Two Months Ago, Mekhi Nelson Didn't Think He'd Be Here

Husker fans, in August we watched Mekhi Nelson stand at a podium and try to read a statement he could not get through. He stopped in the middle of it and said, “Hold on.”

On Saturday he shed a couple of tears again. Different reason.

“Two months ago I didn’t even think that I’d be able to have this possibility again — to even be back in Memorial Stadium. So I definitely did get a little emotional before the game. Shed a couple tears. But that’s just because I’m blessed. Blessed to be back in front of all y’all, playing the game that I love, once more.”

Then he went out and put up 129 all-purpose yards in Nebraska’s 49-21 win over Ohio.

The 51-yard catch

Nelson ran ten times for 64 yards and scored from 29 out. He caught two passes for 65 more, and the second was the longest reception of his career — 51 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter that pushed Nebraska to 35-21.

It was also the longest catch by a Nebraska running back since Emmett Johnson went for 56 at UCLA last season.

His description of it is worth having in full, because it is about four seconds of football and he remembers all of them.

“Got out, there was no protection, just did my little route or whatever. And I seen it — I seen his eyes, so I knew the ball was coming to me. So all I knew was I just gotta make this catch, and the rest was history after that. Just running, trying to get as many yards as I could. I broke free, and I knew after I broke free — I got to go score.”

“Never take our foot off their neck”

Nebraska trailed 13-7 in the second quarter and led by a single point at halftime. Nelson’s account of what changed is the same one his head coach and his teammate gave, in his own words.

“We started off slow, so we got the corrections during halftime, and we came out there and showed the world what we really could do.”

And on wearing a team down over four quarters — the thing Nebraska actually did to Ohio, 204 yards on its last 21 carries:

“We like to say, if they’re cut, bleed the cut, until they finally put their hands down and knock them out.”

Asked about Nebraska’s recent history in one-score games — the sort of question that has followed this program around for a decade — he refused the premise.

“This year it’s a new team, a new roster. So we’re not gonna really dwell on what happened in the past.”

The room

Nebraska’s depth chart still lists three running backs and no starter. Nelson does not seem to mind.

“We look at each other, we look at the room like we’re the best in the nation. So every time we step on the field, that’s what we’re going to prove.”

He credits running backs coach EJ Barthel for making him more than a runner — “not be a one-trick pony” — which is exactly what the 51-yard catch was.

And when he talks about what he actually missed, it is not the yards.

“Just really being out here with my guys, with my brothers. That’s the thing that I was missing the most.”

Husker Nation, he told you in August he was committed to growing from it. He did not ask anybody to take that on faith for very long.