Things were moving too quickly for Nebraska I-back Marlon Lucky throughout last season and into January and February.

“That was a horrible year,” he said Thursday. “All the stuff was just too fast for me. I mean, it had to slow down.”

The stuff to which he refers, he said, includes pressure from fans and high expectations. He was homesick. School was difficult. He lost his starting spot after five games. It was a lot to handle, he said. He prayed and took life a day at a time.

Lucky’s rough patch of life came to a head this past February when he was found unconscious at his apartment in Lincoln and rushed to a Lincoln hospital. He was hospitalized for five days with an unspecified medical condition, but returned to the team in time for spring practice.

“I just got sick,” Lucky said Thursday in his first media interview since his hospitalization. “I realized that I have to grow up and be a man.”

Lucky said the several months since the end of last season have amounted to “a big turning point” in his life. To him, being a man entails “being more mature about everything and taking life serious.” A 21-year-old junior, he said he intends to be a role model for younger players. He also plans to be more accessible to the media, which he regards as an indication of maturity.

“I have to let people know who I am and what I’m here for,” he said.

And that is?

“To make it to the next level (NFL). To finish my steps on the ladder.”

Lucky’s new attitude has manifested itself in the classroom, as he made the Big 12 commissioner’s spring academic honor roll with a 3.0 grade-point average. A letter was sent to Lucky’s home in North Hollywood, Calif., documenting the achievement. Lucky’s uncle, Stanley Joseph, framed the letter. Lucky’s guardian, Wayne Padden, was thrilled.

“It’s sitting right here in the living room,” Padden said from North Hollywood.

Said Lucky: “My uncle Stanley, he pounds studying all of the time. It’s school before everything.”

Perhaps Lucky’s recent rise in the classroom portends a bump in production on the field in 2007. He said he has “settled down” and begun focusing on school and football. He finished last season with 728 yards on 141 carries. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards.

Come Monday, Lucky will begin preseason drills atop Nebraska’s I-back depth chart.

“I feel great,” the 6-foot, 210-pound player said. “I just want to get to it. Get the season on. It’s going to be an exciting season.”

Lucky hasn’t always been a good student in college. But friends and family say he’s much happier now than he was during most of his first two years at Nebraska. He laughs and smiles and jokes a lot more these days, they say.

“He’s just more mature now,” said Padden, who speaks via phone to Lucky at least once a week. “It’s very noticeable. You hear it in conversation and see it in things he’s doing in his life. He’s taking responsibility. You know, all those little things he’s supposed to do.”

A ballyhooed five-star recruit coming out of North Hollywood High, he was immediately thrown into the fire in practice upon arrival at Nebraska, as coaches tried to acclimate him to big-time college football by running him against the first-team defense.

He encountered a difficult time adjusting to school, to being far away from home, to the Huskers’ complex West Coast offense. He especially had trouble learning the blocking schemes, pass routes as well as the “zone” running plays, said Brad Ratcliffe, his former high school coach.

Lucky has responded well to his setbacks at NU, Ratcliffe said.

“You know something, I have a funny feeling he’s going to have an incredible year,” the coach said. “I say that because he’s finally happy at Nebraska. I have never heard him so happy. Going into his third year, he is finally happy. There is no other word for it.

“I mean, he laughs a lot more now than he used to. I think he was homesick a lot the first couple of years there. All he wanted to do was come back to Los Angeles. But I think he’s kind of found his niche there, finally. He’s found how to develop relationships. I know he loves the Nebraska fans. He’s always said that. (But) he’s always loved Los Angeles, too.”

However, Lucky chose to stay in Lincoln throughout the summer, mostly because he needed to accomplish some work toward his bachelor’s degree, he said. He returned home for about a week in May.

Lucky suffered a sprained MCL in his left knee late in the spring game this past April, but needed just two to three weeks to fully recover. He trained hard this summer and feels stronger and more explosive, he said.

“I’m trying to get smaller, so I can hit the corners,” he said.

Nebraska running backs coach Randy Jordan said Lucky has stepped up his game since last season.

“I think the biggest thing is he went through spring practice getting the majority of the touches,” the coach said. “We always say we want to be one of the hardest-working groups of running backs in the country, and he was the leader.

“You could see his maturity level rise through the spring and going through the (summer) conditioning program. It’s been phenomenal. His work ethic has doubled.”

Lucky said he no longer feels the pressure of fans’ high expectations. He was ranked in high school as the nation’s No. 2 running back by Rivals.com.

“To please the fans, I had to come out and just rip up the field,” he said. “I learned you can’t do that just coming into college football. The game is much faster. You have to come in and learn first.”

Now, however, “That’s all way past me,” he said.

Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.