Carriker Chronicles: Emmett Johnson Is Bullish on Nebraska's Offense

Adam: Nebraska is 1-0, so we're basically like number one in the country, in my mind at least. You were the expected RB1 headed into the season. Obviously, that's what you are, but that was a little bit different from previous offseasons. So I want to know, what was your approach like throughout the offseason, knowing you were going to carry a big portion of the workload this year?

Emmett: I would say I had the same attitude this past offseason, just working on my body, working on things like my body weight, my speed. I knew that I would have to carry a bigger load this season, and so I wanted to put myself in position to do that, whether that's just eating the right things nutrition-wise or just doing extra things on the field. Just knowing that I have to be all-purpose every-day I'm back, knowing that I have to work on everything like pass pro, running the ball, just being a weapon overall for the offseason. That's something that I've worked on throughout the offseason is just those things.

Adam: What are some of the things you guys are going to try to focus on this week going into Akron? They only gave up 10 points, over 400 yards of total offense. They didn't score a ton. They scored zero, but they didn't give up a whole lot of points. How are you guys going to go about trying to get some more of those explosive plays offensively?

Emmett: Just sticking to what we're taught, you know, there's a couple of chances for us. Even in the last game, Cincinnati was a great defense. I'm not sure if you guys know that, but they were a really great defense and they had a lot of hats around the ball. Their pursuit was pretty good. So really just sticking to the basics, you know. Explosive plays come from just routine plays, everyday plays that we do in practice. And that's what coach Holgorsen preaches. And so it was really just turning those routine plays in the big plays. And then when you have a chance to make a guy miss and go score doing that. So I'm just going to stick to what we've been doing every single day in practice and staying true to my reason. I know the game's going to honor us through that. I have no doubt this next game will be way more explosive for sure.