CFB51 College Football Fan Community

The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: 847badgerfan on February 02, 2025, 09:48:45 AM

Title: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: 847badgerfan on February 02, 2025, 09:48:45 AM
This sucks.

Nebraska's spring game likely canceled as transfer portal has made it detrimental, Rhule says | AP News (https://apnews.com/article/nebraska-spring-game-4ac083d40ed67d625cce23063c635de7)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 02, 2025, 09:55:03 AM
yup, was a great experience for kids and others that couldn't afford a gameday during the season

2 reasons,-- 1st two ACL injuries last spring, 2nd televised game means other programs are watching and could steal players because there's no tampering penalties.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 03, 2025, 12:06:19 PM
Nebraska football has its new special teams coordinator, and it's a familiar name making a return home.

Mike Ekeler, the Blair High School graduate who played collegiately at Kansas State before developing into a position coach under Bo Pelini, will take the special teams role after four seasons at Tennessee, a source confirmed Monday morning.

The Volunteers consistently fielded some the nation's best punt return units under Ekeler, ranking at the SEC's top unit in 2021, 2023 and 2024 in return yards. In 2024, UT topped college football with 424 return yards. Nebraska had 73.

"Each year we push the envelope to get better," Ekeler said in August 2024 during training camp about his unit. "And we got a saying, it’s ABT, all about technique, for ABM, all about money. These guys buy in, they get it, they see it every single day."
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 09, 2025, 12:36:01 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/XQLpBBo.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 16, 2025, 09:50:29 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/TiVpMJu.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 18, 2025, 01:24:55 PM
https://youtu.be/MMFmpKltfM8
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 20, 2025, 12:47:37 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/gPuJPmk.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 22, 2025, 10:16:16 AM
The Nebraska Cornhuskers canceled their home-and-home series set for the 2026-27 seasons with the Tennessee Volunteers on Friday, and it’s going to cost them. Per Brett McMurphy of The Action Network, Nebraska is going to have to pay $1 million for their decision, as the buyout was $500,000 for each game scheduled with Tennessee.

The series, which was set to begin with Nebraska hosting Tennessee in 2026 from Lincoln before a 2027 return date in Knoxville, was canceled at the Cornhuskers’ request, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, citing the Huskers’ desire for eight home games in 2027 during planned renovations to Memorial Stadium.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: MarqHusker on February 22, 2025, 10:29:23 AM
Boo
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: 847badgerfan on February 22, 2025, 10:33:03 AM
Chickens...
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: MarqHusker on February 22, 2025, 10:43:25 AM
This series was first penciled in a zillion years ago and each school kept moving for one reason or another.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 22, 2025, 11:07:12 AM
helping free up the Vols schedule for a 9th conference game
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 27, 2025, 11:00:00 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/Mstcq4m.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 28, 2025, 01:16:32 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/a6FctLs.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on February 28, 2025, 09:27:06 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/8aK1RVK.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on March 01, 2025, 02:08:35 PM
https://youtu.be/s0XAmeAxaRM
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on March 04, 2025, 04:46:52 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/bzecJ1Z.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on March 05, 2025, 09:41:27 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/zZljsDI.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on March 06, 2025, 12:15:58 PM
Mark your calendars on April 26th for The Husker Games presented by FNBO. 🏈🏐⚽️
The action-packed day features Nebraska Football activities in Memorial Stadium, Nebraska Soccer vs. Wyoming at Hibner Stadium + a Nebraska Volleyball match against Kansas at Devaney.
Fans can also participate in tours of the Osborne Legacy Complex, the Husker Equipment Sale and a Food Truck Festival.
🎟️ Tickets on sale Tuesday, March 11th
ℹ️ More info » go.unl.edu/ehtw


(https://i.imgur.com/OxCFhoc.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on March 10, 2025, 12:02:52 PM
Former Husker Running Back Jeff Kinney with OJ Simpson

(https://i.imgur.com/ohQQbW4.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on March 29, 2025, 06:51:49 PM
The message is there in the big print the moment anyone walks into Memorial Stadium.


(https://i.imgur.com/trosU3W.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on March 29, 2025, 06:54:52 PM
While some fears among Husker fans when Holgorsen was named offensive coordinator revolved around his history of slinging the ball around, but that's something he says isn't in the plans.

"I'm not interested in my old air raid roots," Holgorsen said. "If you need to run the ball, you need to run the ball."
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: Brutus Buckeye on March 29, 2025, 09:13:43 PM
Luckily you guys don't have to play another game against the Hoosiers this year. 
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on March 29, 2025, 09:58:13 PM
Amen, Brother
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on April 05, 2025, 12:08:56 PM
NEWS: Nebraska has secured a commitment from Central Michigan transfer Ugnius Jarusevicius.

Jarusevicius earned first team All-Mac honors after averaging 16.2 points and 7.3 rebounds last season.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on April 13, 2025, 08:47:18 AM
This week in Husker history
The week of April 12-18, looking back in five-year intervals

1900: The plug is pulled on Nebraska's first conference, the Western Inter-State University Foot Ball Association. Nebraska's last season in the league was 1897.

1910: Nebraska fights Kansas' proposal to replace football with rugby in the Missouri Valley Conference.


1915: Robert S. Devaney, future Hall of Fame coach of the Cornhuskers, is born on April 13 in Saginaw, Mich.

1920: The Missouri Valley Conference gives a provisional OK to Nebraska's rejoining the league, but the Cornhuskers would remain independent for one more season. Also, former Husker Dick Rutherford becomes the head football and basketball coach at Oregon State. | Full story

1925: Students who made pledges for the construction of Memorial Stadium are woefully delinquent on their payments.

1930: Spring practices come to a close, and coach Dana X. Bible declares them a success.

1950: The university announces that Omaha station WOW will televise the Huskers' home games for a second consecutive year.

1980: Verne Lewellen, captain and quarterback of the 1923 Nebraska team that upset Notre Dame's Four Horsemen, dies at age 78. He earned all-pro honors with the Green Bay Packers and was a longtime executive with the franchise. 

2000: With the top quarterbacks sitting out, the spring game ends in a 21-21 tie -- and features a punt by KaLena “Beanie” Barnes, the first woman to try out for Nebraska's football team. Also, the Seattle Seahawks trade former Husker Ahman Green to Green Bay, where he would become the Packers’ all-time rushing leader.

2005: After newcomer Zac Taylor passes for 357 yards in the spring game, 2004 starting quarterback Joe Dailey confirms he’s leaving the team.

2015: Former Husker player and broadcaster Adrian Fiala dies at age 67. Also, former Husker Lawrence Phillips is accused of killing his cellmate in a California prison.

2020: A virtual spring game replaces the real thing in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on April 18, 2025, 01:37:32 PM
University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering
  ·
Patrick Payne, a 2012 graduate with a degree in civil engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering, was chosen as one of “the best 12 Young Engineers Under 40” (out of nearly 40 nominees of candidates) by Railway Track & Structures (RT&S).
Payne, general director of maintenance of way for Union Pacific Railroad, oversees more than 700 employees. His team maintains and repairs more than 8,000 miles of track across terrains in the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. A husband and father to two young children, Payne dedicates his time outside the railroad to his family. Whether it’s school fundraisers, involvement in his family’s church or support of the community’s Global Outreach Charities organization, he works tirelessly to balance parenthood with the demands of the railroad.


(https://i.imgur.com/jeK6kcu.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on April 20, 2025, 03:10:30 PM
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - The No. 18 Nebraska softball team recorded a seven-run third inning and downed the Indiana Hoosiers in five innings by a score of 12-4 on Saturday afternoon at Bowlin Stadium. The Huskers drew 2,699 fans, which is a program record for attendance. The previous record was set on April 27, 2024 against Northwestern.

With the win, NU evened the series to 1-1 and improved to 33-11 (12-4 Big Ten), while Indiana fell to 29-13 (8-8 Big Ten).
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on April 21, 2025, 02:34:18 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/GkDCk4o.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on April 24, 2025, 09:18:40 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/3rKR3BY.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on April 29, 2025, 12:21:54 PM
Dylan Raiola signs new NIL deal with Adidas ahead of second season at Nebraska

On Tuesday, Adidas announced it has signed Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola. Adidas also has a pre-existing partnership with Nebraska. Raiola is excited to join the Adidas family.

“Heading into my second season, the goal remains the same: help build the next era of Nebraska football and leave a legacy that makes our fans proud,” Raiola said in a statement. “Joining the elite family of athletes at Adidas is a tremendous honor, and their support strengthens the journey as we continue building something special in Lincoln.”

His 2,819 passing yards are the most by a freshman in program history. His completion percentage last season was also a freshman record for the Cornhuskers. Raiola led all true freshmen and ranked third among all freshmen in passing yards.

For his efforts, he was a semifinalist for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award. 

Obviously, Raiola is succeeding off the field as well. Raiola boasts a $2.3 million On3 NIL valuation, ranking No. 21 in On3’s NIL100. He’s also done deals with Campus Ink, EA Sports and Panini America in the past.

Raiola is only the latest athlete to sign with Adidas. Ahead of the NFL Draft, the company also announced deals with highly-touted prospects Travis Hunter and Abdul Carter. Adidas vice president of sports marketing Chris McGuire is thrilled to add Raiola to that list.

“We’re focused on identifying and building the most dynamic and talented roster of student-athletes in collegiate athletics,” McGuire wrote in a statement. “He’s one of the most promising young quarterbacks in the country and his commitment to building a special legacy at Nebraska makes him an ideal addition to our roster.”
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 01, 2025, 05:21:26 PM
4-Star QB Trae Taylor Commits to Nebraska Over Illinois, LSU and Texas A&M
The Huskers have picked up their first commitment for the 2027 class, a four-star quarterback from Illinois.

Nebraska football's depth at quarterback is now cemented for the next several seasons.

Trae Taylor, a four-star QB in the class of 2027, has committed to Matt Rhule and the Huskers. Taylor picked the Big Red over Illinois, LSU and Texas A&M.

A 6-foot-3, 186-pound rising junior at Carmel Catholic in the Chicago area, Taylor is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 2 prospect in Illinois and No. 35 prospect in the 2027 class. He's rated as the third-best QB in the class.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: 847badgerfan on May 02, 2025, 08:40:35 AM
After watching this, I hope he sucks. Completely classless.

https://twitter.com/kevinsjuts/status/1918047777319469554 (https://twitter.com/kevinsjuts/status/1918047777319469554)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 02, 2025, 08:46:42 AM
it was, he has apologized 
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: 847badgerfan on May 02, 2025, 08:47:16 AM
Not good enough. Damage is done. He's garbage.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 02, 2025, 08:55:10 AM
you weren't gonna like him anyway
I wish that was the dumbest thing I did at his age
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: 847badgerfan on May 02, 2025, 09:07:54 AM
Quote from: FearlessF on May 02, 2025, 08:55:10 AM
you weren't gonna like him anyway
I wish that was the dumbest thing I did at his age

Of course not. He goes to school at Carmel Catholic. F CC.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 04, 2025, 06:50:09 AM
This week in Husker history

1920: Nebraska's return to the Missouri Valley Conference is delayed by a year because of the Huskers' scheduled game against Rutgers at New York's Polo Grounds. Conference rules require all games to take place on a college campus.

1965: Bob Churchich connects with Freeman White for a pair of touch­downs in the spring game for the Whites, but the Reds come out on top, 33-27. Also, university administrators shoot down a student-led proposal to make “Husky Herf” the school's spirit symbol.
(https://i.imgur.com/mKfrY3X.png)

1985: The opener against Florida State is moved up a week to Sept. 7 for an ABC national telecast.

2005: Nebraska's Darren DeLone is found not guilty of assault in connection with a pregame incident in which an Oklahoma sprit squad member was injured.

2020: The Big Ten extends its suspension of team activities through June 1.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: MarqHusker on May 04, 2025, 12:27:47 PM
Quote from: 847badgerfan on May 02, 2025, 09:07:54 AM
Of course not. He goes to school at Carmel Catholic. F CC.
Short term dopamine hit of social media post apparently irresistible.   Sad norms continue. 
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 07, 2025, 09:03:23 AM
The home-opener for Nebraska football this fall will be against an opponent who already knows they won't be playing in a bowl game.

Akron has been handed a postseason ban after posting a failing Academic Progress Rate score for 2023-24. The Zips had a 914 multi-year APR score, which is below the 930-threshold required to remain eligible for postseason competition.

Only three football programs received postseason bans for their latest APR rate, with Akron being the only one in FBS. The two FCS programs are Mississippi Valley State and UAPB. Florida A&M, Missouri State, Murray State, and Utah Tech all received practice time reductions for low APR rates.

According to Reddit, only four programs in the last decade have fallen below the threshold to be eligible for postseason play. New Mexico State and LSU did so in 2023, but a COVID waiver was still in place. Idaho was the last program to receive a postseason ban.

For comparison, Nebraska posted a 976. The Huskers have stayed above 960 since the 2010-11 release. NU had low numbers in the mid-2000s, scoring as low as 932 in 2004-05.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 10, 2025, 08:17:34 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/BAjsv6D.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 11, 2025, 07:59:04 AM
This week(s) in Husker history
The weeks of May 10-31, looking back in five-year intervals:

1920: With a $1 million goal, fundraising for a Memorial Gymnasium & Stadium gets under way, but the effort would eventually fizzle.

1955: Four Husker football players lose their scholarships after taking part in a mid-April panty raid that got out of hand.

«1970: Dave Humm, a heavily recruited quarterback from Las Vegas, signs a national letter of intent with Nebraska. Also, the regents approve the installation of AstroTurf at Memorial Stadium, and work begins. 

1975: Dave Humm is selected to play in the Coaches All-American game.

1995: Husker O-lineman Rob Zatechka earns Big Eight athlete of the year honors.

2000: Former Husker lineman Jim Raschke looks back on his days as pro wrestling's Baron Von Raschke

2010: Speculation about a possible move to the Big Ten by Nebraska starts getting serious, and a showdown appears to loom at June’s Big 12 meetings as commissioner Dan Beebe says, “We need to talk about where we’re going and who's on the plane when it takes off.”

Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: MrNubbz on May 11, 2025, 08:12:15 AM
Quote from: FearlessF on May 02, 2025, 08:55:10 AM
you weren't gonna like him anyway
I wish that was the dumbest thing I did at his age
Bad troll job for sure but yes to the above, before lunch I had that beat twice on most days
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 11, 2025, 08:14:59 AM
1955: Four Husker football players lose their scholarships after taking part in a mid-April panty raid that got out of hand.

could have been something like this if I were lucky!
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: MrNubbz on May 11, 2025, 08:15:20 AM
Quote from: FearlessF on May 07, 2025, 09:03:23 AM
Akron has been handed a postseason ban after posting a failing Academic Progress Rate score for 2023-24. The Zips had a 914 multi-year APR score, which is below the 930-threshold required to remain eligible for postseason competition.

Only three football programs received postseason bans for their latest APR rate, with Akron being the only one in FBS. The two FCS programs are Mississippi Valley State and UAPB. Florida A&M, Missouri State, Murray State, and Utah Tech all received practice time reductions for low APR rates.
In other words the Zips can't afford the legions of tutors to keep the squad compliant like the Blue Bloods
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 11, 2025, 08:46:53 AM
Zips obviously doing something wrong
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: MrNubbz on May 11, 2025, 08:58:06 AM
See the above comment, Lawrence Phillips wasn't exactly on the Dean's List,neither was Terrelle Pryor or Rashan Gary and a slew of others. Many,many others
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 11, 2025, 07:35:20 PM
 a slew
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: Brutus Buckeye on May 11, 2025, 08:37:54 PM
Quote from: FearlessF on May 07, 2025, 09:03:23 AM
Utah Tech received practice time reductions for low APR rates.





(https://media.tenor.com/Xp4a1oGXQGgAAAAe/noo-darth-vader.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 13, 2025, 05:53:02 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/GXMKvh3.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 20, 2025, 08:44:02 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/xNhw38M.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 21, 2025, 10:23:36 AM
Dave Feit’s Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 99 - Neil Smith and Barry Turner
The countdown kicks off with the dominating Blackshirt from Louisiana and a celebration of Husker fan passion.

Dave Feit is counting down the days until the start of the 2025 season by naming the best Husker to wear each uniform number, as well as one of his personal favorites at that number.  For more information about the series, click here.  To see more entries, click here.

Greatest Husker to wear 99:  Neil Smith, Defensive Tackle, 1985 - 1987

Honorable Mention:  Terry Connealy

Dave's Fave:  Barry Turner, Defensive End, 2005 - 2009

A great start to the countdown! 

Prior to 1985, only three Cornhusker players had ever come from the state of Louisiana:  Ernest English (1956), Laurie Green (1966 - 67), and Burton Burns (1973 - 74).  If you're unfamiliar with these names, I don't blame you.  None of these players earned a varsity letter.  For reference, by 1985, Nebraska had letterwinners hailing from 40 different states, including Connecticut, Maine, and Vermont.

But Nebraska's fortunes in the Crescent State changed in the middle of the 1980s.  Ace recruiter Jack Pierce started working the state.  He built relationships and established a pipeline.  In the 40 years since 1985, there have only been three seasons (2003, 2004, 2021) without a Louisiana native on the roster.

The players in the first few classes from Louisiana were pretty special.  LeRoy Etienne, Mickey Joseph, Reggie Cooper, and Tyrone Hughes all made a significant impact at Nebraska.*

But none of them were as great as Neil Smith.

Smith was a dominating defensive tackle and fearsome pass rusher.  A 1987 Sports Illustrated article described Smith as "a 6'6", 261-pound defensive tackle with a 7'1½" arm span and a 35-inch vertical jump, who can run faster than any previous Nebraska lineman."  He is easily on the short list of the greatest defensive linemen to ever play at Nebraska.  

As a junior in 1986, he recorded 10 sacks.  At the time, it was the 5th most in school history (currently tied for 10th).  In his senior season (1987), he earned All-Big Eight and All-America honors.

How about this stat line from his final regular season game (1987 at Colorado):  12 total tackles, 9 solo, 2 tackles for loss, a fumble recovery, and a blocked field goal.  That is a Rich Glover / Ndamukong Suh level of dominance.

After his senior year, the Kansas City Chiefs traded up in the draft to select Smith with the second overall pick.  Smith had a long and successful NFL career with the Chiefs, Broncos, and Chargers, winning two Super Bowl rings.

Neil's son Keelan is a redshirt freshman on the 2025 Nebraska team.  We'll also see more relatives throughout this series.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 21, 2025, 10:24:18 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/94gGosv.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 22, 2025, 09:47:50 AM
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.

***

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?

***

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. 

***
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.” 
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 23, 2025, 08:54:26 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 97:  Pat Engelbert, Middle Guard, 1987 – 1991


In his Huskers.com bio, Pat Engelbert is described as “one of the most decorated Husker student-athletes” earning Academic All-America honors twice (second team as a junior, first team as a senior), an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, and a place on the CFA Scholar-Athlete team.

On the field, Engelbert was no slouch.  He was second team All-Big Eight as a senior and earned ESPN Player of the Game honors in the Colorado game.  He also received the Guy Chamberlain Award, given to the Husker who “has shown by the play and contributions to the betterment of the University of Nebraska football squad that he has the qualities and dedication” of Chamberlin.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 23, 2025, 09:28:46 PM
Husker legend Tony Davis was one of eight individuals inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame during enshrinement ceremonies on Friday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Friday.

A tough, hard-nosed running back from Tecumseh, Neb., Davis closed his career with more than 2,400 rushing yards during his three seasons from 1973 to 1975. Davis excelled as a sophomore, rushing for 1,114 yards for Coach Tom Osborne’s first Husker team. He capped his standout season with an outstanding performance in Nebraska’s 19-3 victory over Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Davis pounded the Longhorn defense all day long, rushing for 106 yards on 28 carries and scored on a three-yard run. Davis and his Husker teammates seized momentum in the third quarter and broke open a 3-3 stalemate with back-to-back touchdowns to help cap a 9-2-1 season and finish No. 7 in the AP rankings.

Davis went on to star for the Huskers in 1974 and 1975, helping the Huskers to appearances in the Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl in his final two seasons. Davis was also the MVP of Nebraska’s 1974 Sugar Bowl win over Florida and was inducted into the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame in 2021, giving him the rare distinction of being in the Halls of Fame for two of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious bowl games.  He is also the only Husker in both the Cotton Bowl and Sugar Bowl Halls of Fame.

Davis was joined in the 14th Hall of Fame class by Notre Dame fullback Jerome Bettis, Texas linebacker Randy Braband, Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe, Cotton Bowl Athletic Association Chief Ambassador, Past Chair and former Team Selection & Playoff Committee Chair Finley (Fin) Ewing III, CBAA Historian Charlie Fiss, Auburn running back Bo Jackson and Alabama linebacker DeMeco Ryans. The eight honorees add their names to a group that has grown to 93 men and women who have left an indelible mark on the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, one of America's original bowl games.

Davis went on to play six seasons in the National Football League, appearing in 89 career games with the Bengals and Buccaneers.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 24, 2025, 07:42:51 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 96:  Jimmy Williams, Defensive End, 1978 – 1981

Over the years, there have been a ton of remarkable stories of players who walked on to the Nebraska team.  You’ll read a few of them in this series.

But for my money, nothing can top the story of Jimmy Williams, and his brother Toby (who was a finalist for the “Greatest” title at #97).

The Williams brothers didn’t go out for football as high school sophomores in Washington, D.C.  As juniors, they played sparingly.  The each made the all-league team as seniors, but their only scholarship offers were from Richmond and Virginia Union. 

Their father, James, knew his sons could play at a Division I school.  So, he began a letter writing campaign, sending dozens of letters to coaches across the country asking for a chance.  A tryout.  Only two schools – Auburn and Nebraska – wrote back.  They picked Nebraska – partially for their reputation, and partially because they agree to look at Jimmy and Toby.

When the Williams brothers tried out in Lincoln, Tom Osborne and his staff saw two scrawny kids (Jimmy weighed 185 pounds and ran the 40 in 4.8 seconds) with poor fundamentals, who had played against weak competition.  But the coaches also saw potential.  The boys could be Cornhuskers – if they paid their own way. 

Their first year was rough – and not just in the football program.  The boys are two of eight siblings.  Paying two out-of-state tuitions was a challenge.  “Everything was new to us: the environment, the quality of football, everything,” Jimmy told the Washington Post in 1981.  “A couple of times, they cut off our food because we were a couple of days late paying our bill. Things got ugly for a while.”

The boys benefited from the systems that Osborne had in place.  Boyd Epley’s strength and conditioning program helped their slow and scrawny frames.  Academic supports helped them adjust to the rigors of college.  As for the deficient fundamentals, Osborne and his staff utilized a teaching style that Osborne borrowed from a different coaching legend:  UCLA basketball’s John Wooden. 

Despite John Wooden’s record-setting success, he never talked about winning.  Instead, he focused on the process.  Break the game down into components.  Here is the proper way to lace your cleats.  This is the correct three-point stance.  When the ball is snapped, step here with this foot while your head and hands go there.  And so on.  Stack those building blocks on top of each other, much like Wooden’s famous Pyramid of Success, until the desired end result is met.

Jimmy was placed on scholarship after his freshman season.  Toby would join him a year later.

By the time he was a senior, Jimmy Williams had bulked up to 227 pounds but had dropped his time in the 40 to a blistering fast 4.34 seconds.  Williams used that size and speed to become an All-American and the 1981 Big 8 Defensive Player of the Year.  He recorded 10 sacks in 1981, which was the school record (1981 is the first year that sacks were tracked as an official stat).  His 10-sack season is still tied (with four others) as the 10th-most in a season.


Jimmy Williams was a first-round draft pick and played 12 seasons in the NFL.  He has gone on to become a college assistant coach, spending the 2003 season on Frank Solich’s staff.

***

It’s hard to accurately describe the mythical appreciation I had for Lawrence Pete as a kid.  In his playing days, the Huskers would only be on TV three or four times a season, with two of those (the Oklahoma game and the bowl) happening after Thanksgiving.  So for a 12- or 13-year-old kid, the majority of what I knew about the team came from what I heard on the radio.

I can vividly remember being in the car on a Saturday afternoon driving through Millard.  My dad was listening to the game on KFAB.  Pete sacked the quarterback, and the announcers (Kent Pavelka and Gary Sadlemyer) mentioned that Lawrence Pete was the strongest Husker ever.  EVER! 

Do you understand how mind-blowing that was to me? Nebraska had been so great for long with legendary players on both sides of the ball, and this guy was the stronger than any of them?  He could bench press 500 pounds!?!  Holy Husker Power, Batman!  He had to have muscles on top of muscles.  Look out, Oklahoma!  There’s no way your stupid Sooner Magic is going to be able to block this guy!

That turned out to be true, as Pete and the 1988 Blackshirts kept Oklahoma out of the end zone for the first time in 46 years.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 25, 2025, 07:51:34 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 95:  Danny Noonan, Middle Guard, 1983 – 1986


For most people, the name “Danny Noonan” conjures the unassuming protagonist of “Caddyshack” (played by Michael O’Keefe), not the greatest Husker to ever wear #95.  But since “Caddyshack” is one of the most quotable movies of all time, let’s combine the two.


Cinderella story. Out of nowhere.” 

A Lincoln native and Northeast High grad, Noonan did not receive a ton of recruiting interest.  He was reportedly the final name on Nebraska’s in-state offer list and did not get a scholarship offer from any other school.

“Hey, Kid! Park my car, get my bags… and put on some weight will ya?”

By the time he was a college senior, Danny Noonan was a mountain of a middle guard:  6’4″, 275 pounds, most of it pure muscle.  But as a freshman, Noonan was a 225-pound defensive end.  In a 2016 interview, he talked about getting his butt kicked by Outland and Lombardi Trophy winner Dean Steinkuhler in 1983.

Noonan knew the answer to never having that happen again:  Husker Power.  Few players are more synonymous with Husker Power than Danny Noonan.

As a teenager, Noonan’s dad would drop young Danny off at a weightlifting gym and pick him up an hour later.  Boyd Epley used to kick him out of the weightroom on the day before games.  When Nebraska released the Husker Power 50-Year Team, it was no surprise that Noonan was one of the honorees.  After his lengthy NFL career ended, Noonan worked with Epley and Husker Power in multiple capacities.

“The world needs ditch diggers, too.”

Before his junior season, Noonan was moved to middle guard.  In Nebraska’s 5-3 defense, that meant frequent double teams from centers and guards.  Middle guard is vitally important to a team’s success, but it’s not exactly a place to accumulate great statistical numbers.


“Well… We’re waiting.”

It took time for the spotlight to shine on Danny Noonan.  As a sophomore in 1984, he recorded six sacks, despite being a backup.  In his junior year, he had 11 sacks and finished second on the team in tackles for loss.  Noonan picked up second-team All-Big Eight honors behind two All-Americans (Jim Skow and Oklahoma’s Tony Casillas).

“There’s a force in the universe that makes things happen. And all you have to do is get in touch with it, stop thinking, let things happen, and be the ball.”

As a senior in 1986, Noonan was a dominating force.  Seven more sacks to bring his career total to 24 (the fourth most in NU history).  First team All-Big Eight.  Big Eight Athlete of the Year.  Consensus first team All-American.  First-round draft pick by the Dallas Cowboys. 

And he cemented his legacy as one of the greatest Huskers of all time.

So, he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: MrNubbz on May 25, 2025, 08:04:37 AM
    Greatest Husker to wear

  (https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/c7/7c/77c77c57fa6845d7ee57d9da4c0c7dd0.gif)

(https://gifdb.com/falling-asleep)

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fgifdb.com%2Fimages%2Fhigh%2Ffalling-asleep-in-meeting-s5a1irp94x61j62t.gif&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=f500218aa445393c5defb76e5d973db063b80d100f757bf11a6d9f286dbe21c2)
(https://gifdb.com/falling-asleep)


(https://tenor.com/view/morgan-freeman-falling-asleep-audience-clap-clapping-gif-11938513)

(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tenor.com%2FGX93qmmyz2UAAAAC%2Fmorgan-freeman-falling-asleep.gif&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=ec5f1bad2daa5d551736efe3afd87d577da3c722ba74037cf99fe51c46f32ffe)
(https://tenor.com/view/morgan-freeman-falling-asleep-audience-clap-clapping-gif-11938513)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 26, 2025, 08:14:49 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 94:  Jared Crick, Defensive Tackle, 2007 – 2011

How do you view Jared Crick’s career? 

Do you see him as one of the best defensive tackles in school history?  Do you see him as a very good player who reaped the rewards of playing next to Ndamukong Suh?  Maybe you see him as a cautionary tale for players who decide to come back for their senior season.

It’s easy to look at Crick’s sophomore year in 2009 – Ndamukong Suh’s senior season – and see how playing next to the legendary Suh benefited Crick.  With Suh facing frequent double teams, Crick was able to use his explosive power and quickness to make plays. 

Case in point:  Nebraska’s 2009 trip to Baylor.  The Bears were determined not to let Suh beat them, so they double-teamed him on every play.  The good news:  Suh had – by his 2009 Heisman Trophy worthy standards – a relatively quiet day:  5 tackles, including three for loss, and a sack. 

But bad news for the Bears:  Jared Crick put up video game numbers:  13 total tackles (10 solo), seven tackles for loss – including a school record FIVE sacks, a pass breakup, and a fumble recovery.  The Blackshirts allowed just three points in a 20-10 win.

You can argue that Suh’s dominance allowed Crick to have a breakout game – and you’d probably be right.  But here’s the thing:  Crick’s five-sack masterpiece was a statement that he was an excellent player in his own right.  Opposing offenses had to account for both of Nebraska’s defensive tackles, which undoubtedly helped Suh in the second half of 2009.

In 2010, Suh was playing for the Detroit Lions, and Crick was the star on the defensive line.  Playing alongside sophomore (and first-time starter) Baker Steinkuhler, junior Terrence Moore, and redshirt freshman Thad Randle, Crick was now the one receiving the bulk of the double teams. 

It didn’t matter. 

Crick had a great junior season, putting up a team-high 9.5 sacks and 17 tackles for loss.  He was an All-Big 12 selection again, this time as a unanimous pick.  Crick was also a second team All-American.

After the 2010 season, Crick was faced with a big decision.  He could head off to the NFL, where he was likely to be a Day 1 pick, or he could come back for his senior season, finish his degree, and try to become a first-round pick like Suh.  The Cozad native chose to stay at NU.

Unfortunately, Crick’s senior season did not go as planned.  He tore a pectoral muscle in October and missed the final seven games of the year.  He was drafted by the Houston Texans in the fourth round and played seven seasons in the NFL.

I’m hopeful Crick is remembered as an excellent and athletic defender who performed admirably in Suh’s shadow and who showed tremendous loyalty in coming back for his senior season.  Those guys will always have a special place in my heart.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 27, 2025, 10:21:39 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 93:  Ndamukong Suh, Defensive Tackle, 2005 – 2009


I can tell you that he’s arguably the greatest defensive lineman – ever – to play college football.  I can remind you of his utterly ridiculous 2009 season where his individual stats (82 tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, 24 QB hurries, 10 pass breakups, 1 interception, 1 forced fumble, and 3 blocked kicks) were as good as – or better than – the entire defensive lines of the top three teams in 2009*.  We can watch highlights from the 2009 Big 12 Championship, where “dominating” doesn’t do his performance proper justice.  And on and on.

*I promise you that these numbers are not typos.

2009 Alabama defensive line:  98 tackles, 23.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, 20 QB Hurries, 5 Pass Break Ups, 0 Interceptions, 1 Forced Fumble, and 3 blocked kicks.  Alabama won the national championship in 2009.
2009 Texas defensive line:  112 tackles, 22 TFL, 14 sacks, 48 QBH, 5 PBU, 0 INT, 1 FF, 0 blocked kicks.  Texas was the 2009 runner up.
2009 Florida defensive line:  116 tackles, 25.5 TFL, 15.5 sacks, 10 QBH, 7 PBU, 0 INT, 2 FF, 0 blocked kicks.  Florida won the National Championship in 2008 and finished #3 in 2009.
2009 Ndamukong Suh:  82 tackles, 23 TFL, 12 sacks, 24 QBH, 10 PBU, 1 INT, 1 FF, 3 blocked kicks.  2009 Nebraska finished 10-4, winning the Big 12 North.  The Huskers lost the Big 12 Championship game on a field goal when one second was added back onto the clock.
Seriously.  Ndamukong Suh – by himself! – had equal or better production than No. 1, 2, and 3 teams.  And I could easily make the argument that those numbers don’t fully account for the impact he had on the 2009 Blackshirts becoming one of the greatest defenses in Nebraska history.

So, you’re just going to have to believe me when I say this next sentence is typed with zero hyperbole:

Ndamukong Suh is arguably THE greatest player in Nebraska’s lengthy and successful history.

He’s easily the most decorated Cornhusker.  In 2009, he won the Outland Trophy, Lombardi Award, Bronko Nagurski Award, and Chuck Bednarik Award.  Suh was also a finalist for the Walter Camp National Player of the Year Award and the Lott Trophy. 

If Heisman voters were capable of voting for somebody other than the best offensive player on one of the top two teams, he would have won that trophy too.  Suh finished fourth, one of the best results ever for a defense-only player.

We could spend the rest of the day recapping how Suh absolutely destroyed Texas’s offensive line and threw Colt McCoy around like a rag doll.  Twelve tackles, six for loss, with 4.5 sacks.  And let’s be honest:  those video game numbers don’t do justice to how much he dominated the No. 3 team in the nation.  It looked like a five-time Pro Bowl player against a junior high team.  You’ll never see a more dominating performance from a defensive player.

At Mizzou in 2009, Ndamukong Suh was unstoppable as the monsoon rains that fell all night.  Six tackles, a sack, interception, forced fumble, and a pass breakup.  That Thursday night ESPN game was Suh’s coming out party for a large portion of the country.

A sleeper pick is the time Suh almost sacked a quarterback without touching him.  In the 2009 Oklahoma game, Suh drove tackle Jarvis Jones – a 6’7″ 277-pound behemoth of a man – seven yards backwards, into the lap of quarterback Landry Jones.  Hurried by his tackle’s backside, Landry Jones managed to throw the ball away.  But Suh finished the play by shoving Jarvis into his quarterback.

There’s a similar play in the 2007 USC game.  The ball is snapped at the 37.  The Trojan running back takes the handoff at the 42… and is tackled at the 44 for a seven-yard loss.  Suh tackled him with his left arm, because his right was still engaged with the guard Suh had pushed back 21 feet.  Teams struggled to deal with his brute strength.

As a fan of fullbacks, I definitely know that Suh caught a pass out of the backfield for a touchdown against Kansas – one of three touchdowns he scored in his career.  Suh had a 49-yard pick six against San Jose State.

Let’s close with the unforgettable finish to the 2008 Colorado game.  Alex Henery had just hit a school record 57-yard field goal to take a two-point lead.  NU kicked off.  On second down Zach Potter tipped a Cody Hawkins pass.  Suh caught it and rumbled 30 yards for the game-clinching touchdown, trucking Hawkins – the son of Colorado’s head coach – in the process. 

Memorial Stadium – stilling buzzing after The Kick – went into absolute delirium.  My favorite part of that play is Suh glancing back at trampled wreckage of Cody Hawkins with a “did I step on something?” look.

There will never be another Ndamukong Suh.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 27, 2025, 08:24:15 PM
Nebraska made the deluxe cover of EA Sports College Football…

(https://i.imgur.com/gcLc6zi.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 28, 2025, 08:39:47 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 92:  Derrie Nelson, Defensive End, 1976 – 1980

The walk-on program – especially under legendary coaches Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne – played an instrumental role in Nebraska’s sustained success, impacting the program in numerous ways.

They all paid their own way to attend the University of Nebraska, often with little to no guarantee of anything, other than the chance to prove themselves.

In 2009, Randy York of Huskers.com published some eye-popping numbers about Nebraska’s walk-on program.  Between the start of the Bob Devaney era (1962) and 2009, 442 walk-ons became letterwinners and 131 became starters. 

A 2019 article in the Omaha World-Herald listed 25 former walk-ons who were picked in the NFL Draft, including a first-rounder (Jimmy Williams), a Pro Bowl pick (Sam Koch), and two with Super Bowl rings (Koch and Scott Shanle).

Derrie Nelson is a prime example of this, and of how Nebraska’s walk-on program worked.

Nelson is from Fairmont, Nebraska, about 60 miles west-southwest of Lincoln.  The village of Fairmont is rather small (about 760 people when Nelson was growing up).  Fairmont High School – like many small Nebraska towns and villages – played eight-man football because it didn’t have enough players for 11-man.

