Jump to content


Recommended Posts


  • 2 weeks later...

who are the best walk ons in this class ?

I've seen the following listed as the top five and have no reason to disagree:

David Pillen

Damon Bechtold

Ronnell Grixby

Jordan Makovicka

Jeremy Wallace

 

You can go ahead and add Matt Holt to that list. I played with him this year, he is year ahead of me. He carried our team on his back to the 4A Missouri state championship, in which we won 35-0 against parkway central.

 

He's got great work ethic, hard nosed hitter, and a great attitude. Outside LB will be a perfect fit for him.

Link to comment

Add Seung Hoon Choi, a 6-2, 315 lineman from Lincoln Christian: link

 

(More than half way down page in article)

 

new article featuring seung...

 

Lincoln Christian's Choi to walk on at NU

BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star

Friday, Feb 22, 2008 - 09:21:47 am CST

 

Maybe he didn’t know English then, but he knew a good time when he saw it.

 

Seung Hoon Choi’s first view of the game came from the window of a car, driving past a field cluttered with teenagers in shoulder pads.

 

“It looked really cool, guys wearing helmets and hitting each other,” Choi says.

 

It looked like a game he should be playing. He was no lightweight, after all. “Kind of a roly-poly fat kid,” recalls Matt Farup.

 

Choi came from Seoul, South Korea. He was a shy type who could barely handle the weights in the Lincoln Christian High School weight room.

 

“Now he’s kind of a celebrity around here,” says Farup, Christian’s football coach. “A big, loveable kid.”

 

Now he’s 6-foot-2 and over 320 pounds, still a project on the football field, but one Nebraska coaches would like to try to mold into something special as an offensive lineman.

 

They asked him to walk on and Choi said yes. To the best anyone knows, he will be the first Korean to be part of the Husker football program.

 

“The strongest kid I’ve ever coached by far,” Farup says.

 

You don’t see many like Choi in any class of high school football, let alone Class C-1.

 

He says he can bench press 400 pounds. His coach says he’s being modest. It’s more like 450.

 

During Choi’s junior year, former Husker defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove walked into the school and spotted him immediately. How could you not? “That’s a good-looking kid,” Cosgrove said.

 

This year, NU receivers coach/recruiting coordinator Ted Gilmore showed up, and then offensive line coach Barney Cotton. The invitation to walk on came soon after.

 

And to think he didn’t start playing football until his sophomore year.

 

The first time Choi tried to put on a helmet, he couldn’t find one that fit. Eventually, Farup had to take the biggest helmet the school had, strip out the padding and put in the lightest pads he could find.

 

“Why are you always taking your helmet off?” Farup would ask.

 

“It hurts,” Choi would answer.

 

Fair enough.

 

Then there was the language barrier. When Farup stuck Choi on the offensive line, he kept the instructions simple.

 

If the play call has an even number, we’re going right. Odd, we’re going left. If the play has a number in the 80s, we’re pass blocking.

 

The English started to come. The shyness started to leave.

 

Choi came to Lincoln for high school because he had an uncle who was a researcher at the university. The academic standards back home are intense and the chances to go to a university are limited. Here was opportunity.

 

Coming from a Christian family, Lincoln Christian became the high school of choice. Each year during school, he’s lived with a different host family.

 

OK, there is still some shyness. Farup’s wife teaches a first-grade class. The coach likes to have a player go into the class on a game day and read to the kids.

 

Choi didn’t want to do it. Farup kept working on him.

 

Finally, the big guy gave in. He read and the kids loved him.

 

There have been a few cultural lessons for everyone along the way. Very quickly, Farup noticed Choi wouldn’t look him in the eyes when they were talking.

 

He wasn’t doing it out of respect. Quite the opposite. In Choi’s culture, the disrespect comes when you look someone in the eyes.

 

He is hard to anger, though it came out one game when an opposing player kept cheap-shotting him. It went on and on and on and finally Choi snapped back: “You better watch it.”

 

Part of Farup was pleased to see this side: Finally, a little aggression.

 

“In C-1 football, I think he held back kind of,” Farup says. “He didn’t go against too many people who were physically his equal. So I’m kind of excited to see what happens when he does.”

 

At Nebraska, finding a helmet his size doesn’t figure to be a problem.

 

Reach Brian Christopherson at bchristopherson@journalstar.com or 473-7439.

 

if this kid gets some speed, he could be an absolute beast on the line.

Link to comment

  • 5 months later...
  • 6 months later...

  • Mavric unpinned this topic

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Visit the Sports Illustrated Husker site



×
×
  • Create New...