Nebraska running back Tre Bryant retired from football on Friday after dealing with bone-on-bone injuries in both knees that rendered him unable to sleep.
“He just has bone on bone to some degree in both of them,” Huskers head coach Scott Frost told the Omaha World-Herald. “We were going to try to keep him on a pitch count and only give him so many reps in practice and so many reps in the game.
“He’s good enough to be a great player, and I feel terrible for the kid because I think he had a future in the game and a bright future in the game. But it’s hard. Without saying too much, he talks about going home and not being able to sleep at night because of aching and pain in there.”
Bryant claimed to be 100 percent entering fall camp, but cumulative knee and ankle injuries have forced him to hang up his cleats at just 20 years old.
A junior from St. Louis, Bryant played in all 12 regular season games as a true freshman in 2016 before a leg injury forced him out of the Huskers’ Music City Bowl loss to Tennessee. He carried 51 times for 299 yards with two touchdowns in Nebraska’s first two games of 2017 until a knee injury knocked him out for the year and, as we know now, for good. Bryant sat out spring practice in an attempt to make a full recovery this fall.
With Bryant’s retirement, Nebraska still has seven scholarship running backs on roster. Nebraska returns both of its leading returning rushers ahead of Bryant from 2017, senior Devine Ozigbo (129 carries for 493 yards) and senior Mikale Wilbon (88 carries for 379 yards).
Nebraska opens the Frost era Sept. 1 against Akron in Lincoln (8 p.m. ET, FOX).