Nelson was a gifted athlete with strong genetics.  His uncle, Bob Cerv, is a Nebraska baseball legend who played for the New York Yankees.  But it was hard to get a lot of recruiting attention as an eight-man player in Fairmont, Nebraska, in the late 1970s.  Regardless, Nelson had dreamed of playing for Nebraska.  He just needed an opportunity.  The walk-on program gave him a way to get his foot in the door. 

From there, Nelson’s talent and hard work took over.

After a standout year on the freshman team, Nelson started as a sophomore in 1978.  He provided an immediate impact:  42 tackles, 3 fumble recoveries, one INT and a punt block.  He was named to the All-Big Eight honorable mention team.


He just kept getting better throughout his career.  Take the 1979 Missouri game for example.  The Huskers were up by three points, but Mizzou had the ball on the 11 with time for one more play.  A field goal would end the game in a tie, a touchdown would win it.  Mizzou chose to try for the win.  Nelson – playing on a severely sprained ankle – sacked the quarterback for an 18-yard loss.  Time ran out and Nebraska held onto win 24-21. 

That ankle kept him out of two other games, which likely impacted his postseason honors.  Even so, Nelson was first team All-Big Eight and an honorable mention All-American in 1979.

As a senior in 1980, Nelson had one of the finest seasons of any former walk-on.  He was a team captain, the Big Eight Defensive Player of the Year, first team All-American, and a finalist for the Lombardi Award.  The 1980 defense may have been the best of Tom Osborne’s career.  Nelson and crew held opponents to just 9.2 points per game (the lowest of the Osborne era) and recorded three shutouts. 

Not too shabby for a walk-on from Fairmont.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 28, 2025, 03:50:11 PM
Nebraska AD Troy Dannen confirmed that Valentino’s pizza, Fairbury hotdogs and Runza will be STAYING at Memorial Stadium and other UNL venues.

New concession food will be announced ahead of the season 👀

(https://i.imgur.com/6EjRJ30.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 28, 2025, 03:54:03 PM
new turf!

(https://i.imgur.com/kSjfNYG.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: 847badgerfan on May 29, 2025, 05:56:55 AM
Quote from: FearlessF on May 28, 2025, 08:39:47 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 92:  Derrie Nelson, Defensive End, 1976 – 1980

The walk-on program – especially under legendary coaches Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne – played an instrumental role in Nebraska’s sustained success, impacting the program in numerous ways.

They all paid their own way to attend the University of Nebraska, often with little to no guarantee of anything, other than the chance to prove themselves.
County Scholarships.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: MarqHusker on May 29, 2025, 08:52:42 AM
4H of Lancaster County!
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 29, 2025, 09:12:11 AM
the Husker beef program!
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 29, 2025, 09:14:23 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 91:  Kent Wells, Defensive Tackle, 1986 – 1989

Honorable Mention:  none


Nebraska.  Oklahoma.

Those two words once made up the greatest rivalry in college football.

In the 68 seasons of the Big Six, Big Seven, and Big Eight conferences, Nebraska or Oklahoma won (or shared) the conference title 58 times. 

Most of the time, their annual meeting would decide everything.  Who would win the conference?  Who would go to the Orange Bowl?  Who was still in the national championship conversation?  And who would spend the next year upset about losing? 


The OU-NU series has been there for milestones throughout Nebraska’s history:

1923:  The first-ever game at Memorial Stadium in 1923.  The Cornhuskers, being gracious hosts, wore blue jerseys to not clash with the Sooners’ crimson.
1963:  The two teams played one day after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, at the insistence of Bobby Kennedy.
1995:  Fittingly the final game of the Big Eight Conference paired Oklahoma and Nebraska.
2010:  Although the annual series died (by Oklahoma’s choice) when the Big Eight became 12, Nebraska’s final game as a member of the Big 12 conference was against Oklahoma.
After winning the two most recent games (2021 and 2022), the Sooners lead the all-time series 47-38-3.  The teams have played five times on Thanksgiving Day, 10 times on Black Friday, and once on a Sunday in the 1979 Orange Bowl. 

Since the start of the AP Poll in 1936, Nebraska and Oklahoma have met 73 times.  Nebraska was ranked 41 times, 47 for Oklahoma.  Only 10 times were both teams unranked, and just once after 1961.  Both teams were ranked 25 times, including a five-game stretch from 1984 to 1988 where the worst ranking of either team was ninth.  That is a rivalry* with some real stakes.


*Let’s pause for a second to put the OU-NU being a “rivalry built on mutual respect” narrative to bed.  Sure, the distance (454 miles between the two stadiums) dissipated some of the 24/7/365 vitriol of Michigan – Ohio State, Alabama – Auburn, or other legendary college football rivalries.  But let’s not act like the players were going out for ice cream sundaes after the games.  There are quotes from players on both sides – from darn near every season – that show this game wasn’t a bunch of buddies getting together for a friendly game.

Who knows, maybe OU fans felt a polite respect – or even apathy – for Nebraska… I can’t speak for them.  But as a child of the Tom Osborne 80s, believe me when I say Nebraskans absolutely despised Oklahoma, Barry Switzer, and everything they stood for.  Switzer – the brash, self-described “Bootlegger’s boy” – was the clear anthesis of the stoic, teetotaling Osborne in every dadgum way.  Switzer’s Sooners were brash and built, in part, by Switzer’s willingness to color outside the lines of the NCAA rulebook.  To young Dave, it felt like a matchup of good vs. evil… and evil often won.


Switzer’s Sooners crushed Husker hopes and dreams year after heartbreaking year.  Those losses often came in the most painful way possible – via a deal-with-the-devil form of voodoo known as “Sooner Magic”. 


Oklahoma quarterback Jamelle Holieway ran for 110 yards during the Sooners' 27-7 win over Nebraska in 1985. / Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images
The games from 1984 – 1987 were especially painful for Husker fans. 

1984 – the Sooners scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to upset No. 1 Nebraska. 
1985 – Oklahoma scored the first 27 points in a 27-7 pounding. 
1986 – The wore all-red uniforms for the first time.  The Sooners scored 13 fourth quarter points, including the game winner with six seconds left.
1987 – Billed as “Game of the Century II”, with #1 NU hosting No. 2 OU.  The Sooners won 17-7 in a game that was not as close as the final score suggested. 
After the 1987 game, Tom Osborne’s head-to-head record against Barry Switzer was 4-12.  Throughout his tenure, Osborne didn’t care for the emphasis put on the outcome of the Oklahoma game.  He often said that he felt fans didn’t care if his teams won nine or 10 games in a season – only if one of those wins was against Oklahoma.

This takes us to 1988, with No. 7 NU traveling to No. 9 OU.  The Sooner wishbone offense had given Nebraska fits for years, as the Huskers failed to contain OU’s speedy quarterbacks and running backs.  Defensive coordinator Charlie McBride deviated from his usual 5-2 defense with a “Husker” alignment that was essentially a 4-3 look. 


One of the stars of the 1988 game was defensive tackle Kent Wells, a junior from Lincoln.  The Oklahoma newspapers said Wells and his fellow defensive tackles (Willie Griffin and Lawrence Pete) “did as they pleased,” combining for 17 tackles and three sacks.


Kent Wells moved into the starting lineup midway through his junior season. / 1989 Nebraska Football Media Guide
Wells was recruited out of Lincoln East High as an offensive lineman but made the switch to defense during his freshman year.  By the middle of his junior season (1988) Wells had earned a spot in the starting lineup. 

Wells had incredible strength.  Prior to his senior season (1989), Wells was bench pressing more than 440 pounds and had a squat of 540 pounds.  In addition to football, he used that strength as a member of the Nebraska track and field team, earning four varsity letters.  Wells won the 1989 Big Eight Outdoor title in shot put with an impressive throw of 57′ 3.5″.


Back to the 1988 game… The Huskers were clinging to a 7-3 lead and had not scored since their opening drive.  After a partially blocked punt, Oklahoma got the ball near midfield with 1:45 to go.  Everybody expected Sooner Magic to rear its ugly head and bring the Huskers pain.  On first down, Sooner QB Charles Thompson was sacked by Kent Wells for an 8-yard loss, his second sack of the game.  On fourth down, pressure by Wells forced Thompson to step up into the pocket, where he was sacked by Lawrence Pete.  Thompson broke his leg during the play.

The Sooners were held to just 98 rushing yards and 39 yards through the air.  It was the first time since 1942 that the Huskers did not allow a touchdown to Oklahoma.

The 1988 game was the final matchup between Osborne and Switzer.  After multiple NCAA investigations, scandals, and player arrests, Switzer resigned in June 1989. 
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 29, 2025, 09:20:49 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/QP1HT75.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 29, 2025, 08:40:42 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/Huw7TwF.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 30, 2025, 08:37:57 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 90:  Alex Henery, Placekicker / Punter, 2007 – 2010

The three contenders for this spot come from opposite ends of the physical spectrum.  At 6’7”, All-American John Dutton is described in his Huskers.com bio as the “biggest of all the Blackshirts”.  His teammates called him “Lurch,” after the butler in the “Addams Family.”  Adam Carriker, a two-time All-Big XII honoree, has biceps like Popeye.

Placekicker / punter Alex Henery – especially as an underclassman – was so slight that my buddies and I joked that his uniform number (90) was also his body weight… in full pads.  While he may have been small in frame, his accomplishments were larger than life.

Alex Henery’s name appears 47 times in the Nebraska record book.  That’s more than Tommie Frazier, Barrett Ruud, and Ndaumkong Suh, to name a few.

Henery holds NCAA records for the highest percentage of kicks (PATs and field goals) made in a season (98.6% in 2010) and for a career (96.7%).  He owns the NCAA record for field goal percentage in a career (89.5%) as well as the marks for kicks over 40 yards (78.8%) and between 40-49 yards (a ridiculous 95.4%). 

Alex Henery is Nebraska’s all-time leading scorer, averaging just under 100 points per season.


He made 193 of the 194 PATs he attempted, including a school-record 116 in a row.  But he was more a placekicker.  Henery also punted for two seasons, finishing in the top 10 for career punting average (42.18 yards).


Henery was a first-team All-American, a finalist for the Lou Groza Award, and earned first-team All-Big 12 honors as both a punter and placekicker.

Only one person’s name appears on both the top 10 “longest field goal” and “long punt” lists: Alex Henery.  In the history of Nebraska football, there have only been 18 field goals made from 51+ yards.  Henery made four of them.

But one kick stands out from the rest.

***

Trailing Colorado 31-30 late in the fourth quarter, the Huskers had driven down into scoring position.  NU had first-and-10 from the Buffalo 25.  If Nebraska did not gain another yard, it would be a 42-yard field goal attempt.  Not automatic, but definitely a makeable kick.


On first down, Roy Helu Jr. was stuffed for no gain.  Disaster struck on second-and-10.  Joe Ganz was sacked for a 15-yard loss.  The Huskers desperately needed to regain some yards on third down, but Ganz’s pass to Mike McNeill was incomplete.

Facing fourth-and-25 from the 40 with 1:50 left in the game, Bo Pelini called his second timeout to mull his options.  None of which were good.

If Nebraska punts, Colorado will likely run out the clock and win the game.  The odds of converting a fourth-and-25 are astronomically bad.  The final option is a 57-yard field goal. 

Nebraska’s longest ever made field goal is 55 yards.  Paul Rogers did it in 1969.  Billy Todd (1977) and Chris Drennan (1989) later matched it.  Two more yards – just six feet! – doesn’t seem like much until you realize that the kick essentially happens from midfield.  Henery’s career long was 48 yards, and he had missed from 53 and 52 earlier in the season.


Alex Henery trotted out to take the kick.  From my seat in the north end zone, I thought Nebraska was going to lose.

***

“Wow.  How about this, boys?”

Henery’s 57-yard field goal against Colorado is one of my favorite calls from longtime Husker radio announcer Greg Sharpe. 

“Hold your breath here on this one.” 

Sharpe names long snapper T.J. O’Leary and holder Jake Wesch (both seniors, and – like Henery – all walk-ons).

“The ball right on the N.”

“The snap is down.  The kick is up.  The kick is….”

The ball is in the air for what feels like an eternity.  About five seconds elapse from the time foot touches ball to when it lands.

“The kick is on its way. (“Get there!”)  The kick is….”


One of my favorite parts of the call is color commentator Matt Davison’s “Get there!” as the ball continues its travel northward.  It was the perfect vocalization of what every Husker fan – in the stadium and at home – was feeling in that moment.

“…GOOOOOOD!!!  HE BANGS IT IN THERE!  FIFTY-SEVEN YARDS OUT, A SCHOOL RECORD TO PUT THE HUSKERS IN FRONT 33-31!”


“The celebration needs to be rather short-lived, because there’s a minute-forty-three left and Colorado has one timeout.”

After letting everybody soak in what had just happened (with reaction and comments from Adrian Fiala, Davison, and sideline report Lane Grindle), Sharpe – the consummate professional – refocused the audience.  While he didn’t know what Ndamukong Suh was about to do, Sharpe was excellent at understanding the situation and making sure his listeners understood too.

Sharpe, Nebraska’s longtime play by play voice for football and baseball, died in 2025 after a year-long battle against pancreatic cancer.

He, like Alex Henery, is an all-time legend of the Nebraska program.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on May 31, 2025, 07:50:14 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 89: Broderick Thomas, Defensive End / Outside Linebacker, 1985 – 1988

Broderick “The Sandman” Thomas was a player ahead of his time. Big, fast, and unapologetically brash, he was a three time All-Big 8 pick and two time All-American. Thomas was one of the first in Nebraska’s stretch of game changing pass rushers (including Mike Croel, Trev Alberts, Grant Wistrom and others). 

Why “The Sandman”? As Thomas explained it, he picked up the nickname in high school, because he “put people to sleep” when he tackled them. He was a big fan of his nickname, telling reporters “As far as I’m concerned, it’ll always be Broderick ‘The Sandman’ Thomas. It’ll never be just Broderick Thomas again if I have to write it.”

Thomas also described himself as “the master of disaster,” which is a damn good nickname as well. But it is impossible to think of Broderick Thomas as anything other than The Sandman.

Coming out of high school in Houston, Broderick Thomas was the 30th best recruit in the country according to Athlon. Thomas had it all. He had the film. He had the high school production. Heck, he even had the bloodlines. His uncle Mike Singletary was an All-Pro linebacker with the Chicago Bears.

Thomas wanted two things from a college: 1) the ability to play right away, and 2) to be an outside linebacker – NOT a defensive end in a three point stance. In the mid-1980s, most true freshmen either redshirted or played on the freshman team. But for Thomas, many coaches were willing to accommodate that request. At Nebraska, Thomas played in eight games as a true freshman.

Oklahoma was an early favorite, but Barry Switzer wanted Thomas to be a hand-in-the-dirt defensive end. The Sandman chose Nebraska.

There were two deciding factors: 1) Even though he would technically be listed as a defensive end, in Nebraska’s base 5-2 defense, Thomas would be able to play standing up. It is worth noting that Thomas continued to insist upon being referred to as an outside linebacker. Before his senior season in 1988, Nebraska renamed his position to OLB. 2) Tom Osborne. Thomas’s mother grew up next door to the church that her father (Singletary’s dad) literally built himself. After meeting Osborne, she knew that’s who her son should play for.

Broderick Thomas’s career was special. In his sophomore season (1986), Nebraska was #2 in total defense, allowing a stingy 235.6 yards per game. Thomas had six fumble recoveries and returned one for a touchdown. He was All-Big Eight and an honorable mention All-American. In his junior season, Thomas repeated as an All-Big Eight pick and earned first team All-America honors. He was fifth in the Big Eight with 6.5 sacks and led the team with 41 solo tackles. 

As a senior in 1988, Thomas went to another level. He led – or tied for the team lead – in seven defensive categories. He earned All-Big Eight for the third year, All-American again, Big Eight Defensive Player of the Year, and was a finalist for the Butkus and Lombardi awards. Thomas lost the Butkus to Alabama’s Derrick Thomas by two votes. 

Thomas wanted to set the career sack record at Nebraska but finished seven shy of the mark, ending up with 22.5. Had Charlie McBride made the switch from the 5-2 to the 4-3 earlier, he probably would have done it.

For all of his success and accolades, Broderick Thomas seems to be remembered more for what he said than what he did. Think about today’s brash, trash talking players making bold proclamations before games. It’s hard to believe that The Sandman was doing those things 40 years ago. 

Reporters sought him out because they quickly learned he would provide a great quote and headline. “I know they’ll talk to me because I’ll talk to anyone about anything.” He referred to the 1987 season as the “Hell Raisin’ Tour” and said he and his fellow Blackshirts would be “bringing the wood.” Reporters – and fans – ate it up.

In the 1988 Colorado game, Buffs coach Bill McCartney was out on the field protesting a call. Thomas strolled over and told McCartney to get off the field or put on a helmet and pads.

“Confidence in a football player is number 1,” he told Huskers Illustrated in 2024. “You only can be what you believe you are. I always believed I was a great player and one of the best outside linebackers to ever play the game.”

In 2024, Thomas summed up his time at NU. “Nebraska was the place to go if you wanted to be a rock star. The lights shined brightest in the Big Eight from 1985 to 1988. The national title had to go through us because we always had something to say about it. I came in and professed who I was, what I was and what I was going to do.”

Broderick Thomas once said, “I’m the master of disaster. The master of the physical game. And the master of the talking game.”

Nobody disputed any of that, especially the talking part. His confidence and bravado often made headlines in an era where being boisterous was still frowned upon by coaches and players. You know the expression “bulletin board material”? The Sandman played in an era where opposing coaches would clip actual articles from the newspaper and put them on a bulletin board in the locker room to fire up their team.


A lot of those clippings seemed to happen when Oklahoma and Nebraska were squaring off. At some point during his career, Thomas started referring to Memorial Stadium as “Our House.” He told opponents, “You come in here, then give your respects and then you leave with a loss.” 


In Thomas’s junior season (1987), the game between No. 1 vs No. 2 showdown was being billed as “Game of the Century II.” Thomas made a not-so-subtle reference to Oklahoma’s “Sooner Magic”: “Houdini is not allowed in ‘our house,’ so there’s not going to be any fourth-quarter magic around here, unless we’re doing it.” 

Some enterprising person made and sold – “The keys to our house” – oversized red and white plastic keys on a ring before the 1987 OU game. Fans waved them… for a while. Nebraska lost 17-7, in a game that was not as close as the score indicated.

After the game, Oklahoma’s Keith Jackson said “We didn’t need a key to get in their house. We busted the damn door down.” Quarterback Jamelle Holieway missed the game with an injury but showed up after the game using a four-foot-long wooden key as a cane. “Broderick gave me this,” he joked.

That’s the downside of being brash… sometimes it blows up in your face. But there are two things you should know about Thomas’s talk:

He owned it. After the 1987 OU game, Thomas said “If it was me, I apologize. I’m not going to make any excuses. We lost the football game.”
His team had his back. They knew that Thomas always talked up his teammates and gave them credit for the things he accomplished. Wingback Richard Bell later said, “Broderick’s words can have a big impact on the team.” Bell credited Thomas’s pregame speech for Nebraska avenging the 1987 loss in Norman the following season.
“They said when they beat us at our house two years in a row that they had the keys to our house,” Thomas said after Nebraska’s 7-3 win over Oklahoma in 1988. “Well, we came and got those keys and we’re taking them back home.”

I loved the passion and swagger Thomas brought to NU, and I can think of several teams since he left that could have used somebody with his personality (and talents).
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 01, 2025, 09:55:51 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 88: Guy Ingles, Split End, 1968 – 1970

Bob Devaney once said that Nebraska fans are “understanding in defeat, but I would not want to put them to a serious test.” 

Well, in 1967 and 1968, he put Husker fans to a test. Two straight 6-4 seasons, finishing fourth and fifth in the Big Eight. Back then, there were only 10 bowls, so a six-win team had no shot at postseason play.* And the cherry on top: a 47-0 drubbing by Oklahoma in the 1968 finale. Fans were starting to get restless.

Nebraska’s offense was a big culprit in the back-to-back 6-4 seasons. In 1967, the Huskers averaged just 13 points per game. In 1968, the average jumped up to 16 points per game, but the Huskers were outscored on the season 161-155. Two of NU’s final three games in 1968 were shutout losses – a 12-0 dud to Kansas State* and the blowout at Oklahoma.

*The last time Nebraska was shut out at home was the Nov. 9, 1968, game against Kansas State.

In the offseason, Devaney turned the offensive over to a young guy who had started out on his staff as a graduate assistant, with his only “pay” coming in the form of free room and board. This assistant then spent a few years splitting time between football and being a university instructor teaching a course in Educational Psychology. His name was Tom Osborne.*

*After the blowout loss to OU in 1968, Osborne wondered if he was cut out for coaching, saying “I seriously considered resigning as a Devaney assistant after that game.” I’m not sure who – or what – changed his mind.

Osborne scrapped Devaney’s run-heavy T formation and installed a more balanced offense out of the I formation. The results were immediate.

In 1969, Nebraska had more rushing yards (with a better yards-per-carry average) than the year before. Passing yards increased by 66%. Scoring offense increased by a touchdown per game. Most importantly: The 1969 team went 9-2, winning a share of the Big Eight title. In 1968, Nebraska lost to Oklahoma by 47 points. In 1969, NU won by 30. That’s a 77-point swing in one season.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the new Nebraska offense was a diminutive end from Omaha Westside High, Guy Ingles. As a sophomore in 1968, Ingles caught 14 passes for 146 yards. In Osborne’s 1969 offense, Ingles broke out with 26 catches, 408 yards* and three touchdowns. Against Oklahoma State, Ingles had a (then) school record 163 receiving yards on just five catches. 

*I get it… Those yardage numbers look really small by 21st century standards. But consider: Nebraska’s single-season receiving record at the time was 519 yards. With 408 yards, Ingles finished tied for eighth-most receiving yards in the Big Eight (with teammate Larry Frost). The 1969 team had three players (Jeff Kinney, Ingles, Frost) over 400 receiving yards, with a fourth – Jim McFarland – at 381. 

Ingles also has one of the great nicknames in Cornhusker history: “Guy the Fly.” It perfectly captured his speed, elusiveness and size (Ingles was listed at 5’9″ and just 158 pounds). I’m guessing defenses found him to be a pest as well.

In 1970, Ingles had 34 catches for 603 yards and a team-high eight touchdowns. Halfway through the season, he became Nebraska’s all-time leading receiver, and the first Husker to surpass 1,000 receiving yards in a career. 

*Ingles would not wear the all-time crown for long. Teammate Johnny Rodgers surpassed his record of 1,157 yards just 371 days later.

Guy “The Fly” Ingles was a second-team All-Big Eight pick in 1970 and won the Guy Chamberlin Trophy, given to an outstanding senior. Ingles was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1995.

As for Nebraska, their offense was about ready to really take off.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 02, 2025, 07:56:22 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 87: Bob Martin, Defensive End, 1972 - 1975

"It was an easy decision to go to Nebraska… it was a religion for in-state players to be a part of the Husker football team." -Bob Martin (in a 2024 interview with Huskers Illustrated)

The backbone of the Nebraska football program has always been homegrown, in-state players. Yes, that sentence definitely reads like romantic homer-ism, but it is also an accurate statement. In the first 135 years of Nebraska football (1890 - 2024):

Over 2,200 Nebraska natives have appeared on a Nebraska roster.
Of those, more than 1,300 earned at least one varsity letter.
205 Nebraska natives have earned first team all-conference honors at NU.
37 of Nebraska's 108 first team All-Americans were born in the Cornhusker state.

That's pretty darn impressive when you consider Nebraska is a small state, population wise. Only 13 states have fewer people, and two of them share a border with Nebraska.* There's not exactly a wealth of elite talent within the expanses of this great state or the surrounding areas.

Yes, walk-ons accounted for a big chunk of the player and letterman numbers (I don't have exact figures on the split). That said, Nebraska - especially during the Devaney and Osborne eras - put a serious focus on in-state recruiting. We'll get more in depth on Devaney's recruiting later. Today, we’ll talk about in-state efforts during the Osborne era.

When it came to getting Nebraska kids to accept a Nebraska football scholarship, Osborne had an excellent track record. At the end of his coaching career he said, "You can count on almost one hand the (Nebraska) players we've recruited heavily who we haven't gotten."*

*I can't say for sure who he would count on that one hand, but I'll note that during Osborne's 25-year tenure, only 14 Nebraska natives played in the NFL without playing at Nebraska first. Of those, only four attended what is currently considered a "power conference" school: Junior Bryant (Notre Dame), Quentin Neujahr (Kansas State), Larry Station (Iowa) and Gene Williams (Iowa State). I'd guess Bryant and Station are on the "ones who got away" list.

The 11 other Nebraska natives from the Osborne era who played in the NFL went to in-state schools (UNO, Wayne State, Chadron State, Doane, Nebraska Wesleyan), lower level (South Dakota State) or non-power FBS schools (Wyoming and Colorado State).

For reference, in that same span, 38 of Osborne's Nebraska-born Cornhuskers went on to play in the NFL.

Osborne's level of in-state recruiting success is understandable. At the start of Osborne's tenure, the Nebraska program had been a statewide institution and point of pride for over 50 years. Nebraska was coming off back-to-back national championships in 1970 and 1971. Osborne is a man of impeccable character. And during Osborne's 25 years as head coach, his Huskers won. A lot.

The Nebraska natives who played college ball outside of the state often waited until Nebraska said no before pursuing other options. Even then, many considered walking onto the team.

Bob Martin was a great example of Nebraska's in-state recruiting success in the wake of the 1970 - 1971 championships. A native of David City, Martin earned 14 varsity letters across four sports. As a senior in 1972, he was named high school athlete of the year by the Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha World-Herald. A player with that résumé would have had multiple options, even 25 years before recruiting services.

Even though Martin signed before Bob Devaney's final season (1972), assistants Osborne and Cletus Fischer handled his recruitment. As Martin said in that 2024 interview, "I committed right after they offered me a scholarship."

Martin started his Husker career on the freshman team as an I-back before moving over to defense. In 1973 - Osborne's first season - Martin bypassed a redshirt and earned a Blackshirt. Martin would start every game as a sophomore.

A three-year starter, Bob Martin was a force at defensive end, earning All-Big 8 honors twice and All-America in his senior season. As a senior captain, 13 of his 61 tackles went for a loss. Sacks would not become a tracked statistic for another six years.

Martin went on to a successful NFL career with the New York Jets, starting as a rookie.

Even though Bob Martin's career coincided with the transition from Devaney to Osborne, he also has family ties to several other eras of Nebraska football. Martin's wife, Sheri, is a granddaughter of Cornhusker legend Clarence Swanson. He's the uncle of Mike Ekeler, an assistant coach on Bo Pelini and Matt Rhule's staffs. His son Jay was on the team from 2007 - 2011.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 02, 2025, 11:28:44 AM
New special teams coordinator Mike Ekeler has his man.

Nebraska has added Australian punter Archie Wilson. Wilson is a rugby-style punter, something Ekeler has worked with in the past and wanted in Lincoln.

Wilson, an 18-year-old who had previously played Aussie Rules football back home, visited Nebraska this past weekend. He trained at Prokick Australia, which develops Australians to become star punters in the college game and at the NFL level.

Ekeler worked with a rugby-style punter at his previous stop, Tennessee. Jackson Ross was also developed by Prokick. In 2023, Ross made the Ray Guy Award Final Candidate List and earned SEC All-Freshman honors.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 03, 2025, 08:26:13 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 86: Johnny Mitchell, Tight End, 1990 – 1991

At 6’3″ and 250 pounds, Mitchell looked like a tight end – albeit it a more muscular version. At an offseason 7-on-7 drill, his teammates thought he was a defensive lineman. They recounted stories of Mitchell’s ability to throw a 70-yard spiral – with both hands.

Today’s tight ends are freakish combinations of size, speed and athletic ability. Travis Kelce, Rob Gronkowski and others have seemingly revolutionized how we think about the tight end.

But Johnny Mitchell was doing it 35 years ago.

As a freshman in 1990, Mitchell caught 11 passes for 282 yards. Seven of his 11 receptions resulted in a touchdown. He averaged a ridiculous 25.6 yards per reception. Mitchell became the first true freshman Husker to earn first-team All-Big Eight honors since the legendary Tom Novak did it in 1946. 

Sophomore slump? No way. Mitchell set school records with 31 catches for 534 yards, and added five more touchdowns. In his final two games, Mitchell had 137 receiving yards against Oklahoma and 138 against Georgia Tech in the Citrus Bowl.* At the time, those were the sixth- and eighth-best receiving days in school history. They’re still in the top 30.

*Bowl games were not included in a player’s season statistics until 2002, so Mitchell truly had 672 receiving yards in 1991. Mitchell’s 138 yards is still Nebraska’s bowl game record.

Remember, this was an era where Nebraska was a run-first (and run-second) team. NU rushed for an average of 340 yards per game in 1990, 353 yards the following year. His primary quarterbacks (Mickey Joseph, Keithen McCant, and Mike Grant) were never going to be confused with gunslingers like Jim Kelly or Warren Moon.


Alas, in every time-travel story, there comes a time when the hero has to leave. For Johnny Mitchell, that was after his sophomore season. He was the first Husker to leave school early for the NFL, where the New York Jets took him 15th in the 1992 draft.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 03, 2025, 04:08:39 PM
University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering
  ·
Construction management alum Ndamukong Suh is on the ballot for the 2026 College Football Hall of Fame inductions. Suh is the lone defense-only player be chosen AP National Player of the Year since the award was first presented in 1998.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 03, 2025, 11:43:55 PM
LINCOLN, Neb. —
Nebraska Athletic Director Troy Dannen says they are walking into a completely different world over the next few years.

However, he feels like Nebraska has done enough leading up to now to compete in the world of name, image and likeness licensing. The roars in Memorial Stadium have been heard for years, but behind the scenes what happens off the field will see a major shift this upcoming year.

"The greatest change of all is we're going to be paying our athletes $20.5 million this year,” Dannen said.

Dannen says that to support the payroll, the university has had to change its business model.


"Our coaches will tell you the most important dollar that gets spent is to recruit and retain good quality student-athletes,” Dannen said.

Despite the settlement not even being passed yet, Dannen says the third-party collective NIL works is changing, as well as roster limits. No matter what happens in the settlement, Dannen says there are contingency plans in place for whatever the outcome.

"Nebraska is very fortunate in that I think because of the wisdom of all of my predecessors in athletics, we're in an extraordinarily strong financial position and we didn't have to do anything draconian to get to the point where we're able to support the athletes to the fullest,” Dannen said.

Athletes will not be employees of the university, according to Dannen. These will be NIL rights contracts, meaning the university is providing a fee to utilize athletes' rights to their name, image and likeness.

"It talks about if you violate academic standards, if you become ineligible because of your conduct, things like that, these contracts become void,” Dannen said.


Most of the deals will be one-year contracts, so if an athlete chooses to leave, there should be no issues. Dannen added that there will be a few exceptions for multiyear contracts, but the hope is the deals will make it attractive enough for athletes to want to stay at UNL.

"We've seen a lot of movement related to rev share and NIL,” Dannen said. “If the settlement works as intended, you will see a lot less player movement because of that, because there is a finite amount of money among all the institutions."

That $2.8 billion NIL settlement is still caught up in the courts. The original deadline was set for June 6, but a federal judge granted an extension, and the new date is June 27. That deadline also pushes the timeline for a potential resolution even closer to the expected start of revenue-sharing payments to athletes on July 1.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 04, 2025, 09:30:59 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 85: Freeman White, End, 1963 – 1965

The black players on the 1964 team referred to themselves as the “Magnificent Eight.” Their names: Jim Brown, Langston Coleman, Tony Jeter, Preston Love Jr., Willie Paschall, Ted Vactor, Harry Wilson and Freeman White.

Freeman White is one of the greatest receivers in school history. As a junior, White caught a Big Eight-best 19 passes for 338 yards – just one yard shy of the school record. He scored two touchdowns, both of which were over 55 yards. White earned All-Big Eight honors.

In his senior season, White set seven school records, including receptions and yards for a game, season and career. He easily repeated as All-Big Eight and earned All-America honors.*


(https://i.imgur.com/NW4jpi6.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 05, 2025, 10:55:52 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 84: Tony Jeter, End, 1963 – 1965

Bob Devaney did not shy away from recruiting black players to Nebraska. He embraced it. In north Omaha, where the neighborhood understood the reasons Gale Sayers went to Kansas, Devaney had to make inroads and build relationships. He put in the work, connected with parents and backed up his promises.

As Omaha players saw Devaney recruit – and play – their friends and classmates, the recruiting wins started to snowball. The successes of the Magnificent Eight helped Devaney sign two of the best players from Omaha – Mike Green from Tech and Dick Davis from North. In turn, Green was influential in persuading another Tech High graduate – Johnny Rodgers – to come to Lincoln. Although Devaney himself made a pretty convincing promise to keep Rodgers from heading to USC.

At a 2019 event, Johnny Rodgers recounted a vow that Devaney made to him: “Bob told me he was going to recruit more black players than anybody ever had, and he was going to let them play. And that’s what he went on to do.”

Devaney’s greatest gifts – his disarming personality and quick, self-effacing wit – helped him relate in both black and white living rooms all around the country. Many coaches would shy away from venturing into black neighborhoods for recruiting; they preferred to meet players at the high school. Devaney didn’t care. He went to where the players were and connected with them and their families. There is a classic Devaney recruiting story that is the perfect example of this.


Devaney was sitting in the living room of a humble West Virgina apartment. The mother of the recruit sat at the piano and played the old hymn “Bringing in the Sheaves.” She stopped, and asked Devaney a question:

“Is it true, that you have gone so far as to sing hymns with a mother to get her boy to go to Nebraska?”

“Yes, I did that,” Devaney replied. “The mother came to Nebraska and the boy enrolled at Missouri.”

In this case, the recruit – who initially wanted to go to Arizona State – ended up in Lincoln.

His name was Tony Jeter.

At Nebraska, Jeter started all 33 games of his varsity career. In 1963 (his first on varsity), he was the team’s leading receiver on a very run-heavy team (nine catches for 151 yards). At Minnesota, Jeter caught a 65-yard fourth-quarter touchdown that turned out to be the game winner. In 1964, he earned All-Big Eight honors.


As a senior in 1965, Jeter was once again named first-team All-Big Eight. He ended up with a career receiving line of 38 catches for 528 yards and one TD.*

*A reminder that old statistics do not include bowl games, which is a shame because Jeter had two touchdowns in his final game, the 1966 Orange Bowl against Alabama.

At the end of the 1965 season, Jeter was a named a first-team All-American. He was also honored as an Academic All-American, making him the first black player at Nebraska to earn that prestigious recognition.


Tony Jeter was drafted by the Green Packers and attended training camp with his older brother Bobby (an All-American at Iowa). However, Tony was traded to Pittsburgh before the season started.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 06, 2025, 08:04:19 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 83: Kyle Vanden Bosch, Rush End, 1997 – 2000

83 is the second number in our countdown without a first team all-conference pick. However, 83 is one of two numbers to be worn by a winner of the “Academic Heisman” award.

The Vincent dePaul Draddy Trophy (now known as the William Campbell Trophy) is given to the “absolute best in the country for his academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.” Presented since 1990, it is widely considered the most prestigious academic award in college football.

Nebraska’s first “Academic Heisman” was won by Rob Zatechka in 1994. The second was won by Kyle Vanden Bosch in 2000.

Few Huskers have ever epitomized the combination of “brains and brawn” more than Kyle Vanden Bosch. In addition to the “Academic Heisman,” he won several other national scholar-athlete awards. He is one of a dozen Huskers to be a two-time Academic All-American and was first-team Academic All-Big 12 three times.

Vanden Bosch was also a three-time finalist for Nebraska’s “Lifter of the Year” award, winning it twice. He owns position records for the Husker Power Performance Index, which showcased his speed, power, agility and explosiveness.

When his athletic gifts and intelligence were combined on the football field, Vanden Bosch carried on a legacy of outstanding play by Nebraska rush ends.

In his senior season, Vanden Bosch earned second-team All-Big 12 honors with a team-high 17 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks (tied with Randy Stella for the team lead).

Vanden Bosch blocked two field goals against Texas A&M in 1999, tying an NCAA record.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 06, 2025, 10:41:48 PM
Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule posed with former NFL MVP quarterback Cam Newton during Friday's "Battle of the Boneyard." Newton coached his 7-on-7 team throughout the competition.

