LINCOLN — It hurt Bobby Rainey last year to sometimes not be hurting the morning after Western Kentucky football games.

Rainey had a productive sophomore season for the Hilltoppers, nearly hitting 1,000 yards and averaging an impressive 6.5 per carry for a winless team.

But the 5-foot-8, 196-pounder from Griffin, Ga., felt as if he had so much more to give.

“To me, I thought I should have got more carries, because of the production I was getting,” Rainey said. “But it didn’t work out that way.

“I’m a competitive guy and I hate losing, and I want to be the one who has the ball put in my hands. So I felt like I should be their guy.”

Rainey finished with a modest 144 rushing attempts on his way to 939 yards. He carried the football more than 16 times just once in a game, going 19 for 115 yards against Louisiana-Lafayette.

And what made the lack of work seem worse was the lack of winning.

“If we’re doing good without me getting it, I don’t care,” he said, “as long as we win.”

Nebraska likely will get a steady dose of Rainey on Saturday night. So might others this season with Rainey now under new management, with Willie Taggart taking over as Western Kentucky coach.

Taggart knows the value of a productive back after spending the past three seasons as an assistant coach at Stanford, where he helped develop Toby Gerhart for his run at the Heisman Trophy last season.

“When I first heard coach Taggart was going to be here, I was excited,” Rainey said. “I’m going to soak up everything he throws at me. He had a guy up for the Heisman. I’m ready to listen. I’m all ears.”

Taggart is ready for Rainey to be all legs, and maybe bust some runs as he did a year ago when he had at least one 15-yard carry in 10 of 12 games.

What he already has seen from Rainey, however, is a competitiveness and a belief in what Taggart and the new staff are asking.

“He’s a football player,” Taggart said. “He is what we’re looking for. He looks small, but he plays big. You might look and say, ‘Look at this little guy,’ but he reminds me of the guy at Oregon State (Jacquizz Rogers).”

And anything like Gerhart?

“He’s just not as big as Toby, but has some of that vision and understands the blocking schemes, and just the understanding of how to play the game,” Taggart said. “He sets up his blocks well. He’s really good at it, actually. Better than I expected.”

Taggart said players such as Rainey take games against BCS-level opponents as challenges — their chance to prove that they could play at that level.

Against Kentucky as a freshman, Rainey rushed for 99 yards on just nine carries. He started his sophomore season with eight carries for 41 yards and a touchdown at Tennessee.

Rainey wants the football against Nebraska — and Taggart’s decision to put him in a no-contact yellow jersey for most of preseason camp is likely an indicator that Rainey will be getting it all season.

“Coach Taggart, he’s going to put me in the best situation to carry that weight,” Rainey said. “I think I can.”

Contact the writer:

444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com

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