Editorial: "The Disappearing Act of Husker Football Tradition"

[Hammerhead]

I've been asked on multiple occasions how I feel about the new coaching staff at Nebraska. I used to think long and hard about my response in case people were to get offended, but I really don't care anymore. They do not posses qualities that stand for everything Nebraska football is. They don't understand what Husker football is really about nor do they understand the tradition.

 

This is the story of a Husker football player, many of you won't even recognize his name, but for his position that's a great thing. I will warn you, I am extremely biased due to the fact that my dad is the former punter and kicker and because my boyfriend is the starting long snapper, or was. Nebraska has ALWAYS prided itself on their walk-on program...

...Here is Mike Riley's response to signing a long snapper, “We signed a long snapper. I won't say this is always the case, but we set aside three scholarships for the specialist positions: the kicker, the punter and the long snapper. Have we always done that? No. But we certainly understand the need and the importance of that position. There's a guy here that's been doing it. There's going to be competition, and that's good. Just two years ago we had a walk-on punter beat out our scholarship punter. As soon as we start practicing it's a land of opportunity. You've got to win your job. But I think those positions are so important to you. And I've got the best evaluator of specialists out of anybody. His track record on doing this is outstanding. We just want to make sure we're really good there. That's why we scholarship them. And certainly you've got to be right because you're not going to go find another one next year."

Josh was never given the opportunity to “win his job." Why not put the veteran snapper on that scholarship instead of bringing in somebody new? He's never played in front of 92,000 people before, how do you know he won't completely flail and be a mental head case? The coaching staff got rid of a kid who played thirteen straight games with no errors…somebody please make sense of that.

This is not what Nebraska stands for. This is not Nebraska. I was born and raised a Husker football die-hard fan and now I don't want to even be near Memorial Stadium on game day. Game day used to be better than Christmas to me. The tradition and history of Husker football is what drives the entire program. Actually, it's what drives the entire state. and to be perfectly honest, in my eyes, that tradition has gone down the toilet. Mike Riley and his staff don't know the first thing about Husker football and the season hasn't even started yet. If you haven't noticed, I have zero faith.

 

Entire editorial is here.

I'm not posting this because I necessarily agree with Dani (I'll get to that later), but because I found a link to this in a Facebook Husker group I'm a member of and thought it could make for interesting discussion.

[knapplc]

I don't know what The Odyssey is, but looking at it about made me bleed out my eyes. That site is a train wreck.



Regarding Ms. Wingard, I expect she'll one day regret writing this. It doesn't in any way make things better for Faulkenberry. His coach will always suspect that what he says in meetings will make its way to the girlfriend, and possibly come to light in an unflattering way. That's not how you build trust between players and coaches.

 

Regarding her claims that everyone on Special Teams besides Foltz & Brown were let go... that doesn't make a lot of sense. Most of those guys aren't scholarship players, and cutting walk-ons would unnecessarily hurt depth. If Ober goes down with an injury, who's going to do our Long-Snapping? I would presume Faulkenberry will be one snap away from playing time all season long.

[Hammerhead]

I don't know what The Odyssey is, but looking at it about made me bleed out my eyes. That site is a train wreck.

 

At first glance, it looks like your average click bait website. "38 Things I Did In College that I Regret. Everyone Will Relate to #23!" Strangely enough, it does have actual articles though.

 

But yeah, I really doubt Josh asked her to write that. He may not even know she did.

[The Dude]

Offseason long-snapper drama. There really is no place like Nebraska.

[Redux]

So the girlfriend is mad and she wrote a smear piece? Seems legit...

 

"Riley and ataff don't understand Nebraska Tradition" Translation: The new coach wanted to make my boyfriend earn his spot so we are pissed off!

[ColoradoHusk]

This may not be a popular opinion, but I think that the whole "Nebraska walk-on tradition" is over-blown. To me, it's a bunch of over-hyped nostalgia for the "good old days". IMO the walk-on program is not why NU was so successful in the 70's, 80's, and 90's and won 5 National Championships. Yes, the walk-on program was a good complement to recruiting great and talented players from all over the country, but the reason NU won those national and conference championships were great talent and coaching.