(https://i.imgur.com/QnV09p6.png)

Dylan Raiola and Trae Taylor were not the biggest quarterback names on the campus in Lincoln on Friday.

Nebraska football celebrated its "Battle of the Boneyard" on Friday, inviting numerous 7-on-7 teams from across the country to compete at Memorial Stadium. Included in the competitions were 2026 Nebraska quarterback commit Trae Taylor, who announced he was going to participate in the competition late Thursday night. The Illinois native competed as part of Raw Miami, his first time playing with the team.



The tournament drew some of the biggest names in college football recruitment, giving coach Matt Rhule and Nebraska football a chance to view top national talent from their own backyard. The event was also free and open to the public, as well as allowing full media access to anyone who chose to attend.

Alongside the high school talent at Memorial Stadium was former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. The former National Football League MVP joined his C1N team as part of the Cam Newton Foundation.

The quarterback coached and threw some passes during the event, while also making time to pose with the Nebraska football head coach. The two overlapped in Newton's second stint with the Panthers, as Rhule brought in the former MVP to boost the Carolina offense in midseason. Newton finished 0-5 as a starter under Rhule in 2021, passing for 684 yards with four touchdowns and five interceptions.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 07, 2025, 08:05:32 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 82: Steve Manstedt, Defensive End, 1971 – 1973

“Nebraska natives don’t walk on to Lincoln. They crawl there.” – Jim Nantz, CBS Sports

With that in mind, let’s talk about two more facets of the fabled Nebraska walk-on program: Nebraska natives and so-called “late bloomers.”

Seemingly every year, Bob Devaney or Tom Osborne would find some unknown upperclassman from a small Nebraska town who had been toiling away in anonymity on the scout team. They’d put him on the field and watch that player blossom into a star or solid contributor. Opposing coaches HATED it. Graduations or injuries would leave holes in their rosters too, but they couldn’t promote a player up from their in-house farm team. That jealousy is what spawned the myth of the so-called “County Scholarship” player.*

*The “County Scholarships” allegation – which usually started as whispers from a team that Osborne had pounded into submission – was that the University of Nebraska offered a state-funded, non-athletic scholarship to be awarded to a deserving local boy or girl in each of Nebraska’s 93 counties. And – gosh darn it, what are the odds? – most of those county scholarships just happened to go to strapping young men who “walked on” to the football team. Once there, they laid in waiting for multiple years for the opportunity to record five tackles against Oklahoma State. 

There was just one problem: The admissions office at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has never offered such a program. And let’s be honest: If county scholarships were real, one of two things would have happened: 

The other Big Eight schools would have had the NCAA investigate (back when the NCAA actually had the ability to investigate and enforce punishments) and shut it down.
Every other team – looking at you, Texas, Alabama, Penn State and others – would have done the exact same thing.
The reality was Osborne’s massive walk-on program, combined with the way his teams practiced, and the Boyd Epley strength and conditioning machine, was the perfect incubator for developing players who would eventually contribute, start, and/or star.

Because let’s face it – not every college freshman who showed up on the football team’s doorstep was ready to play right away. There is a definite jump in speed and talent between high school football in Nebraska’s Class C (or an eight-man team) and a top-10 team regularly in the hunt for conference and national championships. Young men – even without a workout plan designed by Boyd Epley – go through a lot of physical maturation between their 18th and 21st birthdays. Most go through mental maturation as well. But it takes time and patience.

Sometimes, change was needed too. There are countless examples of players – both walk-ons and scholarship recruits – who changed positions before making it onto the field. Don’t think of it as a “trial and error” thing. Sometimes talented players got caught in a position-group logjam. Or a defensive coach might see an offensive player working on the scout team and realize he would be a good fit on the other side of the ball.

To Osborne, successful in-state walk-ons weren’t “diamonds in the rough.” T.O. never cared for that expression, especially when applied to his players. At the end of his coaching career he said, “I think we did a better job of developing people than most anybody around the country. And it was very meaningful.”

Back in 1984, Sports Illustrated wrote an article about walk-ons in college football. Not surprisingly, Nebraska’s program was a big focus of that story. This line is so accurate: “By Osborne’s reckoning, 90% to 95% of Husker walk-ons are home-state products who simply wanted to play for Nebraska from the time they made their first crab block in bootees.”

Osborne – a former walk-on himself – humbly acknowledged what he and Devaney built. “I guess we’re sort of the Mecca of walk-ons.”

It’s obvious to see how this system benefitted Nebraska. But what about the players? Why did they stick around, getting beat up daily in practice, for multiple years before seeing the field? I think it was a combination of many things:

Especially in the Devaney and Osborne eras, Nebraska kids truly wanted to play for Nebraska.
Being the only Division I program in the state obviously helped. The football program at the University of Nebraska – Omaha (UNO) was a Division II power that sent multiple players to the NFL, but many players chose to walk on at NU instead. For many, being able to say “I played for Nebraska” was better than being a starter at a smaller, in-state school.
Transferring was harder back then. There was no portal, and players would lose a year of eligibility. Most would stick it out.
Osborne (and most of the coaches who followed him) have always held back a handful of scholarships to be awarded to walk-ons who have earned them. A cynic might call that a carrot being dangled, but I see it more as a tangible way to show that hard work would be recognized and rewarded.

All of this gets us to our honoree today: Steve Manstedt,* a walk-on defensive end from Wahoo, Nebraska.

*Just so we’re all on the same page, I’m not stating – or even implying – that Steve Manstedt was a late bloomer or developmental project. 

I’ll also note that I’ve been using “late bloomer” and “developmental” somewhat interchangeably in this chapter. Without going down a semantics rabbit hole, I’ll freely acknowledge there is a difference between those types of players. For the most part, I think it’s fair to place guys who didn’t start – or play much – until their upperclassmen years into one of these categories, although it’s clearly not a one size fits all situation.

As for Manstedt, his Nebraska career occurred before I was born. But I’m of the opinion that anybody good enough to make any type of “greatest” list at a school like Nebraska was not a developmental project. Being a three-year letterman tells me that he wasn’t a late bloomer either. Heck, even the timeline isn’t that great. His senior year was Osborne’s first season.

But part of what I’m hoping to do in this series is discuss the various factors that made Nebraska such a dominating program for such a long period of time. Getting scholarship player level contributions from walk-ons who had paid their dues on the scout teams was a vital cog in the Big Red machine. Manstedt’s entry is arguably the closest fit, even if it admittedly a square peg / round hole situation. I certainly mean no offense, nor slight to his legacy.


Originally a walk-on, Manstedt became a three-year letterwinner. In his career, he logged 145 career tackles, including 17 for loss, playing on some of the great Monte Kiffin Blackshirt defenses. A backup to John Adkins on the 1971 team, he started as a junior in 1972 and received second-team All-Big Eight recognition with 61 tackles and two interceptions.

In his senior season (1973), Manstedt earned first-team All-Big Eight recognition.


In his final game, the 1974 Cotton Bowl against Texas, he caught a fumble in midair and ran it 65 yards to set up a score.

In 2012, Manstedt was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame.

His career remains a shining beacon for every walk-on to follow in his footsteps.


Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 08, 2025, 10:10:09 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 81: Willie Harper, Defensive End, 1970 – 1972

Tom Osborne’s coaching nemesis was Barry Switzer of Oklahoma. For Bob Devaney it was Alabama’s Paul “Bear” Bryant.

At the of the 1965 regular season, Nebraska was a perfect 10-0, Big Eight champions and ranked third. On Jan. 1, 1966, the dominoes started to fall. Second-ranked Arkansas lost to LSU in the Cotton Bowl. That afternoon, top-ranked Michigan State lost to UCLA. This meant the door was wide open for Nebraska to win its first national championship with a victory in the Orange Bowl. All the Huskers had to do was beat No. 4 Alabama.

The teams were tied at seven early in the second quarter. But then the Crimson Tide erupted for 17 unanswered points. Nebraska’s normally stout defense allowed 518 yards of total offense, and the Husker rushing attack struggled to get on track. Final score: Alabama 39, Nebraska 28. The Tide, led by legendary head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, won their second straight national championship.

A year later, Nebraska was 9-1 and ranked sixth. A 10-9 loss to Oklahoma on Thanksgiving Day ended their championship dreams, but the No. 4 Huskers still looked to make a bowl game. Bear Bryant called Devaney and said, “Let’s get together and have some more fun, Bob.”

Bama QB Kenny Stabler found All-America end Ray Perkins for a 45-yard completion on the game’s first play from scrimmage. Nebraska trailed 17-0 after the first quarter, and 27-0 before scoring early in the fourth quarter. Final score: Alabama 34, Nebraska 7.

The Huskers did not make a bowl game in 1967 or 1968. In 1969, Nebraska bounced back with an 8-2 regular-season record. Once again, Devaney received a phone call from Bryant looking to arrange another bowl matchup. Devaney told the story like this:

“I said, ‘Which bowl did you have in mind, Bear?’ and he said, ‘Well, we were thinking about the Liberty Bowl.’ I said, ‘Gee, sounds great.’ The next day we signed to go to the Sun Bowl.” The Huskers blew out Georgia 45-6 in the 1969 Sun Bowl. Colorado defeated Alabama 47-33 in the Liberty Bowl.

I’m not sure what Devaney’s reaction was when his 1971 team – the No. 1-ranked defending national champions – was matched up against Bryant’s No. 2-ranked Crimson Tide in the 1972 Orange Bowl. Was there trepidation? Cautious optimism?

I’m guessing there was a healthy amount of confidence. You see, Devaney learned some valuable lessons in those humbling defeats to Bryant. Nebraska needed better athletes. Nebraska needed to be more balanced on offense. Nebraska needed speed at every position, especially on defense. In 1970 – and especially 1971 – Devaney had checked all these boxes.

Devaney also had something else Alabama did not: a fully integrated roster. In the 1972 Orange Bowl, Johnny Rodgers, Gary Dixon and Bill Olds combined for 271 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns. On defense, Rich Glover, Willie Harper and Jim Branch combined for one-third of NU’s total tackles. In 1971, John Mitchell and Wilbur Jackson became the first black players – ever – at Alabama.

The 1972 Orange Bowl was a lot like the 1996 Fiesta Bowl against Florida. Despite being the defending national champions, few experts gave Nebraska much of a chance. Devaney – still stinging from the previous losses to Alabama felt the pressure too. Instead of sending his assistants out on the road to recruit during December, Devaney kept them in Lincoln to study film.

Bob wanted to beat the Bear.

Then the game started.

In the first quarter, a fumbled snap on a Bama punt gave NU the ball near midfield. The Huskers would drive down for a touchdown. The Blackshirts stopped Alabama on their next possession, which led to another punt attempt. Good news: their punter fielded the snap cleanly and got off a good kick. Bad news: Johnny Rodgers was waiting to catch it.

When Rodgers picked the ball up after a couple of bounces, there were five Crimson Tide defenders between him and the next-closest Husker teammate. Johnny faked inside, bounced outside and turned on the jets. The 77-yard touchdown was his fourth punt-return touchdown of the season. It was 14-0 after one quarter and 28-0 at halftime.

Alabama scored midway through the third quarter and Nebraska added 10 more points for good measure. Final score: Nebraska 38, Alabama 6. The Huskers – who Bear Bryant said were “one of the greatest, if not the greatest, college football team I’ve ever seen.” – repeated as national champs.

“They just toyed with us.”

While Rodgers and the Husker offense got the headlines, it was the Blackshirts who won the game. Controlling Bama halfback Johnny Musso and the Tide’s wishbone attack was a centerpiece of the defensive game plan. In a 2016 interview with HuskerMax, middle guard Rich Glover put it a little more bluntly: “Every time I tackled Johnny Musso I tapped him on the butt and said ‘Every time you look up I’ll be right here waiting on you.’ The game was going to be won up front so we had to dominate. It was just a matter of getting busy.”


Defensive end Willie Harper said, “John Adkins had him on one side. I had him on my side. Rich had him in the middle.”

A standout performer on some of Nebraska’s (and college football’s) greatest teams, Harper was a two time All-American and a three-year starter.

Harper’s Husker story starts with Bill “Thunder” Thornton, NU’s fullback during the transition from Bill Jennings to Bob Devaney (1960 – 1962). Thornton was coaching high school football in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio when Devaney asked him to join his staff. Thornton recruited Harper – one of his former players – to join him in Lincoln. Thornton ended up as Harper’s position coach.

In his sophomore and junior seasons (1970 and 1971), Harper had double-digit tackles for loss, including an absurd 20 TFL in 1971. The combined yardage lost spanned the length of a football field, in each season. Harper was the most valuable lineman in the 1971 Orange Bowl against LSU, blocking a Tiger punt. During the 1971 season, Harper had three interceptions, which is both the single-season and career Nebraska record for defensive ends, rush ends and outside linebackers.

As a senior in 1972, Harper didn’t rack up gaudy TFL numbers, but he did anchor a defense that shut out four teams in a row. For his career, Harper has 41 TFL, which is tied (with Adam Carriker) for sixth-most in school history. It’s worth noting that the five players ahead of him all played four varsity seasons. Due to freshmen being ineligible, Harper played only three.


Bob Devaney thought very highly of him, writing in his 1981 autobiography, “Although Willie Harper never won the Outland Trophy, I’d have to put him in the same class with (Outland winners Larry) Jacobson and (Rich) Glover.”

In the 1972 Orange Bowl, Willie Harper had six solo tackles and was named the defensive MVP. His efforts were a big reason that Bob finally beat the Bear in the final meeting between the two legendary coaches.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 09, 2025, 10:34:46 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 80: Kenny Bell, Wide Receiver, 2010 – 2014

In his first year at NU, Bell was the Scout Team MVP. Throughout the rest of his career, Bell wore his blue scout team jersey under his pads as a reminder of where he came from, the work he put in, and in tribute to the starting defensive backs who made him a better receiver.

Kenny Bell’s first year on the field (2011) was Nebraska’s first year in the Big Ten Conference. For head coach Bo Pelini, it was a time of adjustment.

Pelini seemed to be figuring out how to win the Big 12 Conference, playing in the conference championship game in 2009 and 2010. But the Big Ten offered a fresh set of challenges. How would Bo’s defensive schemes – which worked pretty well against the explosive offenses of the Big 12 – fare against the “three yards and a cloud of rubber pellets” offenses of the Big Ten? Now that Nebraska was no longer playing at least one game per year in the state of Texas, could he still pull recruits from the Lone Star state?

In 2011, Bell broke out as a redshirt freshman with 32 catches for 461 yards – the second-best receiving season by a freshman in school history (behind Nate Swift in 2005). He also had an 80-yard touchdown run against Minnesota. Wisconsin gave the Huskers a rude welcome to the Big Ten with a 48-17 nationally televised blowout. Michigan would do the same later in the season. Nebraska’s first win as a member of the Big Ten was against Ohio State. After the game, Pelini was recorded – without his knowledge – making derogatory comments about Nebraska fans. That audio would not come out until 2013.


As a sophomore in 2012, Bell set school records for his class in receptions (50), yards (863) and touchdowns (8). Pelini’s 2012 team had one of the more remarkable runs of the 21st century, responding to a blowout loss to Ohio State (Bo’s alma mater) by winning six straight to win the Big Ten Legends division. The cardiac Cornhuskers had comeback wins at Northwestern, Michigan State and Iowa.

The Big Ten Championship Game against Wisconsin was another embarrassing blowout loss as Nebraska – shorthanded on the defensive line – could not stop the Badgers’ jet sweep. Well after the game was decided, Kenny Bell had one of the most famous and vicious blocks* in Nebraska history.

*At the time, this was a legal block. The so-called “Kenny Bell Rule” went into effect the following season. I will go to my grave upset that he was flagged for it.

In his junior season, Bell continued to make highlight-reel plays. A 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown at Penn State was critical in an overtime win. A leaping, one-handed circus catch against Illinois. The comeback win at Michigan? It doesn’t happen without Bell’s 26-yard catch on 4th & 2 that gave NU first and goal. NU’s three conference losses (at Minnesota, Michigan State and Iowa) were all by 13 points or more. In the Iowa loss, Pelini – frustrated by a bad call – swung his hat, nearly hitting an official. During his postgame press conference, he dared NU’s administration to fire him. Pelini was retained for 2014.


As a senior in 2014, all Bell did was set (then) school records for career receptions (181) and career yards (2,689), earn All-Big Ten honors, and serve as a team captain. He had two touchdowns in the thrilling regular-season finale against Iowa,* including the game winner in overtime.

*I thought it was exciting. But that win clearly did not impress athletic director Shawn Eichorst, who reminded us that we needed to “evaluate where Iowa was.” 

For all of his sideline volatility and intensity, Pelini’s players absolutely LOVED him. I think this quote, from Kenny Bell, sums up the team’s feelings about their coach:

“I would play for Bo Pelini against Satan himself and a team of demons at the gates of the underworld.”

Any questions?


Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 10, 2025, 08:15:56 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 79: Rich Glover, Middle Guard, 1970 – 1972

“In the land of the pickup truck and cream gravy for breakfast, down where the wind can blow through the walls of a diner and into the grieving lyrics of a country song on a jukebox—down there in dirt-kicking Big Eight territory—they played a football game on Thanksgiving Day that was mainly for the quarterbacks on the field and for self-styled gridiron intellectuals everywhere. The spectacle itself was for everybody, of course, for all of those who had been waiting weeks for Nebraska to meet Oklahoma, or for all the guys with their big stomachs and bigger Stetsons, and for all the luscious coeds who danced through the afternoons drinking daiquiris out of paper cups. But the game of chess that was played with bodies, that was strictly for the cerebral types who will keep playing it into the ages and wondering whether it was the greatest collegiate football battle ever. Under the agonizing conditions that existed, it well may have been.” 
    – Dan Jenkins, “Nebraska Rides High,” Sports Illustrated, Dec. 6, 1971.

“They can quit playing now, they have played the perfect game.”
    – Dave Kindred of the Louisville Courier Journal.

In the 50+ years that have passed since the Game of the Century, it has only grown in mystique. Obviously, it is a beloved game by Husker fans, but Sooner fans still speak reverently about the game and their role in it. That is rare. Chris Schenkel, who called the game for ABC, later summed up the sentiment from the Sooner sideline: “Neither team lost. Nebraska just scored four more points.”

Weeks before No. 1 Nebraska traveled to No. 2 Oklahoma in 1971, newspapers were already calling it “Game of the Year,” “Game of the Decade,” and yes, “Game of the Century.” At a minimum, it was a de facto college football playoff semifinal where the top two seeds somehow ended up on the same side of the bracket. This winner would own the Big Eight title and have an inside track for the national championship against the winner of No. 3 Alabama vs. No. 5 Auburn two days later.

Nebraska and Oklahoma had been ranked 1 and 2 since the second week of October. With no other Big Eight team* in the same stratosphere as the two Big Reds, it had been six weeks of blowouts and buildup to the game.

*Consider this: At the end of the 1971 college football season, Nebraska finished first, Oklahoma second and Colorado third in the AP Poll – the only time three teams from the same conference ended the year ranked 1, 2, 3. Colorado won at #9 LSU and at #6 Ohio State, and beat #15 Houston in the Bluebonnet Bowl. The Buffaloes’ only losses were to Oklahoma (44-17) and Nebraska (31-7). When the All-Big Eight teams were announced, 17 of the 22 players on the first team were Cornhuskers or Sooners.

NU and OU were on a completely different level.

Even though the game took place years (if not decades) before message boards, social media or ESPN, the hype was insane. No. 1 Nebraska at No. 2 Oklahoma. Thanksgiving Day in front of a national television audience. Think about the most highly anticipated regular-season college football game you can remember. Now multiply it by 10.

The two teams were evenly matched, yet distinct, and above all, dominating. Nebraska was unbeaten in its last 29 straight games. The lone blemish was a tie at No. 3 USC in 1970. Oklahoma was demolishing everybody in its path by an average of 29 points per game. It was offense (OU came in averaging a ridiculous 563.2 yards and 45 points per game) versus defense (the Blackshirts allowed a paltry 171.7 yards and 6.4 points per game to that point). As Sports Illustrated put it on the classic cover before the game: “Irresistible Oklahoma meets immovable Nebraska.” Coming into the game, every single team statistical category in the Big Eight was led by either Nebraska or Oklahoma.

The nation was divided on who would win. HuskerMax tracked down links to 18 different pregame predictions from local writers, national names like Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, and even two computer simulations. The predictions were split 50-50.

One newspaper article said tickets (face value of $6) were going for $100. In 2025 dollars, that’s a face value of around $50 with a $780 asking price from a scalper.

Somehow, the game not only lived up to, but surpassed the hype.

***
There were four lead changes. Twice, Nebraska led by 11 points: 14-3 early in the second quarter and 28-17 late in the third. Oklahoma led at halftime and with 7:10 left in the fourth quarter. The two teams accounted for 829 yards of offense, 66 points and just one penalty (a 5-yard offsides against Nebraska). Fifty-five million people watched the game in the U.S., and it was also broadcast via satellite to Europe, Asia and Central America.

The scoring started just 3½ minutes into the game when Johnny “The Jet” Rodgers tore ’em loose from their shoes with his famous punt return. I’m not sure there is a better play to set the tone for a classic game.


Six of the nine touchdowns were three yards or less. Other than the Jet’s punt return, the longest scoring play was a 24-yard pass from Jack Mildren to Jon Harrison right before halftime.

Defensively, Monte Kiffin nearly outsmarted himself. Everybody knew Oklahoma’s wishbone offense was going to move the ball. Nebraska’s plan was to move cornerback Joe Blahak to safety and have safety Bill Kosch play cornerback. The coaches felt that Blahak would be a better tackler against the run. Since the Sooners didn’t pass much, Nebraska wasn't concerned about exposing Kosch in man-on-man coverage. In other words, the Huskers wanted OU quarterback Jack Mildren to beat them with his arm instead of his legs.

He nearly did. His passing stats (5-10 for 137 yards and two touchdowns) aren’t impressive by today’s standards, but it was almost enough. (Mildren also had 31 carries for 130 yards). Kosch, who had never played cornerback before, had a rough afternoon. Receiver Jon Harrison caught four passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns, including one in the fourth quarter that put the Sooners ahead. But Nebraska would get the ball back with 7:10 to go, plenty of time for a scoring drive.


After the game, Bob Devaney was asked what he told Tagge before sending him out for Nebraska’s final drive. His answer was classic, deadpan Devaney: “I told Jerry Tagge to keep giving the ball to Jeff Kinney, and if he ever got in trouble to make sure he threw it to Johnny Rodgers.” It turned out to be legendary coaching advice. Kinney had seven carries for 54 yards on the drive. Tagge completed only one pass during the possession: an 11-yard throw to Rodgers on third-and-8. Tagge avoided pressure, rolled to his right and found Rodgers across the middle. The throw was a bit low, but Rodgers made a terrific diving catch to extend the drive. 

Six plays later, on another third down, Kinney found a sliver of daylight among the 10 defenders Oklahoma had in the box and scored the game-winning touchdown. The senior from McCook finished with 174 rushing yards, four touchdowns and a few scraps of white cloth where his tear-away jersey once existed.

With less than 90 second left, Oklahoma had the ball at its own 19. On first down, Mildren had Jon Harrison open on a post route. With the pocket collapsing, he had to get rid of it, and overthrew him. After a 4-yard rush, Mildren was sacked by Larry Jacobson on third down. On fourth-and-14, Jacobson just missed Mildren again, but his pass went directly into the outstretched arms of Rich Glover.


It was a fitting end to what might be the greatest game ever played by a Cornhusker defender. For my money, only Ndamukong Suh in the 2009 Big 12 Championship Game comes close. Glover had an absurd 22 tackles. Twenty-two! Oklahoma ran 66 plays that ended with a player being tackled. That means in one-third of those plays, the tackle was made by Rich Glover.

The story goes that at some point in the Game of the Century, Devaney turned to his defense and asked, “Why don’t you guys give Rich Glover some help once in a while?”

Tom Brahaney was the Oklahoma center responsible for blocking Glover. Beforehand, he and Glover had to take a picture together on the field. Glover told him, “You don’t know what you’re in for today. I’m fired up.” It showed.


And make no mistake: Brahaney was not some shaggy-haired slouch yanked out of the student section. He was a two-time All-American (1971 and 1972) who played nine seasons in the NFL. Glover once said Brahaney is the best player he ever faced. Brahaney was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2007.

Glover wasn’t all that big (6-feet-1, 230 pounds), but he used his strength and speed to make plays and chase down opponents. Heck, coming out of New Jersey, Glover was viewed by most schools as too small. He had offers from Wyoming and Villanova, but Monte Kiffin got him to Nebraska. Devaney later called Glover “the greatest defensive player I ever saw.”

Rich Glover’s career was much more than just the Game of the Century. In 1972, he had one of the greatest seasons by a defensive player not named Ndamukong Suh. All-Big Eight again. All-America again. Winner of the Outland and Lombardi Awards – one of just 13 players to ever do it. Despite not having 1971 Outland winner Larry Jacobson playing next to him, Glover had more tackles in 1972 than 1971.


And there’s one area where Glover has Suh beat: Glover finished third in the 1972 Heisman Trophy voting, better than Suh’s fourth and the second-best finish by a full-time defensive player in Heisman history (Pitt’s Hugh Green was the runner-up in 1980). Glover’s Heisman finish is even more impressive when you consider that his teammate Johnny Rodgers finished first. Who knows how many votes he split?


Glover was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame and the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame, and was named a starter on Sports Illustrated’s “All-Century” team in 1999.

***
Immediately after the Game of the Century ended, President Richard Nixon attempted to call Devaney in the locker room. The president had to wait for the celebration to settle down … and for Devaney to get a towel. The jubilant team had tossed him into the showers.

The Huskers had one final challenge on Thanksgiving Day 1971: getting back to Lincoln. I’ll let Glover (as he told HuskerMax in 2016) explain what happened:


“We couldn’t land the plane because people were on the runway. They had to move them off the runway so we could get the plane in. Once we got the plane in, they swooped in right up to the plane. We couldn’t get off the plane and onto the bus. People were lined up along the street just cheering us. There is nothing like Nebraska football. People that have never been and never seen it don’t know how it is. That song they play. There’s nothing like it.”


The Daily Nebraskan estimated 30,000 people were at the Lincoln Airport when the plane arrived. Other media outlets reported that fans scaled the airport fences and ran out on the tarmac as the plane was taxiing to the gate. Some players headed to a popular O Street bar where they didn’t pay for a drink all night.

The Game of the Century deserved the party of the century.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 11, 2025, 09:59:13 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 78: Dennis Carlson, Offensive Tackle, 1963 – 1965

Around the time Devaney was hired at Big Eight school Nebraska, the Big Ten’s bylaws were putting its teams at a competitive disadvantage. A 1966 Sports Illustrated article discussed some of the reasons behind the Big Ten’s lack of success in nonconference games in recent years:

Scholarship limits. Big Ten schools could sign only 30 scholarship recruits per year. In the Big Eight, the yearly limit was 45.
Redshirting. In this era, freshmen were ineligible (and often competed on separate freshman teams). But at Nebraska and other schools, players might redshirt in their second year – giving them more physical maturity and experience. Then, as now, redshirting benefited linemen the most. The Big Ten allowed redshirt seasons only in cases of season-ending injury.
Entrance requirements. Overall, it was harder to get into the average Big Ten school than the average Big Eight school. But, as the SI article noted: “as is true in all conferences that take their athletics seriously, the Big Ten will get that borderline case into school if he can borderline it from goal line to goal line in 9.6 seconds.”
The Big Ten / Rust Belt region that had been providing Ohio State, Michigan, Minnesota and other teams with an abundance of talented players for decades was still full of talented players, but those players now had fewer local options. Simply put, the Big Ten footprint was open for business.


Many other teams tried to capitalize on the talent surplus in the Big Ten region. Bob Devaney had advantages most of them did not. He knew the area well, having spent 14 years as a Michigan high school coach and four as an assistant at Michigan State. His dynamic persona made him an excellent recruiter, able to connect with just about anyone. And, as previously discussed, talent mattered more than skin color. Sadly, this was not the case at every school in the 1960s.

Devaney’s recruiting strategy began to crystalize: Get the best players in Nebraska, pluck as much talent out of Big Ten Country as he could and look everywhere else to fill out the roster.

Remember the “Magnificent Eight” – the eight black players on the 1964 team? Jim Brown and Preston Love were from Omaha. Four of them were from the Big Ten / Rust Belt region. Freeman White was from Detroit. Harry Wilson, Ted Vactor and Tony Jeter all grew up around 160 miles east of the Ohio State campus.  Willie Paschall was from Texas. And Langston Coleman was from Washington, D.C.*

*As a fan of walk-ons, I must pause to recognize Langston Coleman. He has been described as “Nebraska’s first walk-on.” 

Ted Sorensen, a Lincoln native and Nebraska alumnus, was working in D.C. as speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy. Coleman’s mother worked for Sorensen, and young Langston spent some time in his home. Coleman learned about Nebraska from Sorensen and decided he wanted to go to school in Lincoln – even if meant hitchhiking from Washington, D.C.

The story goes that when Coleman arrived in Lincoln, Devaney looked him up and down, turned to the coaches and said “Hell, if he hitchhiked all the way from Washington, we better find something for him to do.” He was on the team.



Dennis Carlson was another gem found in Big Ten country. From Minneapolis, Carlson played sparingly in his first season (1963, the last where rules dictated that players play both offense and defense). In 1964, the first year of offense/defense platoons, Carlson earned a starting job at right tackle and started to blossom. In 1965, Carlson earned All-Big Eight honors and helped lead the Cornhuskers to a perfect 10-0 record and Orange Bowl berth.

Carlson was elected to the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2009.

The culmination of Devaney’s recruiting strategy was the 1970 national championship team. The 1970 roster lists 85 players from 17 different states.

31 players (36.5% of the roster) were Nebraskans, with seven from Omaha. 
27 players (31.8%) were from six of the seven states that comprised the Big Ten at the time (Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin). 
10 players were from Michigan, Devaney’s old stomping grounds.
7 players were from the Pennsylvania rust belt.
3 players, including quarterback Jerry Tagge, were from Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Add it all up and over 76% of Nebraska’s first championship team was in-state or from the Big Ten / Rust Belt.


***
In 1966, when two-platoon football was still relatively new, the NCAA implemented uniform numbering recommendations for players. Notable to our purposes here is the requirement that offensive linemen – centers, guards and tackles – must wear a number between 50 and 79.*

*The current NCAA rule book “strongly recommends” using uniform numbers to distinguish between positions (50 – 59 for centers, 60 – 69 for guards and 70 – 79 for tackles), but that is not as common as it once was.

Defensive players – such as the two honored at 79 – have always had more numerical flexibility. While defensive linemen and linebackers often wear numbers in the 50 – 79 range, they can wear any number between 0 and 99 – especially in the current era where a single-digit number is often considered a status symbol.


I tell you that to tell you this:

We’re about to get deep in the trenches with the unsung heroes of the game, the offensive linemen. This is a good thing! Nebraska has produced a ton of amazing offensive linemen, and I’m looking forward to sharing many of them with you.

By now, I’m guessing you understand what we’re hoping to accomplish here: Discuss the things that make Nebraska football great, tell stories, celebrate amazing players and reminisce about the good old days.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 12, 2025, 09:38:59 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 77: Toniu Fonoti, Offensive Guard, 1999 – 2001

Early morning, Saturday, Sept. 8, 2001.

It was the day of one of the most anticipated home games in years. Notre Dame was coming to Lincoln for the first time since 1948. The game would be a top-20 matchup (the Fighting Irish were #17, Nebraska was ranked fifth).

Even though the game would not kick off until 7 p.m., a record 15,808 Husker fans were already inside Memorial Stadium. Why? ESPN’s “College GameDay” was broadcasting live from the north end zone. Near the end of the show, eight members of the U.S. Army Parachute Team dropped into the stadium. One of them delivered a special package to analyst Lee Corso – an oversized red cowboy hat – signifying that he would predict Nebraska to win the game. The crowd went nuts.

Corso’s prediction was accurate. The Huskers cruised to a 27-10 victory on a beautiful, late-summer night. It was – start to finish – as close to a perfect day as one could ask for.

Three days later, the world turned upside.

Four commercial airplanes were hijacked by terrorists. Two were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center. One into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed into a Pennsylvania field after the passengers overtook the hijackers. All told, nearly 3,000 people died on the day that would forever be known as 9/11.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks, everything stopped. It didn’t feel right to have a football or baseball game while the country was in mourning. Slowly, the nation started to pull itself back up.

Nebraska’s next football game – against Rice University – was rescheduled from Saturday, Sept. 15 to Thursday, Sept. 20. As it worked out, the Rice game was the first college football game to be played after the attacks. The pregame Tunnel Walk featured representatives from the Nebraska State Patrol, Lincoln Fire Department and Lancaster County Sheriff’s Department. It is still talked about as one of the most memorable moments in the 100+ year history of Memorial Stadium.


The game itself was a 48-3 blowout. The offensive line – anchored by Toniu Fonoti – gave quarterback Eric Crouch the time and space to do whatever he wanted. Crouch threw for 165 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 97 yards and two more scores. He and the other starters did not play in the fourth quarter.


Fonoti – 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).

Toniu Fonoti declared for the NFL Draft after his junior season. Had he come back for his senior year in 2002, he could have ranked amongst the best offensive linemen in Nebraska history.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 13, 2025, 09:22:06 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 76: Jerry Minnick, Tackle, 1950 – 1953

At the end of the 1940 season, Nebraska went to its first bowl game. The Rose Bowl, granddaddy of them all. Even though the Cornhuskers lost to a very good Stanford team, optimism was high that the program – led by Biff Jones (who earned the rank of Major in the U.S. Army) – was headed for a national championship.

Yes, there was a war going on in Europe, but America was choosing to stay out of it. But on Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. The United States was now at war.

World War II had deep and profound impacts all around the globe. It was the deadliest conflict in history. And since there is no good way to seamlessly transition from the death and destruction of war to something as trivial as college football, you’ll have to forgive me if we grind the gears shifting over to how World War II impacted the Nebraska Cornhuskers. I do not mean any disrespect toward those who served – or died – during the war.

WWII was rough on the program in many ways. NU’s coach, Maj. Lawrence McCeney "Biff" Jones, was ordered to active duty and left Nebraska shortly after war was declared. The Huskers would have four different head coaches in the next seven years. None of them lasted more than two seasons.


On the field, things were even worse. The University of Nebraska – unlike many other major universities – did not have an officer training program on campus. An 18-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, could go to Ohio State, complete his officer training and play football for the Buckeyes. An 18-year-old from Columbus, Nebraska, would enlist and be sent off to boot camp.

As a result, the majority of Cornhusker teams in the 1940s consisted of players who were either not physically able to serve, or young, able-bodied young men who had not yet been drafted. From 1942 to 1945, Nebraska went 11-24 (.314).

After the war, there is some hope. Bernie Masterson – a native son, former star player and successful coach – was hired. He was viewed as a savior for the program. Sadly, Masterson went 5-13 (.278) in two seasons. He holds the dubious honor of being the first Nebraska coach to have his contract bought out by unhappy boosters.


Bill Glassford took over in 1949. He was the first Husker coach to offer athletic scholarships to players. His winning percentage of .471 across seven seasons makes him the winningest coach between the 1940 Rose Bowl team and the arrival of Bob Devaney. The 1950 team went 6-2-1 and ended the season ranked No. 17. In the remainder of the decade, NU spent only two more weeks in the AP rankings.


Jerry Minnick, a freshman from Cambridge, Nebraska, was on the 1950 team but did not play. He began his career as a fullback but moved to tackle.

Minnick started as a sophomore in 1951. Against Iowa State he caught a fumble in midair and ran it back for a touchdown, helping to ensure one of the two Husker victories in 1951. He earned first-team All-Big Seven recognition.


1952 – Jerry Minnick’s junior campaign – was his finest season. He repeated as an All-Big Seven pick and was named a first-team All-American. Minnick was just the second Husker All-American since 1940. Nebraska would not have another All-American until 1963. The Huskers went 5-4-1.


In Minnick’s senior season (1953), he was a team captain and earned all-conference honors for the third time. Unfortunately, Minnick’s strong play was not enough. The 1953 Huskers finished 3-6-1. During Jerry Minnick’s playing career, they were 10-18-2 (.367).

