2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread

[CatsbyAZ]

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Greatest Husker to wear 32: Ed Stewart, Linebacker, 1991-1994

Picture an inside linebacker from the 1960s, '70s or '80s.

The mental image in my head is a hulking beast of a man with a grass-stained uniform, athletic tape over his bleeding knuckles and a neckroll towering above oversized shoulder pads. Our prototypical linebacker isn't going to win a 100-meter dash, but when he hits you - and it is a "when," not an "if" - you'll feel it for days.

These are your Dick Butkus types. Guys like Mike Singletary, Jack Lambert and Ray Nitschke. The kind of guys whose highlights would be narrated by John Facenda of NFL Films.

That's not the type of linebacker Ed Stewart was, nor the football player he aspired to be.

Stewart came to Nebraska picturing himself as a defensive back. A safety like Ronnie Lott delivering punishment to receivers who dared to go across the middle. Nebraska's staff watched him in practice and could see his talent - a reliable, punishing tackler with a nose for the ball.

But there was one problem: He wasn't quite fast enough to get on the field in the defensive backfield.

In Nebraska's traditional 5-2 defense, a guy like Ed Stewart was destined to be a role player, or worse, buried on the depth chart. The coaching staff could see the potential in the Chicago native, but they knew his future wasn't at safety. As secondary coach George Darlington told Paul Koch in "Anatomy of an Era": "Here we have Ed Stewart sitting on his butt. And he’s a very good player, and we need to get him on the field."

Fortunately for Stewart's career, changes were brewing behind the scenes for the Blackshirts.

The coaches knew they needed more speed on the field. They also knew that their 5-2 was becoming ineffective against the offenses they were seeing - especially in bowl games. Moving from a 5-2 defense to a 4-3 would essentially trade a slow middle guard for a fast and athletic linebacker.

What if Ed Stewart was that linebacker? It was a lightbulb moment in the evolution of Charlie McBride's defensive transition. Instead of a skilled player who (according to coach Darlington) "didn’t have great foot speed compared to the secondary guys," Stewart became a new breed of linebacker - fast and athletic, but still able to lay a hit.

The move worked early and often. As a redshirt freshman in 1991, Stewart broke up a pass on Oklahoma's final play to preserve a 19-14 win. He had 11 tackles in the 1992 Orange Bowl. During the 1992 season, he was described in the media guide as "one of the most pleasant surprises on defense," earning honorable mention All-Big Eight recognition. Against Oklahoma, Stewart had a 50-yard interception return for a touchdown. Stewart's junior year (1993) was even better: Second on the team in tackles, and he accumulated sacks, tackles for loss, pass breakups, fumble recoveries and interceptions from sideline to sideline. He was a second-team All-Big Eight honoree.

In Ed Stewart's senior season (1994), he put together an excellent campaign. He was the defensive leader and a force on Tom Osborne’s first national championship team. All-Big Eight, Big Eight Defensive Player of the Year, consensus All-American, Defensive Player of the Year finalist by the Football Writers, and finalist for the Butkus Award as the nation's best linebacker.*

*Personally, I think Stewart was robbed of the Butkus Award. Dana Howard of Illinois? C’mon. If you ask me, they didn’t want to give the award to two Huskers in a row.

In the 1995 Orange Bowl, Stewart suffered a serious hamstring strain. But Nebraska's co-captain was not going to sit out. In the fourth quarter, Stewart came back on the field with his thigh wrapped in what looked like two rolls of athletic tape. Even though Stewart was running like a pirate with a peg leg, he made a critical tackle as the Blackshirts kept Miami from getting a single first down in the decisive quarter.

After leading Nebraska to the national championship, Ed Stewart has continued to be a leader throughout his professional career. He has been an associate athletic director at Missouri, the associate commissioner for football of the Big 12 Conference, and is currently the senior associate AD at Southern Cal. The last two times Nebraska's athletic director job has come open, Stewart has been a very popular candidate among the fan base.

