NEW YORK – You never know what someone is dealing with in their personal life.

This applies to everyone in life. That’s certainly the case for Rahmir Johnson, Nebraska’s sixth running back, who earned MVP honors after rushing for 60 yards and a touchdown in Saturday’s 20-15 Pinstripe Bowl win over Boston College at Yankees Stadium he caught a pass for 9 yards.

There is more to life than just football. But sometimes, when something or someone you care about is taken away, a game like football with a locker room full of teammates who are like brothers to each other can be a safe place. It can feel like home when home is far away.

Football was Rahmir’s safe place and the locker room at Nebraska was his home when he received the devastating news that his mother, Angela, had died.

“His mother was very, very sick the whole season. I asked him to go home. “President (Jeffrey) Gold intervened and put us in touch with doctors here who would care for his mother as she prepared for hospice care,” Matt Rhule said after the game. “I asked Rahmir to go home, he wouldn’t go home. He had to play this game, he had to stay here with his teammates. Went home on the bye week, asked me not to tell anyone, didn’t want to.” Let Emmett (Johnson) know. And he lost his mother in November. These are the kids that got me into coaching. “

While Rahmir stood at the podium and spoke publicly for the first time about what he had been through, he spoke about his determination to have a special season in 2024, his last as a Husker.

The Harlem, New York, native was desperate to go home with a bang and a win, a bowl victory for the first time since 2015. Something that will help a program that has come to mean so much to Rahmir move forward to better times . Winning times.

“Everything I do is for Nebraska, for this team,” Rahmir said. “When I heard the news of my mother’s death, I said to coach Rhule, I don’t want it to be a big distraction, I don’t want the team to say, ‘Oh, Rahmir, I’m sorry.’ “Your loss” and all that means I love this program. And even with news like that, I still want to play the type of person I am.

Perhaps Angela was on Rahmir’s mind as he turned to the crucial fourth-and-1 against BC, a long fourth-and-1 that Rhule saw as almost a fourth-and-two.

Just one meter away from bowl victory. One yard away from helping Nebraska do something it hasn’t done in nine years.

What better play could there be than Rhule’s bread-and-butter run, which he’s used since his Temple days: Stud Right 30 Hammer.

“The boys wanted it. They wanted this play. Ty (Robinson) comes into play. We call this play Stud Right 30 Hammer. We’ve been calling him that since Temple,” Rhule said with a smile. “It’s our game.”

Nebraska used Stud Right 30 Hammer early in the game on a touchdown where Kwinten Ives followed Robinson’s block into the end zone to give the Huskers a 13-2 lead. But on this run, at this moment, Rhule wanted 14.

And 14 managed 11 yards when he only needed 1 yard. Rahmir kept his balls low and his legs moving. He even took a few Eagles for a spin on the way down.

“He (Rhule) said, ‘This is your city, man, let’s finish it right,'” Rahmir said. “I saw the track, Ty created the track for me. Got the first down. Won the bowl.”

“It was a great run,” Rhule said. “Even back then he had five points of ball security, he knew the situation, he knew four minutes. Really good game.”

“I just told Rahmir to follow me,” Robinson said. “I saw three guys on the edge and they all kind of stopped as they looked at me. Then I felt Rahmir coming to the seam and I stood right behind him to make sure he could continue. When I’m out there, I don’t know much except just hit someone.

Dylan Raiola said of the run: “This is a play that is installed on the first day of fall camp and sets the tone and style of our DNA – going downhill, running the ball. And I think whoever sees No. 9. “If they’re like that, they’re going to get out of the way, we made the same play, it looked like he (Robinson) strangled him or something. That’s a tone-setting play. You know, when the play is called, it’s time to go to work and get the win.

Rahmir saw members of his family and his football family at Yankee Stadium. His old youth football team, the Harlem Jets, stood in a corner. His family members were in the end zone where he scored his touchdown.

It was all a special moment, a special day for Rahmir. And in a victorious locker room, after the clock hit zeros, Robinson wanted to say something to his buddy.

“I told Rahmir in the locker room, this is for life,” Robinson said. “The brotherhood we have built means so much to me. Next time I come to New York, I’ll talk to him. As we hang out and go places, it just shows what kind of person Rahmir is to go through this.” Personally, I understand this from a different perspective, but I know that the mental strength that he has demonstrated throughout the season day, just proved what a good man he is.

Everyone has their own way of dealing with difficult moments in life. Some people like to talk about it. Others would prefer to wear it close to the vest. There is no right or wrong way. Whatever they think is the right path.

Rahmir Johnson put the team first. But this team was also his second family that helped him along the way. Now he’s in the town he grew up in with a trophy that means something to the program he loves.

“It was never about him. He loved his mother. He lost his mother. He cares about this team and I think this is a fitting end for him,” Rhule said. “So I hope he wears his pads on the subway at home and goes to his apartment and gets his MVP trophy and takes it out somewhere tonight.”