[HuskerNBigD]

Good god that's brutal and completely embarrassing. Couple interesting notes when reading:

 

1) She hammers on the so called "Nebraska tradition", when I think of tradition I think of the patch on the jerseys that say "A Winning Tradition"; and sometimes you have to make tough decisions by letting go of players go who might not have the ability to get the tradition back up. No hard feelings to the kid, but sometimes your best isn't good enough and there will always be someone better - that's just life. I'm tired of people always airing their grievances like this, thinking life is just so unfair. Here's an idea, either concede to the fact there is someone better or work harder to prove the coaches wrong - but having your gf pull this stunt is just petty.

 

2) Really confused me when she said everyone on special teams was let go, except for Sam Foltz and Brown....so who else does this include? I'm trying to think if there are any other designated special teams players and the only position I could think of is maybe a holder for FG/PAT but I'm drawing a blank. I'm assuming she might be grouping Bondi into this, but he's kinda been a mystery man since his motorcycle accident before the Miami game, or am I completely wrong?

[Hammerhead]

This may not be a popular opinion, but I think that the whole "Nebraska walk-on tradition" is over-blown. To me, it's a bunch of over-hyped nostalgia for the "good old days". IMO the walk-on program is not why NU was so successful in the 70's, 80's, and 90's and won 5 National Championships. Yes, the walk-on program was a good complement to recruiting great and talented players from all over the country, but the reason NU won those national and conference championships were great talent and coaching.

 

I actually feel the same way. It'd be great to be able to have guys from every one-horse town in Nebraska be able to come to Lincoln, make the team, and be a part of a perennial championship contending program, but that's just not reality. It was cool that so many guys could walk on and be a part of that in the 90s, but the scholarship talent and great coaching were what got us where we were. I'd honestly rather win with a football program that's nothing like what we'd consider to be "traditional Nebraska" than not win but still follow all the old ways.

[knapplc]

IMO the walk-on program is not why NU was so successful in the 70's, 80's, and 90's and won 5 National Championships. Yes, the walk-on program was a good complement to recruiting great and talented players from all over the country, but the reason NU won those national and conference championships were great talent and coaching.

 

The theory is that the walk-on program helps with buy-in. We bring in scholarship athletes from around the country who are tops in their position, but for whom the mystique of Nebraska football is foreign. The walk-ons may have less talent, but no less heart, and they bust their ass every day to be able to play for the team they've loved as a kid. That attitude rubs off on the foreign guys, and they work even harder.

 

I have no reason to doubt this theory. We've had a long list of success stories from our walk-on program. This guy made a list. It's seven pages long:

 

From that site:

 

 

All Conference players who began their careers as walk-ons, there are at least this many that made second team or honorable mention.

Jim McFarland

Ed Periard

Steve Manstedt

Clete Pillen

I.M. Hipp

Dean Sukup

Kelly Saalfeld

Derrie Nelson

Jarvis Redwine

David Clark

Jeff Krejci

Ric Lindquist

Jimmy Williams

Tony Felici

Greg Orton

Scott Strassburger

Dale Klein

Brian Blankenship

Kevin Lightner

Tim Rother

Bob Sledge

Charles Fryar

Mike Stigge

Jim Scott

John Parrella

Ken Mehiln

Jared Tomich

Dan Hadenfeldt

Kyle Larsen

Sam Koch

 

 

Nebraska Walk-ons in the NFL (28) from 2009 NU Media Guide

Brian Blankenship

Stewart Bradley

Mitch Krenk

Bill Lafleur

Kyle Larson

Rodney Lewis

Allen Lyday

Joel Makovicka

Steve Manstedt

Jim McFarland

Keith Neubert

Derrie Nelson

Greg Orton

John Parrella

Jerrell Pippens

Jarvis Redwine

Tim Rother

Kelly Saalfeld

Mark Schellen

Josh Sewell

Scott Shanle

Anthony Steels

Shane Swanson

Jared Tomich

Adam Treu

Dennis Watkins

Jimmy Williams

Toby Williams

 

 

There are some pretty important names to Husker history on that list.

