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LINCOLN — Emmett Johnson stood on the Memorial Stadium turf in street clothes nodding and dapping up the Nebraska running backs. At least on this day, Nebraska didn’t need its All-America rusher from last season. It got combined top-end production from three backs who played like the co-1s they’re listed as on the depth chart. While Johnson will embark next week on his NFL rookie season with Kansas City, the Huskers unveiled a new trio with its own high ambitions. Jamal Rule, Mekhi Nelson and Isaiah Mozee teamed up for 329 yards on 35 touches — that’s 9.4 yards per attempt — and five touchdowns as NU wore down Ohio 49-21 on a sweltering Saturday. “It’s the first game,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said. “It’s not the Big Ten. But I like the backs.” Mozee took the Huskers’ first carry, bursting ahead for 24 yards. Nelson went eight yards on the next snap. Rule, the true freshman who entered with at least a job as the short-yardage back, capped the drive with three straight goal-line plunges including a 1-yard finish. People are also reading… The six-foot, 215-pound Rule ran 15 times for 122 yards to become the first Nebraska freshman running back to reach the century mark in his debut since Tierre Green collected 112 as a redshirt frosh against Western Illinois in 2004. Nelson — after flashing in the Las Vegas Bowl last winter — showed out for the home crowd for the first time with 129 total yards (64 rushing, 65 receiving) on a dozen chances. Both backs said afterward they fought their emotions as well as the heat. Nelson, arrested during the summer in Florida on suspicion of aggravated battery, wasn’t sure even two months ago he would get the chance he did Saturday. Rule teared up during the tunnel walk seeing the fan support. “It was a long-time dream come true,” Rule said. “And it was even better than I expected.” Nelson’s highlight moments included an outside 29-yard touchdown run as the hosts pulled away in the third quarter. Then he hauled in a 51-yard scoring catch and run, serving as a safety value for scrambling quarterback Anthony Colandrea and sprinting straight upfield as a pair of Ohio defenders twice collided trying in vain to bring him down. Rule converted a third-and-goal touchdown from the 1 on Nebraska’s opening chance, leaked out on a 24-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter and ran in from 11 yards out late. Nelson said the backs continue to push each other, even hyping one other when passing during substitutions. “He just did it, why can’t I?” Nelson said. “That’s really our mindset just trying to create explosive play after explosive play.” Rule flashed his affable personality all day — he was shouting “It’s game day!” so loudly beforehand that Nelson advised him to save some energy for the field. He chatted afterward about managing his own self-critiques and perfectionism. “I expected to have a pretty good game,” Rule said. “I didn’t expect to find the end zone three times.” The rushing output — 41 carries for 248 yards and four scores — validated Nebraska’s steadfast internal belief that it didn’t need to add more bodies to the position group last winter. Linebacker Vincent Shavers said Rule’s nickname is “the Terminator” for how he finishes runs. That Rule laughs while running gassers and executing leg presses — two challenges Shavers considers the most difficult since he’s been at Nebraska — told the defender all he needed to know. “They were talking about how maybe we should get transfers and things like that for the running back room,” NU safety Jamir Conn said. “But we knew what we had. All three of those guys are NFL guys. They’re going to prove that this year.”