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Marcel Jones. 
An absolute mountain of a man (6-feet-7, 320 pounds), he was part of a large haul of recruiting talent from a region Nebraska had not minded very often: Arizona.*

*Prior to 2007, Nebraska had just 12 letterwinners from Arizona. The other Arizona natives in the 2007 recruiting class: Prince Amukamara, Javorio Burkes, Eric Hagg, Armando Murrillo and William Yancy.


As a Husker, Marcel Jones played in 40 games, starting 21 despite battling multiple injuries. He earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors as a senior. He was in the NFL for five years.

Greatest Husker to wear 77: Toniu Fonoti, Offensive Guard, 1999 – 2001
– a 340-pound guard from Hawaii – was dominant throughout the 2001 season. Big, quick and strong, he owns the school record for pancake blocks in a game (32 against Texas Tech – 41% of all offensive plays), a season (201) and a career (379). He earned All-Big 12 and first team All-America honors. Fonoti was a finalist for the Outland Trophy (won by Miami’s Bryant McKinnie).

At 6-foot-6, he was one of the tallest players in school history at that point. He used that size and strength to overpower offensive linemen. In 1970 – his junior season and first as a starter – Jake had 49 tackles with nine tackles for loss and a team-high three fumble recoveries. In the 1971 Orange Bowl, he forced a fumble that led to a Nebraska touchdown. Nebraska’s 17-12 win gave the Cornhuskers their first national championship. His backup in 1970 was a guy named Rich Glover, who would win the Outland the year after Jacobson.


1971 was Larry Jacobson’s best season. Arguably the best defensive player on one of the greatest college football teams of all time, Jake was an unstoppable force. He had 73 tackles, with 12 for loss and an interception. The 1971 Blackshirts finished in the top 5 in rushing defense, total defense and scoring defense. Jacobson was first-team All-Big Eight, a first-team All-American, won the Outland,* and was a finalist for the Lombardi Award. He was also an Academic All-American.

*Jacobson found out he won the Outland prior to the Oklahoma game, aka the Game of the Century. As Jacobson told HuskerMax, “(Monte Kiffin) called me at night at my apartment and told me that I won the Outland Trophy and we didn’t have any idea what the hell the Outland Trophy was,” Jacobson said. “I said, ‘Spell it for me. What the hell is it?’ Because we had never won it, so nobody knew what it was.”


Jacobson stood out in the Game of the Century. On OU’s final possession, he had a sack on third down and nearly had a sack on fourth down. The Huskers would crush Alabama in the Orange Bowl to win their second straight championship.

A month later, the Cornhuskers were at the White House being honored by President Richard Nixon. That’s where Jacobson learned that he had been drafted in the first round by the New York Giants.

Surprisingly, Larry Jacobson has not been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Great LT. Terrible AD.

Completely unqualified. Huge mistake by Barry.

Bob Newton, a 6-foot-4, 248-pound offensive tackle, didn’t need to be talked into strength training. He had previously lifted at his junior college in California. Newton, nicknamed “Big Fig,” 

Great teams have great offensive lines, and the 1970 national champions were no exception. Newton played next to guard Dick Rupert, and they teamed to help the Huskers accumulate over 400 yards of total offense per game. All they had to do was create a hole and the offensive talent (Johnny Rodgers, Jeff Kinney, Joe Orduna, Jerry Tagge and others) would do the rest.


The Big Eight used to award a “Lineman of the Week” honor, which Newton won a record four times during the 1970 season.  Those performances helped him become a unanimous All-Big Eight pick as well as a first-team All-American, the first of the Husker Power era.