[darkhorse85]

I'm really regretting giving that a click.

[ColoradoHusk]

I'm old enough to know about all the "great walk-ons" that NU has had. I am not taking away anything from them or other guys who worked hard to just be part of the team.

 

But, when I was at UNL in the mid 90s, the reason NU was kicking so much ass was the amount of pure talent on the team, along with the coaching of Osborne, McBride, and the rest of the staff.

 

The things that will get NU back to winning conference championships (and contending for NC's) is bringing in great talent and having great coaching behind that talent.

[suh_fan93]

That list is missing a lot of players great players which is the amazing part.

 

Husker football or the true heart of the program wasn't even about the Tommie Frazier's or Mike Rozier's who played for us. The walk on program to me is what embodied the entire program. It was also an indicator to me anyway that Nebraska kids could and can flat out play football. The kids in Nebraska grew up idolizing the program. It meant something to them. Nebraska is a unique program in that it's walk on program to me anyway truly was an integral part of what made the program so successful to begin with. Saying that it is over blown is mind boggling.

[teachercd]

That list is missing a lot of players great players which is the amazing part.

 

Husker football or the true heart of the program wasn't even about the Tommie Frazier's or Mike Rozier's who played for us. The walk on program to me is what embodied the entire program. It was also an indicator to me anyway that Nebraska kids could and can flat out play football. The kids in Nebraska grew up idolizing the program. It meant something to them. Nebraska is a unique program in that it's walk on program to me anyway truly was an integral part of what made the program so successful to begin with. Saying that it is over blown is mind boggling.

It means something to all the players.

[ColoradoHusk]

That list is missing a lot of players great players which is the amazing part.

 

Husker football or the true heart of the program wasn't even about the Tommie Frazier's or Mike Rozier's who played for us. The walk on program to me is what embodied the entire program. It was also an indicator to me anyway that Nebraska kids could and can flat out play football. The kids in Nebraska grew up idolizing the program. It meant something to them. Nebraska is a unique program in that it's walk on program to me anyway truly was an integral part of what made the program so successful to begin with. Saying that it is over blown is mind boggling.

The reason I say it's overblown is because it's really all that people are hanging onto now. For numerous reasons, it's been over 15 years since NU has last won a conference championship. The "Winning Tradition" that everyone loved in the Devaney/Osborne eras hasn't been there in recent history. So some fans who can't talk about NU winning championships have replaced that by hyping up a mythical walk-on program.

[VA Husker Fan]

 

That list is missing a lot of players great players which is the amazing part.

 

Husker football or the true heart of the program wasn't even about the Tommie Frazier's or Mike Rozier's who played for us. The walk on program to me is what embodied the entire program. It was also an indicator to me anyway that Nebraska kids could and can flat out play football. The kids in Nebraska grew up idolizing the program. It meant something to them. Nebraska is a unique program in that it's walk on program to me anyway truly was an integral part of what made the program so successful to begin with. Saying that it is over blown is mind boggling.

The reason I say it's overblown is because it's really all that people are hanging onto now. For numerous reasons, it's been over 15 years since NU has last won a conference championship. The "Winning Tradition" that everyone loved in the Devaney/Osborne eras hasn't been there in recent history. So some fans who can't talk about NU winning championships have replaced that by hyping up a mythical walk-on program.

 

I don't think it's all that people are hanging onto, but it's something. Just look at that list. It's not just in-state players, but guys like IM Hipp, Jarvis Redwine, Jimmy WIlliams, Jared Tomich. And it doesn't include a lot of other starters and 2nd stringers. It gave us enormous depth, so that injuries and scholarship players that didn't pan out didn't leave us with gaping holes. It added to the competition at nearly every position that pushed everyone. Then there are the intangibles, like statewide pride.

 

It's been over 15 years since a conf championship. And how long has the walk-on program been diminished? Random coincidence, or ...?