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Greatest Husker to wear 31: Joe Orduna, Halfback, 1967-1970

There was a stretch in Nebraska football's history when Omaha Central High School was an absolute factory for I-backs. If you were the primary ball carrier at Central, a Nebraska scholarship offer would be waiting inside your letterman's jacket after practice.

Just look at this ridiculous run of talent:

1984-1987: Keith "End Zone" Jones. Left as the third-leading rusher in school history, with 2,488 yards and 32 touchdowns.
1988-1990: Leodis Flowers. An underappreciated back in Nebraska's history, Flowers had 1,635 yards and 18 TDs.
1991-1993: Calvin Jones. Left as the second-leading rusher, with 3,153 yards and 40 TDs. An absolute beast of a back. Speed and power for days.
1995-1997: Ahman Green. Bumped Calvin out of the No. 2 slot. 3,880 yard and 42 TDs. Might have been the fastest of anybody on this list. He definitely had the best NFL career.
1998-2003: DeAntae Grixby. Endured a laundry list of injuries before moving to fullback. His younger brother Cortney was a quarterback at Central and a cornerback at NU.
2002-2004: David Horne. Played behind the worst offensive lines of anybody on this list. Still put up 1,124 career yards, which is 32 yards behind Imani Cross, DeAngelo Evans and Dedrick Mills on the all-time charts.
But the Godfather of the Omaha Central pipeline was Joe Orduna, a standout back on Nebraska's first national championship team.


That title almost belonged to a different Central alumnus: Gale Sayers. But, as we talked about at #85, Nebraska and (then) head coach Bill Jennings missed out. Bob Devaney saw the depth of talent 60 miles up the road and swore Nebraska would never miss again. Orduna, an all-state back at Central who also starred on the wrestling and track teams, was the kind of player Devaney wanted to keep home.

The problem was, Joe Orduna wasn't completely sold on Nebraska.

That's the polite version. Let's have Joe tell us (via a 1970 article in Sports Illustrated) how he really felt: "I hated Nebraska with a passion. It was that three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust stuff all the time. I wanted to go to Southern Cal, but Nebraska was the only doggoned school that would have me."

Don't sugarcoat it, Joe.

Truth be told, he was right about the "three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust stuff." In 1967, Orduna's sophomore season, Nebraska was still running Devaney's T-formation offense. It was stale, unproductive, and was a big reason why Nebraska went a disappointing 6-4. Orduna ran for 457 yards and a touchdown. He averaged 3.9 yards per carry. The statistics do not show how many clouds of dust he generated.

In 1968, Orduna increased his production to 677 yards and 10 touchdowns. But the team went 6-4 again. Devaney tabbed a young assistant named Osborne to take over the offense.

1969 was supposed to be Joe Orduna's senior season, but injuries to both knees keep him on the bench. As he recovered, Orduna - who also ran track at NU - would hang out with a pole vaulter coming back from an injury of his own. Here's how that pole vaulter - Boyd Epley - described it to Paul Koch in "Anatomy of an Era":


"Joe Orduna was one of the players, and he’d had a knee surgery. And you’ve got to think back at this time, if you had knee surgery your career was over. And I worked with him and I didn’t realize I was doing anything special; I was just in the weightroom, he was in the weightroom. He was just working out with me, and he went back and ended up getting drafted in the second or third round by San Francisco and had a successful career. And that was unheard of for an athlete to come back after a knee surgery."


In 1970, Orduna was back on the field. Part of a 1-2 punch with Jeff Kinney, Orduna had a great season. Orduna led the team with 834 yards and led the Big Eight with 14 rushing touchdowns. Four of those touchdowns came in a 51-13 demolition of Kansas State. After the game, Orduna showered and left immediately for Schuyler, Neb., to speak at a church youth group meeting.


