Nebraska’s running backs room has found a new classroom lesson, and Emmett Johnson is the example on the screen.
When EJ Barthel stops an NFL preseason clip and asks, “What's the coaching point I'm going to say here?”, the answers from the Huskers come fast. That’s exactly the point. Johnson’s first preseason action has become a teaching tool for Nebraska backs, with Barthel using each pause to hammer home the details: off-arm weapon, press the heels, make the defender miss, pick a side of the defender.
Barthel said the group was right there with him.
"The boys were able to answer it," Barthel said. "That was evidence for them to say like, 'That's the standard.
They know what it looks like. They know how to do it.'"
Every snap Johnson played in his first NFL preseason game got that same treatment, whether it came in the run game or the pass game. The film isn’t just a look at a former Husker showing up well at the next level. It’s a standard-setting reel for the players still in Barthel’s room, the ones who want to get where Johnson is headed.
Barthel said he wasn’t taken aback by the early reviews Johnson has gotten.
"I'm not surprised," Barthel said of Johnson receiving solid early NFL reviews. "I always felt we had the best running back in the nation last year so I was not shocked by any means with how he played those first two preseason games."
Last season, Barthel was already tossing around phrases like "NFL rep!" and "Heisman rep!"
when Johnson made a play. Back then, it may have drawn a few smiles.
Now the message carries a little more weight, because the coach is pointing to a back who has already started turning Nebraska’s standards into NFL tape.
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