Friday Flakes: Nebraska Football’s Running Back Room Gets Good News but Still a Lot of Unknowns

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A couple of weeks ago we learned that one of the projected starters at running back for Nebraska, Mekhi Nelson, was arrested in Florida for aggravated battery involving a pregnant woman.

Strictly speaking about how it affects the football team, it was not great news. The running back room was already considered one of the weakest position groups on the entire football team. There was a lot of production to replace with the loss of Emmett Johnson after he ended up being one of top running backs in the country in 2025.

There wasn’t going to be one player to replace Emmett Johnson. It was going to take multiple players, taking multiple bites at the apple in order to make it work in 2026. So when the news of Mekhi Nelson’s broke, let’s just say that all of the sudden I was looking at a true freshman in Jamal Rule and hoping he could be special.

The other options were/are Isaiah Mozee, Kwinten Ives and Conor Booth. Those are the only running backs on the roster. There is always the option that somebody will surprise us. You can definitely say that Emmett Johnson came on as a surprise in 2024 before the complete breakout in 2025.

Regardless, I was moving forward expecting that Mekhi Nelson was not going to be on the roster in 2026.

Since news of the arrest, Mekhi Nelson’s family has been adamant that he is innocent. Additionally, a few days ago it was announced that all charges were dropped against Nelson. We will learn more about this in the future as I am sure Head Coach Matt Rhule will be asked about it at some point. Some have suggested that a suspension might still be coming though that is pure conjecture at this time.

If it is true that Nelson did no wrong, then this is good news for the running back room at Nebraska.

Then the big one dropped. Nebraska has added another running back to the room in the form of Tikey Hayes. He spent his freshman year at Penn State in 2025 under James Franklin. He entered the transfer portal and ended up at Iowa Western Community College. Never played a snap because now he is going to Nebraska.

This is great news. It sounds like the powers that be at Penn State did not want Tikey Hayes to enter the transfer portal. They even game him additional carries in the bowl game so they had a better idea of what they had in Hayes. Ohio State wanted him out of high school but now he is at Nebraska.

If he comes in willing to compete right away, then I see no reason why he isn’t the day one starter. That doesn’t mean he is going to be great, but the running back room at Nebraska is full of unknowns at this point.

At the very worst, he adds much needed depth to the roster.

SPORTS! SPORTS! JORTS! SPORTS! SPORTS!

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“STICK TO SPORTS!” Nah.

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