Orduna was a first-team All-Big Eight selection. He finished his Cornhusker career with 1,968 yards and 26 touchdowns. He was second-leading rusher in school history, trailing the great Bobby Reynolds by about 200 yards. Orduna did set the school record for rushing touchdowns.

More importantly, Joe Orduna established a pipeline of talented backs from Omaha Central High School who followed his lead of rewriting the record books.

[Temp430]

Michigan going after Husker CB recruit.


https://www.maizenbrew.com/2025/7/28/24473098/michigan-football-recruiting-danny-odem-nebraska-commit-titan-davis-isaac-miller-joshua-dobson

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maybe the kid has some potential

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Michigan going after Husker CB recruit.

In mid-July, Nebraska hired Anthony Johnson as a recruiting coordinator, formerly of the Michigan Wolverines. Johnson first joined the Wolverines in late May, having worked for six months at Pittsburgh. He spent only two months with the Wolverines.  He was a defensive line coach for the program and also assisted with recruiting for the position.

[FearlessF]

Greatest Husker to wear 30: Mike Rozier, I-back, 1981-1983

Tecmo Bowl is one of the greatest sports video games ever released. The classic NES game allowed players to lead a pro football team to victory.

If you've ever played Tecmo Bowl, you know that the Bo Jackson character is an absolutely unstoppable cheat code of a player. He makes ridiculous runs and cannot be tackled. I wouldn't be surprised if the expression "video game numbers" was coined in reference to the stats 8-bit Bo could put up.

I can't prove it, but I believe the Bo Jackson Tecmo Bowl character was based on Mike Rozier's 1983 season. Rozier was putting up video game stats in an era where Ms. Pac-Man and Donkey Kong were the hot new games.

Try to process these numbers from 1983:

2,148 yards rushing.
29 touchdowns.
7.8 yards per carry.
230 rushing yards and four TDs against Kansas… in the first half.
Averaged 179 yards per game for the season, and 198.4 ypg in conference games.
Ran for 929 yards in his final four regular-season games.
Set or tied 16 individual school, conference and/or NCAA records.

Even 8-bit Bo thinks those numbers are absurd.

And here's two of my favorite stats: 3 and 29. In all of 1983, Mike Rozier scored only three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Why? In their 12 regular season games, the Huskers led by an average of 29 points at the start of the fourth quarter. Rozier rarely played a full game that season. Who knows how many yards and touchdowns Rozier could have rushed for if he had been getting carries after the 1983 offensive line had beaten the opposing defense into a tired pile of mush.

Simply put: At a school known for great running backs, Mike Rozier is the king. The winner of the 1983 Heisman, Maxwell and Walter Camp awards sits at the top of Nebraska's all-time rushing charts.

Running backs coach Frank Solich discovered Rozier by accident. Solich was watching a high school game, evaluating a different player, but a speedy, elusive back on the other team caught his eye.

Nebraska got in on Rozier early, before the other big schools found out about him. When grades became an issue, those other schools backed off. Tom Osborne recommended a year at junior college and stayed in touch during Rozier's breakout year at Coffeyville (Kan). Rozier repaid Nebraska's loyalty by becoming a Cornhusker.

As a sophomore in 1981, Mike Rozier burst onto the scene with a 93-yard touchdown against Kansas State. Rozier rushed for "only" 943 yards, running behind future NFL All-Pro Roger Craig. But by the start of the 1982 season, Rozier was starting and Craig was moved to fullback.

When Rozier arrived in Lincoln, the single-season rushing record was held by Bobby Reynolds (1,342 yards in 1950). Mike Rozier broke that record by 347 yards as a junior in 1982, earning All-America honors. As a senior, Rozier he broke his own record by another 459 yards.  He ended up as Nebraska's all-time leading rusher, breaking I.M. Hipp's mark by 1,924 yards. Ameer Abdullah, in second place by 93 yards, is the only other Cornhusker back within 800 yards of Rozier. Abdullah needed 145 more carries than Rozier to get that close.