Jerry Minnick was not on the team in 1954. He had graduated from NU. He turned down opportunities to play in the NFL and joined the Air Force to become a pilot. He would go onto fly reconnaissance missions in F4 Phantom jets.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 13, 2025, 09:45:34 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/rLQrgNk.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: 847badgerfan on June 13, 2025, 10:57:54 AM
Quote from: FearlessF on June 13, 2025, 09:45:34 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/rLQrgNk.png)
This is not accurate.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: utee94 on June 13, 2025, 11:12:08 AM
Elaborate?
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: 847badgerfan on June 13, 2025, 11:20:01 AM
The revenue sharing is not NIL. These are two different things.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: utee94 on June 13, 2025, 11:22:12 AM
Well sure.  I see the caption at the top says NIL, but I didn't interpret the line about revenue sharing, to be included in NIL.

I suppose that's because I already know that the revenue sharing is not NIL.

Speaking of which, the House revenue sharing plan is now being challenged by Title IX proponents.  Which was totally expected by me and anyone else who pays attention.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 13, 2025, 01:05:08 PM
Source was nebraska public television 
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: 847badgerfan on June 13, 2025, 03:13:29 PM
Quote from: FearlessF on June 13, 2025, 01:05:08 PM
Source was nebraska public television
Defund it.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 14, 2025, 08:31:32 AM
Greatest Huskers to wear 75: Larry Jacobson, Defensive Tackle, 1969 – 1971 & Will Shields, Offensive Guard, 1989 – 1992

The Outland Trophy is presented annually to the best interior lineman in college football, as voted on by the Football Writers Association of America. The trophy’s namesake (Dr. John Outland) believed that guards, tackles and centers deserved more recognition. First awarded in 1946, the Outland is one of the most prestigious college football awards.

The Outland has been presented in Omaha for over a quarter century. Although the award didn’t originate in Nebraska, it makes sense that it lives here now. Nebraska boasts more Outland Trophy awards (nine) and winners (eight) than any other school. We’re going to celebrate two of them today.

In theory, I should choose a single “best” between Larry Jacobson and Will Shields. But, honestly, how would one even do that?

Do you pick the man who won the first of Nebraska’s Outland Trophies – making him the first Cornhusker to win a major award?  Or do you go with the second Husker to ever start on the offensive line as a true freshman, and one of six linemen to be all-conference three straight years? Both were dominating players who cast a big, big shadow over their position.  In the end, I’m choosing to celebrate two Husker legends, who both happened to wear the same number. We’ll go alphabetically and chronologically.

Larry Jacobson came to Nebraska from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. His size and athleticism made him an attractive recruit to several different schools. His decision came to Nebraska and Iowa. When he told Iowa no, well … let’s just say the Hawkeyes didn’t take it well.

Iowa sent an assistant coach to Sioux Falls to essentially stalk Jacobson in the days before he could sign with Nebraska. Bob Devaney responded by sending Monte Kiffin up to run interference. In an interview with HuskerMax, Jacobson described the Iowa coach waiting outside his high school, tailing Kiffin and Jacobson through the streets of Sioux Falls and – after Kiffin lost him – parking outside the Jacobson house for over an hour.

Jacobson finally agreed to meet one more time with the Iowa coach at his home … while Kiffin played croquet with Larry’s sisters in the backyard. After Jacobson reconfirmed his commitment to Nebraska, Kiffin breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Devaney told me I can’t come back if I don’t get your name on the paper!”

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.

***
On the other side of the line of scrimmage is another legendary #75: Will Shields.

It’s crazy to think that Shields was Nebraska football's first scholarship player from the state of Oklahoma,* ever. He was the first letterman from the Sooner state in almost 70 years (Richard Tripplett in 1920 – 1921).

*Shields, notably, did not receive a scholarship offer from Oklahoma.

Shields was just the second Husker offensive lineman to play as a true freshman, but that isn’t as surprising when you know the backstory.

Before his senior year of high school, Shields attended a Nebraska football camp where the coaches taught some of the plays and blocking schemes Nebraska used. After committing to NU, Shields spent time studying those plays. How much, I don’t know, but when he arrived on campus, he knew the correct calls better than the rest of the freshmen. That work ethic, combined with his excellent size (6-foot-1, 305 pounds) and strength, made it possible for him to play in nine games as a true freshman and forgo a redshirt season.

As a sophomore, Shields earned All-Big Eight honors – the first for an NU sophomore since Dave Rimington. Before his career was done, Shields would be first-team All-Big Eight three times, making him one of just six offensive linemen to do it.

In his junior year, Shields was a second-team All-American. In 1992, his senior season, Shields had one of the greatest seasons by a Cornhusker guard. First-team All-American. He received votes for the Big Eight Offensive Player of the Year – an award that almost always went to quarterbacks and running backs. Shields won the 1992 Outland Trophy, the fifth in Nebraska’s storied history.

Shields also led the 1992 Huskers in yards per carry. He picked up 16 yards on a fumblerooski against Colorado on Halloween night. Tom Osborne called Will’s number on 3rd & 4 in 17-7 game. The NCAA banned the fumblerooski after the 1992 season, so I feel confident in saying Will Shields ran the final one.

In addition to his athletic achievements, Shields was a decorated student, earning Academic All-America honors in 1992. It was important to him that he graduated before going to the NFL – a task made harder by not redshirting. Shields earned his degree before being a third-round draft pick* of the Kansas City Chiefs.

*A random factoid: Will Shields’ first agent was Kevin Warren, who would later become the commissioner of the Big Ten Conference.

In Kansas City, Shields had one of the greatest NFL careers by a Nebraska Cornhusker. Among his many accomplishments: 231 straight starts, 12 Pro Bowls and the prestigious Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year in 2003 for his work in the community.

Will Shields was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2015, he was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame along with former Husker offensive lineman Mick Tingelhoff. Shields is just one of three Huskers (along with Bob Brown and Guy Chamberlin) to be honored in both Halls of Fame.

Shields was named to the Walter Camp All-Century team in 1999 and has been named to the all-time Nebraska team. His son Shavon was a standout player for the Nebraska basketball team from 2012 – 2016. Recently, Will Shields completed a three-year term on the College Football Playoff selection committee.

The #75 jerseys worn by Larry Jacobson and Will Shields were retired at the same time in 1994, and their names are on the north stadium façade.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 15, 2025, 09:13:29 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 74: Bob Newton, Offensive Tackle, 1969 – 1970

When we look back on Bob Devaney’s tenure, we see the bowl game in Year 1. The start of the sellout streak. Big Eight titles in four of his first five seasons. The national championships in 1970 and 1971. The waves of all-time great players.

We tend to overlook – or forget – the 1967 and 1968 seasons. Back-to-back years finishing 6-4, third place in the conference and no bowl game. Husker fans – not always the most patient of people – were circulating petitions for Devaney to be fired.

Heading into the 1969 season, let’s just say Bob Devaney was open to new ideas.


Meanwhile, Nebraska’s record-setting pole vaulter had a back injury. The team wouldn’t let him jump anymore. But they worked out an arrangement to allow him to keep his scholarship for his senior year: he would supervise the university’s tiny weight room in the Schulte Field House. A few football players – often recovering from injury – would trickle into the weight room from time to time and worked with our retired pole vaulter. They seemed to be getting back to practice quicker than their peers. Others who had been working out on the side seemed faster than they did the year before.

That weight room supervisor – a college student named Boyd Epley – received a phone call from assistant coach Tom Osborne. Come to my office. Epley assumed he was in trouble. But he went to talk to Nebraska’s newly promoted offensive coordinator.

Osborne had noticed that the injured players working out with Epley were coming back faster and stronger. Osborne asked if Epley could do that for the entire team. Epley knew he could, but he also knew his small 416-square-foot space wouldn’t hold the whole team. Osborne said, “How about we knock that wall down?” Epley said that would work, but they’d need more equipment than the sparse setup they had. Osborne said, “Well, can you help us with that?” Epley offered to bring a list of desired equipment the next day.


As promised, Epley brought a one-page list of equipment. Osborne, without reading it, handed it to his secretary and said, “Order this.” Epley then said, “Coach, I forgot the second page.” Osborne smiled, took the second page of equipment and said “All right, Boyd, we need to see Bob Devaney and get permission to do all of this.”

In Devaney’s office, Epley was put on the spot to defend why thought the football team should be lifting weights. Remember – this was an era where almost nobody lifted. The prevailing wisdom of the late 1960s was lifting weights might make you strong, but muscle-bound players would be slow and stiff. Less Iron Man and more Wizard of Oz Tin Man. Epley knew the conventional wisdom was wrong.

Satisfied with Epley’s response, Devaney said, “Well, if Tom thinks this is important, we’ll give it a try.” Devaney then pointed squarely at Epley and said, “But if anybody gets slower, you’re fired.”

And with that, the first full-time strength coach in college football history – the man who eventually would be named the “Godfather of Strength and Conditioning” – was hired.

The initial results came quickly. The 1969 team – having started working out and using Osborne’s I-formation offense – went 9-2 and tied for first place in the Big Eight. NU beat Oklahoma 44-14. The year before, the Huskers lost 47-0.

It’s easy to look back 55+ years later and think “Boyd came in, they started to lift, and the rest is history.” But it wasn’t that simple. It took time to overcome the “lifting makes you slower” mentality. Getting participation and buy-in from the full roster was hard. And the guy in charge was essentially the same age as the players he was leading.

To boost participation, regularity and personal accountability, Epley convinced the university to make strength training a class. This allowed players to earn credit for working out. Taking attendance and handing out grades helped establish the routine of lifting. Epley figured out early on that tapping into the competitive nature of athletes was important. Players wanted to the be the best at … everything. Regular testing – with records posted in the weight room – gave motivated athletes something to shoot for. The program – a mix of Olympic lifts, power lifting and some body building elements - became known as “Husker Power.”


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. But he unintentionally helped Epley go from peer to coach. Newton, nicknamed “Big Fig,” had a bad habit of spitting during his workouts. Epley asked him not to do it in the weight room. When Newton spit on the floor a few days later, Epley kicked him out for two weeks. Even though Epley was just two years older (and considerably smaller) than Newton, standing up to him got the message across to the team: Boyd meant business.

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.

As players saw the gains of their peers, and how those translated to wins and individual success on the field, Husker Power started to (figuratively and literally) gain speed. Boyd Epley continued to gain knowledge, refine his approach and innovate.

Nebraska won 356 games during the 35 years of Epley’s tenure as head strength coach. After retiring in 2006, he has served in numerous other roles across the athletic department.

***
Over the years, Nebraska has found several difference-making players in the junior college (or JUCO) ranks. Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier leads the list, but there are numerous other All-Americans (like Bob Newton), all-conference players and other contributors.

There are many reasons players might end up at a JUCO out of high school. Often, they lacked the academic requirements needed to get into college. Graduating from a two-year junior college could be a pathway to major college football. Other JUCO players were underrecruited, developed later, or were injured during their senior season. They used their JUCO time to improve as players and increase their stock.

From a coaching standpoint, junior college players served many purposes. Coaches would often mine the junior colleges looking for starters or depth to supplement the talent in a position group, replace an injured player, or get a starter if the developmental pipeline was thin. Nebraska’s usage of junior college players has ebbed and flowed depending on the coach and the landscape of college football at the time. Nebraska took a fair amount of JUCO players before Prop 48 was introduced. When the Big 12 voted to limit the number of partial and non-qualifiers a school could take, JUCO use rose. Some coaches and/or administrations (such as when Mike Riley was head coach) shied away from junior college players. Today, the transfer portal fills a lot of the same needs that JUCOs once did.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 15, 2025, 12:25:31 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/UZUYQAO.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 17, 2025, 08:54:06 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 72: Zach Wiegert, Offensive Tackle 1991 – 1994

On Jan. 1, 1994, Byron Bennett made a 27-yard field goal to give No. 2 Nebraska a 16-15 lead in the Orange Bowl over No. 1 Florida State.

If the Huskers could stop Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward and the Seminoles for one minute and sixteen seconds, Tom Osborne would win his first national championship.

The kickoff dribbled out of bounds. FSU ball on the 35. As the Seminole offense came onto the field, NBC sideline reporter O.J. Simpson noted that Ward was having shoulder stiffness.



On 4th and 1, William Floyd barely picked up the first down. The next play was a 21-yard completion to Warrick Dunn that was made worse by a late-hit penalty on Barron Miles. FSU first down on the Nebraska 18. A pass interference penalty on Toby Wright gave FSU first and goal at the 3. FSU ran one play, called a timeout and kicked a 22-yard field goal with 21 seconds left.*

*It’s stunning to see how poorly Florida State managed the clock. Once the Seminoles got into field goal range, they threw it twice and left the Huskers with time for one last shot. Bobby Bowden didn’t even make Osborne burn his final timeout. 


The Huskers had life, but it would take a miracle. Tommie Frazier and Trumane Bell got the ball into field goal range with one second on the clock. But Bennett’s 45-yard field goal attempt was wide left.

Pain.

To the players on that team, it did not matter they had easily covered the 17½-point spread. They didn’t blame Bennett. The missed calls* were frustrating, but the players knew they let a golden opportunity slip away.

*The two biggest missed calls: 1) a phantom clip that erased a Corey Dixon punt return touchdown in the first quarter, and 2) a fumble by FSU fullback William Floyd as he dived near (but not over) the goal line. It was ruled a touchdown, and replay reviews did not yet exist in college football.


That night, a group of Huskers sat together in the team hotel and talked about the game. The underclassmen felt terrible for the seniors who were leaving empty-handed. More importantly, they realized they did not want to experience the same thing. In Paul Koch’s “Anatomy of an Era,” offensive tackle Zach Wiegert recalled saying “You know what, next year we’re working our way back here and we’re gonna be undefeated and we’re not going to leave it up to some field goal kicker.”

The 1994 team motto of “Unfinished Business” was born.

Throughout the offseason, the scoreboards in Memorial Stadium were set to display the time left (1:16) and the final score (18-16) as a reminder. An extra 1:16 was added to every summer workout. The 1994 captains – Ed Stewart, Rob Zatechka, Terry Connealy and Wiegert – kept the team steady through injuries and other turmoil. The team’s “refuse to lose” mentality served them well on multiple occasions.

At the heart of it was Zach Wiegert.



The anchor of the vaunted “Pipeline” offensive line, he was a dominating tackle. Coming into the 1994 season, Wiegert had already earned All-Big Eight twice, as well as second team All-America honors in 1993. But his 1994 season was special: a unanimous All-American, winner of the Outland Trophy, finalist for the Lombardi, and recipient of a first-place vote for the 1994 Heisman Trophy (he finished tied for ninth). Wiegert had 113 pancake blocks in 1994 en route to winning national lineman of the year honors by UPI and the Touchdown Club of Columbus (Ohio).

Wiegert played in 46 career games, starting 37 straight at right tackle. He allowed just one sack in his career. In 2022, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.


Wiegert was a second-round draft pick and played 12 years in the NFL. But as Wiegert told Paul Koch, he would have remained a Cornhusker for much longer: “If they would’ve paid my rent and gave me as much food and beer that I wanted, I would have played there until I couldn’t play anymore.”

***

“We’re running the ball right here. Go ahead and try and stop it.”

Zach Wiegert said these words – probably on multiple occasions* – to the defensive player across the line from him.   

*I absolutely believe it happened a few times. I’ve read some quotes from teammates that in 1994, it happened “about every third play of every single game.” That where reality starts to shift over to mythology for me. But the truth is that nobody knows for sure what happens deep down in the trenches. And I’m not going to call a 300-pound lineman a liar.



Imagine the confidence you need to have in yourself and your teammates to tell your opponent what play is coming. Is that a player being cocky, or one who is confident? How can you tell the difference?

The 1994 team averaged 340 rush yards and 477.8 yards of total offense per game and allowed just six sacks. Who would blame them if they needed a little extra challenge now and then?

A lack of confidence was never a concern for Zach Wiegert during this playing career.

Near the end of the 1994 Orange Bowl, there was confusion as the clock mistakenly expired. As Tom Osborne tried to get the officials to spot the ball correctly, several Florida State players were cursing at Osborne. Wiegert looks ready to fight them all to protect the honor of his coach.*

*The coach–player connection between Osborne and Wiegert went deeper than most. Wiegert’s grandfather was one of Osborne’s coaches at Hastings College.


In the 1995 Orange Bowl, Miami players – especially the defenders – talked a lot of trash. Warren Sapp, Ray Lewis, even Bob Marley’s son Rohan ran their mouths for most of the game … except for the final drive of the fourth quarter.

After Tommie Frazier runs for 25 yards on third-down option keeper, Wiegert motions emphatically for a first down four straight times.


There’s a famous picture taken during a timeout with 3:14 left in the game. The Pipeline is standing, ready to play. Sapp and other members of the Miami defense are on a knee, trying to catch their breath. What the picture doesn’t show is Wiegert clapping back, asking why the Hurricanes aren’t talking anymore.

The difference between being confident and cocky is the ability to back it up. Zach Wiegert always backed it up.


Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 18, 2025, 09:45:05 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 71: Dean Steinkuhler, Offensive Guard, 1979 – 1983


I’ve seen the claim that Dean Steinkuhler’s hometown (Burr, Nebraska) is the smallest town ever to produce a college football All-American. I’m not going to try to verify that against hundreds of All-America players in the last century, but that claim sure seems plausible. In 1980 – around the time Dean was in high school – Burr had a population of 101. In the 2020 census, the village of Burr had dipped to 52 people.

I can confirm that of Nebraska’s 108 first-team All-Americans, only two others came from towns with fewer than 500 people:

Guy Chamberlain of beautiful Blue Springs, Nebraska (population 275)
Kyle Larson of Funk, Nebraska (population 175).
Steinkuhler was known as “The Burr Oak.” Strong and rugged, he possessed a strong work ethic that was matched only by his desire to win. If there was a competition – sprints at practice, records in the weight room – he wanted to be first.

By his junior year, 1982, he was starting next to center Dave Rimington. Not surprisingly, Nebraska ran for an average of 394.3 yards per game. Heck, Tom Osborne could have called nothing but fullback dives and quarterback sneaks and the Huskers would have run for 325.

In 1983, Steinkuhler was the anchor for an offensive line that paved the way for the Scoring Explosion offense. Nebraska averaged a ridiculous 401.7 yards rushing and 52 points per game. He was a first-team All-American and won the Outland and Lombardi Trophies, the 13th player to sweep the awards.

Steinkuhler was the second overall pick in the 1984 NFL Draft,* the highest ever for a Nebraska lineman. His #71 jersey was retired in 1984. In 1999, he was named to the Sports Illustrated “All-Century” team.

*Fellow Husker Irving Fryar went first in the 1984 draft, making them the second set of teammates to ever be drafted 1-2.

Steinkuhler’s two sons – Ty and Baker – were both multiyear starters at Nebraska.

***

Nebraska had a ton of success in the early part of the 1980s. Nebraska had amazing skill players, and the offensive line – under the coaching of Milt Tenopir and physical development of Epley – was paving the way. But that success came with a big downside: opposing coaches and fans assumed NU was cheating.

Especially in the 1980s, rumors of steroid use ran rampant.

After Oklahoma beat UCLA in 1986, Sooners head coach Barry Switzer told Sports Illustrated the Bruins are “not like Nebraska. They haven’t discovered steroids yet.” Switzer later called Osborne to apologize, but he had said out loud what many had been whispering.

Nebraska started drug tests in 1984, which was two years before the NCAA mandated them. In 1986, Osborne said “I think over the years we’ve had some guys who have taken steroids … The thing I feel bad about is if the whole team over a long period of time is indicted.”

In a 1987 SI article, Dean Steinkuhler admitted to taking steroids near the end of his junior season (1982) and during his senior year (1983). Steinkuhler said he got them from an unnamed teammate. Steinkuhler claimed that “five or six” other offensive linemen were taking them as well.

Before Nebraska played at UCLA in 1988, Bruin coach Terry Donahue leveled more steroid allegations at Nebraska. Epley stood in front of reporters at the Friday walk-through and said that he would “resign immediately” if any of his staff provided or suggested taking steroids. He added that “as far as we know, with our best efforts, we don’t have players on steroids.”

For whatever it’s worth – and I have no facts to back this up – I don’t believe steroids were ever a widespread issue at Nebraska. Yes, some players took them – as did famous players at other schools like Brian Bosworth. But I have a hard time believing that the strength coach industry – which Boyd Epley literally created – was based on pills and injections. Tom Osborne wasn’t perfect, but he built and maintained a pretty strong reputation for running a clean program that strove to do things the right way because it was the right thing to do.

Mostly, it’s this quote from Epley before the 1988 UCLA game that I think is important to remember whenever the steroid discussion comes up:  “It takes away from the hard work of our players.”

It also impacts the legacies of those who used them. Despite being one of 13 players (at the time) to win the Outland and Lombardi in the same season, Dean Steinkuhler has not been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

***
Fumblerooski.

Arguably, it the greatest word in the English language.*

For an offensive lineman – i.e., the guys who do all the work and only get noticed when they screw up – that magnificent word once was one of their few paths to glory.

The beauty of the fumblerooski is the sleight-of-hand deception. Executed properly, it is a magic trick. The quarterback and running back go to right, find a defender and ask, “Is this your card?” Meanwhile, a 270-pound locomotive is chugging around the left end toward the end zone.

Tom Osborne called the fumblerooski three times during his legendary career. But the scenario in which Osborne called this one, in the 1984 Orange Bowl against Miami, is almost impossible to comprehend. Midway through the first quarter, his No. 1-ranked, undefeated team was losing 17-0 to the No. 5 Hurricanes. The high-flying Scoring Explosion offense was sputtering. Nebraska was in the red zone and desperately needed a touchdown.

Facing third-and-five from the Miami 19, who did Osborne want to touch the ball? Not Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier. Not wingback Irving Fryar, who would be the No. 1 overall pick in the 1984 NFL Draft. Quarterback Turner Gill – one of the best to ever play the position at Nebraska – technically did touch it … barely. He dropped on the ground behind his offensive line. There it awaited the 270-pound Steinkuhler, who scooped it up, chugged around the end and rumbled toward the end zone.

NBC announces Don Criqui and John Brodie – along with their cameramen, director and millions watching on TV – had no idea what happened. In the live shot, you can see Steinkuhler pick the ball up and run around the left end, but the camera follows Gill as he and Rozier execute a perfect option fake to the right. The camera whips to the goal line as big Dean crashes in over a defender.

Criqui calls the touchdown, then says, “Now we’re going to see how it happened, ’cause I don’t know.”

On the play, there are a million things that can go wrong. Footballs are notoriously unpredictable objects when they are dropped. One of his teammates could have accidentally kicked it. An alert defender could have jumped on it or warned his teammates. An unprepared ref could blow the play dead. And so on…


Yet, the ball passes perfectly from center Mark Traynowicz to Gill, who barely touches it. It drops straight down, bounces once and nearly comes to rest as Steinkuhler scoops it up. I cannot begin to imagine the number of times this play was run in practice to give Osborne the confidence to call it on third-and-five, down 17 points. If it fails, Nebraska is likely getting blown out and the “can’t win the big one” criticisms reach dangerous levels.

Thankfully, an offensive lineman was there to save the day.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 18, 2025, 02:54:52 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/EOvAWXq.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 19, 2025, 10:08:51 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 70: Doug Glaser, Offensive Tackle, 1987 – 1989

The very first Nebraska football game I attended was the 1983 win over the Colorado Buffaloes. The Huskers scored an NCAA-record 48 points in the third quarter on their way to a 69-19 victory, their 16th straight over the Buffs. Colorado’s coach was a former Michigan assistant in his second season at CU: Bill McCartney.

When McCartney was hired by Colorado in 1982, he made a point to proclaim that Nebraska was Colorado’s primary rival. It was a laughable proclamation. The Huskers held a 28-11-1 edge in the series and had lost just once (1967) since Bob Devaney was hired.

Therefore, the 1986 game – the #3 Huskers lost 20-10 to unranked Colorado – was a complete shock to everybody outside of McCartney’s locker room. Doug Glaser spent the 1986 season playing for the Nebraska freshman team, but he was going to have a front-row seat for the Colorado rivalry gaining traction on both sides of the border.

Glaser was one of the rare offensive linemen in the 1980s to forgo a redshirt season. As a sophomore in 1987, he backed up Bob Sledge, playing in every game. The 1987 game – in Boulder for a second straight season – was a convincing 24-7 win.

In 1988, Glaser became a full-time starter and picked up second-team All-Big Eight recognition. The 19th-ranked Buffaloes held the No. 7 Cornhuskers to almost 100 yards below their season average of 382.3 rushing yards per game and allowed only one touchdown. The Huskers were lucky to escape with a 7-0 victory.*

*Seriously, they were very, very lucky. In the second quarter, Colorado running back J.J. Flannigan broke through the Blackshirts and was on his way to a 43-yard touchdown. But, all by himself at the 25-yard line, he dropped the ball. Flannigan recovered his fumble, but the Buffaloes were kept off the board.

Doug Glaser’s senior season – 1989 – was his best. Despite missing three games with a broken big toe, he was All-Big Eight and All-America. He also was a team captain.

His injury illustrated the difference he made. In the three nonconference games he missed, the Huskers rushed for 335 yards per game. In the games Glaser played – including all of the Big Eight schedule – NU ran for an average of 390 yards.

Colorado was also having a great season in 1989. The Buffs were No. 2, having defeated Oklahoma earlier in the season. They were led by quarterback Darian Hagan, who became Colorado’s starter when quarterback Sal Aunese passed away. CU defeated No. 3 Nebraska 27-21 in Boulder, breaking up a pass in the end zone of the final play of the game.


After the game, Glaser said “We really wanted to go back to the Orange Bowl and take our best shot at the national championship. This really hurts because we weren’t that far off.”

Husker fans who attended the 1989 game in Boulder reported acts of vandalism to their vehicles and other unpleasantries in the stands. It was a clear sign that the rivalry was escalating into something that meant a lot to both teams. The Buffaloes would win a share of the 1990 national championship … with the assistance of a fifth down at Missouri. The Huskers would soon start a decade-long streak without a loss to Colorado.


Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 20, 2025, 08:08:04 AM
Greatest Husker to wear No. 69: LaVerne Torczon, Center / Guard, 1954 – 1956

The 1950s were not a banner time for Nebraska football.

The Cornhuskers were 39-58-3 in the decade (.405), trailing only the 1940s (.374) for the worst decade in program history.*

*At the halfway point of the 2020s, Nebraska is 22-35 (.386) in the current decade. No pressure, Matt Rhule!

Head coach Bill Glassford accounted for most of the success in the 1950s. NU’s only three winning seasons between 1940 and 1962 came under his leadership. That said, Glassford had four seasons at or below .500. Glassford owns the third worst winning percentage of all Husker head men with at least three seasons as head coach:

Mike Riley, .500 in three seasons
Bill Glassford, .471 in seven seasons
Scott Frost, .341 in four and a third seasons
Bill Jennings, .310 in five seasons
Head coach Bill Glassford’s seasons had a rollercoaster’s amount of peaks and valleys. His best season (6-2-1 in 1950) was the year Bobby Reynolds became Mr. Touchdown, U.S.A. After that, 2-8-1 in 1951. A rebound to 5-4-1 in 1952 and a dip to 3-6-1 in 1953.

Frankly, that’s how things went in the Glassford era. Successes were few and fleeting.

In the case of the 1954 team, success only came on a technicality… and after a near mutiny.


At the end of the 1953 season, 35 players signed petitions demanding his resignation. The players were frustrated by the grueling practices and militaristic leadership of the coach they referred to as “the Baby-Faced Assassin”. Players wrote letters stating the “fear” they felt playing for him. Their allegations: injured players were being forced to play, Glassford would not allow them to take classes that interfered with practice, and that scholarship monies were withheld or revoked.

The book and ESPN movie “Junction Boys” describes the hellish summer training camp Paul “Bear” Bryant conducted for his Texas A&M team in remote Junction, Texas. The players would practice from dawn to dusk in sweltering summer heat, usually without water breaks. The Bear’s camp took place in 1954. From 1949 – 1951, Glassford held his own version at the ag college in tiny Curtis, Neb. Players would routinely quit the team because they were unable – or unwilling – to endure the conditions. Longtime NU trainer George Sullivan once said that 25 or so players (out of the 70 they started with) quit* or were injured during a stay at “Camp Curtis.”

*And since Curtis isn’t exactly a metropolitan area, “quitting” meant hitchhiking to McCook or North Platte (40+ miles away) in hopes of getting a ride back to Lincoln, 215 miles east.

However, in the 1950s tough – even abusive – coaching was tolerated, if not encouraged. The Omaha World-Herald appeared to go out of their way to defend Glassford, saying the players grievances were “all in their minds – their mixed-up minds” and characterizing them as malcontents “utterly lacking in the mental requirements for top-grade ball.”

In January of 1954, the UNL Chancellor and Board of Regents gave Bill Glassford an unanimous vote of confidence. At the end of a gloating column, the World-Herald’s Floyd Olds wrote “this could be the turning point – the start of the road back to success for Nebraska football.”

Nebraska’s 1954 season got off to a rocky start, as NU opened 1-2 with losses to Minnesota and Kansas State. Then the Cornhusker rollercoaster started climbing, winning four straight games before losing to Pittsburgh in November.

Good news! Going into the conference finale, the Huskers were in second place in Big Seven conference.

Great news! At the time, the Big Seven had a “no-repeat” rule for postseason games. Oklahoma won the conference in 1953 and beat Maryland in the Orange Bowl. The Sooners – despite winning the Big Seven again in 1954 as part of their lengthy run of dominance over the conference – could not return to Miami.

Bad news. Knowing they would not be able to play in a bowl game, the No. 3 Sooners took their frustrations out on Nebraska. The 55-7 final score tied the (then) largest margin of defeat by a conference rival. But the blowout loss didn’t repeal the no-repeat rule. The Huskers were headed to Miami* for their second-ever bowl game.

*After the blowout at Oklahoma, the Huskers wrapped up their regular season with the program’s first ever game at Hawaii. The 1955 Cornhusker yearbook claims the 1954 Huskers logged more travel miles than any other college football team that season.

In the Orange Bowl, the country* got to watch No. 14 Duke dismantle Nebraska 34-7. Future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Sonny Jurgensen was a backup on the Duke squad. Nebraska’s lone touchdown came after a third quarter Duke punt took a horrible bounce and rolled to the Blue Devil 35-yard line, giving the Huskers a short field.

*The Orange Bowl was Nebraska’s second-ever nationally televised game. It was their first nationally televised loss.

Maybe the Huskers had jet lag. Maybe 6-4 Nebraska didn’t deserve to be in one of the seven bowl games. Maybe the motivational methods of “Baby-Faced Assassin” were failing to reach players who had come back from war in Korea. Who’s to say?

In 1954 – when substitution rules were much different than they are today – Glassford utilized a “two-team system”. The starters would play the first and third quarters. The backups would play the second and fourth.


LaVerne Torczon was a sophomore center in 1954 and likely played on the second team. Torczon played six-man football in Platte Center, Neb. (near Columbus) and walked on to the Nebraska team.


Torczon (pronounced TORE-sun) gained the nickname “Tarzan” from his teammates. In 1955, he was an All-Big Seven pick as a center. In the 1956 season, Torczon moved to guard and again earned all-conference honors. He was a team captain in 1956 and was elected to the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1987.

This is not the only “Greatest ____ by the Numbers” list that LaVerne Torczon appears on. After Nebraska, he was an All-AFL player with the Buffalo Bills. He is still considered the greatest Bill to ever wear #87.

Torczon died in 2015. After the funeral, Jim Murphy – a co-captain and friend from the 1956 team – sang “The Cornhusker” over Torczon’s casket. As captains, they would lead the team in the singing of that song (commonly referred to as “Come A Runnin’ Boys”) before games.


As for Glassford, he resigned after the 1955 season and went into the insurance business. In a 2015 interview with the Omaha World-Herald, Glassford said “I had enough. I was burnt out.” Despite a rocky career, Glassford remained a big Nebraska fan and donor for the rest of his life. Glassford lived to be 102, passing away in 2016.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 22, 2025, 11:21:50 AM
Greatest Husker to wear No. 67: Aaron Taylor, Center / Guard, 1993 – 1997

Honorable Mention: LaVerne Allers, Greg Orton, Kevin Ramaekers, Wally Winter

John Henry Outland was one of the first college football players to earn All-America honors at two different positions – as a tackle in 1897 as a tackle and then as a halfback in 1898. Knowing that linemen do not get the recognition they deserve, he donated $1,000 to establish the Outland Trophy in 1946.

*A sidebar on John Outland: After his playing and coaching careers, he was a surgeon in Kansas City and an occasional college football referee. One of the games he worked was Ames (Iowa State) at Nebraska in 1907. Trailing 10-9, Iowa State attempted a field goal. The ball landed short of the crossbar but bounced over.

Was that legal in 1907? Probably not, but this was an era where field goals were worth four points. Regardless, referee John Outland said the try was no good.** Nebraska won the game 10-9. To this day, Iowa State claims it as a 13-10 victory.

**Some Husker fans believe this 1907 game is the last time Nebraska benefitted from an official’s call.

It’s hard to believe that one of college football’s most decorated offensive linemen barely got any recruiting interest out of high school. Most of the big schools thought the 6’1″ Taylor was too small. A lot of the smaller schools didn’t bother because they could see he was clearly a Division 1 talent. If not for former Husker Scott Saltsman, Aaron Taylor might have ended up the New Mexico State or one of the smaller Texas schools.


Saltsman, also from Wichita Falls, Texas, graduated high school the year before Taylor. Assistant coach Dan Young was recruiting a different player from Wichita Falls, but he committed to Texas. That player’s coach said if you want the best player in our district, check out Aaron Taylor. Taylor visited Lincoln and was blown away by everything he saw. Saltsman showed him a good time and sold Nebraska well. Osborne offered Taylor a scholarship and he happily committed.

Taylor came to Nebraska as a guard. In his redshirt freshman season (1994), he played in every game on special teams and as a backup to Joel Wilks. When Wilks graduated, Taylor became the starting left guard for the 1995 Huskers, the greatest college football team of all time. He led the team with 128 pancake blocks and earned first team All-Big Eight honors.


Prior to the 1996 season, Taylor was asked to move from guard to center. Aaron Graham, the starter in 1995, had graduated, and offensive line coach Milt Tenopir felt Taylor would be the best one to fill the void. While not particularly thrilled with the idea, Taylor put the team first and threw himself into his new position. In addition to his duties at center, Taylor also served as a swing guard, giving one of the two starting guards and opportunity to rest. Taylor was All-Big 12, a first-team All-American center, and was a semifinalist for the Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award. For the 1997 Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech, Taylor was moved back to left guard.

As a senior in 1997, Taylor started every game at left guard and set a (then) team record with 137 pancake blocks. A co-captain, he was one of the leaders on a team that won the national championship for the third time in four seasons. Taylor repeated as All-Big 12 and earned All-America honors as a guard. He was awarded the 1997 Outland Trophy, Nebraska’s eighth, and most recent by an offensive lineman.

Nebraska has one of the richest histories in all of college football. Ninety-five different Huskers have been a first team All-American. Thirteen Huskers have earned multiple All-America honors. But only Aaron Taylor was an All-American at two different positions.


Think about that for a second.

Imagine the confidence you must have in yourself as a coach – and especially in your player – to move a potential All-American to a different position, watch him win All-America honors, and then move him back. Not too many people or places could pull that off. But Osborne and Milt Tenopir were right. And Aaron Taylor deserves a ton of credit for being an unselfish teammate.

Taylor was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2018. When his selection was announced, former teammate and (then) Nebraska head coach Scott Frost summed him up beautifully, “Aaron Taylor epitomized everything that Nebraska’s offensive line tradition stands for – determination, intelligence, will to win, toughness, tenacity, power. Aaron was a dominant player.”


Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 23, 2025, 07:36:25 AM
Greatest Husker to wear No. 66: Wayne Meylan, Middle Guard, 1965 – 1967

In 1966, Bob Devaney’s Cornhuskers travelled to Madison, Wisconsin, for a game against the Badgers. But a different four-legged mammal stole the show.

At some point in the game, a cottontail rabbit ended up on the field. There’s a famous photo of the rabbit essentially lined up at strong safety in the Husker secondary. Play was stopped on a couple of occasions as Wisconsin officials tried unsuccessfully to capture the critter, or at a minimum, shoo him off the field.

The rabbit reappeared when the Huskers were on defense. Between plays, middle guard Wayne Meylan managed to catch the rabbit. Meylan carried the bunny over to a security officer and told him to release the rabbit outside the stadium.

That’s who Wayne Meylan was – fast enough to catch a rabbit, big enough to be one of the greatest defensive linemen of all time, and gentle enough to ensure all creatures remained unharmed.

Well… all creatures except for the Wisconsin Badgers.

