#29 Collins Okafor
Jr • IB • 6-1 • 225 lbs
| Hometown: | OMAHA, NE |
| Previous School: | WESTSIDE |
Reading into the Roster
The latest additions to the 2012 Husker Recruiting class have their official bio's and are listed on the Huskers.com football roster. Signing day makes it official, but seeing the names of those players listed and ready contribute makes it real. Along with these additions, the graduated players have been removed …
Cross Adds Depth at Running Back
Nebraska may have had to alter its recruiting strategy late in the game when Lester Ward and Collins Okafor announced their intent to leave Nebraska after four years with degrees (and kudos to them for earning those degrees). They added a big back to their recruiting class yesterday in three-star …
Whitaker Makes Thirteen
The Huskers collected a thirteenth commitment for the Class of 2012 when California offensive lineman Corey Whitaker accepted a scholarship offer from Nebraska. Rivals.com rates Whitaker as a three-star prospect. The commitment might be considered "soft" as Whitaker may still make a scheduled trip to Oregon this weekend. The Ducks have …
Husker Backs Will Compete In Big Ten
While watching college football, there will be those times when a fan is sitting and viewing a game in a favorite establishment. Enjoyment turns to annoyance when a neighboring table or stool indicates their bias - insisting that the Big Ten is just full of plodding running games and 11 …
Rex In Effect
Once you get past the impressive debuts by Brion Carnes and Jamal Turner, Saturday's spring game star had to be Rex Burkhead. The junior running back finished with 91 yards on 11 carries, and looked every bit the quick, reliable and surprisingly powerful back that Husker fans have come to expect. But, the spring …
Ron Brown Will Build Up Backs
When reviewing the illustrious coaching career of Ron Brown, one thing jumps off the page. This will be his first year coaching running backs (or as the roster lists the top guys, I-Backs). Brown may not have extensive firsthand experience with directing backs, but coaching and the mentality behind motivating …
Ward to Tight End Could Mean Heard's On the Way
When it comes to qualifying academically, history tells us that you don't really know until you see the player on campus. Athletes are generally confident and optimistic. So the fact that star running back recruit Braylon Heard feels he's met the eligibility requirements isn't the final word. The NCAA clearinghouse …
Return of the Back?
With all apologies to Mark Morrison, Husker fans may have reason to sing about the "return of the back". Less than a month ago, the running back position was looking like an area of possible concern for NU. After the returning Rex Burkhead, the Huskers had little production back in their …
Robinson Transfer Increases Depth Concerns at Running Back
Going into the 2011 season, one of the concerns for the Nebraska offense was going to be how to replace Roy Helu at running back both in terms of production and overall depth. Rex Burkhead could be penciled in as a starter but then the clear #2 among returning players …
Delayed Arrival by Heard Doesn't Doom the Offense
Braylon Heard, the much anticipated freshman running back has not qualified academically and therefore would join the team in January, 2011 at the soonest. This is a bit of a blow for fans who'd pinned some hope that Heard would help improve the offense over its anemic performance a year ago. …
Considering Running Back Depth
Call me crazy, but these are the days I find myself thinking about who Nebraska's fourth string running back is. Seriously. I know it is June. Is there any better time to consider the obscure? What else are you gonna do, Husker fan? Frankly folks, a person can only obsess about …
Underclassmen Make Strides to Impact Team
So it's apparently never too early for 2011 draft talk, as SI's Andrew Perloff and ESPN's Todd McShay have decided. With McShay believing that Jared Crick will be leaving early as a Junior next year. Looking at Nebraska's roster, there are 25 seniors and 24 juniors on the roster this year, …
Who's Fourth?
There aren't many positions on a football team where the fourth man on the depth chart sees the field. But running back is one of them. For now, it looks like the top three on the depth chart are going to be Roy Helu, Rex Burkhead, and Dontrayevous Robinson. Lester Ward …
Who's Behind Helu?
Die-hard Husker fans know the names: Mendoza, Okafor, Ward, Jones, and Robinson. These are the guys that are going to be called upon to spell starting running back Roy Helu now that Rex Burkhead has been sidelined with injury. If Helu should get injured, one or more of them would be …
The Weekly Buzz
The biggest actual football news going on during this week was probably overshadowed by a young guy's indecision the past few days. There was probably some important piece of information about Nebraska and their preparation that nobody noticed. Everyone by now has heard about Collins Okafor, and it even almost distracted …
Collins Okafor Leaving Huskers
If you're like me, every night you check news online to make sure nothing terrible happened during the day that you should know about. At first glance, this might seem like really bad news to anyone who cares about Husker football. Fans are never happy to see a highly touted player …
Will Recent Recruits Silence the Naysayers?
