Nebraska held its biggest recruiting weekend of the season Saturday night against the Michigan State Spartans, and the Huskers are already reaping the rewards. Tre Bryant, a running back prospect from Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis, Missouri, committed to the Cornhuskers Saturday night by announcing it on his Twitter page. Bryant had committed to Kansas State on July 6th, but the talented back reopened his recruitment after receiving a scholarship offer from the Cornhuskers on October 25th. Bryant is the seventh ranked running back in the country according to 247sports and is considered to be the number two recruit in the state of Missouri behind Kansas State commit Skylar Thompson.
The eye test
Tre Bryant is listed at 5’10” and 198 pounds on his recruiting profile. While Bryant is short, he certainly isn’t small, as he has a stocky build and is very well developed in his upper body. Bryant’s frame doesn’t appear to have much more room to fill out with more weight, so I would expect Bryant to stay around the 205-210 pound range while he is playing college football.
Strengths on Film
The first thing that really jumps out when watching Bryant on film is his balance and ability to gain yardage after contact. Watching Bryant on film is like watching a human pinball as he bounces of defenders and keeps moving forward. Bryant has an extremely low center of gravity when he runs so he is very rarely hit square by opposing defenders, allowing him to bounce of their contact and keep gaining positive yardage.
The second thing that stands out on Bryant’s film is that he has tremendous foot quickness and burst. Bryant doesn’t have blazing straight line speed, so he makes up for it by being incredibly shifty and having a fantastic burst when he runs the football. Bryant is very patient when running the football, allowing his blockers to set things up for him, before sticking his foot in the ground and exploding into the second level of the defense. When in the open field, Bryant demonstrates fantastic agility and open field vision, as he is rarely tackled one on one in space.
The third thing that is impressive about Bryant’s film is that he shows serious potential as a receiver. Most running backs at the high school level are only used for screens in the passing game, if they are used at all. Bryant, on the other hand, is often used as a slot receiver on passing downs by his team. Bryant shows solid hands and is a capable route runner already at this stage in his development, a skill that could help him see the field early in Lincoln.
The final thing that jumps out on film is that Bryant has a nose for the end zone. Bryant has rushed for 930 rushing yards on 85 attempts this season with 22 touchdowns. That means the young man is scoring once every FOUR CARRIES. Bryant shows great instincts around the goal line and in short yardage situations. He knows when it’s time to dance around and when it’s time to lower his shoulder and scrape the two or three tough yards for a score. Bryant has the potential to become a true three down back with his combination of big play ability, short yardage ability, and talent catching the ball in passing situations.
Weaknesses on Film
The first thing that Bryant will need to work on is improving his straight line speed. Bryant has decent speed. He timed in the mid 4.5 range during the summer camp circuit, but he is caught from behind too often for my liking on film. Breakaway speed isn’t a crucial skill for running backs. There have been plenty of successful running backs that didn’t have it (Ameer Abdullah anyone?), but it does provide a home run threat in the run game that Nebraska has been missing this season.
The second thing that Bryant needs to work on is his ball security. Bryant has a bad habit of carrying the ball away from his body instead of keeping the ball high and tight against his chest. While he has gotten away with it up to this point, this habit of carrying the ball loosely will make him susceptible to fumbles at the collegiate level. Ball security is one thing that can be fixed relatively quickly with consistent coaching and repetition, so this issue should resolve itself pretty quickly.
The final thing that Bryant could use some work on is his pass protection technique. Bryant is used as a wide receiver on passing downs by his high school team, so I wasn’t able to get a good read on his pass pro skills. Pass pro is the toughest part of the game for most young running backs to master, so Bryant will really need to focus and attack this area of his game when he arrives on campus next fall. This is the one area that Bryant needs to work on in order to become a complete back.
Final Conclusion
Bryant was a huge addition to the Nebraska recruiting class for several reasons. For starters, he is a fantastic running back prospect that should be a four year contributor with his all around game. Secondly, he is the first St. Louis recruit to commit to Nebraska since Mike McNeill and Keith Williams joined the Huskers back in 2006. St Louis consistently produces quality recruits (Ezekiel Elliot, Duron Neal, Donavin Newsom), but Nebraska was never able to take advantage of that under Bo Pelini. Finally, Bryant provides insurance if current Husker running back commit Aphonso Thomas flips his commitment to SMU later in the recruiting cycle. Bryant reminds me an awful lot of current Missouri running back Russell Hansbrough, as they have similar body types and run with the same shifty but sneakily powerful running style.
How Will Nebraska use him?
Ideally I would like to see Bryant redshirt and spend a year physically maturing and learning the playbook. Due to his extremely polished all-around game however, I’m expecting that Bryant will see the field early along with Devine Ozigbo. I think those two will make a very potent one two punch over the next three years, with Ozigbo providing the powerful inside running and Bryant giving them a shiftier option to run on the outside.
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