Spring grade out: Quarterback

We begin our spring grade outs today by giving our final take on the quarterback position.

We got a glimpse of this in Nebraska's bowl game win over UCLA with quarterback Tommy Armstrong, but as head coach Mike Riley looks ahead to 2016 it's pretty clear they want to run the quarterback more.

A year ago that wasn't the case, as offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf was on record saying they don't want their quarterback "being a running back."

I think it's pretty clear going forward they realize for Armstrong and this offense to play their best brand of football they need to sprinkle in more zone read and quarterback keeper plays. It also forces the defense to respect another element of the offense. Senior Ryker Fyfe said the Husker quarterbacks studied a lot of Carolina Panther and Minnesota Viking cut-ups of how they implemented the quarterback run game.

It was very hard to gauge the improvement Armstrong made this spring in the passing game, because there were so many injury factors that kept him from working with his top receivers like Jordan Westerkamp.

The biggest thing is the running game needs to be there for support. If Armstrong faces a high number of third-and-long situations like he did a year ago, it puts him into a position where he's not going to have success.

The numbers don't lie: The Huskers were 0-5 in games where Armstrong/Fyfe had to throw the ball 40 times or more - BYU 41 attempts (126 rushing yards), Miami 45 attempts (153 rushing yards), Northwestern 48 attempts (82 rushing yards), Purdue 48 attempts (77 rushing yards) and Iowa 45 attempts (137 rushing yards).

The balance has to be there. Nebraska needs to strive for at least 200 rushing yards per game next season in conference play for the passing game to take the next step.

When spring ball started I think a lot of people expected quarterback AJ Bush to either get buried on the depth chart or even pursue transfer options.

When it was all said and done Bush chose a different route, and that was to compete and fight every day.

He finished spring practice very strong and he will no doubt be a dark horse name in the quarterback race in 2017 when all the attention will be focused on guys like Patrick O'Brien, Tanner Lee and Tristan Gebbia. Bush arguably may be the best dual-threat quarterback on the roster, and he demonstrated that with his big run in the spring game.

When you start to look at the overall direction Nebraska's quarterback position is heading, it's been a long time since there's been this much potential talent coming to campus.

Everybody knows about the potential and upside of O'Brien, but Lee has a chance to really shake things up and he already has Division I quarterback starting experience. Then you throw in Gebbia in January of 2017 and that will arguably be the best collection of passing quarterbacks Nebraska has ever had on campus at one time when you look at their high school numbers and accomplishments.