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BY MATTHEW V. ROBERSON
SUN STAFF WRITER

JONESBORO — This isn’t the same old Nebraska.
No longer is Nebraska that one-dimensional team that just pounds away, grinding the football down the field and beating opponents into submission. The days of run, run again, and run some more, have passed.
The No. 22-ranked Cornhuskers offer a much more balanced scheme offensively than those well-known ground games under former coach Tom Osborne.
Second-year coach Bo Pelini hasn’t thrown out the running attack, much like the previous coaching regime. But Pelini has put an emphasis on throwing the football, making Nebraska dangerous through the air and on the ground.
Arkansas State (1-0) will find out just how dangerous Saturday when it faces the Cornhuskers for the first time ever.
“Their production is very balanced,” ASU coach Steve Roberts said. “They’re not a team that is going to just toss it to an I-back and let him go like you and I grew up watching. They’re very, very balanced. They throw the ball around — 3-step drops, 5-step drops, play-action passes — and then, obviously, they get the backs involved as well.”
In Pelini’s first year at Nebraska, the Cornhuskers ran the ball 486 times and passed it 433. The difference in running and passing was less than five percent.
After decades of running straight at opponents with backs like Mike Rozier, Roger Craig and Lawrence Phillips, the Cornuskers have moved into a new age. They throw it whenever they feel like it, and that’s more than 47 percent of the time.
“They are very multiple offensively and very balanced,” Roberts said. “They show you a lot of different formations, shifts and movements and motions. They make you have to communicate and realign and get things sorted out. We have to be very good at that or they’ll make us look silly.”
Nebraska (1-0) is breaking in a new quarterback this season in junior Zac Lee.
Against Florida Atlantic last week, Lee was 15-of-22 for 213 yards and two touchdowns. It would have been more but Cornhusker receivers dropped three catchable balls.
Roberts indicated Lee is plenty capable of burning his secondary.
“He’s very good at managing the game,” Roberts said. “He has a very accurate arm. He has all the throws — the touch throws, the arm strength — he has all of that. He can beat you running the football as well.”
As good as Lee may or may not be, the bigger concern for the Red Wolves appears to be on Nebraska’s offensive line and in the receiving unit.
The Cornhuskers have three starters back on their line and all five linemen are huge. They range from 6-foot-4, 290-pound center Jacob Hickman to 6-7, 310-pound tackle Marcel Jones.
“Up front, they have a lot of players in the offensive line that have played a lot of snaps,” Roberts said. “They’re very physical up front and they play together extremely well.
“They get on people and play physical,” he added. “They’re what you’d expect at the University of Nebraska.”
At receiver, Nebraska returns a pair of taller and bigger playmakers in Niles Paul (6-1, 215) and Menelik Holt (6-4, 220).
“One of the things that stands out is the strength and size of their wide receivers,” Roberts said. “They’re all tall, 200-plus pounds, big guys that are very powerful and can run very well.”
But don’t forget the running game.
Nebraska still likes to run the football more than half the time it takes a snap.
In a 49-3 pounding of Florida Atlantic last week, the Cornhuskers ran the football 32 times for 259 yards, an average of 8.1 yards a carry.
Junior Roy Helu Jr. is the weapon Arkansas State will have to be most aware of. Helu rushed for more than 800 yards and seven touchdowns last season, finishing with over 1,000 yards total offense.
“We have to stop their run,” ASU defensive end Alex Carrington said. “That is really going to be the key for us. They’ve got a really good running back and he can make things happen. He reminds me of Don Jones maybe in a couple of years. We’ve definitely got to stop their run and force them into some passing situations.”
Florida Atlantic tried but failed miserably at stopping him.
Helu beat up the Owls for 152 yards on 16 carries and scored three touchdowns. His longest carry of the night went for 44 yards and a score.
FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger said his defense hit Helu, but couldn’t stop him.
“I hate to look at the stat that says yards after contact,” Schnellenberger said. “I would guess out of the 400 they got, 300 were yards after contact. It means that it’s tough to tackle a tough hard back in the open by yourself one-on-one.”
Roberts is quite mindful of Helu as well.
“He’s a complete back and a very tough guy to tackle,” Roberts said. “He runs through a lot of tackles. He has very good speed, good vision and good moves. He’s a complete back.”
Lee staked Nebraska to a quick lead with touchdown passes for the first two scores of the game. Then the Huskers turned to the ground game for their next three scores — all of them on runs by Helu.
By the middle of the third quarter, the Corhnuskers led 35-3 and the reserves played the entire fourth quarter.
Considering what the Huskers did and how they did it to Florida Atlantic, Roberts knows the Red Wolves are up against a monster challenge. It’s a challenge that includes stopping a team that doesn’t just run the football anymore.
“They are the Nebraska that you would expect when you say that you are playing the University of Nebraska,” Roberts said. “We have our work cut out for us going into one of the best venues in college football to play a game. In order to compete, we are going to have to play exceptional.”

mroberson@jonesborosun.com