Little changes for Husker fullbacks
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BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
From the Spring Game, everybody learned Nebraska coaches are sprinkling in some option plays.
The quarterback is again a threat to run the football.
In fall camp, receivers are focusing more on blocking 20 yards downfield than they are on running fade routes.
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With these old-fashioned tweaks to the Husker offense, it seems the fullbacks are the only ones not turning back the clock.
“Not really,” sophomore fullback Justin Makovicka said. “It’s pretty much the same. I mean, we might catch a few more balls, and be in there a little bit more, because they’re going to try to run the ball a little bit more.
“But as far as our role and stuff, it’s pretty much the same.”
So no fullback traps when least expected?
“Maybe once in a while, but not too much,” Makovicka said. “Not like the old days.”
Wait. How can a Nebraska football team have a fullback named Makovicka on the two-deep and not put the ball in his hands?
Makovicka manages a laugh.
Sure, like he’s not heard that question before.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I guess you’ll have to talk to Coach about that one.”
Makovicka understands. His brothers, Jeff and Joel, rank up there with Rathman, Schlesinger and Franklin when it comes to famous, hard-nosed Husker fullbacks.
An occasional touch of the ball, of course, spurred their fame.
“I kind of got used to it growing up,” said Justin Makovicka, who watched Jeff start on the 1995 national championship team, and Joel on the 1997 title team. “It’s kind of just another thing in my life.
“Even the (teammates) from out of state will come up to me and be, ‘Hey, I remember watching Nebraska football and watching Makovickas.”
This Makovicka, at 6-foot-1 and 240 pounds, hasn’t yet played. He redshirted in 2006 and never got in a game last season. Now, he’s second on the depth chart to fifth-year senior Thomas Lawson.
“I’ve seen him make a lot of strides,” said Lawson, who played in 10 games last season and caught three touchdown passes. “I’ve actually seen him grow up. He’s gotten a lot better as an individual. I’m trying to coach him along as much as I can.”
Lawson is from Parker, Colo. He learned of Nebraska’s fullback tradition after making a position switch from running back.
“I got a little bit of pressure,” he said, “like, ‘Man, you’re a fullback now, we have good fullbacks here.’”
Lawson took note when athletic director Tom Osborne, on the first day of fall camp, showed clips of past Huskers displaying extraordinary effort. On the screen was a Makovicka busting his way to a touchdown.
“He couldn’t have not shown that,” Lawson said.
Of course, Lawson said he’d love to carry the ball. There are opportunities for that, he said, but in offensive coordinator Shawn Watson’s system, it’s not on the forefront of the fullbacks’ responsibilities.
It’s likely, though, that the fullbacks will see more snaps this season, given coaches’ intent on establishing a physical running game. Last year, early deficits meant passing the ball and playing catch-up, which meant fewer snaps for the fullbacks.
“We’ve still got to stick our nose up in there when we have to make blocks,” Lawson said, “and we still have to know everybody’s position on the field.”
Makovicka, a native of Ulysses and graduate of East Butler High School , said he speaks almost daily to Jeff, now a lawyer in Omaha, and two or three times a week to Joel, who works in physical therapy. He often seeks their guidance and perspective.
As for not carrying the ball, Justin said he’s OK with that, that he understands he’s in a new era, a new offense, a new role.
Besides, there’s another Makovicka on the way. The youngest of the brothers, Jordan, joins the team next week as a freshman walk-on.
He’s a running back.
A Makovicka some day blocking for a Makovicka?
“That’d be pretty cool,” Justin said.
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
