Freshman running backs among few bright spots
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By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
A guy with two fingers could count the bright spots for the Huskers in Saturday’s 45-14 loss to Oklahoma State.
1) Quentin Castille.
2) Roy Helu.
Yep, that about does it.
The true freshmen both had career days and more carries than starting running back Marlon Lucky.
The bruiser Castille ended up with 20 carries for 102 yards. Helu had 14 rushes for 55 yards.
“I plead every night, ‘Just let me do what I can to help the team.’ I stepped up some today,” Castille said.
Husker coach Bill Callahan said the plan going in was to feature the younger backs more this week.
“They’re good complements to Marlon,” Callahan said. “They’ve worked hard, and we think they bring a lot to our offense. I think you can see the power that Castille runs with, and the elusiveness and quickness and speed that Helu has.”
Still, Castille would have rather had a win than the first 100-yard game in his college career.
“You got to keep on fighting,” he said. “We’re a team, we’re Nebraska, this whole state is a team. We feed off them and they feed off us.”
Close call
The Cowboys may have caught a break on their second touchdown, a 41-yard pass from Zac Robinson to Seth Newton that made it 17-0.
Robinson threw the pass right at the line of scrimmage. The Huskers thought he was over the line, which is illegal. Officials reviewed the play and let it stand.
“It looked like he was over the line, but it was the type of thing where nothing was going to go our way today,” Husker linebacker Bo Ruud said. “That’s just kind of how the day went. We weren’t going to get that (call). I didn’t really think about it after that.”
Prince’s play
Even when the Cowboys messed up, things worked out just fine.
Early in the third quarter, Nebraska’s Prince Amukamara appeared to get a piece of Matt Fodge’s punt.
However, the ball took a Cowboy bounce, and ended up being a 45-yard punt that was downed on the Nebraska 11.
Halftime fire
OSU defensive end Rodrick Johnson said you wouldn’t have known the Cowboys were up 38-0 at halftime by the words coming from their coaches.
“You’d think we were losing the way they came in at halftime,” Johnson said. “They wanted us to keep pouring it on and finish. We haven’t won a game on the road. This is a big game after 47 years to win here in Lincoln.”
Lineup changes
The Huskers tweaked their defensive starting lineup to begin the second half.
Steve Octavien started the second half instead of Lance Brandenburgh at linebacker and Rickey Thenarse started at safety instead of Larry Asante.
The sophomore Thenarse had a shining moment on special teams in the first quarter when he drilled Dantrell Savage right after he caught a punt.
Quick hits
This is the first time OSU has defeated Nebraska in back-to-back years since 1960-61. ... OSU’s 45 points and 551 yards of total offense are its most ever against Nebraska. ... Nebraska’s loss was just its second in the school’s last 39 Homecoming games. The other one was the 2005 Texas Tech game. ... OSU’s 38 points were just four shy of the most points given up by a Husker defense in a first half. Nebraska gave up 42 to Colorado in 2001.
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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