided the QB wasn’t worth the distraction, much less the money, and cut him loose. In doing so, UT extricated itself from future payments. The Volunteers will sign a quarterback over the summer and, if not, well, whoever starts can’t be any worse than the guys Michigan and Iowa trotted out there last season. Iamaleava has mobility and a good arm. He also played high school football 19 miles from USC and 27 miles from UCLA, respectively. Those schools — regardless of what they can pay him — seem like landing spots. The Bruins’ top guy, headed into 2025 spring camp, was Appalachian State transfer Joey Aguilar, while the Trojans were rolling, again, with Jayden Maiava, who took over the starting job late in 2024. Maiava played unevenly last season but possesses major upside — perhaps even more than Iamaleava. I also thought of Maryland, which lost starter Billy Edwards to Wisconsin. The Terrapins signed UCLA transfer Justyn Martin — a backup in Pasadena — and have a coach in Mike Locksley who’s among the better offensive minds in the Big Ten. You can’t place a bet on Nebraska facing Iamaleava in 2025, but there’s a decent chance he’s staring down a Husker pass rush. Spring games quickly becoming passe Nick Kelly, Alabama football beat writer for AL.com, posted a fascinating contrast on social media Saturday. He presented a picture of Alabama football’s spring game in 2024 — attended by more than 72,000 fans — with a photo of the Crimson Tide’s open practice in 2025. Alabama won’t release attendance of the day’s event, but it was a fraction of what showed up for the 2024 game. Alabama’s event also wasn’t televised. Ultimately, it’s a spring game that doesn’t count and, let’s be clear, wasn’t that big of a deal, 40 years ago, when Alabama and Nebraska both were dominant programs and TV hadn’t fully caught on to the phenomenon of college football. But Ohio State’s spring game attendance, coming off a national title, was just 40,136. The Buckeyes had nearly double that in 2024. Would eliminating a spring transfer window bring back the spring game — and the fans? Maybe. But I’m skeptical. I think the thirst for it has passed among many fans — especially younger ones whose kids have a calendar full of sports on spring Saturdays — and younger head coaches, who already have enough to deal with, find it less thrilling.