Meylan had one of the best games of his legendary career against Wisconsin. In addition to his duties as an animal control officer, Meylan blocked a third-quarter punt and landed on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. That started an avalanche that led to a 31-3 victory.*

*The Blackshirts had four interceptions in the game, one of them by linebacker Barry Alvarez – who would later become Wisconsin’s head coach and athletic director. Alvarez returned his interception 25 yards in what the Lincoln Star described as a “slow, but steady gallop” before being chased down by an offensive lineman.

In 1966, Meylan blocked three punts and recovered two for touchdowns. That stood as the school record for punt blocks in a season for nearly 30 years until cornerback Barron Miles broke it in 1994. “Coach Devaney told me to line up wherever I wanted to on punts,” Meylan said after the Wisconsin game. “I just moved up and down the line when they were punting.” Meylan’s pressure on a later attempt resulted in an 18-yard shank by Wisconsin’s rattled punter.

Meylan was a fearsome presence in the middle for the early Devaney teams. He was named Big Eight Player of the Year in his junior and senior seasons. He was a first team All-American in 1966 and 1967, the first Cornhusker to repeat as All-American since Ed Weir in 1924 – 25. Meylan finished ninth in the 1967 Heisman voting, with 11 first place votes.

Wayne Meylan grew up just 90 miles away from Michigan State’s campus in Bay City. He grew big and strong working on his dad’s navy bean farm. When the Spartans received a commitment from defensive lineman (and future NFL All-Pro) Bubba Smith, the door was open for Devaney to swoop in and snag a standout player from his old stomping grounds.

Meylan started out as an offensive lineman but was moved to defense because of his speed. At 6’1″ and 231 pounds, he was on the smaller end for a middle guard. But he brought other attributes to the table. Nebraska assistant George Kelly said, “Meylan is the only player I’ve ever coached or seen who combines all the ingredients we’re always looking for finesse, speed, blocker, strength, toughness and quickness.” He would often use his strength to throw offensive linemen out of the way before chasing down the backs.

Meylan also had a great sense of humor. Before a game, he was asked if though that the Huskers would win. His response: “Just as sure as my number is…” (a perfectly timed pause while Meylan looked down at his jersey) “…99, we will get it done.”

He finished as Nebraska’s all-time leading tackler – a title he would hold until Jerry Murtaugh broke it in 1970. Meylan is still 20th in career tackles, ahead of players like Jay Foreman, Carlos Polk, Ndamukong Suh, Rich Glover and Grant Wistrom. His 119 tackles in 1967 remain the position record for a defensive tackle / middle guard / nose tackle.

After football, Meylan enjoyed flying World War II era fighter planes in air shows. Tragically, he was killed in 1987 when one of those planes crashed at a show in Michigan. He was posthumously elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1991.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 23, 2025, 09:44:09 PM
KYLE CROOKS NAMED HUSKER FOOTBALL PLAY-BY-PLAY VOICE
Playfly Sports and Nebraska Athletics announced Monday the hiring of Kyle Crooks as the new play-by-play voice of Nebraska Football. In his role as the Director of Broadcasting for the Huskers Radio Network, Crooks will also co-host the network’s Sports Nightly show.

Crooks comes to Nebraska after eight years as Broadcast Coordinator and play-by-play broadcaster at the University of Florida.  In his time with the Gators, Crooks worked on the radio network's football, men's basketball, baseball, softball and soccer broadcasts.  Additionally, he has broadcasted events for the SEC Network+ digital platform. Alongside his play-by-play work, Crooks helped guide the behind-the-scenes effort for the radio network's social media tasks and day-to-day operations.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 24, 2025, 10:08:29 AM
Greatest Husker to wear No. 65: Joe Armstrong, Offensive Guard, 1966 – 1968

the best Husker to ever wear 65, Joe Armstrong: Guard. Even by the standards of the 1960s, Joe Armstrong wasn’t massive, big, or bruising.* He was a 210-pound offensive lineman.

*Sure, the odds are good that Armstrong did inflict some bruises during his career. But I’m not picturing a Toniu Fonoti or Brendan Stai-esque steamroller.

Yes, Armstrong did play offensive guard. He was pretty darn good too. As a senior in 1968, he was All-Big Eight and a first-team All-American.

But with Joe Armstrong, the best adjective is “versatile.”

In his junior year, he played guard and center. On the punt team, Armstrong was the long snapper. I’m guessing Armstrong knew exactly where the punters wanted the ball placed. Why, you ask? Let’s back up another year.

As a sophomore, Armstrong punted for most the season. He averaged a respectable 39.1 yards per kick, fifth best in the conference. I cannot think of any other player – anywhere – who has both long snapped and punted in his career.

When you think about football players wearing #65, “versatile” is never an adjective that comes to mind.

But Joe Armstrong is the exception.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 25, 2025, 08:46:25 AM
Greatest Husker to wear No. 64: Bob Brown, Guard / Linebacker, 1961 – 1963

Bob Brown came to Nebraska in 1961, one year before Bob Devaney. Brown played sparingly in this first season under coach Bill Jennings. When Devaney arrived from the University of Wyoming, he was astonished by Brown’s size (6’5″, 260 pounds) and strength. With his physical gifts, why wasn’t Brown playing?

Devaney soon realized the reason. The basic bumps and bruises of the game were often treated as serious injuries. Brown would miss practices and was gaining a reputation on the team as a goldbricker.

Coach Devaney brought Brown into his office and suggested he quit football. “We recommend golf, or maybe tennis, where you can use your strength without getting hurt,” Devaney quipped.

The message was received. Brown pleaded to remain on the team and worked his way into the starting lineup of Devaney’s first team in 1962. By the end of the season, Brown was voted All-Big Eight as a guard.

The 1962 team got off to a great start, winning its first six games. The second game – a 25-13 win at Michigan – is still viewed as a monumental moment in program history. Bill “Thunder” Thornton scored two touchdowns. On the final run, he said “(Brown) knocked out the whole side of the Michigan line. Why, he must have knocked down six men.”

The 1962 Wolverines were not a great team (they finished 2-7), but knocking off a vaunted brand on the road was a confidence boost and a message to the rest of the country. Nebraska was becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Devaney once said “Boomer” Brown was the best two-way player he ever coached. A fearsome linebacker, Brown had 49 career tackles. His interception in final minute of the 1962 Gotham Bowl sealed Nebraska’s 36-34 win over Miami – NU’s first-ever bowl game victory. Bob Devaney’s tenure at Nebraska was off to a great start.

In 1963, Brown anchored the offensive line for a Cornhusker team that won the conference for the first time since 1940. Brown repeated as an all-conference selection and was a unanimous All-American – Nebraska’s first All-American player since Jerry Minnick in 1952. More importantly, Bob Brown was the first black player at Nebraska to earn All-America honors.

Brown was the first overall pick in the AFL draft (Denver) and the second overall pick in the NFL draft (Philadelphia). After a lengthy NFL career with the Eagles, Rams and Raiders, he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

Brown is one of just three Cornhuskers to be enshrined in the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. And yet, Brown said there was only one Hall of Fame he wanted to be in. “I didn’t need to be applauded. I needed for you, as a defensive end, to put me in YOUR Hall of Fame… I needed for you to walk off the field and look back over at me and think ‘Boy, I don’t want to see him again!'”

Bob Brown is one of the greatest players in Nebraska football history. Those who saw him play swear he is the greatest offensive lineman to ever play at Nebraska.

In 2004, the number 64 was permanently retired at Nebraska in honor of Robert “Boomer” Brown. He is one of just three Cornhuskers to have his number no longer issued.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 26, 2025, 08:41:20 AM
Greatest Husker to wear No. 63: David Clark, Defensive Tackle, 1978 – 1980

The University of Nebraska Bugeaters football team of 1892 had 24 lads on the roster. Two of them – Alonzo and Jesse Yont – were brothers. Jesse, who started his Nebraska career on the 1891 team, was known to the local newspapers as “Big.” His younger brother Alonzo was “Little.”

In the 1893 game against Iowa – played in a late-November blizzard in Omaha – “Little” Yont scored a touchdown in a 20-18 win. The newspapers said “(W. Harry) Oury and ‘Little’ Yont were carried from the field on the shoulders of Nebraska admirers.”

The Yonts are – to the best of my research – the first brothers to play for Nebraska. They were far from the last.

There have been – by my very conservative, and definitely incomplete count – at least 75 sets of siblings within the Nebraska football program. Given the time to investigate other possible pairings, I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual number of families to send multiple sons to the football team is closer 150.

We met Kelvin Clark, the 6’4″, 275-pound offensive tackle back at #73. That would make David Clark – a petite 6’3″, 246 pounds, and two years younger – his “little” brother. David started his career at UTEP (the Clarks hail from Odessa, Texas), but transferred to Nebraska after his freshman year. Due to the transfer rules at the time, he had to sit out the entire 1977 season. With David playing defensive tackle, I wonder how many times the Clark brothers faced off in practice. There’s sibling rivalry and then there’s meeting your brother in a one-on-one drill with your friends and teammates watching.

Like Kelvin, David knew his way around the weight room, earning the “Mr. Redshirt” crown in 1977 for his efforts. In 1978 and 1979 David was a backup but still made significant contributions with 20+ tackles each of his first two seasons. Before his senior season (1980), Clark ruptured a disc in his back. He was sent to Canada for an experimental procedure where enzymes were injected into the disc.

The procedure was successful. Clark earned first-team All-Big Eight honors in 1980 and was an honorable mention All-American. David was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2023, joining Kelvin, a 2002 inductee.

The Clark boys are one of six sets of brothers to be inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame. 
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 27, 2025, 07:28:37 AM
Husker Dan's Survey


1.) What is your opinion about this year's Husker Spring "Event"?

a. Love the new format. (3%)

b. I can take it or leave it. (50%)

c.) I hate it! Bring back the annual Red-White Spring Game. The "Event" needs to be put out of its misery and never return! (47%)


2.) What do you think of NU canceling its home and home series with Tennessee in '26 and '27 and replacing those games with Ohio, Bowling Green and No. Illinois?

a. Great idea (38%)

b. Bad idea. Sounds like we're dodging a talented opponent. (19%)

c. Let's hope Matt Rhule knows what he's doing. (42%)

3.) Based on what we know as of May, how many regular season wins will Nebraska have this year?

a. 0-5 (8%)

b. 6-8 (40%)

c. 9-10 (44%)

d. 11-12 (8%)

5.) Come August 28th when NU opens its '25 season at Arrow Stadium in KC, who do you think will be Dylan Raiola's backup?

a. Heinrich Haarberg (0%)

b. TJ Lateef (12.5%)

c. Jalyn Gramstad (58%)

d. Marcus Davila (12.5%)

e. Luke Longvall (0%)

f. No clue (17%)

6.) During this fall's Husker home games, do you think beer will be sold inside the Stadium?

a. Yes (63%)

b. No (37%)

7.) Of the following '25 Husker opponents, who would you most like the Huskers to beat?

a. Michigan (16%)

b. Penn State (20%)

c. Iowa (56%)

d. USC (8%)

8.) How would you rate Matt Rhule's performance thus far?

a. A plus (4%)

b. Good (68%)

c. So-so (20%)

d. Disappointing (8%)


9.) How would you rate the performance of Husker AD Troy Dannen?

a. A+ (8%)

b. Good (88%)

c. So-so (4%)

d. Disappointing (0%)

10.) Which of the Husker position groups are you most concerned about?

a. Offensive line (12.5%)

b. Quarterback (12.5%)

c. Running back (8%)

d. D-line (42%)

e. Linebackers (0%)

f. Secondary (0%)

h. Special teams (25%)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 27, 2025, 09:15:20 AM
Greatest Husker to wear No. 62: Ken Mehlin, Offensive Guard, 1989 – 1993

Nebraska’s most famous offensive line is the “Pipeline,” the starting five from the 1994 National Championship team. They were the culmination of two decades of offensive line coaching and development.

Offensive line coach Milt Tenopir, along with assistant Dan Young (and Cletus Fischer before him), ran an offensive line factory that produced dozens of all-conference players, 16 All-Americans, five Outland Trophy winners and four College Football Hall of Famers.


How did they do it? Like any high-quality manufacturing process, they followed a consistent set of steps:

Step 1: Get good raw materials

It didn’t matter if it was a scholarship guy from a big high school or a walk-on from a tiny Nebraska town. As we’ll discuss next time, Nebraska didn’t require a specific set of measurables. Nebraska had an undeniable track record for finding kids they could develop, as well as kids willing to put in the work.

Step 2: Mold and shape them

With a few notable exceptions (such as Jake Young and Will Shields), most freshmen offensive linemen were not ready to play in their first year. Back when the freshman team existed, most offensive linemen would start their careers on the frosh squad. After that, a young offensive lineman would likely redshirt. That time was spent learning – and mastering – technique. Tenopir had a mastery of the fundamentals and understood that football really is a game of inches.


In an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, former tackle Doug Glaser talked about the attention to detail that made Tenopir’s lines so technically sound. “If you were an inch off on a step, he was all over us. That’s what we studied on film. Really every day we would spend our time on our technique and our footwork.” The disciplined and exacting approach would often carry over into other aspects of a lineman’s game (a low number of procedural and holding penalties) and often into his schoolwork and personal life.

A large part of a lineman’s underclassmen years was spent gaining size and strength. This is where legendary strength coach Boyd Epley would come in. He’d take these raw frames and teach them how to become strong, explosive and athletic. Nebraska’s training table, with help from the Husker Beef Club,* would nourish these hungry players.

*The Husker Beef Club would solicit Nebraska farmers and ranchers for donations of cattle, which would be served at the training table.


It was normal for an offensive lineman to gain 25 – 50 pounds over the course of his career, much of it muscle. Part of that was simple physical maturation (young men will continue to grow and mature between 18 and 21). Part was the development system Nebraska had in place. Add it up, and redshirt sophomores looked noticeably different than they did as true freshmen.

Step 3: Testing and Quality Control

As a sophomore – or even a junior – playing time might be tough to come by. The guy ahead of you is likely an all-conference or All-America caliber player. But don’t worry! Nebraska will likely blow out half of the teams on their schedule,* giving you the chance to gain valuable reps in a relatively low-pressure situation.

When tackle Doug Glaser was being recruited by Oklahoma in the 1980s, Barry Switzer tried to tell him he’d start as a true freshman. Glaser was smart enough to see through the lie. Tom Osborne told him the truth: “You’ll play freshman ball, then redshirt, get your strength up, and if you contribute for two years of those last three, you’ll have a successful career here.”

As you’ll recall, Glaser was an All-American.

Step 4: Finished products

Milt’s shiny road graders and bulldozers would roll off the assembly line… and roll over their opponent, gaining awards and accolades on their way to the NFL. Seven Cornhusker offensive linemen are in the college football HOF; four of them (Dave Rimington, Will Shields, Zach Wiegert and Aaron Taylor) were coached by Milt Tenopir.

Forty-two of Tenopir’s offensive linemen were drafted into the National Football League, and several more signed free agent deals. This was despite the nagging (and incorrect) assumption that Nebraska linemen couldn’t pass block.

How were NFL scouts and executives naïve enough to think that the greatest offensive line coach in the history of college football would forget to teach his players how to pass block? Of course, they could pass block. They just didn’t need to do it often, because Nebraska’s lines were so good at run blocking.


Ken Mehlin, an offensive lineman from the early 1990s, is one of many examples of Nebraska’s offensive line assembly line.

Step 1: Get good raw materials

Mehlin played offensive line and linebacker for Humboldt (Neb.) High. As a senior, his team won the Nebraska Class D-2 championship and Mehlin was a first team all-state honoree. For those unfamiliar with how Nebraska classifies their high schools, D-2 is the smallest. Humboldt High played 8-man football. Meylan’s graduating class had 17 people. Two of them, Meylan and teammate Jamie Weyers, walked on at Nebraska.


Step 2: Mold and shape them

Mehlin played on the freshman team in 1989 before redshirting in 1990. Listed at 255 pounds, Mehlin poured himself into the weight room, into learning the playbook, and into his academics. By his senior year, he would weigh 275.

Step 3: Testing and Quality Control

As a redshirt sophomore in 1991, Mehlin played in four games – and the Orange Bowl – as a backup guard. In his junior year (1992), Mehlin earned a starting job – and a scholarship! – with a strong performance in the spring. He was still on the smaller end compared to his teammates (practically scrawny at 265 pounds), but it was obvious he had bought into Epley’s strength and conditioning program. The Huskers once again led the nation in rushing offense (328 yards per game). Mehlin was academic All-Big Eight.


Step 4: Finished products

As a senior, Mehlin played center and guard for the 1993 team that nearly won the national championship. He earned first-team All-Big Eight honors and was a second-team Academic All-American.

It didn’t matter than Mehlin had walked on from an eight-man high school team. Heck, two of his fellow offensive line starters in 1992 (center Jim Scott and tackle Lance Lundberg) also played on eight-man teams. The assembly line – combined with his effort and determination – made him a valuable player.


There’s a quote in “The Assembly Line” – Milt Tenopir’s book about coaching, technique and more – that I love:

“Most young men aspire to be the best, but many don’t realize what it takes to get there. This is where older players become an influence. Their work habits and dedication to excel tends to rub off on the aspiring young players.”

Success breeds success. And established processes with excellent leadership will typically turn out superior products.

Milt Tenopir’s offensive lines were a cornerstone of Nebraska’s success under Tom Osborne.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 28, 2025, 09:30:12 AM
Greatest Husker to wear No. 61: John McCormick, Offensive Guard, 1984 – 1987

What made Tom Osborne’s option offense so good in the 1980s and 1990s? Nebraska regularly led the nation in rushing and was near the top in scoring. Nebraska seemingly replaced one amazing player with another, year after year after year. Once the Big Red machine started churning, it was hard to stop – let alone slow down.

There are a host of reasons why, some of which we’ve already touched on. The technical brilliance of Milt Tenopir’s offensive lines. Boyd Epley’s strength and condition program. Another key reason is coming up at #58.


Football coaches have been wanting players with specific measurements at certain positions since before the first 40-yard dash was timed. Picture a coach looking at a list of potential recruits holding a “you must be this tall to ride” sign. An offensive tackle must be 6’5″ or taller. Guards should be pushing 300 pounds. Wide receivers and defensive backs need to run 40 yards in 4.4 seconds or less. Wanting measurables works in reverse too: How many great running backs can you name that are taller than 6’3″?


There’s nothing wrong with coveting certain measurables. If ten players have the same height and weight, current Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule is likely to ask, “Who is fastest?” But part of the brilliance of Osborne’s system was it allowed him to have flexibility in who he signed.


In a passing or balanced offense, coaches covet taller offensive linemen. Tall bodies usually come with longer arms, which allows them to engage with defenders sooner, keeping defensive hands away from the lineman’s body. Taller frames can cover more ground and often have more leverage. But in a primarily run-based offense, linemen are going to be asked to drive defenders back instead of forming a protective pocket for the quarterback.


At “just” 6’1″, Aaron Taylor was considered too small for most big-time programs. The majority of his college offers came from I-AA schools. Tenopir and Nebraska saw a guy who could become a mauling road grader. Nebraska was right: Taylor was a two-time All-American.

The other factor was located in Nebraska’s backyard. During the 1980s and 1990s, how many Nebraska high schools ran an option-based, power running offense similar* to what Nebraska was doing?

As everybody knows, Nebraska’s in-state talent pool has always been shallower than almost every other major college team. I won’t say that having numerous teams in the state running your system was like Nebraska’s “farm system,” but it sure made it easier to find a fullback or guard who fit your system – and knew it because he ran it in high school.

The depth charts from Osborne-era teams were filled with Nebraska kids who maybe were a bit shorter than the mythical “standard” but who showed up in Lincoln familiar with what the offense was trying to do. From there, Osborne would need to find his quarterback,* a good I-back (often from Omaha Central High), and other skill position players wherever they might be.


*The biggest reason why Nebraska went away from – and has not gone back to – the option is the lack of difference-maker option quarterbacks. Even in the late 1990s and early 2000s, they were getting harder and harder to find. High schools – even in Nebraska – were shifting to passing offenses.

John McCormick, an offensive guard from Omaha, is a great example of this. At 6’0″ and 250 pounds, McCormick may have lacked the measurables some coaches required, but he did not lack for talent – he was a Parade Magazine All-American. I don’t know for sure what offense McCormick’s high school (Gross Catholic High in Omaha) was running, but let’s just say that I wouldn’t be shocked if it featured more fullback traps than trips formations.

McCormick followed the offensive lineman progression that should be very familiar by now: Freshman team, redshirt year, playing as a third-year sophomore. The notable difference is that McCormick was a starter.

I love this quote from Tenopir (in 1985) about his guards (McCormick, and fellow Gross alumnus Brian Blankenship (6’1″, 270)): “They’re stubby guys, but they’ve got a little punch in their hind ends. They’re kind of coach look-alikes – they’ve got little potbellies like coaches have.”

In 1986, McCormick’s junior year, he was second-team All-Big Eight and an honorable mention All-American. Instead of poking fun at his gut, his coaches were saying he was Nebraska’s best guard since Dean Steinkuhler.

As a senior, McCormick did his best to live up to such high praise, earning All-Big Eight and All-America honors in 1987. In the 1987 game at No. 12 Oklahoma State (a 35-0 Husker victory), McCormick graded out perfectly on his 65 snaps. He was named the Big Eight Offensive Player of the Week, the first time in 16 years that an offensive lineman won Player of the Week honors.

John McCormick served in the Omaha Fire Department for 30 years, rising to the rank of assistant chief. In a 2014 story by KETV in Omaha, they reported at least seven firefighters were former Huskers.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 29, 2025, 08:02:09 AM
Greatest Husker to wear No. 60: Tom Novak, Fullback / Center, 1946 – 1949

Tom “Train Wreck” Novak is one of the true legends of Nebraska football history. Out of the nearly 3,400 young men to play for Nebraska, Novak was the first – and still only – Cornhusker to earn first-team all-conference honors in each of his four seasons. Only 20 Huskers have been an all-conference pick three times.

As a freshman and sophomore, Novak played fullback and center on offense and linebacker on defense, earning All-Big Six honors. As a junior and senior, he moved to center and picked up All-Big Seven recognition. Novak was a first-team All-American in 1949.

Novak still holds the Nebraska record for career interceptions by a linebacker with 11. Those 11 picks are tied for fifth most in school history, with modern era cornerbacks (and NFL players) like Ralph Brown, Fabian Washington and Tyrone Byrd. Novak’s five interceptions in 1948 are still tied for the eighth most in a single season.

In addition to football, Novak lettered three times for the Nebraska baseball team. He was on conference championship baseball teams in 1948 and 1950. Unfortunately, he didn’t have nearly the same level of team success on the football field.

Despite Novak’s standout performances, the Huskers were downright dreadful during his career. The Huskers went 11-26 in his four years. Novak played for three different head coaches (Bernie Masterson, George “Potsy” Clark and Bill Glassford). Throughout it all, Novak was a fan favorite.


The 1949 Colorado game was the last of Novak’s career. It was also his 23rd birthday. As the Huskers came out of the locker room after halftime, the Cornhusker Marching Band spelled out “TOM” and played “Happy Birthday.” A simple, yet touching tribute to a beloved player.

After the game, the Beatrice Sun wrote: “Through all the years of tribulation, Tom was the light, the hardy engine and the soul of Nebraska football. He was the refuge and an undefeated element. He will be a legend.”

***
You probably know that Nebraska permanently retired #60 following Novak’s senior season (1949), making it the first number to be retired* by NU, and one of just three numbers to be permanently out of circulation.


*Let’s recap how Nebraska distinguishes between a retired number and a retired jersey. A retired number is just that – a number that is no longer issued to any player. There are three numbers currently retired at Nebraska (in order of retirement):

60 – Tom Novak. Nobody has worn #60 since Novak took it off for the last time in 1949.

20 – Johnny Rodgers. Originally, the Jet’s number was retired after the 1972 season, but Johnny allowed his son Terry to wear it when he played at NU (1986 – 1990). After Terry left, #20 was went back into a semi-retirement until 1995, when it was in regular circulation until it was officially re-retired in 2009. Jase Dean and Adi Kunalic were the last two Huskers to wear the #20 jersey in 2008.

64 – Bob Brown. Brown’s senior season at NU was in 1963, but his number stayed in circulation until it was retired in 2004. Kurt Mann was the last Husker to wear #64.

In addition, Nebraska also has 17 “retired jerseys.” This is a way for NU to honor Huskers who win major awards (Heisman, Outland, etc.) but still keep the number available for active players. Otherwise, there would not be enough numbers for offensive linemen, as a good chunk of the seventies (71, 72, 75, 79) would be unavailable. Some of these numbers (specifically 30, 50, 71, and 79) were not issued for 10 or more years after their greatest player graduated, but all have been back in circulation since the mid-1990s.

In addition to Novak, Rodgers and Brown, whose jerseys are retired along with their numbers, here are the 14 other Huskers with a retired jersey:

7 – Eric Crouch
15 – Tommie Frazier
30 – Mike Rozier
34 – Trev Alberts
50 – Dave Rimington
54 – Dominic Raiola
67 – Aaron Taylor
71 – Dean Steinkuhler
72 – Zach Wiegert
75 – Larry Jacobson
75 – Will Shields
79 – Rich Glover
93 – Ndamukong Suh
98 – Grant Wistrom
But did you know that Tom Novak only wore 60 in his senior season? In his first two years at Nebraska, Novak wore 68. As a junior, he wore 61 (teammate Charles Story wore 60). Nobody knows why he chose to move to 60 for his senior season.


The “Also worn by” names above are a complete list of the players (other than Novak) to ever wear #60 for Nebraska. By comparison, five different Huskers have worn #0, a number that could not be worn before 2020.

No one – not even Novak – wore #60 for more than one season.


***
Every year, the Tom Novak Award is presented to a Husker who “best exemplifies courage and determination despite all odds.” The award was established in 1950, the first season after Novak’s legendary career.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 29, 2025, 09:17:21 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/lATYzat.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on June 30, 2025, 08:46:27 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 59: Josh Heskew, Center, 1995 - 1998

Previously, we covered the amazing career of Aaron Taylor: the only Husker to be an All-American at two different positions.  One of the reasons Taylor moved from center to guard was the development of Josh Heskew. Having studied under All-Americans Aaron Graham and Taylor, Heskew proved himself to be a worthy successor.  The switch occurred during the practices before the 1997 Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech.

A tough Oklahoman, Heskew helped anchor the offensive line for the 1997 national champions, averaging nearly 10 pancake blocks per game.  He earned all-conference honors as a senior in 1998. A team captain in 1998, Heskew was elected to the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2012.

Ironically, Heskew came to Nebraska as a defensive player - and almost didn't come to Lincoln at all.

Josh Heskew came to Nebraska after being spurned by his home-state Oklahoma Sooners. / Nebraska Football Media Guide
In high school (Mustang, Okla.) he averaged two sacks per game. Heskew wanted to play for his beloved Oklahoma Sooners - young Josh once sported a Brian Bosworth haircut. But the Sooners told him he was too small to play for them. Oklahoma State had a scholarship available… only if their first choice didn't sign.

At an awards banquet in Oklahoma, Heskew's high school coach was chatting with legendary offensive line coach Milt Tenopir and brought up Heskew. His high school coach must have said the right thing. Tenopir called the following morning with a scholarship offer. Heskew went on to play in 47 games as a Husker, with 27 starts.

I forget how I learned that Tom Osborne was about to retire as Nebraska's head football coach.

Back in December of 1997, nobody had a cellphone… nobody I knew, at least. The internet was becoming more widely used,* but social media did not exist.

*I remember going into the college football chat rooms on AOL - via a dial-up modem - to argue with Michigan fans about why Nebraska should be the champions if they beat Tennessee in the Orange Bowl. Big Ten fans were insufferable about how strong their conference was.

I want to say I heard an announcement on the radio that Osborne was going to have a 3 p.m. press conference. This would have been before sports talk radio exploded in popularity. If there was a local show (other than "Sports Nightly") in Lincoln at that point, I was unaware of it. Maybe one of my friends called me.

I know it was a Wednesday. Dec. 10, 1997, to be exact. I was supposed to work at my part-time job (at Younker's in the Gateway Mall) that evening. I went into work early and watched it on the 19" TV in the breakroom as Tom Osborne stood in front of a throng of media and players to announce his retirement. It would be effective Jan. 3, the day after the Orange Bowl. I, like everybody watching, was stunned.

Osborne, who was just 60 when he retired, seemed to be in relatively good health. He had heart bypass surgery in 1984, and spent the night in the hospital with an irregular heartbeat after the October 1997 game against Iowa State. That said, Osborne would run laps around the field most days. "I'm in reasonably good shape," he said during the press conference. "I have no major problems where I'm going to keel over in front of you... It's important to walk away while you can still walk."

Officially, Osborne wanted to spend more time with his wife, children and grandchildren. He regularly worked 13-hour days and missed countless milestones and events over the years. He was not interested in becoming a Bobby Bowden-esque figurehead coach. If he was in charge, he would be the one breaking down film, drawing up the game plans and calling plays. Osborne didn't know any other way.

Several years later, Osborne acknowledged another reason for his retirement. He wanted to honor the promise he had made in 1991 - and amended in January of 1997 - to hand the Nebraska program over to Frank Solich. Continuity was extremely important to Osborne. James Moeser, then UNL's chancellor, recalled Osborne saying, "I don't want someone else coming in here and jerking my kids around by the facemask."


Solich was officially announced as Nebraska's head coach the same day. It was the clear and obvious choice. Maybe it was my naïveté as a fan, but I never even considered the idea of Nebraska conducting an external search* for a head coach. Of course, Frank would follow Tom.


*Bill Byrne, Nebraska's athletic director at time, had to seek permission from the Office of Affirmative Action to hire Solich without conducting an outsider search - as was required by university policy. 

Over the years, several names have been speculated on who Byrne might have hired if he had done his own search. It’s fun to consider those alternate universes, but the reality was that if Byrne did not honor Osborne's wishes and hire Solich one of two things would have happened: 1) Osborne would have kept on coaching, 2) Byrne would have been run out of town.

When Osborne announced his retirement, Josh Heskew was a junior starting center for the No. 2-ranked Cornhuskers. The team found out about Osborne's plans one hour before the press conference. During the event, many of them stood on chairs and tables with tears in their eyes.

To a man, they vowed two things: 1) they would move heaven and earth to ensure they sent Tom Osborne out with a victory in the Orange Bowl, 2) the team was confident in Frank Solich's ability to keep things going
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 01, 2025, 10:30:34 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 58: Harry Grimminger, Offensive Guard, 1981 - 1984

In our unofficial quest to figure out why Nebraska football was so good for so long, we've touched on several key factors:

Two legendary head coaches and a fairly stable roster of assistants who were excellent technical instructors.
A gigantic walk-on roster, largely filled with in-state kids who would do anything to contribute to Nebraska's continued success.
A cutting-edge strength and conditioning program that was the envy of the sport.
(Today's topic)
Number four is where these things all tie together. Four is the unappreciated reason Nebraska was an absolute model of consistency that seemed to simply reload after graduation, an injury, or player going for the NFL.

Four.

Today, almost every school runs a two-station practice during the season: the offense practices against a scout team defense, and the defense faces a scout team offense. If a team runs 75 plays in a practice, the starters will likely get 80% or more of the snaps while the backups stand and watch.

Throughout the majority of the Osborne era, Nebraska usually had 150 (or more) players on the roster. And let's be clear: The guys at the bottom of the roster did more than collect free gear and use their status as Nebraska players to hit on coeds. During practices they didn't just stand around and watch. Osborne and his staff ran four practice stations.

In a four-station system, there is an additional offensive and defensive station working against a second platoon of scout teamers. The benefits were immense.

Let's start with the old "it takes 10,000 repetitions to master a skill" axiom. If the non-starters are only getting a handful of non-scout team reps, how long will it take them to replace an all-conference player? The extra set of practice stations doubled the number of reps the players on the roster received, giving them more experience and more opportunities to improve.

The extra stations increased the amount of daily competition within the roster. Iron sharpens iron regardless of where it occurs on the depth chart. Backups pushed the starters and third- and fourth-string players pushed the backups. And when you're practicing side-by-side with the same guys over the course of a season, you're going to build chemistry that carries over to game day.

When a player would get hurt, or struggle, or graduate, there was somebody else ready to step in. The talent level might drop off, but if the backup has been running the offense in practice for over a year, you know he'll have confidence.

So, why doesn't Nebraska - or any other school - run a four-station practice today? For all of the benefits, there are downsides as well. Mainly, logistics, costs and bodies.

Let's start with logistics and costs.

With 150+ players, everything becomes a logistics puzzle. Locker rooms,* practice fields, weight room, meeting rooms, training staff, equipment staff, graduate assistants, and on and on. That doesn't even account for the human element of trying to keep track of everybody, or the costs associated with equipment and other expenses.

*During the Osborne era, the top units dressed in the south stadium locker room. Freshmen, walk-ons and scout teamers were crammed into an older locker room in the Schulte Fieldhouse on the north side. Players from that era talked about making the move to the varsity locker room much like a minor league baseball player getting called up to the majors. It was a sign of hard work being recognized. 

Finding enough willing bodies is another reason four-station practices don't happen outside of spring ball. Setting aside roster limits, imagine trying to sell this to a high school kid today. "Son, for the next five years, you're going to get beat up every single day by NFL-caliber players. You will likely only play at the very end of 63-7 blowouts. And you won't be on scholarship, so you'll have to pay for college yourself." Where do I sign, coach?

And yet, dozens of walk-ons every single year willingly volunteered to do just that. I read an SEC blog post that dismissively referred to Nebraska's bottom-of-the-roster players as Cornhusker "cannon fodder." Expendable fuel to keep the Big Red Machine running. I find that an overly crass characterization of players who - even as seniors - may not have been above third string. It's easy to dismiss them as space fillers and human tackling dummies, but their role in the overall development and success of their teams should not be minimized.

For every player profiled in this Greatest list, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of players who were more than willing to literally take one for the team. Many of them earned championship rings. Most will tell you they made lifetime bonds, even if their game time was limited to a few snaps in the non-conference. They were Huskers. More than that, their hard work help define and set the program's culture.

And finally, It takes an incredible amount of organization (and patience) to do what Osborne did. Keeping track of everybody, having practice plans, and working through injuries and other issues would be a full-time job. But when those in-state walk-ons turn into starters - or stars - that's where the magic happened.

Harry Grimminger was a mainstay – and a force – on the left side of some dominating offensive lines in the 1980s.

Offensive linemen arguably benefited the most from a four-station practice, as it gave them more opportunities to practice their technique in a gamelike setting.

In a 2018 interview with KETV, Grimminger said he was a "guy of average talent - at best - and I just worked really hard." He's being modest. An all-state guard on a Grand Island High team that won a state title, Grimminger brought plenty of ability to Lincoln.

But he, like so many of his teammates, understood what could happen if they put in the work on the practice field.

As a redshirt sophomore in 1982, Grimminger backed up Dean Steinkuhler. He broke into the starting lineup in 1983, helping to pave the way for the Scoring Explosion to set numerous offensive records. As a senior, Grimminger earned All-Big Eight and All-America honors.

Harry Grimminger, who was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2003. approached every Husker practice with a simple goal: "Try every day to be better than the day before."

With four practice stations, that goal was easier to obtain.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 02, 2025, 08:55:30 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 57: Mark Traynowicz, Offensive Line, 1981 - 1984

How would you like to be the guy who follows the greatest center in college football history?

In 1982, Dave Rimington's senior season, Mark Traynowicz was a backup right tackle. At 6'6" and a relatively slender 265 pounds, he seemed like a safe bet to stay at tackle. But offensive line coaches Milt Tenopir and Cletus Fischer saw something in Traynowicz to move him to center. Maybe it was his background as a state champion wrestler at Bellevue West. Maybe they wanted somebody with excellent intelligence (Traynowicz earned Academic All-Big Eight honors twice and eventually became an engineer who designed bridges for the Nebraska Department of Transportation).

By his own admission, the coaches didn't see somebody who could match Rimington's brute strength. In a 2015 interview with the Omaha World-Herald, Traynowicz humbly said, "I contend I was probably the weakest guy ever to start on the offensive line at Nebraska."

Whatever the coaches saw in Mark Traynowicz, they were spot on.

In his first year as a center, Traynowicz was the anchor for the offensive line for the 1983 "Scoring Explosion" offense. He regularly graded out as well as - or better than - Outland and Lombardi Trophy winner Dean Steinkuhler. He earned All-Big Eight honors and got Nebraska to the brink of a national championship (and was photographed telling a Miami player that he was #1)

As a senior, Traynowicz was All-Big Eight, a consensus All-American and a first-team Academic All-American.

