Football: Ground control major key

LINCOLN — OK, stat heads, you've seen every football statistic there is, right?

So let's try out a new one: Take rushing offense minus rushing defense and see what kind of figure it produces.

Using that formula, Nebraska was at plus 53.3 yards per game last season, the best mark in the Big 12 North in 2008. Improving on it likely would give the Huskers a good shot at matching or bettering their status as divisional co-champions in 2009.

“We do put a lot of focus on running and stopping the run,'' NU center Jacob Hickman said. “Every week, we always do team run, ones vs. ones, in practice. So we're always going against each other and getting the best look possible with those kind of things.

“So it isn't surprising that those numbers are pretty good like that.''

Nebraska ran for 169.8 yards per game and allowed 116.5. The figures were nearly identical to 2006 (170.5, 116.6), when NU played in its last Big 12 championship game.

The three Big 12 teams with the best ratios of rushing offense to rushing defense last season posted a combined 33-7 record — Oklahoma State (plus 107.7), Texas (plus 84.0) and Oklahoma (plus 82.3). The other South Division team with a better figure than NU was Baylor (plus 57.9).

Of the five Big 12 teams allowing more rushing yards than they gained, four finished 2-6 or worse in league play (Texas A&M, Kansas State, Colorado and Iowa State). The exception was Texas Tech, the team that doesn't really fit the equation because of its propensity to throw way more than it runs.

“The rushing defense kind of gets warped by the fact that our conference passes so much,'' Hickman said. “So sometimes statistics are hard to look at.''

Running the football and stopping the other team from doing it, however, fits the philosophy of NU head coach Bo Pelini. The Huskers will try to do so this season with I-backs Roy Helu and Quentin Castille carrying it and nose tackle Ndamukong Suh leading the defensive line trying to stop it.

Nebraska averaged 4.5 yards per carry and allowed 3.6 last season. Helu gained steam as the season progressed and led the I-backs at 6.4 per attempt.

The junior is considered a breakout candidate as he's added weight and certainly will pick up more carries with the departure of Marlon Lucky.

“It'll be the same type of plays,'' Helu said. “I think we just have a lot more depth right now at the running back position, and the attitude's a lot more different.''

Hickman agreed that a good rushing-offense-minus-rushing-defense formula would indicate line strength. In his football preview magazine, Phil Steele ranked the Huskers as both the No. 2 offensive and defensive lines in the Big 12.

But Hickman said other elements go into it.

“On defense, you have to have good linebackers that make plays if your D-line holds their position,'' he said. “And you have to have good backs run through the hole and receivers make blocks downfield or that stuff's not possible.''

One other bonus for Nebraska was using the positive ratio to rank among the national leaders in time of possession, holding the football an average of 8:02 longer than its opponents.

“We had six or seven 80-play games last year,'' Hickman said. “Toward the end of the season, that was really working for us.

“You've got to be able to run the ball and you've got to be able to eat the clock, because if their offense isn't on the field, they can't win. That's definitely got to be a goal for us again.''

Contact the writer:

444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com

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