Ameer Abdullah had some compelling insights Wednesday on the College Football 24/7 Podcast. He shared his thoughts about the way the running back position has come to be devalued in the NFL, the NFL player he most tries to emulate, and more. But as the podcast hosts learned, the Nebraska star rusher can change direction in conversation as impressively as he does in slicing through Big Ten defenses.
And two days before Halloween, Abdullah's thoughts were also racing to end times.
"I'm a weird individual, I go by the beat of my own drum. I'm not stocking like up guns or anything. But it's crossed my mind, I'm pretty sure at some point potentially, there could be a zombie apocalypse," Abdullah said in response to a question from NFL Media's Matt "Money" Smith regarding previous reports of his supposed zombie fear. "Me and my friend Kenny Bell who goes here as well, we stock up on Gatorades in fall camp, crackers, bread. His house is like our bunker. We're going to board it up when it happens and just fight them from the inside out."
If he goes through them anything like tacklers, the zombie body count will run high. The senior has rushed for more than 200 yards in four games this season, and has scored at least one touchdown in every game.
A few of the more grounded highlights from Abdullah's spectacular interview with Smith and NFL Media analysts Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks, which starts at the 16:40 mark:
* On the devaluation of running backs in the NFL draft:
"I feel like a good case of it was last weekend if you watched the Saints game. Every football fan knows the Saints' offense is led by a prolific passing game, which is led by Drew Brees, Marques Colston, add in Brandin Cooks, obviously Jimmy Graham. But Mark Ingram, a guy who won the Heisman at Alabama, he really stole the show last Sunday for them. The running back still has a very key role. If they want to say it's devalued or whatever term they want to use now, I feel like it's very important to establish the running game. If you don't have a solid running back who can do that, then your offense is going to be lacking. You can't just throw the ball the whole time."
* On why former Tampa Bay Buccaneers star Warrick Dunn is the player he tries to emulate: **
"Being able to bounce back from rough moments, that's the kind of person he was. He never was too caught up into the hype, the glam. ... We are very similar-sized, 5-9, 200 pounds, and he made it work, he was a heck of a back in the league."
* On how he calms hot-tempered coach Bo Pelini on the sideline:
"What I do just to calm Bo down on the sideline is tell him to just take a deep breath and soak it all in. Not many stadiums have 91,000 people coming to support them. So just look around and realize, 'You're blessed, bro. No need to stress.'"
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