Mark Traynowicz may have had some big shoes to fill as Dave Rimington’s replacement, but he left big shoes of his own.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 03, 2025, 10:12:06 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 56: Ed Periard, Middle Guard, 1968 - 1970

Do you want a good example of how much football has changed in the last 50+ years?

Ed Periard was a two-year starter at middle guard, earning first team All-Big Eight honors in 1970. He was listed at 5' 9" and 198 pounds, which by today’s standards is undersized for pretty much any position other than piccolo in the Cornhusker Marching Band.

Okay… that's not entirely true.

You see, even 55 years ago, everybody knew Ed Periard was undersized. A 1970 Lincoln Star article said "Let's face it… at 5-9, 201 Periard is too small to play middle guard for the No. 4 ranked Cornhuskers."

The problem was getting Periard to understand it. He simply refused to listen to the word "no."

Assistant Coach Mike Corgan was recruiting in Michigan when he first saw Ed Periard, a running back at a small high school with dreams of playing for Nebraska. Corgan passed. Too slow.

The Nebraska coaches received more film from Periard, which was watched by Bob Devaney. Devaney also passed.

Undeterred, Periard and his parents drove to Lincoln. They begged Devaney for a tryout. Fine. There would be no scholarship, but he could try out for the freshman team. Go get a physical and prove yourself on the field.

Periard failed his physical due to a bad knee. The doctors would not let him play.

Frustrated, Periard stormed into Devaney's office and barked "Look, I didn't come to Nebraska for a knee operation. I came to play football."

Devaney came to two realizations:

"We figured he deserved a chance with an attitude like that."
He knew he had to keep Periard on the team, because he sure as heck didn't want to play against him.
After playing linebacker in 1968, he was moved by assistant coach Monte Kiffin to middle guard. Despite being 40 pounds lighter than the average offensive lineman of the day, Periard started the next two years on the line.

"That's one time we were really wrong," Devaney said. "He's tough and quick."

Periard may have been too slow to be a running back, but on the defensive line, he earned the nickname "Fast Eddie" because - let's face it - offensive linemen are often the slowest guys on the field. Periard used his cat-like speed to go around blockers and make tackles. Eventually, teams started double-teaming Periard to a) keep him contained, and b) try to inflict some damage on his diminutive frame.

During the 1970 Colorado game, he got the wind knocked out of him. As he was lying on the field, teammate Jerry Murtaugh tried to call the trainers onto the field. Gasping for breath, Periard looked up at Murtaugh and said "I'll kick your ass if you allow me to go off this field. I'm not leaving. You shut your mouth." Laughing, Murtaugh helped Periard up, and they finished the game.

The following week, Murtaugh got the wind knocked out of him after a play. Periard came and stood over his linebacker. "Murt," he said wryly "you want us to call for a stretcher to get you off the field?" If you've ever lost your breath after a hit, you know it can be hard to get it back. It's even harder when you're laughing.

In his senior season (1970), Periard had 79 total tackles (second on the team behind Murtaugh) and a team-high 15 tackles for loss. I'd wager he is the one last first-team all-conference lineman from a power conference to weigh less than 200 pounds.

On the bus ride to the stadium before the 1971 Orange Bowl, Periard learned that No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Ohio State had both lost their bowl games. This meant No. 3 Nebraska now had a chance at a national championship. "We got a shot at winning this!" he said.

Never one to waste an opportunity, 198-pound Ed Periard had seven solo tackles from the middle guard position. The LSU Tigers rushed 45 times for 51 yards.

Nebraska won the game 17-12, and earned its first national championship.

Ed Periard refusing to take "no" for an answer had a lot to do with it.


Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 03, 2025, 11:23:20 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/4h6HtKq.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 04, 2025, 07:49:12 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/uB5ftlV.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 04, 2025, 07:58:48 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 55: Russ Hochstein, Offensive Guard, 1996 - 2000

There is a famous axiom in sports: You never want to be the guy who follows The Guy.

But nobody talks about the challenge of being the guy who follows The GOAT who followed The Legend.

That was Frank Solich's situation in 1998.

He was replacing Tom Osborne, who won 255 games and three national championships in 25 years. Osborne had replaced Bob Devaney (101 wins and two natties in 11 seasons).

No pressure. How are you feeling, Frank?

''I don't know if intimidation or fear are the right words,” Solich said on the day he was hired in 1997, ''but there's a lot of anxiety I have right now.''

The 1998 season had some opening-year bumps and blips. Tim Rattay and Louisiana Tech threw for 590 yards in the season opener (a 56-27 Nebraska win). The Huskers lost their first regular-season Big 12 game - ever - at No. 18 Texas A&M. On Halloween, the Texas Longhorns broke Nebraska's 47-game winning streak at Memorial Stadium (which dated back to 1991). The Huskers would drop two more games to top 5 teams (40-30 to No. 2 Kansas State and 23-20 to No. 5 Arizona in the Holiday Bowl) to finish 9-4. It was Nebraska's first four-loss season since 1968.

The season - especially coming off three national championships in four years - felt disappointing. But it was understandable. Starting quarterback Bobby Newcombe hurt his knee in the opener. When freshman Eric Crouch went down a few weeks later, former walk-on Monte Christo was called on to lead the offense. Ahman Green, the second-leading rushing in school history who would have been a senior in 1997, was in the NFL. Defensively, a lot of the talent from the championship teams left the program.

But the 1998 team did have budding stars like Crouch, Newcombe, Dominic Raiola and Russ Hochstein. A redshirt sophomore from Hartington, Neb., Hoch was an honorable mention All-Big 12 performer despite starting only the final four games of the season.

The remainder of Russ Hochstein's career (1999 and 2000) felt like the Nebraska of old.

1999 was a bounce-back year. Nebraska finished 12-1, winning the Big 12 Conference championship game (NU's most recent conference crown). A four-point loss at Texas, hindered by three Husker fumbles, was the Huskers' only blemish. Longtime defensive coordinator Charlie McBride retired after the season. As a junior in 1999, Hochstein started full time and averaged over 10 pancake blocks per game. He has a first-team All-Big 12 selection.

Before the 2000 season, Offensive line coach Milt Tenopir raved about Hochstein: "If you had to identify the ideal lineman, Russ would be that guy. His size, quickness, effort and love for the game would rank him as one of the outstanding linemen that have come through our program. He is a great leader on and off the field. In starting a team, Russ would be one of the first players you would pick."

Hochstein went on to back up his coach's glowing praise. He was a consensus first-team All-Big 12 choice and a first-team All-American in 2000. In Nebraska's overtime win against Notre Dame,* he set a school record with 23 pancakes.

*Let's do a quick sidebar on that Notre Dame game. Nebraska's first trip to South Bend since 1947 was THE road trip of a lifetime. Officially, Nebraska was allotted 4,000 tickets. An estimated 25,000 red-clad Husker fans begged, borrowed and bought their way into the 80,000-seat Notre Dame Stadium.

My buddies and I paid $300 each for tickets - about $550 in 2025 dollars - and it was worth every last penny. The Notre Dame fans were awesome, the tailgating was great, the game was tremendous, and the stories…. Oh, the stories will last a lifetime. Out of respect for the professionals and business owners I went with, those will remain offline. I will tell you that I have watched Nebraska play in 15 different stadiums and that was easily the most enjoyable experience I've had on the road.

Nebraska fans had a well-earned reputation for travelling well long before the 2000 Notre Dame game. But the takeover of the game in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus cemented Nebraska's legacy as one of the great - if not the best - fan bases in all of college sports.

In addition to the aforementioned overtime win at Notre Dame, the 2000 season was another strong showing. The Huskers finished 10-2 with the only losses coming at the No. 3 and No. 16 teams (Oklahoma and Kansas State).

When Russ Hochstein went off to the NFL to begin his long - and Super Bowl-winning - career, Frank Solich was 31-7 in his first three years. Most fans and pundits believed that would continue for years to come. As we'll discuss later, that was not necessarily the case.


Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 06, 2025, 07:45:43 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 53: Randy Schleusener, Offensive Guard, 1977 - 1980

In the 1971 Game of the Century between Nebraska and Oklahoma, Tom Osborne and Barry Switzer were the offensive coordinators for their respective teams. Osborne's I-formation attack scored 35 points that day, four more than Switzer's wishbone.

In 1973, both Switzer and Osborne became head coaches. Switzer dominated the early rounds, winning 27-0, 28-14, 35-10, 20-17 and 38-7 in their first five meetings.

Before the 1978 game, Tom Osborne was interviewed by ABC. Coach, what are your thoughts about playing OU?

"Every game against the Sooners takes on a great deal of importance for us," Osborne said on the telecast. "I think a lot of the people in Nebraska have narrowed it down to almost a one-game season where you can do pretty well, but if you don't beat Oklahoma, you've had a bad year. So, naturally, there's a lot of heat on us to win."

Osborne was 54-15-2 (.775) as Nebraska's head coach when he said those words.

The pressure to beat the Sooners and get back to the championship ways of the Devaney era was a big reason why Osborne gave serious consideration to becoming Colorado's head coach.*

*Osborne was offered the Colorado job - and a sizable pay raise - a few weeks after the 1978 OU game. Osborne and his wife, Nancy, went to Boulder in December 1978 to meet with CU officials and consider the offer. Colorado had a lot to offer: more money, less pressure to win, and Osborne - an avid fisherman - would have enjoyed the mountain streams.

In the end, Osborne declined the offer. He realized that success only boosts expectations, which would increase the pressure - and decrease his fishing time. Money is nice, but it was never a core motivator for Osborne, who often shared his raises with his staff. 

Most importantly, he could not imagine coaching against his former players.

So, yeah… there was a little bit of pressure in 1978 to beat Oklahoma for the first time since the Game of the Century, even if the Sooners came in as the No. 1 team in the country.

The 1978 game is one of the greatest games in school history.  The 99th consecutive sellout crowd is still mentioned as one of the loudest ever, despite it being an 11 a.m. kickoff in weather that - in a words of ABC's Keith Jackson - was "cold enough to make a brass monkey clank, I'll tell you that." John Ruud's punishing hit on an Oklahoma kickoff is likely in the five most-watched Husker highlights. Another big hit - Jeff Hanson on Heisman winner Billy Sims - caused a fumble that secured a 17-14 win.

It is the only time Nebraska has beaten a No. 1-ranked team in Memorial Stadium. Randy Schleusner, a sophomore guard from Rapid City, played on special teams.

Osborne's reward for finally knocking off the Sooners? A rematch with them in the Orange Bowl after the Missouri Tigers upset NU in the regular-season finale. Nebraska lost the rematch 31-24.

So it was for Osborne against Switzer. He had to work for everything he got and often felt the need to dig into his bag of tricks for an edge. Late in the 1979 game, NU was trailing 17-7 and was facing third-and-14 from the OU 15. Osborne called his first fumblerooski, where the quarterback took the snap and placed the ball on the ground for a guard pulling to the side opposite of the play fakes being carried out by the backs.*

*The fumblerooski did not come from the football genius brain of Tom Osborne. The Huskers were watching film of a Texan they were recruiting and saw the play.

Randy Schleusner, now a starting guard, scored a touchdown on the fumblerooski to make it a 17-14 game. Nebraska would get two more possessions in the last three minutes of the game, but a Jeff Quinn interception and a turnover on downs sealed Nebraska's fate. The 1980 game, another one-score loss, would be decided by another Osborne nemesis: Sooner Magic, as Buster Rhymes scored with 56 seconds left in the game.

The 1979 and 1980 teams both finished 10-2 and ranked in the top 10. But Nebraska fans do not look as fondly upon those teams as some of the others in Osborne's tenure - mainly because they did not beat Oklahoma. That's a shame, because they were good teams with great players.

Randy Schleusener was an excellent guard on those Nebraska teams at the end of the 1970s.  He was a team captain as a senior in 1980 and earned All-Big Eight and All-America honors. Equally impressive in the classroom, Schleusner was a two-time academic All-American and a winner of the prestigious NCAA Today's Top Eight.


He was a ninth-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns, but he never played in the NFL. Instead, he chose to come back to school to earn his medical doctorate. He is a practicing spinal surgeon in his native Rapid City, South Dakota.

After the 1980 game, Osborne was now 1-8 against Switzer, but the tide was about to turn.


Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 07, 2025, 11:24:25 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 52: Tom Davis, Center, 1974 - 1977

The original plan was for Tom Osborne to become Nebraska's head football coach in 1972.

But then the 1971 team - one of the greatest college football teams of all time - rolled to a national championship, Nebraska's second in a row. With a ton of talent coming back in 1972, Bob Devaney chose to delay his coaching retirement and try for a three-peat.

Despite having two of the program's all-time greatest players (Johnny Rodgers and Rich Glover), the 1972 team finished 9-2-1. The two losses were by a total of six points. In the two losses and tie, Nebraska had a total of 19 turnovers. The Huskers dismantled Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl 40-6 and ended the season ranked fourth. Afterward, Devaney focused on his role as athletic director, and Osborne took over as Nebraska's head coach.*

*As you likely know, Osborne was Devaney's hand-picked successor.  But not everybody was 100% convinced Osborne was the right choice - including some coaches on the staff.  Several of Devaney's assistants - Monte Kiffin, Warren Powers, Carl Selmer and Jim Walden - had head coaching aspirations of their own.  Kiffin and Powers were Nebraska grads, and all four had been on Devaney's staff longer than Osborne.  I think it is fair to say there was some disappointment from these men when they were passed over in favor of the young hotshot offensive coordinator.

Kiffin and Powers, the two Nebraska alums, coached on Osborne's staff for four seasons.  They both moved on after the 1976 season.  Kiffin was defensive coordinator at Arkansas before spending three years as North Carolina State's head coach.  Kiffin went onto a Super Bowl winning career as a defensive coordinator with Tampa Bay.  Powers became the head coach at Washington State and Missouri.  Twice, his teams upset Osborne's Huskers.

Selmer and Walden left after the 1972 season for Miami (Fla.).  Selmer was the offensive coordinator for two seasons (with Walden as an offensive position coach).  In 1975, Selmer was promoted to Miami's head coach, and he made Walden his defensive coordinator.  The Hurricanes played at Nebraska in 1975 and 1976.  Osborne's Huskers won both of those meetings.  Selmer was fired after the 1976 season.  Walden succeeded Powers as the head coach at Washington State and later coached at Iowa State.  Walden was the coach for the Cyclones' 1992 upset of Nebraska.

Six months before coaching his first game, Osborne spoke at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet in Omaha. The audience gave him a standing ovation. "I wish you wouldn’t do that to me," Osborne said. "I haven’t won a single game yet."

Osborne would win his debut on Sept. 8, 1973, beating UCLA 40-13. His first loss would come a month later, by one point, at Missouri. Oklahoma State played NU to a 17-17 tie. Oklahoma, who also had a first-year head coach (Barry Switzer), shut out Nebraska 27-0.* Osborne closed out his first season with a Cotton Bowl win over Texas.

*That was the first of three shutout losses in Osborne's 25-year career. The others: the 1992 Orange Bowl against Miami and the 1996 Arizona State game. That's it. Kirk Ferentz's Iowa Hawkeyes were shut out three times in the 2023 season.

The 1974 season played out in a similar fashion. Eight regular-season wins, a close loss to Mizzou, another road clunker (this time, a loss at Wisconsin*), and a no-doubt loss to the Sooners. A bowl game win (over Florida in the Sugar Bowl) secured nine wins and another top-10 finish.

*This was Wisconsin 16 years before Barry Alvarez. The 1974 Badgers finished 7-4, which was their best record between 1962 and 1993. 

At most schools, two straight top-10 finishes would be a reason for parades. At Nebraska, where Devaney had just taken the Cornhuskers to unprecedented heights, it led to some grumbling. Some fans wondered if Devaney should have promoted Kiffin.

Robert Allen, a University of Nebraska regent and retail store owner from Osborne's hometown of Hastings, wrote a letter to Osborne after the 1974 OU loss. The key point: Allen thought Osborne's offense was too predictable. Osborne wrote back, "I think I know more about retail than you know about football."

Such was life for the young coach tasked with replacing a legend. It took a while for Tom Osborne to find his footing.

The 1975 season was better. NU started 10-0 before dropping back-to-back games against Oklahoma and Arizona State in the Fiesta Bowl.*

*This was the first of six times Osborne would lose back-to-back games. Tom Osborne never lost three games in a row as a head coach. Although, the first game of the 1976 season was a tie, meaning Osborne did have one three-game winless stretch in 25 years.

In 1976, Tom Davis, a standout athlete from Omaha North, got his chance to be the starting center. He had been with Osborne from the beginning, playing on the freshman team in 1973, redshirting in 1974, and backing up two-time All-American Rik Bonness as a sophomore.

In 1976, Bonness was off to the NFL, and it was Davis's turn.  Davis was an honorable mention All-Big Eight player at center, providing protection for quarterback Vince Ferragamo to put up one of the greatest passing seasons in Nebraska history. Nebraska finished 9-3-1. Osborne, unhappy with the direction of his offense, made some changes (which we'll talk about in more depth at #49).

That set up the 1977 season - Davis's senior year. Davis was a first team All-Big Eight pick and earned first-team All-America honors. Osborne called Davis "the best center Nebraska has ever had" which was very high praise considering NU's history at the position and the two-time All-American Davis replaced. Davis was elected to the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2003.

The 1976 Huskers were once again 9-3, but there was a palpable shift going on. Osborne's offense was evolving. More importantly, he was becoming comfortable as Nebraska's head coach.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 08, 2025, 10:17:52 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/JjCCNFk.png)


Greatest Husker to wear 51: Mick Tingelhoff, Center, 1958 - 1961

At the start of this project, I said that a player's NFL success would not be the primary selection criteria. I want this countdown to be about what a player accomplished while wearing the scarlet and cream, not what he did after leaving Lincoln.

But Mick Tingelhoff is the exception to that rule. His résumé - and story - is just too strong to ignore.

He started 259 consecutive games for the Minnesota Vikings. That is still the longest streak for an offensive lineman and is tied for 12th longest in NFL history. Ironically, Tingelhoff did not become a starter at Nebraska until his senior season.

Tingelhoff grew up on the family farm outside Lexington, Nebraska. His German immigrant parents thought football was "a waste of time." They may have been right: as a high school sophomore, his Lexington High team went 0-9. His parents never attended one of his games - they were too busy on the farm.

But by his senior season, Tingelhoff and his Lexington teammates - including Monte Kiffin, a future Husker and NFL legend in his own right - went 9-0, winning a state title and allowing just one touchdown all season.

1957-58 was a year of change for the Tingelhoff family: They got electricity for the first time, and despite his parents' wishes that he would stay on the farm, Mick went to Lincoln on scholarship.

Mick Tingelhoff didn't have a stellar career at Nebraska. He lettered three years, backing up Don Fricke in his first two seasons. As a senior, he was named a team captain but did not earn all-conference honors as NU's starting center. The Bill Jennings-led teams he played on won a total of 10 games in his three varsity seasons.

The biggest highlight from his playing career was the Halloween 1959 game against Oklahoma. The Sooners had won 74 consecutive conference games. Nebraska had not beaten Oklahoma since 1942. The Memorial Stadium goal posts were torn down for the first time and paraded down to the Governor's Mansion. Classes were canceled the following Monday. Tinglehoff was pictured carrying coach Jennings off the field.

Tingelhoff received invites for the Senior Bowl and All-American Bowl but did not get selected in the 20 rounds of the 1962 NFL Draft. He signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Vikings. That's where his career took off.

He started for the Vikings as a rookie - the first of his 259 consecutive starts over 17 seasons. He played in four Super Bowls and six Pro Bowls, and he earned All-NFL honors seven times. His NFL number (53) was retired by the Vikings, who inducted him into their Ring of Honor. Two of his Husker teammates (Pat Fischer and Ron McDole) also had lengthy pro football careers. Fischer played 17 seasons and McDole had 18 between the NFL and AFL.

Mick Tingelhoff was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015, just the fourth Cornhusker to reach the pinnacle of professional football. (Will Shields, who was also inducted in 2015, is the fifth).

Not too shabby for a farm kid from Lexington.

Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: Gigem on July 08, 2025, 03:46:01 PM
https://twitter.com/slmandel/status/1942665154031935866
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: Mdot21 on July 08, 2025, 05:23:32 PM
oh he really said that, but that is who scott frost has always been- a drunken jackass. 
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 08, 2025, 05:51:17 PM
and took too many hits to the helmet back in his playin daze
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 09, 2025, 09:43:12 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 50: Dave Rimington, Center, 1979 - 1982

TO: Troy Dannen, Director of Athletics, University Nebraska - Lincoln
FROM: Dave Feit (on behalf of Husker Nation)
SUBJECT: Dave Rimington

Troy,

I know you're a busy man, so I'll get right to the point:

It is time for Nebraska football to permanently retire the #50 that center Dave Rimington wore during his extraordinary Husker career.

Dave Rimington is one of the greatest student athletes to ever play for Nebraska - regardless of sport. The namesake of the Rimington Trophy (given annually to the nation’s best center) deserves to have his number* permanently retired.

Dave Rimington is in an entirely different category. Among the many, many bullet points on his résumé, these stand out:

The only two-time winner of the Outland Trophy (1981, 1982).
One of just 14 players to win the Outland and Lombardi Award in the same season (1982).
1981 Big Eight Offensive Player of the Year. In the long history of the Big Eight, this was the first and only time a lineman won that honor.
First Nebraska student-athlete (regardless of sport) to be inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-American Hall of Fame. For a school that rightfully touts its nation-leading number of Academic All-Americans, Rimington is still at the head of the class.

We’ve focused primarily on his playing career and academic success, but Rimington’s achievements after retiring from football (president of the Boomer Esiason Foundation, former interim Nebraska athletic director, and namesake of a major college football award) are also the stuff of legend.

Fans and media members tend to toss around “GOAT” labels freely. But Dave Rimington is a true GOAT.

It is time to permanently retire #50.

Respectfully,

Dave (on behalf of Husker Nation)

***
I would wager that we have reached the point where the majority of Husker fans have no recollection of Dave Rimington's career. Sure, we know who he is, and can list some of his many accomplishments and accolades. But how many of us have ever seen him play?

I'm right on that dividing line. When Rimington was a senior in 1982, I was an 8-year-old kid. At 8, I had never been to a Nebraska game and probably didn't pay too much attention to the couple of times a year they were on TV. I definitely didn't know who Dave Rimington was.*

*My best friend invited me to go with him and his family to Fan Day in 1982. They wanted to get autographs from the Husker players. Honestly, that really didn't interest me. I just wanted to hang out with my buddy. 

When I asked my dad for permission to go, he said yes - but with a very specific instruction: "Be sure to get an autograph from Dave Rimington, #50. He's their best player." You got it, Dad!

When we got to Memorial Stadium, that plan went completely out the window. I think we spent the entire afternoon running around on the field. I have a vague memory of trying to sneak up into the balcony, but the tunnels were closed. Suffice it to say, I did not get anybody's autograph, let alone Dave Rimington's signature. I doubt my dad was disappointed - or surprised - when I came home empty-handed.


A year or two ago, I was working on a project that had me watching videos of old Nebraska games on YouTube. There was one game that really stuck out: the 1980 Sun Bowl against Mississippi State.*

*That game is wild. Husker players are wearing two noticeably different jersey styles. One is what they wore all season (with "N" on the sleeves), and the other says "NEBRASKA" across the chest. The legendary Pat Summerall does the play-by-play. And the coin toss was performed by the San Diego Chicken. The Chicken, for reasons that are never fully explained, arrived at midfield locked in the trunk of a Cadillac. 


In the 1980 Sun Bowl, Dave Rimington is at the end of his sophomore season. He's not yet at his Ndamukong Suh-esque level of dominance, but you can see the flashes. On NU's first touchdown, he pulls and knocks down a defensive back in the open field. Speaking of flashes, Rimington is a lightning bolt coming off the ball. In one rapid movement, he snaps the ball to Jeff Quinn and is immediately blocking a defensive player across the line of scrimmage. Even the announcers note that he's so fast it looks like he's offsides. You have never seen anything like it.

But as a senior? Wow. Rimington still explodes off the ball, but that raw, 250-pound sophomore is now 290 pounds of muscle and experience. The Huskers are averaging 395.5 rush yards per game, and their all-everything center is a big reason why.

Watch Rimington against 11th-ranked Oklahoma in 1982. On some plays, he goes power, blasting Sooners out of the way. On others, he crab blocks, shooting into the legs of defensive lineman like a wrestler going for a takedown. In pass pro, he's a brick wall.

On fourth-and-one, Tom Osborne calls a play right over the top of Rimington. Mike Rozier gets the carry, but you or I could have picked up the first down. On another fourth-and-one, Rimington pulls to the right and opens a lane for a Turner Gill touchdown run. NU's next two touchdowns were right behind Rimington as well. Why do anything else?


Seriously, if you've never watched Dave Rimington play, pull up any Nebraska game between 1980 and 1982. You don't have to be a student of offensive line play to appreciate how dominant he was.

Which makes the next sentence the most unbelievable thing you'll read today:

According to Tom Osborne, Dave Rimington played his "whole (Nebraska) career with a torn (anterior cruciate ligament)" in his knee.

As Osborne told Huskers.com writer Randy York, during Rimington's career, the surgical procedure for repairing / replacing ACLs had not been perfected, so Rimington got by largely on the strength he had in his legs. As you would expect, that injury ultimately impacted Rimington's seven-year pro career.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 09, 2025, 05:45:42 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/FWNmcaM.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 10, 2025, 08:08:10 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 49: Monte Anthony, I-back, 1974-1977

One of the great misconceptions about Tom Osborne is that his Cornhuskers ran the same offense for all 25 years of his head coaching career.

That could not be further from the truth.

Yes, Osborne ran the majority of his offensive plays out of an I-formation (quarterback under center, a fullback behind him and an I-back at the top). But what he was looking to accomplish evolved dramatically over his first decade as head coach.

Osborne took over Nebraska’s offense in 1969, shifting from Bob Devaney’s T-formation to the I. In his four seasons calling plays under Devaney, Osborne’s offense was fairly balanced. Jerry Tagge was an accurate passer, Jeff Kinney and Joe Orduna were good backs, and Johnny Rodgers could tear ’em loose from their shoes from anywhere on the field. In 1972, Nebraska’s offensive output was almost perfectly split – 2,426 yards on the ground and 2,431 through the air.

When Osborne took over as head coach in 1973, he picked quarterback Dave Humm to run the offense, as he had in ’72. Humm was an excellent passer and set numerous records that stood for over 30 years. In Humm’s senior year (1974), I-back Monte Anthony joined the team, winning the starting job as a 17-year-old true freshman. Anthony ran for 587 yards and seven touchdowns, the most ever by a freshman at the time (and still seventh in school history). Humm led the Big Eight in passing with 130.5 yards per game.


Despite the success of his young back, Osborne still liked to throw it around. Humm was succeeded by Vince Ferragamo, a transfer from Cal. In 1975, Monte Anthony ran for 817 yards as Ferragamo settled into the offense.

In 1976, Ferragamo had a great senior season, earning All-America honors and leading the conference with 172.6 passing yards per game. His 20 passing touchdowns in 1976 set a school record and is still seventh-best all time. The offense was still very balanced as 53.7% of NU’s yards came on the ground. Anthony and Rick Berns split the carries, with Anthony racking up 594 yards.

But in 1977, Nebraska’s offense shifted. Ferragamo was off to the NFL, where he would become Nebraska’s most successful NFL QB. In his absence, the Cornhuskers focused more on RTDB: run the dadgum ball.*

*You know Tom Osborne is not going to say “damn.”

Why the change? Osborne came to several realizations:

Passing yards are the football equivalent of ice cream sundaes for breakfast – a lot of fun, but not a great foundation for success. “I always felt,” Osborne once said, “that a rushing yard, in terms of winning, probably was worth more than a passing yard because you can accumulate a lot of passing yards, but it doesn’t necessarily get the ball in the end zone.”
In a state where the climate is best described as “all four seasons, sometimes in the same afternoon,” a ground-based attack is more reliable than trying to throw when it there’s a frigid 25-mph wind out of the north.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. In Osborne’s first four games against Oklahoma (1973-1976), the Sooners were 6-of-17 passing for 145 yards and no touchdowns. COMBINED. In the 1974, ’75, and ’76 games, OU quarterbacks threw a total of seven passes, completing three. Oklahoma beat Nebraska in those first four games by an average of 18 points per game.
And while I have never seen it cited as a reason for the switch, I believe Osborne understood the advantages he could have by utilizing NU’s strength and conditioning and walk-on programs – both of which are more suited to a physical, grind-it-out attack.


In 1977, Monte Anthony’s senior season, Nebraska’s total offense (415 yards per game) was about the same as it had been in 1976 (408 ypg). But Nebraska – for the first time since the 1950s – averaged more than 300 yards rushing per game. A whopping 73.5% of the Huskers’ yards came on the ground. Quarterback Tom Sorley – who split duties with Randy Garcia – ran for 180 yards. In their Husker careers – spanning five seasons – Humm and Ferragamo combined for 42 rushing yards. I-back Isaiah Moses (I.M.) Hipp burst onto the scene with 1,301 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Nebraska was a running team now.

Listed at 6-foot-3 Anthony is one of the tallest running backs to ever play for Nebraska. He looked like a deer running through (and over) defenses. But his long frame was not a hinderance to his production. Anthony’s 2,077 career rushing yards were the fourth-most in Nebraska history when he graduated (currently 31st all time).

Anthony won the Tom Novak Award as a senior and was an eighth-round draft pick by the Baltimore Colts.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 11, 2025, 08:22:20 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 48: Scott Livingston, Kicker/Punter, 1983-1984

What is the easiest job in football?

How about punter for a prolific offense? That seems like a pretty stress-free gig.

That was Scott Livingston in 1983. With the “Scoring Explosion” averaging 52 points a game, Livingston did not have a heavy workload as a punter. There was a two-game stretch (Colorado and Kansas State) where he punted just one time. He probably didn’t even break a sweat in some games. When he was called upon to punt, Livingston was pretty darn good. His 42.1-yard average in 1984 led the Big Eight and earned him all-conference honors.

Since he wasn’t getting much action as a punter, Livingston also worked as a placekicker. Even splitting attempts with Dave Schneider, Livingston had more PAT makes (35) than punts (34). He led the 1983 team in field goals made (two) and attempted (three).

And yet, Livingston’s most famous kick is the one he never got to attempt: a potential PAT at the end of the 1984 Orange Bowl that would have tied the game. A make would have given Nebraska at least a share of a national championship.

Instead, Livingston watched from the sidelines as Tom Osborne elected to go for two points and the win.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 12, 2025, 08:29:30 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 47: Charley Brock, Center, 1936-1938

Before Nebraska joined the Big Ten, the Huskers and Gophers faced off 51 times. Overall, the two teams have met 64 times. For comparison, Nebraska has played longtime Big Eight/Big 12 conference foes Oklahoma State 43 times and Colorado 73 times.

The Golden Gophers claim seven national championships in football, five under legendary coach Bernie Bierman (1934, 1935, 1936, 1940 and 1941). A not-so-fun fact: Minnesota defeated Nebraska in each of its national championship seasons.

1904: 16-12 road loss
1934: 20-0 road loss
1935: 12-7 home loss
1936: 7-0 road loss*
1940: 13-7 road loss
1941: 9-0 road loss
1960: 26-14 home loss
*Long before there was Sooner Magic there was Gopher Magic. Tied at 0 with a minute to go in the game, Nebraska punted. Bud Wilkinson (who would go onto become a legendary coach at Oklahoma) fielded the kick at the 25. Hit almost immediately, Wilkinson turned and lateraled to Andy Uram. Uram raced 77 yards for the game winner.

The 1936 loss was a stinger, as Minnesota went on to win its third straight national championship. A chance for revenge would come in the 1937 season opener in Lincoln. The Cornhuskers would be without their successful head coach Dana X. Bible, who had left Nebraska for the University of Texas.

Lawrence “Biff” Jones started as Nebraska’s head coach and athletic director in 1937. Jones, a major in the U.S. Army, had previously coached at Oklahoma, LSU and Army.

The 1937 Minnesota game took place on an unseasonably warm 82-degree day in October. Minnesota did not appear to be affected, going 63 yards for a touchdown to take a 6-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game.

Nebraska’s game plan was to be extremely conservative on offense and rely on its defense. The Huskers punted often, sometimes on first or second down. That strategy seems odd, but it paid off. Early in the second quarter, a Husker punt was muffed by the Gophers. Junior center Charley Brock jumped on the ball at the Minnesota 22. On a fourth-and-inches play, quarterback John Howell followed Brock’s block into the end zone. Nebraska led 7-6, and the defense continued to deny the Gophers through three quarters.

However, the first play of the fourth quarter was a Minnesota field goal to retake the lead, 9-7. The rejuvenated Gopher defense forced a Husker punt on the next possession. The kick was fumbled and Nebraska’s Bill Callihan recovered it at the 40. Temporarily turning off his conservative plan, Biff Jones called a series of passing plays, including a 20-yard strike to Callihan that he carried into the end zone. Nebraska retook the lead, 14-7.

From there, Nebraska’s defense took over. Mighty Minnesota struggled to move the ball, and the Cornhuskers intercepted two Gopher passes in the fourth quarter.

They had done it! As the 1938 Cornhusker yearbook staff wrote: “it was on that day that a stout-hearted band of red shirts defeated the supposedly unbeatable Minnesota team.”

One of the MVPs of the game was Charley Brock. “Brock … gave an exhibition of all-around playing that will live long in the memory of the crowd that watched his efforts Saturday. He was all over the field,” wrote George Barton of the Minneapolis Tribune.

Brock was a three-sport athlete at Kramer High in Columbus (Neb.). In Lincoln, Brock found immediate success. He started every game from 1936-1938, playing center and linebacker. Brock earned All-Big Six honors all three years and was a first team All-American in 1937.

I love this write-up on Brock from the Daily Nebraskan in 1936: “Brock doesn’t confine his offensive play to merely snapping the ball back from center, but also beats the ball carrier down the field, blocking as he goes.”

Brock was drafted in the third round by the Green Bay Packers, where he excelled as a linebacker. Brock had 20 interceptions in 92 career games, which is still good for 20th place in the Packer history books*

*One ahead of former Nebraska defensive back Tyrone Williams, who played in 19 more games.

Brock is a member of the Nebraska High School Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame and the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame. If Nebraska had a separate hall of fame for its amazing centers, Charley Brock’s name would be there as well.

Despite being in separate conferences, the Huskers and Gophers played every year from 1934-1954. That stretch – where the Gophers were a national power and the Huskers largely struggled – was very one-sided. When Bob Devaney took over in 1962, the series against Minnesota stood at 6-29-2.  Devaney and Osborne flipped the script, going a combined 14-0 against Minnesota. The exclamation point was an 84-13 blowout in 1983, NU’s highest-scoring game of the last 100 years.


Since joining the Big Ten in 2011, Nebraska has played Minnesota 13 times. In 2014, the Twitter accounts for Minnesota’s mascot (Goldy the Gopher) and Nebraska-centric parody account “Faux Pelini” engaged in some friendly banter that led to the creation of the “$5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy.” The Chair Trophy has a broken wooden chair on top of a pedestal, with a five-dollar bill affixed under the seat.

As trophies go, it is ridiculous, silly, and ugly. And I LOVE it.

The Chair is everything that Nebraska fans were expecting when we joined the Big Ten – an object that looks like it came from a flea market, but with a fun backstory that is significant to both schools. That is what all of the other great Big Ten trophies (Floyd of Rosedale, Old Oaken Bucket, Little Brown Jug, Paul Bunyan’s Axe, etc.) have in common.


Sadly, the whereabouts of the original Chair Trophy are officially unknown.* After the 2015 win – Nebraska’s first the Chair Era – coach Mike Riley was photographed holding the trophy in the NU locker room. The trophy definitely came back to Lincoln with the team.

After that… No official record exists. The Chair was not – and still is not – recognized by the conference as an “official” trophy. My belief is the two schools were instructed by the league office to cease and desist acknowledging a homemade trophy did not meet (then) commissioner Jim Delany’s vision of what a rivalry trophy should represent. For reference, Delany did approve Nebraska’s two other trophy games – the aggressively bland (and corporate sponsored) Heroes Trophy and the Freedom Trophy, which has a big bronze flag sticking out of a mash up of Nebraska and Wisconsin’s stadiums.

