LINCOLN A quick Nebraska football quiz . . .
(1) Who were the Cornhuskers' top two fullbacks last season?
If you answered Thomas Lawson and Andy Sand, score six points and proceed.
(2) Which of the two was No. 1 on the pre-Colorado depth chart?
If you answered Lawson, score six more points and proceed.
(3) How many starts did they have between them?
If you answered five, you must have looked it up in the spring media guide. Or you must be related to one or the other. But give yourself six more points.
If your point total is 18, you're a knowledgeable fan and maybe a resourceful one. And you equaled Lawson, who scored three touchdowns last season.
How many of those touchdowns came on running plays?
If you answered none, well, you're not going to get extra credit because everybody knows the fullback never carried the ball in Bill Callahan's offense.
Never? OK, Steve Kriewald carried three times in 2004, including a 48-yard run that surprised Oklahoma. And Dane Todd was charged with one carry in the 2007 Cotton Bowl game on a fake punt that didn't surprise Auburn and lost 15 yards.
Anyway, Lawson's touchdowns came on pass receptions, his only receptions. He has the ball from the first of the three, signed and dated, in his apartment.
"For me to score three, that's just crazy," said Lawson, a senior walk-on from Parker, Colo. "It boggles my mind that I scored one, much less three."
The touchdown came on a 6-yard toss from Sam Keller, late in the first half of the Iowa State game. Lawson would score another late in the game.
"I didn't think I was ever going to score," he said.
His goal is to score a rushing touchdown this season. That's not as far-fetched as it would have been his first three seasons at Nebraska.
Even though offensive coordinator Shawn Watson hasn't made sweeping changes, he has added some running plays for the fullback. Five practices into the spring, "we've put in a lot more running plays for the fullback," Lawson said.
He reconsidered. "A lot more" might be over-stating just a little.
But "we've been running the ball out there," he said.
Any running plays for the fullback would be a lot more than in the past. "We had one a year ago, just one," said Lawson. "We had it installed, but we never ran it."
The fullback's job was to block and occasionally catch a pass, though a tight end or H-back was likely to line up in the fullback's spot for that purpose.
Lawson, a running back in a wing-T offense, didn't block much in high school. And he came to Nebraska planning to play I-back. But he was willing to learn to block. Now, "I like blocking guys," he said. "The key is keeping your head up, staying low, getting lower than the guy you're blocking, don't stutter-step and go full-speed."
Lawson also figured if he were heavier, he would be a more effective blocker, so "I was just kind of eating whatever," he said. He weighed 263 pounds last season.
He weighed 255 at the beginning of spring practice, and the coaches want him to get down to 240 to 245 by fall. "They've got me on a strict eating program, workout program. It's basically salads and meat, a little bit of carbs, and do a lot more cardio (conditioning). It's awesome. I'm just fine with it," he said. "It's all good."
Working with new running backs coach Tim Beck also has been good.
"I love Coach Beck. He's really down to earth," said Lawson. "It's kind of a different thing from Coach (Randy) Jordan. Coach Beck is way cool.
"I wish I would have had him my whole time here."
Lawson has never considered fullback a forgotten position. "We've got plays, not as many as everyone else, but we still have our little part," he said.
And this season, that part could be bigger. "They're going to incorporate us more into the offense. The fullback still has to know, pretty much, what everyone's doing so we can go off of what they do. So it hasn't changed that much," he said.
"It was always positive to get on the field."
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