Watching Mike Rozier highlights on YouTube is a highly recommended experience. The footage is grainy, but his skills are high definition. Rozier's burst in the first 10 to 15 yards is astounding. He goes from zero to top speed like a sportscar. He's strong enough to break tackles and is elusive in traffic.

With all his success, it would be easy to assume Rozier was a cocky, me-first person. Instead, he was a humble team player. Prior to winning the Heisman, Rozier told his family that if he won, he'd like to "give the head to Turner Gill, the arm to Irving Fryar and the heart to the line."

"But I'll keep the legs," he said.

Okay… we cannot talk about Mike Rozier without reliving the greatest (and longest) two-yard run in football history.

Against UCLA in 1983, Nebraska had third-and-goal from the Bruin 2-yard line. Nebraska runs a toss play to the left side, but the Bruins diagnose the play and string it out. Rozier is nearly tackled at the 5 when…

Wait. Hang on a second.

Nothing I could possibly type could ever surpass what Lyell Bremser said on the radio that day. So, let's have the legend tell you what happened:

HOLY COW! MAN, WOMAN & CHILD! 

I gotta tell ya, folks! You never saw anything like it! Shades of Bobby Reynolds in 1950! 

This man, Mike Rozier...started running the left side! He was SHUT OFF on the left side, far to the left sideline! He turned, reversed his field, came ALL THE WAY ACROSS to the right side...picking up blockers as he came! Came laterally across the field, back at about the 10-yard line, he turned upfield when he got a block or two from Turner Gill, his quarterback and Harry Grimminger, his left guard, among others! And, went into the end zone...believe it, or not for the TOUCHDOWN!"

If you've ever played with the Bo Jackson character in Tecmo Bowl, you know that the secret of making him truly unstoppable is to run 8-bit Bo from sideline to sideline.

Hmm… I wonder where the developers got that idea from?

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Greatest Husker to wear 29: Jim Pillen, Defensive Back, 1975-1979


today, we're going to dip our toe into politics.

Over the years, several Huskers have sought elected office after their playing careers. Since name recognition is critically important in an election, being a former Husker - especially a standout player - often helps with a candidate's chances of being elected.

Here is a quick (and definitely not complete) list of Husker players who sought and/or won an elected office.

George Dern, a team captain in 1894 from Scribner, Neb., was the governor of Utah and secretary of war under Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Max Towle, the starting quarterback in 1911 and 1912, served as the Lancaster County Attorney.
Ernie Hubka, a fullback from 1917-1920, and his younger brother Ladimer, a guard in 1923 and 1924, each served two terms in the Nebraska Legislature.
Andrew Schoeppel, an end in the early 1920s, was the governor of Kansas and a United States senator.
Clarence Swanson, a College Football Hall of Fame end in the 1920s, was elected to the Lincoln school board in 1937 and served on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents from 1954-1966.
Sam Schwartzkopf, a tackle in the late 1930s, was the mayor of Lincoln from 1967 to 1975.
Ed Schwartzkopf, Sam's younger brother and a guard who played before - and after - World War II, served three terms as a University of Nebraska regent starting in the 1960s
Preston Love, an end in the early 1960s and member of the Magnificent Eight, ran for the U.S. Senate in 2020 and 2024.
Jim McFarland, a tight end in the 1960s, was appointed to the Nebraska Legislature in 1986. He ran for governor in 1998.
Brett Lindstom, a quarterback from 1999-2003, served two terms in the Nebraska Legislature (2014-2022) and is currently seeking a seat in Congress.
Husker players were not the only ones to go into politics after football. After retiring as head coach, Tom Osborne served three terms in the House of Representatives (2000-2006). In his first general election, Osborne won 83% of the vote. That was a nail-biter compared to his re-elections in 2002 (93%) and 2004 (87%).