Maybe if the Chair had been named the $5 Bits of Mom’s Apple Pie (or some other wholesome trope that the league’s lawyers would sign off on), the original version would still exist.

*Instead (per a reliable source who worked closely with the NU athletic department during the Riley era), the original Chair Trophy currently resides somewhere in the Lancaster County (Neb.) landfill. 

But what is beautiful and good cannot be killed. The Chair Trophy has been re-created and currently exists as a traveling trophy between the fan bases. Every year, the good people at brokenchairtrophy.com run a competition between Husker and Gopher fans to see who can raise the most money for charity.


The $5 Bits of Broken Chair did not exist for Nebraska’s win in 1937, but the game is still one of the biggest upsets in school history – with a celebration to match. A Lincoln Star article from the Monday after the game recounts some of the revelry from “one of the wildest nights in (Lincoln’s) history.” Egg battles, fire hose wars, at least one automobile turned over and “snow” falling from hotel windows as guest “ripped open hundreds of pillows and dumped feathers” on the streets below.

As you might expect, alcohol played a big part in the celebration (Prohibition had ended less than four years earlier). Thirty men were arrested for intoxication, including one who “entered a Lincoln home, undressed, slipped on a pair of pajamas and gone to bed.” When the actual homeowners returned, the man explained that “he thought he was in Omaha.”
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 13, 2025, 09:51:53 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 46: Tony Felici, Defensive End, 1980-1982

If you ask Husker fans to name the greatest Nebraska team that didn’t win a national championship, they’ll likely start with the Scoring Explosion team of 1983. They only lost one game – the Orange Bowl – by one point, when a two-point conversion attempt at the end fell incomplete. The 1993 team was a field goal (or a correctly called goal-line fumble, or phantom clip not being called, or…) away from a title. The 1999 team finished the season playing as well as anybody in the country. Old heads may point to the 1963 or 1965 teams. The 2001 Huskers were in the conversation… until the start of the Colorado game.

But there’s one team that deserves serious consideration for the “best to not win it all” crown: the 1982 Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Actually… hold that thought. Before we talk about the 1982 Huskers, let’s set the stage with how the 1981 season ended.

After a disappointing 1-2 start – the only time Osborne ever started with a losing record – Nebraska rebounded to beat Oklahoma and win the Big Eight title. The Huskers, ranked No. 4, went to the Orange Bowl to face No. 1 Clemson.

On New Year’s Day 1982, upsets in other bowl games (Pitt over No. 2 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and Texas over No. 3 Alabama in the Cotton Bowl) opened the door for Nebraska to follow the same path that led to their first championship in 1970. Beat Clemson, and the Huskers would be No. 1.

It was not to be.

The Huskers – who were called for an average of 5.3 penalties per game in 1981 – were flagged six times in the first half.* Two turnovers put Nebraska in a 22-7 hole that the Huskers could not climb out of.

*In Paul Koch’s “Anatomy of a Husker,” longtime defensive backs coach George Darlington said “Clemson was a good football team, but they got a lot of help.” Darlington recounted a story of Osborne coming into a staff meeting after the customary officials’ meeting saying “we’re in trouble” because the officials greeted Clemson coach Danny Ford with hugs like old friends.

After the game, Osborne called it “the most disappointing loss I’ve ever been associated with. We had a chance to win it all. We had it in our hands and let it get away.” Nebraska finished 9-3, with losses to No. 1 Clemson, No. 4 Penn State and No. 18 Iowa.

Nebraska likely entered the 1982 season with a bit of an “unfinished business” mentality. But once again, the Huskers would fall short.

The 1982 team went 12-1. The lone loss was at (then) No. 8 Penn State in a highly controversial manner. We’ll get into the full story later, but let’s just say this: If replay reviews had existed in 1982, Nebraska would have been national champions.*

*Had instant replay existed prior to when it started in 2006, I believe Nebraska would have won championships in 1982 and 1993. Florida State’s William Floyd clearly fumbled before crossing the goal line. That said, Nebraska likely would not have won in 1997. The Scott Frost to Matt Davison catch in the Missouri game might have been overturned for being illegally kicked by Shevin Wiggins.

Nebraska opened the 1982 campaign with a 42-7 demolition of Iowa. The next game – against outmatched New Mexico State – featured one of the greatest offensive performances in school history. A school-record 677 rushing yards (without a single yard lost, an NCAA record) and 883 yards of total offense. The upset at Penn State came next. The ending – which I promise we’ll discuss in depth down the line – is so controversial that it is still over-discussed 40 years later. Nebraska opened October with a 41-7 win at No. 20 Auburn.* The nonconference schedule also included an early December trip to Hawaii.

*The 1982 Auburn game is the last time Nebraska played a team from the Southeastern Conference in the regular season. The Tigers hold the distinction of being the last SEC team to visit Memorial Stadium. They lost 17-3 in 1981. Nebraska is 17-8-1 all-time versus the SEC (4-1-1 in the regular season and 13-7 in bowl games).

The Huskers started the 1982 Big Eight slate in dominating fashion, beating Colorado, Kansas State, Kansas, Oklahoma State and Iowa State by an average score of 46-9. A 23-19 win over Missouri (where quarterback Turner Gill was knocked out of the game on a questionable – some might call it “cheap” – hit), was the only competitive game in that stretch.

That set up the annual clash against Oklahoma for the Big Eight title. Tom Osborne dug into his bag of tricks as the Huskers successfully executed a “Bounceroosky.” Taking the snap from the near hash mark, Gill threw a perfect backwards bounce pass behind the line of scrimmage to Irving Fryar, standing between the far hash mark and the sideline. Fryar than threw a pass to Mitch Krenk, who made an impressive one-handed catch for a 37-yard gain. Nebraska would score a few plays later.


The game was still in doubt late in the fourth quarter until Scott Strasburger intercepted a Kelly Phelps pass and ran it down to the one-yard line. Even though there were still 26 seconds left in the game, Husker fans poured onto the field to celebrate. After the field was cleared (and the Huskers were assessed a 15-yard penalty*), Gill took a knee to seal a 28-24 win. The goalposts were torn down, sending a handful of fans to the hospital.

*I’m not a big gambling guy, but the 1982 OU game is likely in the “Bad Beats” hall of fame. The Huskers were favored by 7 to 9 points and led by four. If Strasburger scores, NU covers… but he’s tackled at the 1. If Nebraska runs a final play from one-yard line (as Osborne was known to do) and scores, NU covers. Instead, the Huskers are backed up 15 yards and Osborne decides to kneel before more mayhem occurs. 


The Huskers faced No. 13 LSU in the Orange Bowl. Nebraska turned it over four times in the first half and trailed 17-7 in the third quarter. Turner Gill accounted for two second-half touchdowns and the Blackshirts – led by Tony Felici – held the Tigers to just 38 yards rushing and 211 yards of total offense. Nebraska won 21-20 and finished the season ranked No. 3. No. 2 Penn State beat No. 1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. SMU, who did not have a loss, jumped Nebraska to finish second.

Tony Felici was a relatively small defensive end, even by the standards of the early 1980s – his playing weight as a senior was listed at 205 pounds – but that did not stop him from being a presence on the defensive line. A walk-on from Omaha Central, he was an All-Big Eight selection in 1981 and 1982.


In the 1981 game versus Florida State, linebacker Mike Knox blasted a Seminole kick returner so hard that the ball flew out of his hands. Felici caught it on the fly and returned it for a 13-yard touchdown. During his Husker career, Felici recorded 14 sacks and made numerous other tackle for loss.

And he was nearly a two-time national champion.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 14, 2025, 08:25:21 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 45: Fred Shirey, Tackle, 1935-1937


In the entire 135+ year history of Nebraska football, only 20 players have been a first-team all-conference selection in three seasons.

Fred Shirey is one of those 20 players. Arguably, the only reason he was not four-time all-conference player (Tom Novak is still the only Husker to do it) is that Shirey played at Nebraska for only three seasons.

Shirey was a dominating tackle on the Dana X. Bible and Biff Jones teams of the mid- to late 1930s. As a senior, Shirey was a first-team All-American and was selected to play in the East-West game, a prestigious college all-star game.

I wish I could tell you more about Fred Shirey. But if you think offensive linemen toil in anonymity today, try to imagine what it was like 90 years ago. In my research, I poured through as many different resources as I could find: HuskerMax pages, old yearbooks, countless newspapers from the 1930s, and anything else Google could unearth.

Everything I read agreed that Fred Shirey was an all-time great. But that’s about it.

One of the very few descriptions of Fred Shirey’s athletic exploits was in the 1936 edition of the UNL yearbook, the “Cornhusker.” If you’ve ever read sports writing from before World War II, you’ll know that it is often peppered with vivid, colorful prose. Surely, this would be where I could find out more about Fred Shirey.

The student who wrote the capsule of Nebraska’s 19-0 victory over Oklahoma in 1935 felt it was important for us to know that Shirey’s line play was “alert.”

Thankfully, Fred Shirey’s play spoke for itself. And his three all-conference honors were the exclamation points on an excellent career.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: Temp430 on July 14, 2025, 08:50:50 AM
8/28 Cincinnati  W
9/6 Akron W
9/13 HCU (Who is this?) W
9/20 #20 Michigan L
9/27 Open
10/4 Michigan State (HC) W
10/11 @Mayryland W
10/17 @Minnesota W
10/25 Northwestern W
11/1 USC Toss up
11/8 @UCLA W
11/15 Open
11/22 @ #1 Penn State L
11/28 Iowa W

Only four road games all but one seem doable.   No Oregon or Ohio State.  The Huskers could go 10-2 IMO but I don't follow Husker football that closely.

Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 14, 2025, 08:57:46 AM
I can see 8 wins if I squint a little - hoping for 9

biggest question is the D-line

biggest hope is the O-line shows improvement
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 14, 2025, 10:09:26 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/I4OY1SZ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/vOIYPRp.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/pgCt0o3.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 15, 2025, 08:42:06 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 44: Calvin Jones, I-back, 1990-1993

Previously, we’ve talked about how Tom Osborne’s offensive philosophy shifted and evolved during his Nebraska football coaching career. He was fairly balanced during the Devaney era, more willing to pass it when he took over as head coach, and shifted to a power running game in 1977.

As part of that emphasis on power running, Osborne knew he needed more options on offense.

Figuratively and literally.

Fun fact: The option was always a part of the Osborne playbook – even in the passing years.* But in 1980, Osborne started to emphasize it as a cornerstone of the offense.

*According to the incomparable Mike Babcock, in Osborne’s early years, Dave Humm and Vince Ferragamo would run the option a couple of times each game. But neither was what today’s recruiting services would consider a dual-threat quarterback. For their careers, Humm and Ferragamo had a combined 42 yards rushing… on 247 carries. Even though sacks did not become an official stat until 1981, lost yardage from drop-backs is undoubtedly why they averaged a measly 0.17 yards per carry. 


In football – especially in the college game – the option comes in many shapes and sizes and can be run out of a variety of formations. Oklahoma loved its wishbone. Osborne was a big believer in the I-formation and used it as the basis for his option plays.

A common misconception about Nebraska’s option attack was that the Huskers ran only the triple option. Osborne ran a variety of option plays out of numerous different formations with multiple positions involved. But the triple option is a good starting place for a high-level overview. Since I’m not a big X’s and O’s guy, I’m bringing in a guest instructor: Dr. Tom Osborne (as told to the Washington Post in 2009):

“The traditional triple option, when the ball is snapped, you really don’t know who’s going to carry it; it depends on the defensive reaction. So, the first option is the fullback. If the defense closes on the fullback, then the quarterback pulls the ball; if the defense doesn’t close, you hand it to the fullback. The second option, of course, is the quarterback running with the ball if the defensive end or contain man takes the pitch.”

If the defensive end plays the quarterback, the ball will be flicked out to the I-back (a.k.a. Option Three), who has been shadowing the quarterback. The I-back will hopefully be able to turn the corner and make a nice gain. “We always felt our options plays should average more than seven yards a carry,” Osborne said. “And they usually did.”


When it all comes together, a crisp option play is one of the most beautiful things in sports. It is a well-choreographed ballet of speed and brutality, with sleight-of-hand fakes and daring high-wire pitches.

The option was successful for a number of reasons, but here are three reasons why it caused problems for opposing defenses:

Stopping it meant opposing defenses had to be fundamentally sound, understand their assignments and execute them consistently. The option can create a bit of a “pick your poison” feel for a defense. Not being disciplined is often the difference between a 4-yard gain and 40-yard touchdown.
Opponents don’t see the option very often. Pretend you’re the defensive coordinator for, say, Missouri. Your team, having played six straight games, now has four practices to learn the defensive responsibilities needed to slow down the option… while being alert for play-action passes. Nebraska week likely caused a lot of insomnia for coordinators across the Big Eight.
The option can be run effectively without elite talent. There’s a reason the service academies still run a lot of option: It is a tremendous equalizer. Nebraska won at least nine games every year when Osborne was calling option plays. Without disparaging any former players, I’ll simply note that NU did not always have all-conference caliber talent in the backfield. But when that talent was elite…. look out.
By the early 1980s, Tom Osborne’s offense revolved around power football and the option. More than any other play, the option became synonymous with Nebraska football. And no position was more synonymous with Osborne’s offense than the I-back.

Calvin Jones was a tremendously gifted back in Osborne’s offense. Big and strong with sprinter’s speed, he was just as effective between the tackles as he was taking an option pitch around the edge.

As a redshirt freshman in 1991, Jones came off the bench for an injured Derek Brown at Kansas. In that game, Jones had 27 carries for a (then) school-record 294 yards and a Big Eight record six touchdowns. A few weeks later against Oklahoma, Nebraska had a shot at the Big Eight title and a trip to the Orange Bowl. However, the Huskers were trailing 14-13 late in the game.

A freezing rain fell most of the day, turning the Memorial Stadium Astroturf into a green sheet of ice. Yet, on the go-ahead scoring drive, Jones was sure-footed, cutting and sprinting his way down the field – and into the end zone. Nebraska’s final drive covered 80 yards and took 10 plays. Calvin Jones had nine carries for 78 yards, including a gutsy fourth-and-1 conversion and 15-yard touchdown on the next play.

One of the most memorable moments of Jones’s Husker career was a 47-yard touchdown against Colorado in 1992. Yeah, he might have been in such a hurry to rip off his helmet in celebration that he dropped the ball before he crossed the goal line. But he would have scored from 99 yards out. “You put in your backup, and he runs his first play for 47 yards. But this is just not your ordinary backup,” ESPN’s Gary Danielson said on the telecast. “This is a man who can really run. The fastest player on the team.”

It’s easy to look at that helmet-off celebration and assume that Jones was a selfish, me-first back. But Calvin Jones was a true team player. He’s one of the two players in Husker history most associated with the word “we.”

In 1992, Jones (a sophomore) and fellow I-back Derek Brown were dead even at the end of fall camp. Both were worthy of being the starter. Whoever got the lion’s share of carries was likely to put up impressive statistics and be a candidate for various postseason honors. Even in the days before the transfer portal, it wouldn’t have been unheard of for a player to make an ultimatum in hopes of getting more carries.

Instead, Brown and Jones made a pact with each other to support whoever was named the starter. They even called a meeting with Osborne and running backs coach Frank Solich to share their idea. Osborne commended them for their willingness to put the team first and then told them his plan: They would rotate and split carries. The “We-Backs,” as they were known, were a two-headed rushing machine, combining for 2,221 yards (201.9 yards per game and 6.6 yards per carry) and 18 touchdowns.

As a junior in 1993, his final season at Nebraska, Jones had another 1,000-yard season despite missing time with a knee injury. He was an All-Big Eight pick for the second straight season and a finalist for the Doak Walker Award. Jones finished his standout career as Nebraska’s second leading rusher (currently seventh) even though he started just 12 games in his career.

I love this quote from Jones (taken from Paul Koch’s “Anatomy of an Era“).

“They remembered you scoring touchdowns, but they don’t remember you picking up the linebacker on the blitz or carrying out a play fake: the little things that really matter but never show up on the stat sheet. But it was just as important as running the ball for fifty or sixty yards for a touchdown.”

Calvin Jones had a successful NFL career, winning a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers. He was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2004. Jones died in his home of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in 2025. He was 54.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 16, 2025, 09:29:22 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 43: Alonzo "Lon" Stiner, Tackle, 1925-1926

On Dec. 4, 2014, Oregon State's Mike Riley was named Nebraska's head coach, replacing the fired Bo Pelini.

The hire was… how do I put this politely... surprising. Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst conducted the coaching search on his own, without input from a hiring committee or independent search firm. Numerous names were speculated during the search (including Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost, former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and others), but nobody expected Riley.

A big reason was nobody expected Mike Riley to leave Corvallis. He was the dean of coaches in the Pac-12 and had resurrected the OSU program, giving the Beavers their first winning seasons since 1970. Riley's Oregon State teams were good, but not great. He led them to eight bowl games in his last 12 seasons and was known for big upsets (taking down No. 2 USC in 2006, No. 1 Cal in 2007 and No. 1 USC in 2008). But only one of his teams (2006) won 10 games, and they never finished a season ranked higher than 18 (2008).

One of the narratives around Riley was that he could be a great coach at a school with more resources and support than Oregon State. The Cornhuskers have bushels of both. In announcing the hire, Eichorst said, "Mike Riley has a proven record of success, a sound approach to football and teaching, an understanding of the educational mission of our university and the integrity and values that we cherish at Nebraska."

Mike Riley has the most wins of any coach in Oregon State's history (93), which he accumulated in 14 seasons. And yet, Riley trails another coach - a Nebraska alum and Hastings native - in winning percentage and years spent at Oregon State: Alonzo "Lon" Stiner.

Before Stiner became a coach, he was a tremendous tackle for Nebraska in the mid-1920s. Stiner started his playing career at Lombard College in Illinois but returned to his home state for the 1925 season. In 1925, Stiner helped first-year coach Ernest Bearg to a 4-2-2 record.

In 1926, Stiner was selected as a team captain. He controlled the line and received All-Missouri Valley Conference honors. Stiner was also recognized as a first team All-American, making him just the fourth Cornhusker to earn All-America status.

Stiner got into coaching after his playing career, and the Nebraska alum served as Oregon State's head coach from 1933-1948.* He compiled a 74-49-17 .589 in 14 seasons (the Beavers did not field a team in 1943 or 1944 due to World War II).

*Two other Husker players - Edward "Doc" Stewart and Dick Rutherford - also spent time as Oregon State's head coach.

Like Mike Riley, Stiner's best game was an upset of USC. In 1933, the two-time reigning champion Trojans brought 80 players - and a 25-game winning streak - to Corvallis. Stiner played a total of 11 men, never substituting throughout the game. The "Iron Men" game - which ended in a 0-0 tie - is still considered one of the greatest games in OSU history.

Mike Riley never made the Rose Bowl. Lon Stiner did in 1942, even if his team didn't play in Pasadena. The 1942 Rose Bowl took place just weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The game was played at Duke, but the Beavers won the game.

Riley's teams were known for their pro-style offenses. Stiner's 1933 team innovated a new kicking defense. In the "pyramid play," a 6-foot-5 player would be lifted onto the shoulders of two 6-foot-2 players before kick attempts. Not surprisingly, the pyramid play was outlawed the following year.

We won't spend too much time relitigating the Mike Riley era at Nebraska. Despite being universally regarded as one of the best human beings you could hope to meet, he mostly received a chilly reception from Nebraska fans and others with ties to program.

Riley went 19-19 in three seasons that had good moments (a 7-0 start in 2016, en route to a 9-4 finish) and bad (4-8 in 2017 with one of the worst defenses in school history). Mike Riley was Nebraska head coach for less than three calendar years, the shortest tenure since Pete Elliott coached for one season 1956.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 17, 2025, 10:26:54 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 42: Jerry Murtaugh, Linebacker, 1968-1970

Prior to the start of the 1970 campaign, Nebraska had completed 80 seasons of intercollegiate football. The Cornhuskers had 29 conference titles to their credit (including one in 1969), but the program had zero national championships. Their highest finish in the AP poll was fifth, in 1965. Nebraska's all-time record in bowl games was 3-5.

So, when senior linebacker Jerry Murtaugh stood in front of the 35 media members in town on the Big Eight Skywriters Tour and predicted that Nebraska would win the national championship, it raised some eyebrows.

"A bunch of reporters around, and they just ask me, bluntly: How do you think you're going to do?" Murtaugh said. "And I just told them — I said, we're going to win it all. Nobody's going to beat us."

Just wait… ol' Murt was just getting warmed up.

Murtaugh predicted Nebraska would avenge its 1969 loss to Southern Cal, saying NU would "beat the hell out of USC."

He didn't believe the preseason hype about Kansas State and quarterback Lynn Dickey. "We read about Dickey. All those things in the paper. White shoes and all that stuff. You like to knock guys down like that. We put a good pass rush on Dickey last year and he got a little shook. Hey, they say Dickey is Mr. Cool. He got shook. He was scrambling. He didn't have to do much last year. But he was off against us."

Around this time, I-back Jeff Kinney arrived. He grabbed Murtaugh by the arm and pulled him away from the reporters saying, "You just look pretty and let me do the talking."

In a 2004 HuskerMax interview, Murtaugh recalled getting reamed by coach Bob Devaney for speaking out of turn: "He said, 'You got to keep your damn mouth shut. You can’t be doing this crap, Murtaugh!'" As punishment, Murtaugh had to run stadium steps.

That is Jerry Murtaugh, one of the biggest characters - and best players - of the Devaney era.

Murtaugh was a standout linebacker - and undefeated state wrestling champion - at Omaha North High. With offers from all over, Devaney worked hard to keep him home.

Murtaugh broke into the starting lineup in 1968, recording a team-high 99 tackles. He was named honorable mention All-Big Eight. As a junior in 1969, Murtaugh had 126 tackles, which broke Wayne Meylan's single-season record. Murtaugh earned first-team All-Big Eight honors.

This brings us back to 1970, Murtaugh's senior season. Could he - a captain - back up his "We're going to win it all. Nobody's going to beat us" claims?

Nebraska beat Wake Forest 36-12 in the opener. A newcomer from Omaha - a kid named Johnny Rodgers - caught a long touchdown pass in the game.

Next came a trip to No. 3 Southern Cal, who had beaten Nebraska 31-21 the year before.

It was a back-and-forth game with the two teams trading touchdowns. A bad Husker snap led to a 22-yard missed field goal in the fourth quarter. Murtaugh's prediction that NU would avenge the USC loss was incorrect. But Nebraska didn't lose, either. The game ended in a 21-21 tie. Murtaugh had 14 solo tackles (and 11 assists) including a stop on fourth-and-one near midfield late in the game.

Nebraska didn't "beat the hell out of USC," but the Huskers gained a confidence that they could play with anybody, anywhere. From there, the 1970 team got on a roll. 28-0 over Army. 35-10 at Minnesota. They beat No. 16 Missouri 17-7 before blowing out Kansas, Okie State, Colorado and Iowa State.

The next game was against Kansas State. Lynn Dickey and his white shoes came to Lincoln in November of 1970. On K-State's first possession, the Blackshirts' pass rush of Willie Harper and Larry Jacobson forced Dickey into a bad throw that was intercepted by Murtaugh. It was the first of a school-record seven interceptions on the day. Johnny Rodgers scored from 30 yards out on the next play. Nebraska won 51-13.

A year before the Game of the Century, 6-3 Oklahoma had yet to become an irresistible wishbone juggernaut. But the Sooners played one of their best games of the season. They stopped Nebraska on fourth-and-goal from the 1 and led twice.

But the Huskers battled back to regain the lead. With five seconds to go, Oklahoma had the ball at the Nebraska 27. A touchdown would tie the game and end Nebraska's title hopes. Jack Mildren's fourth-down pass was tipped and intercepted by Jim Anderson.

Going into the 1971 Orange Bowl against LSU, Nebraska was ranked third behind No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Ohio State. Notre Dame beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl, and Stanford knocked off Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. The door was now open for Nebraska.

In the Orange Bowl, the Blackshirts held the Tigers to just 12 points. After Jerry Tagge's touchdown to take the lead in the fourth quarter, the defense stood tall, turning back several LSU drives in the fourth quarter to preserve to win.

Murtaugh led the team with 10 tackles. Murtaugh's prediction came true: Nobody beat Nebraska. The Cornhuskers won their first national championship in 1970. He ended the 1970 season with 142 tackles, breaking his own record (back then, bowl games were not included in the stat totals). Murtaugh also set the school record for most tackles (342). That mark stood for over 30 years until Barrett Ruud broke it in 2004. In addition to being All-Big Eight and All-America, Murtaugh was the 1970 Big Eight Defensive Player of the Year.

No matter how many sets of stadium stairs he had to run, Jerry Murtaugh never has kept his "damn mouth shut." He hosted the "Legends Radio Show" for over a decade, interviewing numerous former Huskers. Murtaugh has also been an unofficial Nebraska football alumni ambassador, helping to connect former players with speaking engagements and other public appearances.

And, as we'll discuss at #39, Murtaugh's ability to talk and connect continues to make a difference for former student athletes across the state.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 18, 2025, 11:16:10 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 41: Marc Munford, Linebacker, 1983-1986

Nebraska has long been a pioneer in athletic performance. The core philosophy has always been about helping student athletes maximize their physical potential.

Most people think of that simply as lifting weights and running sprints. But there is more to making sure an athlete is in peak condition. If we think of a college football player as a vehicle - backs and receivers as sports cars, linemen as large trucks, etc. - the fuel that goes into them plays a tremendous role in their performance.

As fundamentally basic as that is, there are inherent challenges as well. Often, young men in the 18-22 range, away from home for the first time, aren't skilled in the kitchen. Even if they know the difference between roux and stew, time is the next hurdle. Between workouts, practices, classes, study hours, meetings, film study and more, it is easy to run out of hours in the day. And finally, players may lack the knowledge of what is good fuel and what is not. Fast food might be an "extra value meal," but it's not ideal nourishment for a college athlete with demanding caloric needs.

The Cornhuskers have long provided food options for their players. The Big Six conference approved "training table" meals in 1938. Early versions of Nebraska's training table - available only to male athletes - were located in the Student Union and the Selleck Quadrangle.

In the 1960s, the origins of the Husker Beef Club started. Nebraska ranchers would donate cattle to be served at the training table, often with Nebraska farmers donating the corn the cows ate. Nebraska football was a field-to-farm-to-field operation.

Nebraska's 1978 summer conditioning guide - given to players to conduct their own offseason workouts - had a nutrition section that stressed the importance of vitamins, minerals and proteins. It provided some sample menus for gaining weight using a six-meals-a-day plan.

In 1985, Nebraska's modern training table - in the west side of Memorial Stadium - opened. In addition to the expanded capacity (it held 220 people and served 330 meals a day in 1985), it was overseen by a registered dietitian. This allowed the staff to begin educating players on nutrition and making sure they were properly fueling themselves.

Linebacker Marc Munford was a part of the first group of Huskers to benefit from the training table.

If you’re compiling a list of the best linebackers in school history, Marc Munford’s name should be on that list. A strong tackler, he led the team in tackles in each of his final three seasons. He is in an elite group of Huskers to win all-conference honors in three seasons.

As a sophomore, he had a breakout performance against Missouri with a career-high 16 tackles and a 57-yard interception return for a touchdown. A devasting knee injury cost Munford the final two games of his junior season, but he still led the team in tackles and repeated as an All-Big Eight pick. In his senior season, he was a captain of a Blackshirt defense that held Kansas to minus-21 yards on 22 carries.

Munford was an excellent prep baseball player with offers to the some of the top college programs of the day. He wanted to moonlight with the Nebraska baseball team, but the coaches wouldn't allow it. He was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

By 1997, Nebraska's sports nutrition program had gone to another level. Dave Ellis - who had started on Boyd Epley's strength and conditioning staff - was hired in 1994 as the first full-time nutritionist in a college athletic department. He elevated Nebraska's program by customizing meal plans based on the different positional needs of football players. In addition, Ellis' staff would educate and coach players on food choices, portions, and more.

Nebraska's dedication to athletic performance - on and off the field - was a major factor in the Huskers' success.

Today, Nebraska's training table in the new Osborne Legacy Complex is led by Kristin Coggin, assistant athletic director for performance nutrition. It is a state-of-the-art facility that has an executive chef serving hundreds of meals every day. There is also a demo kitchen where student-athletes learn how to make their own healthy meals - an important life skill for everyone, especially elite athletes.

The nutrition staff works with the strength and conditioning team to help players meet their goals - weight loss, gain, or maintain. It's all part of a holistic approach to player performance and recovery intended to help players maximize their ability.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 19, 2025, 08:16:08 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 40: Pat Tyrance, Linebacker, 1987-1990

"There are over 400,000 student-athletes, but almost all of them will go pro in something other than sports."

That is the tag line from a classic NCAA commercial campaign talking about the positive impact sports have on student-athletes. While we can knock the NCAA for numerous failures and shortcomings, I appreciate that - at least in their commercials - the NCAA tries to remember their primary mission is academics instead of being a feeder system for various professional leagues.

Former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones famously tweeted: "Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS." To his credit, Jones did finish his degree, but he did say the quiet part out loud: Some student athletes don't care about the "student" portion.


Graduating from college is an accomplishment, especially when a full-time student is also a full-time athlete. When push comes to shove, it is easy for academics to take a back seat to athletics. Nebraska - like every other power conference school - has academic support staff to help players study, pass and stay on track for their degrees. This can take the form of tutors, study halls and advisors who might help a struggling player find a less rigorous major or class.*

*I'm not going to look down my nose at the "easy A" courses that tend to have a lot of student athletes in them. Plenty of non-athletes took them as well.

Case in point: Entomology 222, aka "Insects in Society." It was an excellent science elective for people not going into a scientific field. The course focused on the intersection of insects and humans, particularly in areas like food, disease, and popular culture. One assignment was to watch a movie about insects (I chose "Godzilla versus Mothra") and write a paper on whether or not the representation was accurate, citing examples and suggesting how it could be made more realistic. It was an extremely interesting - and entertaining - course. My average going into the final was something like 119 out of 100. 

I'm not going to knock players who choose to keep their academics on the lighter side. But some student athletes do choose a more rigorous course load, in a more complex field of study. Over the years, there have been numerous Huskers who have majored in some rather intense subjects (engineering, physics, chemistry, pre-law and more). Maybe it's just my non-scientific mind, but I always had a deep admiration for the pre-med majors.

Pat Tyrance is one of those players who embraced the "student" part of the student athlete. In fact, let’s start on the academic side:

Tyrance, a Biology/Pre-Med major, was a two-time Academic All-American. He was named a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete in 1990. He earned the prestigious NCAA Today's Top Six Award in 1990, one of the top honors for student athletes.*

*Tyrance's wife, Renita Robinson - the 1989 NCAA triple jump champion for Nebraska's track team - was also an Academic All-American and was Today's Top Six finalist the previous semester. 

Tyrance's GPA was "only" 3.46, partially due to being on academic probation in his first semester at UNL. By the end of his college career, he would come home after practice and study for several hours. Also, I'm guessing he wasn't taking "Insects in Society" or "History of Rock & Roll" to boost his GPA. In a 1990 article with the Baltimore Sun, Tyrance said his courseload was "pretty demanding, but I like it. That makes it fun. It's not quite as worthwhile when you're taking easy classes."

Oh yeah - in addition to his rigorous academic load, hours of studying, and everything that goes into being a star linebacker, Tyrance was  a new father as a college senior. Tyrance's son, Pat III, was born after his junior season. I have no idea when he slept.



On the football field, Tyrance was no slouch.

Lightly recruited out of Millard North High School, Tyrance played in every game as a redshirt sophomore, with five starts. In his junior season (1989), he was an All-Big Eight pick. His senior season (1990) got off to an unconventional start. In addition to having a wife and newborn son at home, Tyrance missed the spring game to take the Medical College Admission Test. He did find time to hit the weight room, as evidenced by his team-best 446-pound bench press.

In the 1990 season opener against Baylor, Nebraska was clinging to a 6-0 lead in the fourth quarter. The Bears had second-and-goal from the 5, but Tyrance forced a fumble at the three. Nebraska scored a late touchdown to win 13-0. In a loss to eventual co-national champion Colorado, Tyrance forced two more fumbles and an interception with his pressure on quarterback Darian Hagan. Tyrance led the team in tackles his last two seasons and finished 13th in career tackles (currently 37th). A team captain, Tyrance repeated as an All-Big Eight pick. He was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2005.


Despite a strong football résumé, Tyrance didn't receive any invites for the various postseason all-star games or NFL scouting events. As draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. bluntly put it: "I think a lot of people want to know what his intentions are going to be." Tyrance, who hoped to play pro ball to help pay for medical school, fell to the eighth round.

After a year in the NFL, Tyrance started medical school at Harvard Medical School, where he earned his Doctor of Medicine. Since that wasn't enough of a challenge, he also earned a Master of Public Policy in Healthcare Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2015, he received an MBA from the George Washington School of Business. Dr. Pat Tyrance is currently an orthopedic surgeon. In 2009, he was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-American Hall of Fame, making him just the second Nebraska football player (Dave Rimington) and third Husker overall (basketball's Karen Jennings).


Pat Tyrance is not the first doctor to come out of the Nebraska football program. Far from it. In addition to being the first black player - and captain - at Nebraska in the 1890s, George Flippin was one of the first players to become a doctor. Flippin graduated from med school in Chicago in 1900 and returned to Nebraska and opened the first hospital in Stromsburg.

Since George Flippin, numerous Nebraska football players have gone on to become doctors in a medical discipline.*

*No disrespect to the PhDs out there - but we're going to focus on the MDs.

This is definitely an incomplete list, but it gives a good cross-section of eras and specialties:


Anesthesiologists: Dr. Monte Christo, Dr. Kyle Ringenberg, Dr. Chris Weber, Dr. Rob Zatechka
Dentists: Dr. Dennis Claridge, Dr. Will Dabbert, Dr. Rich Duda, Dr. Ben Gessford, Dr. Tom Milius, Dr. Ernie Sigler
Dermatology: Dr. Tyler Evans
Ophthalmologist: Dr. Mike Stuntz
Oral surgeon: Dr. Brandon Chapek.
Orthopedic Surgeons: Dr. Pat Clare, Dr. Thomas Heiser, Dr. Kellen Huston, Dr. Justin Makovicka, Dr. Randy Schleusener, Dr. Scott Strasburger, Dr. Patrick Tyrance, Dr. Dane Todd, Dr. Steve Volin
Pediatrics: Dr. Tim Fischer
Physical therapy: Dr. Joel Makovicka, Dr. Wyatt Mazour
Physicians: Dr. Kaye Carstens, Dr. George Flippin
Plastic surgeon: Dr. Sean Fisher
Urologic surgeon: Dr. Judd Davies
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 20, 2025, 08:50:17 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 39: Andra Franklin, Fullback, 1977-1980

Andra Franklin is one of the greatest fullbacks in Nebraska history.

That's not just hyperbole. As an unabashed fanboy of Nebraska fullbacks* and originator of #FullbacksForever, I can assure you that it is a factual statement.

Let's take a look at the other contenders for the title of greatest Husker fullback:

Frank Solich gets a ton of love because of his diminutive size (and his coaching career). That said, a fullback in Bob Devaney's T-formation offense was more like a running back in a modern offense. Frankie may have been fearless, but he wasn't asked to do a ton of lead blocking. It's like comparing Zac Taylor with Steve Taylor. Same position, but two completely different offenses.

Tom Rathman set multiple position records (881 yards in 1985, with four 100-yard games). He went onto a terrific pro career, opening holes for fellow Husker Roger Craig (who also spent some time at fullback).

Cory Schlesinger and the Makovicka brothers (Jeff and Joel) get support due to their contributions to the championship teams of the 1990s. They were prototypical fullbacks in the Osborne option offense: a battering ram of a lead blocker, who occasionally got a carry to keep defenses honest.

But Andra Franklin was different. He was a best-of-both-worlds hybrid who could block and tote the rock. Born and raised in Alabama, he turned down Bear Bryant to come to Nebraska.

A four-year letterman, Franklin gained 1,753 yards in his career. That is the most by a NU fullback, and almost 200 yards ahead of second place (Dick Davis, who followed Solich in the 1960s). When he graduated, Franklin had the ninth-most rushing yards in Nebraska history (currently 36th). Franklin was an All-Big Eight selection in 1980, his senior season.

As any Osborne-era fullback will tell you, their primary role was to block for the I-back. The I-back in Franklin's junior and seasons (Jarvis Redwine) rushed for 2,213 yards on a ridiculous 7.1 yards per carry. Obviously, Marvelous Jarvis and the offensive line deserve a ton of credit, but I guarantee that Franklin's blocking and threat as a runner made Redwine's life much easier.

