Osborne knew the type of running attack to beat the Florida juggernauts of the era (Miami, Florida, and Florida State) - and any other great of the college football world after UCLA creamed us - NU had to mirror professional football's smart field position running. Rather than double back when trapped like a Mike Rozier or Doug Dubose, Osborne wanted the runningback to duck for the smart 1-2 yards of positive. Miami loved happy feet runners that would try to reverse field on them and threw them for losses time and again. But the teams that settled for a few in a cloud of dust gave them troubles. Michigan, Florida State, and Notre Dame around that time period did exactly that with better outcomes. And logically all these great runningbacks that did well against Miami seemed to get drafted in the first couple of rounds.
Osborne had earlier switched to recruiting the speedy runners like Kieth Jones, Terry Rodgers, and Ken Clark. Speed alone just wasn't getting the desired results. This is why Osborne went towards a quicker guy to lace through little gaps like Derek Brown. The opportunities were there, the previous runningbacks just weren't that type of runner. Osborne actually had many more fullback types in the period, because those recruits were more prone to put their helmet into the holes for tough yards when nothing else was there. Kieth Jones, Terry Rodgers, and Ken Clark were going to beat you in space, but only Endzone Jones really had the tenacity to run with abandonment up the gut. And none of that trio were going to blow up linebackers one on one. Lance Lewis types had the ruggedness and smart running, however, the fullbacks did not have the speed on the edge so Osborne had to find both attributes of speed and toughness for the tailback position. Calvin Jones was so-so in that regard, but he could run the perimeter like few could. IMHO, Ahman Green was the ultimate Osborne recruit in that regard. There is no doubt in my mind, LP was our greatest tailback of the era due to carrying the team with desire. I'll always give Ahman the edge in athleticism and brains, but LP had that little something extra that carried the team when nobody else would. I know people will disagree, but Clinton Childs will be one of my best all time when it came to a game on the line. He was eclipsed by Ahman and LP, but that guy could have carried the team, too. We were just loaded with 2-3 Porsches at a time in the backfield throughout most of the 90's. Most teams prayed to have one that good.
We've squandered great runningbacks over the years like Buckhalter, that had that type of running style. We made the best of Rex Burkhead - who probably is Nebraska's smartest runner of all time - but he wasn't going to carry us to a championship. It was frustrating watching Cory Ross ride the pine when our starter kind of sucked. Cory Ross wasn't going to win championships, but he was obviously the best runningback on the team. There were a few others I cannot think of off the top of my head. Ozigbo was more along the lines of smart runner than raw brute like people attribute him with. The guy took the hard sure yards and knew his strengths. This is why getting all these itty bitty runningbacks on the roster is frustrating, And when we do we penalize Mazour for being small like them when he runs smart. The truth is our current stable of runningbacks just overall largely an unknown commodity. The only other guy besides Mazour to show any lick of smart running would be Jaylin Bradley. Maurice Washington, our best athlete, just IMO has happy feet in big games. This isn't leaving me with much confidence Nebraska is going to steamroll over anyone with the running game.
