After a disappointing recruiting cycle, running back prospect John Bivens will finally get an opportunity to display his talent at the college level. The player who hails from Ohio had several scholarship offers before a knee injury took away his senior season. Some of the teams that were interested in Bivens were Louisville, USC, Kentucky, and Nebraska. However, Biven’s knee injury, as well as some academic hurdles, prevented him from receiving an offer from the schools.

Bivens joining Nebraska Huskers

Despite his challenges, Bivens' appears to have stayed positive, and this week, the young prospect announced that he would be joining Nebraska as a walk on this coming season.

Bivens made the announcement by simply changing his social media profiles to read “RB @ University of Nebraska.” Before his injury, the Huskers were highly interested in Bivens, even though current head coach Scott Frost had not taken over the position. Bivens posted 1,308 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2017 with an average gain of 9.9 yards per carry. 247Sports ranked him as the 38th running back in 2019.

Meeting with Huskers coach Scott Frost

Bivens visited the Huskers in January last year and interacted with Coach Frost and his coaching staff. At the time, the running back prospect said that the program was going in the right direction. “Some of the players that were there before coach Scott Frost got there were saying the program wasn’t where it needed to be before he arrived.

The players now see things going up from there.” Now that he has an opportunity to play for Coach Frost, Bivens will add more depth to Nebraska’s running back room.

Senior Dedrick Mills is the team’s go-to player at the running back position. Last season, Mills ran for 745 yards and 10 touchdowns while averaging 5.2 yards per carry.

In addition to Mills, Bivens will join redshirt running back Rahmir Johnson and Ronald Thompkins as well as freshmen Sevion Morrison and Marvin Scott III. It appears that Nebraska will use a running back by committee approach next season, but the team will have to develop some of its running backs into consistent producers on the field.

The team’s running backs coach Ryan Held had said that he looks forward to using all his running backs next season. Ryan admitted that the team’s options at the position were a little thin last year, but with six running backs on the roster, the team has upgraded its options. “We were a little thin at the end of the year, but it's one of those situations where we can't be thin like that anymore, and I think we fixed that.” Let us know what you think about Bivens, put your comment in the comment section. Stay tuned for more updates on Nebraska Huskers.