Andra Franklin undoubtedly holds a spot on the Mount Rushmore of Husker fullbacks with Rathman, Solich and Joel Makovicka. He played in a bit of a forgotten era, but he is arguably the greatest fullback in Nebraska's history.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 20, 2025, 09:06:04 AM
Urban Meyer knows what it’s like to face the media after his prolonged head coaching career. Now a member of the media himself, Meyer recently tackled the surprising comments made by former Nebraska head coach Scott Frost.

Now back at UCF, the Husker program legend who ultimately flopped as a head coach was asked about his time in Lincoln. He described Nebraska as “the wrong job” and claimed to be “tugged” by his alma mater toward a job he never wanted to take.

For fans who lived through the Frost era, it’s a tough comment to hear, to say the least. Even if those are Frost’s true feelings, it’s hard to hear the head coach not at least take some accountability for the final product.

During a recent episode of The Triple Option Podcast, Meyer broke down Frost’s comments alongside co-hosts Rob Stone and Mark Ingram. Meyer admitted that sometimes you say things from the podium that you regret, and he believes Frost would take back his comments if able to.

“We’ve all stood at the podium, and we say something like ‘Ouch, why did I say that?’ And you can’t take it back. I’m sure he would want to take it back. If it’s not meant to be, it’s a direct shot at Nebraska,” said Meyer. “I know Scott Frost, a helluva coach, and I’ve known him a long time. That didn’t go well. I actually had people send it to me and say ‘Wow, look at this’.”

“You do take jobs, and you love the place. When I left Bowling Green and I went to Utah, I loved Bowling Green… I get that, you sometimes put your feet down somewhere and you’re like uh oh, this ain’t Kansas,” said Meyer about coaches sometimes regretting a move they make.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 21, 2025, 09:42:25 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 38: Sam Francis, Fullback, 1934-1936

Who is the greatest player in Nebraska football history?

Before you answer, allow me to throw a qualifier on there: You can only pick players whose careers ended before Bob Devaney's first game in 1962.

At that point, who would have been considered the greatest player in Nebraska football history?

To simplify and shrink the pool of candidates, let's only look at players who have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Notably, that eliminates Tom "Train Wreck" Novak. But don't worry - the remaining seven names all have a legitimate claim to the "best ever" crown.

The super seven, in alphabetical order: Forrest Behm, Guy Chamberlin, Sam Francis, Bobby Reynolds, George Sauer, Clarence Swanson and Ed Weir. Spoiler alert: Six of them will be honored as the greatest at their respective numbers.*

*The seventh, Guy Chamberlin, played before uniform numbers were commonplace. But make no mistake, the pride of beautiful Blue Springs, Neb., is a worthy contender. A transfer from Nebraska Wesleyan, "Champ" Chamberlin was all-conference in each of his two seasons at Nebraska and an All-American in 1915. Nebraska went a combined 15-0-1 in his two seasons, including a win over Notre Dame. Against Iowa, Chamberlin scored four touchdowns.

Chamberlin is one of three Cornhuskers (along with Bob Brown and Will Shields) to be inducted into the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

In 1936, the members of Sigma Delta Chi, a professional journalism fraternity, sought to name the 11 best players in school history. To that end, they sent 300 postcards to every living Cornhusker, Bugeater and Old Gold Knight alumnus asking them to select an all-time Nebraska football team. From the responses, they formed a team and created a special section in the Daily Nebraskan. Additionally, the player named on the most responses was deemed the greatest player in Nebraska history: Guy Chamberlin.

Sam Francis received enough votes to make the second team.

On one hand, I love that this all-time team exists, and I respect their methodology. Who better to ask than former players?

But I have to put an asterisk on their results.

The exercise was conducted in the summer of 1936, with the results tabulated and released in November, before the end of the 1936 season. Sam Francis was a senior in 1936 and had a monster senior season.*

*Seriously - Sam's senior season is in the running for the best ever by any Nebraska student-athlete. It is that good.

To put my argument into modern terms, it would be like conducting a poll to name the greatest Blackshirt ever, but ending the voting in early October of Ndamukong Suh's senior season. Okay… maybe that's not a fair comparison. Suh didn't do as well in the Heisman voting as Sam Francis did.

Before we quibble too much with the results a 90-year-old poll, let's pause and consider some of Sam Francis's athletic gifts. Born in Dunbar, Neb., but raised in Oberlin, Kan., Francis was wildly successful at everything he tried. His high school football, basketball and track teams each won three state titles during his prep career.

Legendary Kansas basketball coach Phog Allen badly wanted Francis as a Jayhawk. Francis moved to Lawrence a few weeks before the semester started. But it just didn't feel right. Francis moved to Lincoln and enrolled at Nebraska. Phog Allen said Sam Francis was the one who got away.

As great as Francis was on the basketball court or the football field, track was arguably his best sport.

Francis was a track and field All-American at Nebraska - one of four Huskers ever to be a first-team All-American in football and track. He won shot put titles at the Drake Relays, Big Six championships (indoor and outdoor), as well as an NCAA championship in 1937. Francis qualified for the 1936 Summer Olympics (held in Berlin) and finished fourth. Germany's Gerhard Stock bumped Francis off the podium with this final throw. Francis missed out on a medal by 0.21 meters - about 8.25 inches.

After returning back to the States, Francis started his senior season on the football team. In the opener against Iowa State, he returned a kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown. He had another long kickoff return against Kansas that was called back by penalty. Francis ran, punted and kicked for the first AP Top 10 team in school history (the poll started in 1936, and the Huskers finished ranked ninth). He was named All-Big Six for the second straight year.


Here's how the Cornhusker yearbook summed up his senior season: "Francis reaped more glory as the Husker's plunging, punting, and passing fullback. Francis stood out in every grid battle and as a reward for his superior ability, he was honored by America's sports writers by being named on all All-America honorary football elevens."

Sam Francis finished second in the 1936 Heisman Trophy voting to Larry Kelley of Yale. Francis was the first overall pick of the 1937 NFL draft by Philadelphia, but his pro career was cut short by World War II. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1977.

Norman Ott was one of the earliest Cornhusker historians. He was described in a 1936 Daily Nebraskan article as someone who has "followed the course of Husker football teams for almost 20 years. He knows all of Nebraska's great football players since the inception of the forward pass." Here is what Ott had to say about Sam Francis: "Sam can do everything George (Sauer) could do, and many football addicts in the Nebraska camp feel that he is a smoother ball handler than George."


Was he better than Chamberlin - and therefore the greatest Nebraska player prior to the Devaney/Osborne era?

Having researched and written about all of them, I'd be very tempted to pick Sam Francis over Chamberlin.

Francis definitely has an argument for the greatest senior year of any Nebraska student-athlete:

Fourth-place finish at the 1936 Olympics.
Consensus All-American in football and track.
Led the football team to its first Top 10 finish.
Heisman Trophy runner-up.
No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.
Won indoor and outdoor conference titles in track.
Led the track team to an eighth-place finish at the NCAA outdoor championships
Won the NCAA shot put championship.
Very, very few Huskers - regardless of sport - can match or top that.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 22, 2025, 07:35:37 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 37: Lawrence Ely, Center, 1930-1932

What position do you most associate with Nebraska football?

During the Joe Paterno era, Penn State became known as "Linebacker U" for the string of talented backers the program produced. Several schools (USC, Georgia, Wisconsin and others) have tried to claim "Running Back U." And on and on for every position.

So, what is the "U" at dear old Nebraska U?

Certainly, Nebraska has produced several excellent I-backs and running backs over the years, especially during the Tom Osborne era. There was a 20-year stretch between Kris Brown and his brother Drew where Nebraska could have been considered "Placekicker U." And with six of Nebraska's nation-leading nine Outland Trophies being won by offensive linemen, there is definitely an argument for Nebraska being "O-Line U."


But I think we can get more specific.

Let's focus on one position: Center.

Nebraska centers have combined for:

35 first-team all-conference honors
12 first-team All-Americans
3 Outland Trophy winners
1 Big Eight Offensive Player of the Year award (beating out the quarterbacks and running backs from all eight teams)
1 Rimington Trophy
Personally, the fact that the award for the best center in college football is named after Nebraska center Dave Rimington is a rather indisputable bullet point on Nebraska's resume as "Center U."

Charley Brock, Franklin Meier, Tom Novak, Lyle Sittler, Kelly Petersen, Rik Bonness, Tom Davis, Rimington, Mark Traynowicz, Bill Lewis, Jake Young, Jim Scott, Aaron Graham, Aaron Taylor, Josh Heskew, Dominic Raiola and others were all standout centers at Nebraska.*

*A quick side note: seven of NU's 12 All-America centers were Nebraska natives. An eighth - Bill Lewis - is from just across the river in Sioux City, Iowa. 

No other team can match Nebraska's résumé of great centers. Nebraska is "Center U."

The first in the long line of outstanding Husker centers was Lawrence Ely. The Grand Island, Neb., native was an anchor in the middle for some of Dana X. Bible's best teams.

Ely earned All-Big Six honors in 1931 and 1932. In 1932, the "Biblemen" finished 7-1-1, and a perfect 5-0 in the Big Six conference. Their only blemishes were a 7-6 loss at regional power Minnesota and a 0-0 tie against East Coast stalwart Pittsburgh.

In 1932, Lawrence Ely was a first-team All-American - the first time a Nebraska center earned that honor.

At "Center U," it would not be the last.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 23, 2025, 10:31:43 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 36: Larry Wachholtz, Safety, 1964-1966

At the start of the 1964 season, rule changes allowed schools for play two-platoon football. When coach Bob Devaney broke his team into offensive and defensive squads, he wanted a way to tell them apart.

As the legend goes, assistant coach Mike Corgan was sent out to a local sporting goods store to get some new practice jerseys. The store owner had a bunch of black jerseys that weren’t selling. Corgan - who walked the line between fiscally conservative and cheap - worked out a deal with the owner. The new black jerseys were issued to the first-string defenders.

From these humble, bargain-hunting roots, the Nebraska Black Shirts* were born.

*For many years, the Nebraska defensive players who wore the first-string practice jerseys were almost exclusively referred to as the "Black Shirts" (two words). "Blackshirts" (one word) entered the Husker lexicon in the 1970s, and has gone onto become the accepted spelling.

Without going too deep down a style-guide rabbit hole, I'm intentionally using the term "Black Shirts" in this chapter as an homage to the origins of the unit. Everywhere else, I am using "Blackshirts." This is done mainly for consistency and convenience, even though it may not be technically accurate for the time period(s) being discussed.

During that first season, the black jerseys were returned at the end of practice. Tomorrow, somebody else might be wearing the black jersey you wore today.

Even if the players on the 1964 team didn't fully appreciate it,* the standard was inherently set from the start: A black shirt is earned. Every single day. By differentiating the starters from the reserves (who originally wore grey jerseys), coaches hoped to motivate the lower units to achieve Black Shirt status.

*Looking back, players on the 1964 team were mixed on the impact of the black shirts. "We had no idea then of the tradition that was beginning," said linebacker Mike Kennedy.  Teammate Larry Wachholtz was more blunt: "They carried absolutely no meaning to us." 

That said, the 1964 team was noticeably better on defense than it was the year before. The Huskers finished No. 2 in the nation in total defense, allowing 45 fewer yards per game, dropped their points allowed from 10.7 to 7.5, and cut the passing yards allowed per game from 112.1 down to 66.5. In 1965, the Black Shirts were the nation's eighth-best defense.

Larry Wachholtz, a safety on the 1964 team, was one of the first Black Shirts.

There have been 95 different Nebraska Cornhuskers who earned first-team All-America honors. At 5-foot-8 and 163 pounds,* Wachholtz is the shortest and lightest of them all. I believe Wachholtz is also the smallest Black Shirt ever - just two pounds lighter than the listed weight of cornerback Barron Miles in the mid-1990s.

*Remember the story of Frankie Solich taping weights to his body in an attempt to not be the lightest player on the 1964 Huskers? Larry Wachholtz was the guy he was trying to beat.

According to one version of the story (from a 1964 Sports Illustrated article), Solich used eight pounds of weights that clanged as he weighed in at 161. Wachholtz, "full of bananas and milkshakes," tipped the scales at 162.


But don't let his size fool you. The North Platte native known as "Cactus" packed a lot of ability – and punch – into his small frame.

For starters, it really isn’t fair to Larry Wachholtz to simply list him as a “safety.” Yes, he was an outstanding defensive back, earning All-Big Eight honors twice and first-team All-American honors as a senior. His seven interceptions as a senior ranked in the top 10 nationally.

But that is not all he did. Not even close.

Wachholtz was an excellent punt returner, leading the Big Eight in return yards twice. In 1965, his junior season, he missed out on the national lead by just seven yards. And if that was not enough, Wachholtz also kicked PATs (36 of 39) and field goals (3 of 5). In 1965, he played - and kicked - with an injured foot. Here's what Bob Devaney had to say about him:

"He's just not an outstanding defensive player. He's so much more to us. Larry is a great punt returner, a real team leader, and a tremendous placekicker. He kicked six PATs against Kansas with a big toe the size of a baseball." Never missing an opportunity for a laugh, Devaney added, "We're afraid to let a doctor work on his toe for fear it'll hurt his kicking ability."

Wachholtz left Nebraska holding multiple school records for punt returns, tackles and interceptions. In 1982 he was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame.

Over the years - and with the continued successes of the defense - the Black Shirts mystique continued to grow both inside the program and externally. Defensive coordinators recognized the importance of the tradition and fed into it.

In the 1980s, an Omaha T-shirt seller - inspired by a box of rat poison in his workshop - created a skull-and-crossbones logo incorporating a Nebraska helmet. That logo became the symbol of the Blackshirts and inspired the "throw the bones" celebration after big plays.

Blackshirt practices and policies have changed over the years - and especially across different coaching staffs. During the Tom Osborne era, defensive coordinator Charlie McBride would issue Blackshirts at the end of camp. Before the bowl game, he would issue one to each of the seniors on defense - including the punter. Bo Pelini would often have 15 or more Blackshirts at a time, due to the different defensive packages he used. Pelini and others were known to pull the Blackshirts from the team after especially poor performances.

The process for handing them out has evolved a lot as well. Some staffs liked to simply hang the Blackshirt in a player's locker. Others handed them out in a ceremonial fashion. Many teams have had former Blackshirt players come back and speak about the meaning and responsibility of wearing a Blackshirt, passing the legacy and meaning down to the next generation of defenders.

Many of Nebraska's greatest defenders have said that the most impactful moment of their Nebraska career was when they got their first Blackshirt. To a player who has earned one, it is a symbol of his hard work, dedication and sacrifice. Since its humble beginnings, a Black Shirt represents the best of the best, which is why it is often a prized possession long after a career has ended.

Former linebacker Jay Foreman has a provision in his will that he be buried with his Blackshirt.

It means that much.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 23, 2025, 05:04:37 PM
Lutovsky was one of four Huskers players who joined coach Matt Rhule at Big Ten Media Days this week in Las Vegas. The 6-foot-6, 320-pounder had an amazing stat during Nebraska’s 7-6 season in 2024.

According to the Big Ten Network, Lutovsky allowed zero sacks on 429 pass-block attempts, a remarkable achievement in the highly competitive Big Ten.

Lutovsky brings more than athletic prowess to the football field. He was an Academic All-Big Ten in 2023 and 2024. He was an eight-time Nebraska Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll recipient. He also was on the Tom Osborne Citizenship Team in 2024 and 2025.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 24, 2025, 09:29:22 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 35: Ed Weir, Tackle, 1923-1925

When did Nebraska football become a national power?

Nebraska has been a winning program from the start, going 2-0 in the inaugural 1890 season. They owned three conference championships before Lincoln sportswriter Cy Sherman first referred to them as the "Cornhuskers" - a nickname formally adopted by NU in 1900.

Early Nebraska teams were annual favorites in the Missouri Valley Intercollege Athletic Association - a predecessor to the conference eventually known as the Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight and Big 12.

Coaches W.C. "King" Cole and Ewald "Jumbo" Stiehm piled up wins against regional teams like Doane, Grinnell and Kansas.

But Nebraska - and its fans - wanted to be known as one of the nation's best teams.

That level of validation could only come from beating a national power. But travel to the great Eastern teams (Army, Harvard, Princeton, etc.) was prohibitive. The Huskers rarely ventured outside a 500-mile radius for a game.

Enter Notre Dame.

In the 1910s, the Fighting Irish were also emerging as a national power. Coach Jesse Harper arranged for a series of games with Jumbo Stiehm. In 1915, Notre Dame came to Lincoln, the first of 11 straight years of games between the two schools. Nebraska won 20-19, a massive victory for the program's reputation. Now, Nebraska needed to back it up and prove it wasn't a fluke.

After the initial win, the series was very even: 1-1-1 over the next three years. The Irish rattled off three straight wins from 1919-1921. In 1922, the Irish - now coached by Knute Rockne and led by a quartet of sensational sophomores who would eventually become known as the "Four Horsemen"* - were becoming an unbeatable dynasty.

*Legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice's famous words from 1924:

"Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again.

"In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below."

The final four games in the Notre Dame-NU series would change the course of how Nebraska football was perceived in the nation's eyes.

1922 - Nebraska 14, Notre Dame 6.
This was the final game the Cornhuskers played at old Nebraska Field. A reported 16,000 fans were in attendance - and many watched from ladders, rooftops and trees outside the stadium. Coach Fred Dawson's Cornhuskers led 14-0 at halftime and held on for the victory. This game showed that the 1915 win was not a fluke. The Cornhuskers were a potent program.

1923 - Nebraska 14, Notre Dame 7.
The Huskers hosted Notre Dame in the third game ever at Nebraska's brand new Memorial Stadium.* The Associated Press would not start its college football poll for another 13 years. Had it existed, the Irish likely would have been one of the top teams.

*The construction of Memorial Stadium was another big step in Nebraska announcing its presence. Instead of playing at outdated Nebraska Field with its wooden stands, the Huskers now had a $500,000, state-of-the-art concrete and steel facility.

The Four Horsemen formed a fearsome rushing attack… except on this November day. Nebraska's defense - led by Ed Weir, a sophomore tackle and team captain - shut down the Irish running game. Notre Dame threw a late touchdown pass, but the Cornhuskers had once again beaten the mighty Irish.

1924 - Notre Dame 34, Nebraska 6.
Of the 11 games in the original NU-ND series, this was one of just two played in South Bend. Why? The Nebraska fans bought tickets in droves. Schools would split the gate revenue, which resulted in big paydays for both teams.

In their last game against Nebraska, the Four Horseman finally beat the Huskers, avenging the only two losses they suffered in their careers. Rockne's game plan was largely focused on neutralizing Weir. The final score definitely suggests his plan worked. Notre Dame went on to win the national championship.

After the game, Rockne marched over to the Nebraska locker room and demanded to be let in. Rockne shouted "Weir! I want Weir." The legendary coach went over to a dejected Weir - too exhausted to move - and said* "Weir, I want to say to your face that you're the greatest tackle and the cleanest player I've ever watched."

*As one might expect with something that happened over 100 years ago, there's some discrepancy on the exact words Rockne said to Weir. One source had "That was the greatest exhibition of play I have ever seen. There was never anything like it." Another version is more simplistic "You're the greatest tackle I ever saw," which was clearly Rockne's message.


1925 - Nebraska 17, Notre Dame 0
In Ed Weir's senior season, he got the last laugh against Rockne and the Irish. In what may have been the best game of his great career, Weir blocked a punt to set up a Nebraska touchdown. He kicked both extra points and a 25-yard field goal as Nebraska cruised to a 17-0 victory.

After the game, Weir said "Rock gave me a big grin and a wink."

The 1925 game was the final in the 11-game series between the Huskers and Irish. Notre Dame loved the share of gate revenues earned by playing in Lincoln - reportedly $80,000 by the end of the series ($1.4 million in 2025 dollars). However, the near-constant anti-Catholic slurs from Nebraska fans (and the Lincoln chapter of the Ku Klux Klan) caused Notre Dame to cancel the rivalry. The two legendary programs have met just five times in the last 100 years.


The Four Horsemen were not the only college football legends to be bested by Weir's Cornhuskers. One of the only times the great "Galloping Ghost" Red Grange of Illinois was kept out of the end zone was against Weir in 1925.


Weir played tackle on both offense and defense, but defense is where he made his mark. Weir once said his mindset on defense was to get in the backfield and tackle everyone he saw until he got to the man with the ball. Occasionally, Weir would play fullback, but his coaches did not care for his tactic of using the ball to stiff-arm would-be tacklers.

Weir was the first Husker to earn All-America honors twice (1924 and 1925), and was also a two-time captain. He was the first Cornhusker elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, joining the inaugural class in 1951. Sports Illustrated named him one of the greatest players of the first half of the 20th century.

After college, Weir was a player/coach for the Frankford Yellow Jackets of the NFL before coming back to Lincoln as an assistant coach with the track and football teams.* NU won conference championships in seven of his nine years on the football staff. Weir was the head coach of the Nebraska track and field team for 17 years, winning 10 conference championships.

*I love this quote from the 1933 Cornhusker yearbook talking about Weir's football coaching style: "he still gets in and mixes it up with the boys once in a while."

After Weir retired from coaching, he was an assistant AD for 14 years. The outdoor track at Nebraska (since replaced by the new football practice facility) was named in his honor.

In all, Weir - the pride of Superior - spent 43 of his 88 years as a player, coach or administrator for the University of Nebraska.

Ed Weir is a true legend of Cornhusker athletics.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 25, 2025, 11:45:14 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 34: Trev Alberts, Outside Linebacker, 1990-1993

This pick - like with Frank Solich at 45 - necessitates a reminder that our selection criteria are not determined by what happens after a player's college career ends.

But unlike Frankie - who remains a widely beloved figure within the Husker fan base despite being fired - Trev Alberts has had a much harder time keeping his Q rating up over the years. Here's a quick (and likely incomplete) version:

Injuries derailed his NFL career (he was the fifth overall pick, a selection loudly mocked by Mel Kiper, Jr.). As a college football commentator for CNN/SI and ESPN, Alberts seemingly went out of his way to not show a speck of bias toward his alma mater.

Alberts did many good things in his 12 years as the athletic director at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. At the top of the list is the move to Division I, and the addition of the popular and successful hockey program. But the means to that end - cutting the successful Maverick football and wrestling programs - along with the very unprofessional way he did it - cast a shadow over his tenure.

Alberts left Omaha to become the athletic director at his alma mater in Lincoln. In his 31 months on the job, Alberts did a number of good things. He was the driving force behind the record-breaking "Volleyball Day in Nebraska." Most (if not all) of Nebraska's biggest sports improved during his tenure. And he replaced the floundering Scott Frost with Matt Rhule, widely perceived as a home run hire.

But in March 2024, Trev Alberts left Nebraska to take the same job at Texas A&M with little warning or explanation. His reputation and respect within the fan base evaporated instantly. He will likely be forever vilified as "Traitor Trev."

So, yeah… to say that Trev Alberts is no longer a beloved figure in the state of Nebraska is an understatement.

Therefore, I will once again remind you that our focus is about what a player accomplished on the field during his career. With that in mind, Trev Alberts is one of the greatest Blackshirts in Nebraska history. Period.

Alberts was a two-time All-Big Eight selection. A first-team All-American. The Big Eight Player of the Year. His 1993 season, featuring a school-record 15 sacks, remains one of the greatest campaigns by a Blackshirt.

I’ll never forget how strong he was. Several times, he appeared to be blocked, or the quarterback looked like he was about to escape. Alberts would simply grab him with one arm and pull him down to the turf.

Alberts won the 1993 Butkus Award as the nation's best linebacker (the only Husker ever to win that award). In the 1994 Orange Bowl, he sacked Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Charlie Ward three times, despite having dislocated his elbow a month earlier. Trev's #34 is one of 17 retired jerseys at Nebraska. As such, his name will remain on the Memorial Stadium façade forever.

Nothing he did after graduation changes that.

If you want to forever hate Trev Alberts for how he left Nebraska, be my guest. I too was disappointed by his decision to leave, but I am willing to acknowledge the many good things he did as Nebraska's AD. Much like with the native son coach he fired, I'm can separate my feelings about the player from my feelings about the coach/administrator. If we're going to forever vilify one of them, my vote would be for the 16-31 coach we had to pay to leave, and not the guy who was so successful at Nebraska he was sought out by one of the biggest and richest schools in the country. But that's just me.

Trev Alberts definitely has been polarizing since his playing career ended, but there is no doubt that he is one of the all-time greats.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 26, 2025, 08:37:32 AM
Soon-to-retire Gary Danielson will be in the booth for the Michigan game in Lincoln, where his CBS career began 35 years ago.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 26, 2025, 08:58:41 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 33: Forrest Behm, Tackle, 1938-1940

How has nobody made a movie about Forrest Behm's life?

Probably because his story - even by Hollywood standards - would be too unbelievable.

At the age of 5, young Forrest was severely burned in a brush fire. Behm later described it as "skin literally dripping of my leg" from ankle to hip. Since there were no antibiotics to fight infection, his doctors recommended amputating the leg.

Behm's father refused to let his son be an amputee. He took Forrest home and enlisted the assistance of a veterinarian who laid out a regime of treating and wrapping his wounds.

Forrest endured painful daily rehabilitation exercises for years. Repeated massage allowed him to progress from leg braces to crutches. Regular calisthenics and other exercises helped a lot, but he was still using a cane as a teenager. Behm did not regain full use of his leg until he was a senior in high school.

While attending Lincoln High School, Behm wanted to play on the basketball team. Even though he was quite tall for the time (6-foot-4), his leg injuries caused him to get cut from the team. With basketball off the table, Behm tried football. He had never played football before, so he was a seldom-used reserve.

The summer after he graduated from high school, Behm worked a construction job for the telephone company - digging ditches and lugging poles. The long days of physical labor helped strengthen his leg - and everything else. A friend convinced to register at the university and talked him into trying out for the football team. "We'll have a lot of laughs," his friend told him.

At Nebraska, Behm tried to walk on to the football team. Freshman Coach A.J. Lewandowski loved his size (at the time, only a handful of players in school history matched his 6-foot-4, 200-pound frame).

But there was a problem: Behm needed size-15 shoes. The university didn't have anything that big. And in the midst of the Great Depression, NU wasn’t willing to buy them. Nebraska's equipment manager told Behm he wouldn't be able to play.

Behm asked what if bought his own shoes? The staff had no objection to that. Behm had to work most of the summer to afford the his kangaroo skin cleats, but he was on the team.


In his first varsity game, (against a very good Minnesota team), Behm suffered a broken nose and twisted knee. He questioned if football was the game for him. But he persisted.

After that, things got a little easier for Behm. He was an honor student, a Cadet Colonel in the ROTC, and was voted class president. Heck, he even sang in the college choir.

In the summers he worked days shoveling concrete on what is now known as Cornhusker Highway. At night, he unloaded 100-pound bags of sugar from a train and stacked them in a warehouse.

In 1940 (Behm's senior year), Behm and Nebraska had their best season ever. Behm was an all-conference and All-America selection. Biff Jones's Cornhuskers rebounded from an opening-game loss to Minnesota and rattled off eight straight victories, winning the Big Six Conference. As one of the top teams in the nation (they were ranked seventh in the AP poll), Nebraska was invited to the Rose Bowl* - the first bowl bid in school history.

*Stanford - the No. 2 team in the country - was the first choice of the Rose Bowl. As such, they had the right to select their opponent. Stanford wanted No. 1 Minnesota, but the Gophers declined. However, they did recommend the Nebraska team they had defeated to start the season.

Once again, things weren't easy. Some members of the Nebraska Board of Regents were skeptical about the trip. They feared it would send a message that athletics were more important than the academic mission of the university.*

As class president, Behm was in these meetings. Behm asked the room, "What are you going to tell people when you go home and say you turned down an invitation to the Rose Bowl?" The bowl bid was accepted.

*The fears of those regents may have been valid. "We were studying for finals and (the bowl bid) came out on the radio," said Herm Rohrig, a senior halfback. "Naturally, we got rid of the books in a hurry." Classes were canceled the following day as students took to the downtown streets in celebration.

The team traveled west via train in mid-December, stopping in Phoenix to practice in a warmer climate. A snowy winter had made workouts in Lincoln a challenge. At the time, there was no indoor practice facility. The money NU received from its Rose Bowl appearance - $140,916 - was used toward the construction of what would become known as Schulte Fieldhouse at the north end of Memorial Stadium.

Before a bowl practice in Phoenix, Behm was lying on the side of the field stretching. Two players were fooling around, and one of them stepped on Behm's hip, causing a severe injury. Behm could barely stand, let alone put weight on it. But he still played half of the game, albeit very limited.


Stanford was the first college team to run the T-formation offense, a system Nebraska had never seen before. Despite that, Nebraska scored first and led 13-7 in the second quarter. However, Stanford scored to take a 14-13 lead into the half. In the second half, the Husker offense could not move the ball. A dazzling Stanford punt-return touchdown was a demoralizing blow for the Big Red. Nebraska lost its first bowl game 21-13.

Even though the Cornhuskers lost, the game firmly put Nebraska on the map in college football.

After the Rose Bowl, Forrest Behm graduated, married his college sweetheart (they were together 61 years when she passed), served in the Army Signal Corps, became the president of Corning Glass, and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Behm was of the greatest Huskers ever, with a life straight out of a movie.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: CatsbyAZ on July 26, 2025, 04:27:57 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/8LUGVks.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 27, 2025, 09:34:43 AM
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.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 28, 2025, 09:31:48 AM
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.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: Temp430 on July 28, 2025, 01:29:37 PM
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 (https://www.maizenbrew.com/2025/7/28/24473098/michigan-football-recruiting-danny-odem-nebraska-commit-titan-davis-isaac-miller-joshua-dobson)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 28, 2025, 01:52:01 PM
maybe the kid has some potential
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 28, 2025, 07:44:01 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/VgVWlOU.jpeg)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 28, 2025, 08:00:19 PM
Quote from: Temp430 on July 28, 2025, 01:29:37 PM
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.

Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 29, 2025, 08:30:15 AM
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?
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 30, 2025, 10:00:44 AM
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.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 30, 2025, 11:15:59 AM
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
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: CatsbyAZ on July 30, 2025, 02:39:48 PM
Hmmm…wonder which fan boards were fed to Google’s Gemini AI?

(https://i.imgur.com/4TopPfx.png)
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 30, 2025, 03:20:53 PM
they left out Billy C.???  27 & 22 @ 0.551%

and what about Bill Jennings??
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 30, 2025, 10:15:17 PM
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.

Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on July 31, 2025, 08:40:43 AM
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.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on August 01, 2025, 10:03:05 AM
Greatest Husker to wear 27: Irving Fryar, Wingback, 1981-1983

The 1983 Nebraska offense - better known as the "Scoring Explosion" - was one of the most prolific offenses in college football history.

It didn't matter what defenses did, the 1983 team went around, over or through their opponents and into every end zone they could find. The 1983 team averaged a ridiculous 52 points per game and set dozens of individual and team records.

The 1983 Cornhuskers made a dramatic statement in the original "Week 0" game: the inaugural Kickoff Classic at the New Jersey Meadowlands. It would be Nebraska's first game played in August and in the state of New Jersey. No. 1 Nebraska vs. No. 4 Penn State would be another epic chapter in the Tom Osborne-Joe Paterno rivalry. Each team had won two of the previous four games. Nebraska's controversial loss in the 1982 game cost the Huskers a shot at the national championship.

The Huskers would exact their revenge. NU led 14-0 after one quarter and never looked back. A Penn State touchdown with 20 seconds left in the game saved Paterno from a shutout. Final score: 44-6.

A 56-20 blowout of Wyoming opened the home schedule before a memorable trip to Minnesota. The Huskers scored 21 points in every quarter on their way to an 84-13 annihilation of the Gophers. It remains the most points Nebraska has scored in the last century (NU beat Nebraska Wesleyan by a tidy 100-0 score in 1917).

Despite having 116 names on the roster, Big Eight rules allowed teams to take only 60 players on the road. Every Husker played before the fourth quarter started. Mike Rozier had to come back into the game late in the third quarter because his backups were getting gassed. He promptly ran for a 71-yard touchdown. Irving Fryar had 138 receiving yards… on two receptions… both in the first quarter.

It was that kind of night, and Nebraska had that kind of offense.

In the fourth game of the season (UCLA), Nebraska trailed for the first time all year, falling behind 10-0 early in the second quarter. The Huskers then scored 42 unanswered points to put the game away. The nonconference schedule ended with a 63-7 beatdown of Syracuse.*

*The Orange would remember the humiliating loss and get their revenge the following season in the Carrier Dome, 17-9. It is one of the biggest upset losses in school history.

The Big Eight schedule started with a 14-10 win at Oklahoma State. NU's 14-point total was the definition of a statistical outlier. Jimmy Johnson's Cowboys were not ranked at the time, but they finished the 1983 ranked No. 18 with an 8-4 record. The Huskers had five turnovers (four fumbles and an interception). The defense - not known as a strength of the 1983 team - saved the day by recording three interceptions, including one by safety Bret Clark in the end zone on the game's final play.

Nebraska's struggles continued the following week at Missouri, as NU led 20-13 going into the fourth quarter. But the Huskers scored twice in the fourth - including Fryar's second touchdown of the day* - to win by 21.

*Irving Fryar, who was battling the flu, sat out much of the second half. He still had seven receptions for 95 yards and two touchdowns. ABC named him the player of the game.

After that, the offense started running wide open. 69-19 over Colorado, including an NCAA-record 48 points in the third quarter. 51-25 at Kansas State. 72-29 over Iowa State and 67-13 over Kansas.

Oklahoma was not ranked for their annual showdown against Nebraska, but Switzer's teams always gave Osborne fits. With 32 seconds left in the game, cornerback Neil Harris made a leaping play in the end zone to break up a pass intended for Buster Rhymes. Nebraska 28, Oklahoma 21. The win gave Osborne his third straight Big Eight title and a trip to the Orange Bowl to face Miami.

The heart and soul of the Scoring Explosion offense were quarterback Turner Gill, I-back Mike Rozier and wingback Irving Fryar. They were the rock stars - "Earth, Wind and Fryar" - forever immortalized on a famous poster* where they are exploding through the Memorial Stadium scoreboard. Switzer simply referred to them as "the triplets."

*Fun fact: The Scoring Explosion poster was originally created as a recruiting piece. When Nebraska realized they had a hit on their hands, they added the 1983 schedule to it and made it available to the public.

The credit for the poster's design has been given to NU's recruiting coordinator at the time, a Nebraska grad by the name of Steve Pederson.

Irving Fryar, by some accounts, may have been the most talented of the Scoring Explosion triplets, and yet I think he is the least heralded. While understandable (Rozier won the Heisman. Turner Gill finished fourth and is one of the greatest quarterbacks in school history as well as a longtime assistant coach), I think that is a shame. Consider: On the magical 1983 squad, Fryar touched the ball 83 times (catches, runs and kick returns). He averaged a staggering 14.6 yards per touch. He averaged 19.5 yards per reception.

Fryar easily earned All-Big 8 and All-America honors in 1983. Do you understand how rare it is – and how good you need to be – to earn consensus All-America honors as a receiver on a team that leads the nation in rushing? Think about it, if your offense is rolling up 400 yards rushing every game, how many opportunities will you get to catch passes?

That’s probably why Fryar was only the second player in college football history to ever do it, Another Husker legend – Freeman White – was the first.

Fryar went on to become Nebraska’s second-ever No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. He enjoyed a lengthy and productive pro career. Fryar scored a touchdown in Super Bowl XX, but his New England Patriots did not win. Unfortunately, it was not the first time Fryar's team came up short in a championship game.

In the 1984 Orange Bowl, No. 1 Nebraska had to play No. 5 Miami in the Hurricanes' home stadium. The Huskers fell behind 17-0 but fought back to make it a one-point game with 48 seconds to go. If Osborne kicks the PAT, the game likely ends in a tie and Nebraska wins the championship. Osborne elected to go for two and the outright win. Gill's attempt was incomplete and the Scoring Explosion came up short.

Ironically, Nebraska's most famous offensive trio never won a national championship. An Orange Bowl loss to Clemson in 1981, a controversial loss at Penn State in 1982 and a missed two-point conversion in 1983.
Title: Re: 2025 Nebraska Offseason Thread
Post by: FearlessF on August 01, 2025, 10:46:20 AM

It’s time to visit Matt Rhule and the Huskers.

📺: Big Ten Network - 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT



(https://i.imgur.com/KlthySM.jpeg)