In 2006, Osborne ran for governor of Nebraska. In the Republican primary - which, in very red-state Nebraska, is often the only race that matters - Osborne faced off against Dave Heineman, who became governor when Mike Johanns resigned to become the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Many outsiders assumed Osborne would breeze to victory on his reputation and name recognition. But Osborne lost to the incumbent Heineman by 6 points.


2006 was not the only gubernatorial election to feature a Cornhusker candidate. In 2022, Brett Lindstrom finished third in the Republican primary. The winner - and current governor of Nebraska - is Jim Pillen.

Pillen, who also served 10 years on the NU Board of Regents, is originally from Monroe, Neb. He attended school in nearby Columbus. Jim followed his brother Clete to Lincoln to play for the Huskers. Clete was a standout linebacker, earning All-Big Eight honors as a senior in 1976, Jim's sophomore season. The younger Pillen would earn All-Big Eight honors as a defensive back in 1977 and 1978.

Jim Pillen had his most memorable moment in the 1978 game against #1 ranked Oklahoma. With the Huskers clinging to a three-point lead late in the game, the Sooners were driving. At the NU 20 with 3:45 to play, the Sooners ran a play from their classic wishbone formation. A fake to the fullback. Quarterback Thomas Lott looked like he was going to keep it before flipping it to Billy Sims streaking around the right end.


Sims - who would win the Heisman Trophy in 1978 - was at full speed and headed for the end zone. At the seven, Jeff Hansen hit Sims, knocking the ball free. Jim Pillen dived on the ball at the three. It was his second fumble recovery of the day. The Huskers ran out the clock on a victory that changed the trajectory of Osborne's career.*

*Coming into the 1978 game against the Oklahoma, Osborne was 0-5 against Barry Switzer's Sooners and was hearing about it from fans and boosters. This was around the time Osborne gave serious consideration to leaving Nebraska for the head coaching job at Colorado.

After breaking through in 1978, Osborne would go 4-7 against Switzer and 12-8 overall against the Sooners during the rest of his Hall of Fame coaching career.

It's way too simplistic to say that one football game in 1978 led to both Osborne and Pillen being elected to political office in Nebraska.

But it sure didn't hurt.

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The time Ryne Sandberg, baseball legend, considered playing quarterback at Nebraska

unfortunately, the story in the Lincoln Journal Star is behind a paywall, & I ain't payin

[CatsbyAZ]

Hmmm…wonder which fan boards were fed to Google’s Gemini AI?

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they left out Billy C.???  27 & 22 @ 0.551%

and what about Bill Jennings??

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Nebraska athletics announced on social media Wednesday that alcohol sales have been approved for the Nebraska football Big Red Preview set for Saturday, Aug. 2, at 6:30 p.m. CDT inside of Memorial Stadium. The event is set to follow the Fan Day free event running from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. CDT inside of the Hawks Championship Center.

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Greatest Husker to wear 28: Jeff Smith, I-back, 1980-1984

"What if…"

Those two words have sparked thousands of hypothetical discussions and bar room debates among sports fans for generations. It's fun to ponder how things might have turned out if one little thing was different.

Within the Nebraska football world, there are dozens of classic "what if…" scenarios:

What if Tom Osborne had kept coaching past the age of 60? Or, what if Bill Byrne had overruled Osborne's request to promote Frank Solich?
What if Solich's revamped staff that went 10-3 in 2003 had gotten another season?
What if instant replay had existed in 1982 or 1993? Or in 1997?
What if Osborne had kicked the PAT in the 1984 Orange Bowl instead of going for two? (hold that thought…)
What if one second had not been added back to the clock in the 2009 Big 12 Championship Game?

We could list “what if…” questions all day long.

"What if…" wonderings are not limited to coaches and games. There have been hundreds of players who have had "what if…" careers.

I-back Jeff Smith is also from the "what if…" camp. Heck, he might be the mayor of Whatifsville.

