Following the Nebraska Cornhuskers 28-21 victory over UCLA on Big Ten After Dark Saturday night, two Huskers nabbed weekly honors from the conference for their performances in the Rose Bowl in front of
a mostly red crowd.
Emmett Johnson, a junior from Minneapolis, after spot-starting and splitting playing time as a freshman and sophomore, continued a monster breakout season in his third year as a Husker by accounting for 232 total yards against the Bruins. With 129 rushing and 103 receiving yards, he became the first Husker in school history to accomplish the single-game 100-100 rushing/receiving feat. He is also the first player to nail the feat this season in Division 1.
In addition, he becomes the first player in the Big Ten in at least 30 years to have more than 125 rushing yards, more than 100 receiving yards, a rushing touchdown and two receiving touchdowns in the same game.
By scoring a career-high-tying three total touchdowns in the victory – 2 receiving and 1 rushing – he improved his season total to 14, which is the the most by a Husker player since 2014 and is tied for 4th in the country. He leads the country in total yards from scrimmage with 1431. He is 5th in rushing yards per game and leads the nation in accounting for 37.1% of his team’s total yards. He is one of only one of 3 players in the FBS with at least 10 rushing TD’s and 3 receiving TD’s. He is the only P4 running back with 4 100-yard rushing games in conference play. He has the most rushing yards for a Husker since Ameer Abdullah in 2014 and is currently 2nd in the country (and 1st in the P4) in rushing yards.
He becomes the first Husker win the Big 10 Offensive Player of the Week since Anthony Grant in 2022.
I feel so much better now for hyping him for the Heisman in Saturday’s game recap.
T.J. Lateef earned the Big 10 Co-Freshman of the Week award after becoming the fifth true freshman to start at quarterback for Nebraska (the 2nd in 2 years) since 1950 and helped lead the Huskers to a road victory over UCLA in his hometown on Saturday night.
He completed 13-of-15 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns, including completing his first 11 passes of the game, and rushed five times for 31 yards. He is believed to be the first true freshman in FBS since at least 1995 with a minimum of 15 passing attempts and 2 or less incompletions, 200+yards passing, three or more passing touchdowns and 30 or more rushing yards in a single In
He is the first Husker to win the Freshman of the Week award since Jacory Barney Jr. last season.
The Huskers have their final bye this weekend and return to action in two weeks against Penn State in Happy Valley.
