A Walk Down Recruiting Memory Lane: Trev Alberts

[Eric the Red]

A Walk Down Recruiting Memory Lane: Trev Alberts

 

Couldn't pass up Nebraska opportunity

 

Feb. 7, 2007

 

By Trev Alberts

 

Special to CSTV.com

 

 

 

 

 

I really was not a highly recruited player at all. I grew up in northwest Iowa and didn't know a whole lot about the process. Nobody from my high school had gotten a scholarship to a school. It wasn't something I grew up dreaming of doing

 

My first experience with recruiting was my second game of my senior year. Former Ohio State coach Earle Bruce, who was then head coach at UNI, called my house. I was outside raking leaves, my mom answered the phone and he said he had watched me play a couple of games and wanted me to come play for him under scholarship.

 

 

 

I didn't know anything about it so I talked to my parents, talked to my high school football coach who was also my math teacher - we were a small school that only graduated about 60 students per class. There wasn't a real heavy emphasis on sports - But we put together a recruiting tape after that thinking there may be others interested.

 

 

 

I had had a little contact with Iowa and Iowa State. Then Iowa State offered me a scholarship and Minnesota offered me a scholarship. But Iowa was sort of being hesitant. I think they were sort of hoping to convince me to walk-on.

 

 

 

Then my high school principal, who was a huge Nebraska fan, cut out an article of me and sent a letter to Dave Gillespie, the recruiting coordinator at Nebraska, and said, "You might want to think about looking at this kid." Gillespie then called my high school coach and asked for a film. We sent tape of a couple of games and it was a week later when I was in accounting class and my high school coach came in and said, "You're not going to believe it. Nebraska called!"

 

 

 

About a week later, John Melton, the former inside linebacker coach there, was at my door and was there to offer me a scholarship to play football at Nebraska. It was a fast deal. I think Nebraska probably lost out on some bigger names, bigger recruits than I was.

 

 

 

At that point, Iowa realized Nebraska was serious about me, and they quickly offered me a scholarship. That didn't sit real well with me. It was really hard and I had initially committed to Iowa, specifically, verbally committed to Dan McCarney.

 

 

 

Then my dad said, "I would understand completely if you would like to take a trip to Nebraska. Of course we know you're not going to go there. But just go see what they got."

 

 

 

We went to Nebraska and we were literally stunned at what we saw in terms of the facilities. I remember being in the old Fleetwood Cadillac, heading down Interstate 80 East and saw everything Nebraska had to offer and knew that was the place I wanted to go. I knew I was going to disappoint my family and the Iowa coaches.

 

 

 

But my dad broke the ice and said "Look Trev, of course me and mom would like to see you in Iowa City."

 

 

 

And I had grown up a huge Iowa fan, but he said, "If you choose to go to Nebraska, we would understand why."

 

 

 

I was just so impressed with Coach Tom Osborne and his philosophies. Football was always down on the list. He talked about developing the whole man, about developing you spiritually, socially and academically. Really the athletic part was at the end. His feeling was if you had a kid who had his academic life, spiritual life and social life in order, the athletic part would just naturally follow.

 

 

 

Unlike other coaches who promise playing time and that you'll start, he never promised me anything. He promised me the opportunity to compete. And I really appreciated that. If you're good enough, you'll play as a freshman. If you're not good enough as a senior, you're not going to play. I really liked that. There were no false pretenses. It was real simple.

 

 

 

I had made up my mind that I was going to Nebraska and I called Coach McCarney and broke the news and he was not real pleased. But he understood. He was classy. He understood the opportunity. Iowa was still building its program at the time.

 

 

 

I didn't know much about Nebraska football. I didn't know anything about the history. I could have named every player at Iowa through the 80s. I knew every one of them. I didn't know much about tradition at Nebraska, but I knew about the Oklahoma games, I knew they set the standard, at that time, for winning and doing it the right way. They had the most academic All-Americans. They took their academics seriously first, then took their football seriously.

 

 

 

There was a passion, a devotion and a demand of excellence there that was just remarkable. I could just feel it when I walked around. I was humbled with the opportunity to get to go and play.

 

 

 

UNI, which was Division I-AA (now the FCS), Minnesota, Iowa and Iowa State were all after me and then there was Nebraska. Nebraska was clearly the cream of the crop. And I was honestly a little bit stunned when they offered me a scholarship. I was up for a challenge and I remember leaving and my dad said, "Don't fail. Don't come home because you got kicked out of school either because you flunked out or got in trouble."