How good an I-back was Jeff Smith? Did we ever really know? Sure, we saw the flashes. He was an excellent punt returner, leading the Big Eight conference twice. In the first 10 quarters of his senior season (1984), he ran for 473 yards. And who can forget his off-the-bench heroics in the 1984 Orange Bowl?

The top-ranked Huskers were trailing by 14 points going into the fourth quarter of the championship game vs. Miami, in Miami. Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier was out of the game with an injured ankle.


Jeff Smith stepped up and put the team on his back. A one-yard touchdown got Nebraska close and set up the Huskers' dramatic final drive that started from their own 26 with 1:47 left in the game. Quarterback Turner Gill found Irving Fryar for 29 yards. A 19-yard completion to Ricky Simmons. Irving Fryar dropped a wide-open pass in the end zone.* Gill was nearly sacked on third down.

*Contrary to the conspiracy theories, I do not believe there was any unsavory reason behind the drop. As NBC's Don Criqui said, "Even the great ones have a lapse." If it was intentional, Fryar did one hell of a good job of selling his disappointment.

Trailing Miami by seven points, with a perfect season and national championship hanging in the balance, Nebraska had fourth-and-eight from the Miami 24. There were 57 seconds left in the game.

Tom Osborne called an option play.

On fourth down.

Needing eight yards to keep the season alive.

The 193 Scoring Explosion Huskers - one of the greatest offenses college football has ever known - averaged 6.7 yards per carry.


Turner Gill waited until the absolute last nanosecond and made a perfect pitch. Jeff Smith took it in for a 24-yard touchdown.

Absolutely unreal.


With the score 31-30 (and college football overtime still 13 years away), Osborne had two options:

Kick the PAT to tie the game, knowing Nebraska would - at worst - share the national championship.
Go for two, which if successful would give Nebraska a one-point lead.
Osborne never hesitated. He was going for two.* "I don't think you go for a tie in that case," he said. "You try to win the game. We wanted an undefeated season and a clear-cut national championship."

*In a press conference before the game, Osborne and Miami's Howard Schnellenberger were asked if they would play for a tie or try to win. "I hope it doesn't come up, " Osborne said. "I'll be crucified one way or another on that one."

That was one of the few times in his career where Osborne was dead wrong.  Osborne's decision to go for two has long been lauded as an example of his character and integrity.

The two-point conversion play - a quick rollout pass to Jeff Smith - was incomplete. Gill's throw was a little behind Smith, which gave Miami's Ken Calhoun an opportunity to knock it away. It was a bitter, gut-wrenching loss.

Despite the ending, that fourth quarter was a top moment in Smith's Husker career. A big part of that is because we never really got to see Smith at his best for an extended period of time. His time with the freshman team in 1980 was cut short due to injuries. With Roger Craig and Rozier on the roster, carries were hard to come by as a sophomore and junior.

When Smith finally got the opportunity to be the featured back in 1984, he got off to an incredible start. But a sprained ankle just before halftime of the UCLA game hindered the rest of his senior season. Doug DuBose seized the opportunity and became the top back before injuries put him on the all-time "what if" team.

Despite all the "what ifs," Jeff Smith left Nebraska as the 10th-leading rusher in school history. Who knows what might have happened in a different time and place?

Let's circle back to the classic "what if…" question: What if Osborne kicks the PAT (or the conversion is successful)?

Back in 2010, ESPN wrote about some of the potential ramifications. Aside from putting the 1983 team into the "greatest of all time" conversation, I'd be most curious to see how the 1983 title would impact Osborne's legacy. Remember, Osborne would lose eight of his next 10 bowl games - often by 20+ points. His "can't win the big one" reputation undoubtedly played a role in the changes that set up the 1990s championship run.

Does the 1990s dominance not happen if Osborne wins in 1983? I guarantee the 1994 championship doesn't taste nearly as sweet without the years of bitter losses.

That's the thing about "what if…" questions. Even the ideal results can have unintended consequences.