"Blessed to Be Back": Mekhi Nelson Owned It, and Nebraska Stood By Him

Husker fans, Mekhi Nelson walked into Tuesday’s press conference with something written down, and he asked to read it before anybody asked him about football.

He didn’t make it through cleanly.

“I was involved in an incident this summer,” he said. “I reflected on the impact that my actions have on the people around me and myself.”

Then his voice went, and he stopped.

“Hold on.”

The charges against him have since been dismissed. He never named them Tuesday, and we’re not going to either — the matter is closed, and what he chose to do instead was take responsibility for it in front of a room full of cameras.

He thanked the people who stayed

Nelson named them one by one. Running backs coach EJ Barthel. Damon Benning, the former Husker back who now runs player development. Matt Rhule. The staff around them.

“I’m committed to growing from this,” he said.

Asked later what he was feeling, he didn’t dress it up.

“This is my passion, my love. I love playing football. I’m just blessed to be back in front of y’all, playing the game that I love, and being with the people that I love.”

And on what the support meant:

“From day one, since I was a little kid getting recruited here, they told me I was their guy. They believed in me. They will never give up on me.”

That’s a program keeping its word to a young player through the worst weeks of his life. Worth saying out loud.

Then he talked about football, and he’s got a case

Here’s the part that got buried under everything else: Nelson may be the most in-form back on this roster.

The bowl game was the first start of his career, and by his own account possibly the best game he’s played.

“It just made my confidence skyrocket. Going into the offseason, I know I could really do this — I could make a big impact in the Big Ten and in the entire country.”

The room he came back to

Ask him what makes it work and he goes straight to standards.

“We don’t want to have any drops in practice. We don’t want to have any cheap reps. We don’t want to run out of bounds.”

And on freshman Jamal Rule, the best line of the day from anybody:

“It’s not bad to mess up. Just if you’re going to mess up, go a thousand miles per hour — and we’ll correct it in the meeting rooms.”

He said watching Emmett Johnson carry that same coaching into the NFL gives him chills. He also claimed, without much hesitation, that he’d beat Rule at bowling.

Husker fans, six backs are chasing one job in Lincoln. One of them just told you exactly who he is when things went wrong.

See you September 5.