Dave Feit’s Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 98 – Grant Wistrom
Is Wistrom the best player of the 1990s championship era? What role did he play in Tom Osborne coaching in 1997?
Greatest Husker to wear 98: Grant Wistrom, Rush End, 1994 – 1997
Any college football program that considers itself a “blue blood” can point to several amazing seasons or even extended periods of success. But few programs can match the dominance Nebraska displayed between 1994 and 1997.
The Huskers went 49-2. They won three national championships and nearly played for a fourth. NU was 16-1 versus ranked teams and outscored everybody by an average score of 44-14. It is not a coincidence that those were the four years Grant Wistrom played for Nebraska.
Grant Wistrom was the best defensive player on those championship-era teams. Heck, he’s in rarefied air all time.
His list of accomplishments is lengthy, but here are some of the highlights:
1997 Lombardi Award winner (NU’s fourth).
One of 13 Huskers to be a first team All-American twice.
Two-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year
Nebraska career leader in tackles for loss (58.5)
Second-most sacks in school history (26.5)
Set position records (Defensive Ends, Rush Ends, and Outside Linebackers) with 15 total tackles and 11 assists against Colorado in 1996.
Twice named a first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American.
Wistrom was a freak athlete who re-wrote the record book. The mid-90s Husker teams were absolutely loaded with talent. And yet, Wistrom always stood out. He was strong enough to fight through offensive linemen, yet fast enough to chase down a running back. He had an instinctive nose for the ball that allowed him to force fumbles and intercept passes.
Simply put, Grant Wistrom was a winning player. Wistrom won an incredible six championships in a nine-year stretch. Two in high school, three in college, and a Super Bowl.
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Fun fact: Nebraska was not a lock to sign Grant Wistrom out of high school. As Wistrom told Huskers Illustrated, he “grew up an OU fan, and had the Brian Bosworth haircut.” But Oklahoma’s probation and Barry Switzer’s resignation meant the Sooners weren’t a national power. Missouri – his home state school – was never really in the mix. Wistrom really liked Michigan and strongly considered the Wolverines.
Nebraska? Well, Wistrom didn’t exactly fall in love with the school during his official visit. He didn’t mesh with the guys he met, including his recruiting trip host, Trev Alberts. But position coach Tony Samuel convinced Wistrom to give Nebraska another chance. A second trip to Lincoln is where Grant “fell in love with the place.”
Where would Nebraska have been without him?
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Tom Osborne was going to retire after the 1996 season.
That was the original plan. In 1991, he had made a promise to Frank Solich – the loyal lieutenant who was becoming increasingly interested in leading his own program. Osborne would coach for five more seasons, then hand the keys over to Solich.
Osborne, as detail oriented as they come, had his exit planned out: “I think an ideal scenario for me would have been to go through recruiting, go through spring ball, and then disappear in May.”
But Grant Wistrom and Jason Peter altered the plan.
In January of 1997, Osborne met with both Wistrom and Peter. Osborne assumed he was going to hear the “Coach, I’ve got to do what’s best for me and my family” speech informing him that his two best defensive players both planned to forgo their senior seasons and enter the NFL Draft. They likely would have been first round picks.
Instead, they told Osborne that losing two games in 1996 (to Arizona State and Texas) was not very good. Osborne agreed. They didn’t want to leave Nebraska with that bitter taste in their mouths. So, the duo told Osborne they planned to come back in 1997, and “win ’em all.”
Wistrom told the Omaha World-Herald in 2017. “I think it just kind of epitomized that whole team. Everybody was selfless on that team. Everybody had a job. Jason and I could have put ourselves first, but we put our family team above our own needs.”
Unless you were in the room where it happened, nobody knows for sure what came next. Did Wistom and Peter convince Osborne to stay? Did they even know about his promise to Solich and plans to walk away? Did Osborne feel an obligation to coach another year because his star players were coming back? Was Osborne worried about altering his promise to Solich?*
*The symmetry between the transition from Bob Devaney to Tom Osborne and from Tom Osborne to Frank Solich is interesting. Devaney had made a promise of his own: Devaney would step aside (and full-time into his role as athletic director) after the 1971 season.
But the 1971 team rolled to a national championship – Nebraska’s second in a row. Devaney decided to go for a three-peat in 1972. When that team fell short, he honored his promise and promoted Osborne. Now, Osborne was putting Solich – who had interviewed for the Minnesota job in December 1996 – in a similar situation.
Tom Osborne decided to coach the 1997 season. Instead of following his original plan to “disappear in May,” Osborne announced his retirement on December 10, 1997, effective at the conclusion of the 1998 Orange Bowl.
That same day Osborne announced his retirement, Grant Wistrom was named the winner of the Lombardi Award as the nation’s outstanding college football lineman.
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For all of his on-field accomplishments, Wistrom might be most fondly remembered for his leadership. He (and Peter) were vocal leaders who held themselves – and everyone else – to a championship standard.
After spring ball in 1997, Wistrom led the team through “voluntary” workouts. In one session, held on a steamy May day, Wistrom wasn’t pleased with the level of intensity he was seeing from a handful of teammates. So, the team ran the stadium steps again. And again. And again. After a while… well… let’s just say the trash cans needed to be hosed out that night.
As Wistrom told Sports Illustrated before the 1997 season, “That got the message across real quick that we weren’t going to put up with a lot of the b.s. from (1996), the lackadaisical attitudes and everything. After that, we had one of the best summers any of us can remember.”
Nebraska’s sports psychologist, Dr. Jack Stark told a story about Wistrom’s leadership and championship mentality on the 1997 Unity Council. A player who had been missing classes was brought in. Wistrom said “you will get your butt out of bed and you will go to class. If you don’t go to class, you will run with me at 6 in the morning and I don’t care what the coaches say.” When the player tried to give an excuse about his car not starting, Wistrom said he would come pick him up and drive him if that’s what it took to win a championship.
“(Wistrom and Peter) really set the tone for that 1997 team,” Osborne told Huskers.com in 2007. The talent was “obviously pretty good, but the dedication and commitment was exceptional.”
