LINCOLN — For all the bulging muscle and booming confidence Brandon Kinnie features these days, there’s a replay that can still get him.
It’s the closest he came to scoring in his first season at Nebraska. And it was a catch that would have given NU a 13-10 lead on Texas early in the fourth quarter of the Big 12 championship game.
Instead, the Huskers settled for their third field goal of the game, making the score 10-9, after Kinnie came down with a third-and-goal pass out of bounds.
They eventually lost by one point to the Longhorns.
“I thought about it a lot,” the junior wide receiver said. “I think I can make that play. I know I can make it now.”
A photo of Kinnie going up for the pass showed up on a magazine cover, he said.
Good picture, bad memory.
“I look at that, (and) I’m happy that’s the cover,” Kinnie said, “but I (didn’t) score.”
Kinnie’s near miss has motivated him this offseason. Although officially listed at 220 pounds, the 6-foot-3 Kinnie is playing at closer to 230. He’s carrying more of something else now, too. Confidence.
The Kansas City native and transfer out of Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College said he spent his summer “detailing” his game. Getting the right depth on routes. Squaring-up blocks. Finishing.
“I know what I’m doing now,” Kinnie said. “The game’s kind of slowed down for me now. I understand it. I get the playbook. I think I still got a while to go to be a whole receiver, complete package. But just being here a year, I got more confident.”
That goes for the entire offense, he says, a group that was much-maligned a season ago.
“We feel like we have a lot to prove this year,” he said. “We have a little swagger about ourselves now. The DBs aren’t liking that, I can tell you that much.”
Kinnie got more comfortable last year as the season moved along. Of his 15 catches, 14 came in the final eight games. His season-best output was in the Big 12 title game (30 yards). A 16-yard reception later in the fourth quarter of the Texas game set up another field goal that gave Nebraska a 12-10 lead.
Kinnie’s comfort level has helped add confidence. Mix that with his added size, and he could become a defensive back’s nightmare. Not only can he go up and get a jump ball, but he can get physical, too.
“It always seems like they’re holding,” senior corner Prince Amukamara said with a smile, “but I guess they’re doing everything right. No flags are thrown.”
It now becomes a matter of taking the next step for Kinnie. With Niles Paul the clear-cut No. 1 receiver in 2009, the Husker offense suffered without another weapon on the outside.
Kinnie is looking forward to changing that.
“I’m just ready to show that I can be a playmaker as well as Niles and I can be respected just as much,” Kinnie said. “And I should be. I expect that, and I want to prove to the coaches and the players that I am that.”
Contact the writer:
850-0781, nickrubek@hotmail.com
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