In recent weeks and months there's been a lot of chatter that Nebraska was "behind" in recruiting due to the relatively small number of commitments to NU and the many commitments to programs like Texas. The clamor rose to almost outright panic by some factions of Husker fans with the decommitments …
What Does Losing Castille Mean?
The announcement that Quentin Castille was dismissed from the team was not welcome news. He might have been one of the ten to fifteen players you’d least want to lose for 2009. But how much of the enthusiasm over Castille for this season was based on the Clemson game and how …
The Return of the “We” Backs?
For a very long time, Nebraska hasn’t had running backs. It’s had “I-backs”, named for where they lined up in the I-formation that helped define the Husker offense in the Tom Osborne era. While Bill Callahan was seen as having killed a lot of great NU traditions, even he realized that …
Absent Key Players, Opportunity Knocks for Backups
It's a good thing that most Nebraska football fans appreciate watching the running game or quality play along the line of scrimmage. The absence of some important skill position players will likely change the complexion of Saturday's Red-White Spring Game. Fans are even more likely to see a defensive contest, I …
What to Make of Mendoza
Among the big stories in the opening days of Spring practice has been the move of Marcus Mendoza from running back to wide receiver. For many fans, this was a welcome change. If you hadn't already thought of it yourself, it's likely you'd heard it suggested before. Quite simply, he's a …
Position Breakdowns: I-Backs
Now that we have about as much information as we can expect to get between now and fall practices about the depth chart, we'll examine each position to identify the likely starters and other key contributors.
Chaos Theory
Chaos theory tells us the flutter of a butterfly's wings in one part of the world could cause a Hurricane a thousand miles away. That is, the cumulative effect of many small tipping points can ultimately be the difference between a mild storm off the coast and a massive event. Similarly, …
The Class of 2008 Comes Together
The Huskers recruiting class of 2008 might be remembered as much for whom it didn't include as for who it did. Among the decommits were five-star quarterback Blaine Gabbert, four-star running back Jonas Gray, four-star offensive linemen Trevor Robinson, Bryce Givens, and Dan Hoch, four-star linebacker Shaun Mohler, and five-star defensive …
Bo Sets the Bar
When Collins Okafor spoke about his recommitment to Nebraska he quoted coach Pelini, including this gem, "I've never had a losing season and I'm not planning on having one now". You can appreciate that would play well with recruits, but given everything we know about Pelini, is there any reason to …
NU Gets Lucky...Back
Yesterday was filled with important news concerning NU's roster for 2008, as Collins Okafor and Josh Williams renewed their commitment to being part of the upcoming recruiting class for the Huskers. But, I was more excited by another piece of news concerning NU's roster. In his press conference, Okafor let it …
“Do It Now�
For those who haven't heard, Bo Pelini told Omaha running back recruit Collins Okafor that if he wanted to decommit to “decommit nowâ€?. He also said, “I've never had a losing season and I'm not planning on having one nowâ€?. Doesn't that sound exactly like the legend of Bo, the same …
Big Recruiting Weekend as Much About Retention as Acquisition
As I write this, Scout.com reports that 11 recruits will make official visits to Nebraska this weekend. This stuff can change hourly so stay tuned. Five of those recruits (or nearly half of the visitors) have already committed to Nebraska and tend to be more highly regarded than the other six …
Wanted: Offensive Recruits
You'd have to think that the hiring of Bo Pelini will give the Huskers an excellent chance to retain the defensive recruits that have committed to Nebraska or to replace them with other players. The Huskers also appear likely to meet their needs on the offensive line and at tight end. …
Recruiting Update
Now that the Huskers have a head coach, it will become easier to understand which recruits still want to come to Lincoln and which will look elsewhere. Sure, there's a ton of re-recruiting to be done of the kids who had committed to Bill Callahan, but with a lot less uncertainty …
Osborne's Actions Speak Loudly
Tom Osborne is admittedly a man of few words. He is also a man of decisive action. And, it is typically a good idea to it pay more attention to what a person does than what they say, anyway. Based on this line of reasoning, some of Osborne's recent activities tell …
Keep ‘Em Coming
You can never have too many friends and in college football you can never have too many running backs. No position takes quite as much punishment. Sure defenses tee off on quarterbacks and make some crushing blindside hits. But except for a few runs out of bounds or a breakaway touchdown, …
Sean Fisher Joins Husker 2008 Class
Millard North senior-to-be Sean Fisher has given his verbal commitment to join Nebraska's 2008 recruiting class. The 6-5 inch, 210 lb safety and linebacker prospect was on hand for NU football camp this week, and came to his decision. Fisher chose NU over a myriad of other schools from around the …
Page 1 of 1 pages
- Big 12 Commissioner’s Spring Academic Honor Roll (2009)
- Big 12 Commissioner's Fall Academic Honor Roll (2008, 2009)