A heads up to the next coach.....Don't mess with the walkon program

[DaveH]

 

Well, you could have 8 scrimmages all going on at the same time for one thing - or, you could have 80 people running stairs while the other 80 practiced - maybe take 40 out to wash the staff's cars? I could think of a lot of things productive that 180 people could do.

haha.

[DJR313]

Read Diary of a Husker if you have a problem with the roster being trimmed from 140 under Solich to 125-130 as it is now.(roughly 10-15 players) Not quite the attrition that everyone wants to make this out to be. The walk on program dwindled every year after 99 until this year or last year when it actually went up a few.

[BobbyNewcombeFan]

The walk on program was great though because it gave the 1st and 2nd stringers somebody to pound the living crap out of. It didn't matter if they got hurt where today it is a big deal if one of our guys goes down in practice. And if 1 or 2 even out of all of those walkons turn out to be good or great players than that is a huge success. Obviously there are some downsides to it but I bet if we still had the walk on program our team wouldnt be so freaking SOFT.

[CoachKevin]

That walkon program produced some All-Americans and plenty of starters. The Key was that with the large numbers and them holding 4 or 5 Scholorships for the walkons to compete for each year. They ended up getting some realy hard working and talented kids.

 

Which gives you better odds of developing an all american? 80 walkons or 20 Walkons?

[HUSKER 37]

That walkon program produced some All-Americans and plenty of starters. The Key was that with the large numbers and them holding 4 or 5 Scholorships for the walkons to compete for each year. They ended up getting some realy hard working and talented kids.

 

Which gives you better odds of developing an all american? 80 walkons or 20 Walkons?

 

Remember I. M. Hipp?

 

 

He was the main inspiration for my Cousin Walking on and starting as a RS Freshman, then playing in the CFL with Turner Gill.

 

I still miss playing and would've loved the chance to wash the coaches car just so I could be a tackling dummy.

 

 

----------------------------------------------

 

http://www.mydjconnection.com/articles/200...rts/sports2.txt

 

I.M. Hipp says walk-on cuts will take away dreams

 

By ERIC OLSON\Associated Press Writer

Jan 30, 2004 - 11:17:08 CST

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- I.M. Hipp, perhaps the best-known walk-on in Nebraska football history, doesn't like new coach Bill Callahan's idea to reduce the size of the Cornhuskers' roster.

 

"If this happens through his changes, there will be many players who never again get the opportunity to fulfill a dream like I did," Hipp told The Associated Press.

 

Callahan said last week that he plans a purge to get the 170-man roster down a "manageable" number. The coach said he wants the team to include only players with a realistic chance of seeing game action.

 

Walk-ons -- players who pay their own way to school -- would be sacrificed.

 

Hipp, now a 49-year-old mechanical engineer in Virginia Beach, Va., is one of Nebraska's many walk-on success stories.

 

He showed up in Lincoln unannounced from Chapin, S.C., in 1976 and went on to become an All-Big Eight running back the next year.

 

As a high school senior, he had received letters from a number of big football schools but he was not seriously recruited.

 

The only correspondence he had with Nebraska was with the admissions office, he said, and he's the one who initiated contact.

 

"I always was a Nebraska fan," he said. "Most people in the neighborhood, when the annual game was played on Thanksgiving Day against Oklahoma, rooted for Oklahoma. I always pulled for Nebraska. I believed in the tradition. I loved to win," Hipp said.

 

In the fall of 1976, Hipp traveled 1,800 miles to Lincoln. He said he was among 100 walk-ons who showed up for fall practice.

 

"When I went into the auditorium, all the blue-chippers and lettermen were there, and everybody walked up and asked, 'How can we help you?' " Hipp recalled. "I told him that I came to play football."

 

The unknown player from South Carolina -- who came to Nebraska named Isaiah Moses Hipp -- achieved instant celebrity as I.M. Hipp in 1977. In his first start, he rushed for a then-record 254 yards against Indiana, the first of five straight 100-yard performances.

 

He was awarded a scholarship before his junior season. He still ranks sixth on the NU career rushing chart with 2,814 yards.

 

"I was a guy who, as Coach Osborne says, fell out of the blue," Hipp said.

 

Hipp said he wouldn't have had the opportunity if it hadn't been for the walk-on program fostered by Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne.

 

"Walk-ons have been part of the the essence of tradition and winning at Nebraska as far back as I can remember," Hipp said. "It proves that even though sometimes you're looked over and not given the blue-chip label, you can still play for whoever. If you have an aspiration or a dream, you can make it."

 

"I was a walk-on, and I'm still a walk-on, and I carry it with me in my heart."

[mwj98]

IF you question the reasoning behind the walk-on program, you truly don't understand Husker football.

[HuskerTrucker]

Too many walk ons take up practice time and facilities...need to keep it to a manageable number.

[DaveH]

That walkon program produced some All-Americans and plenty of starters. The Key was that with the large numbers and them holding 4 or 5 Scholorships for the walkons to compete for each year. They ended up getting some realy hard working and talented kids.

 

Which gives you better odds of developing an all american? 80 walkons or 20 Walkons?

If you're playing a sheer numbers game, sure. But how much of those 80 are an absolute WASTE OF TIME in terms on meaningful playing time?

 

I'd rather take 20 guys who have a great chance to be great players than 80 of which 20 have a chance.

 

I can't believe we are having this friggin discussion AGAIN. It could be argued that the walk-on program is stronger now than it was 7 years ago.

[rkhufu7]

Reps, depth and competition! Leach has a big walkon program at Tech. The call the kids preferred walkons. He is the passing TO. He will eventually start playing defense, and look out! Most of the FBs under TO in the 90s were walkons. They pay their own way and they can't all go to away games, so what does it hurt?

[mwj98]

Walkons take up practice time??? You need to take a look at Husker football history and take a look at how many walkons have contributed. Also, many of those guys turned down scholarships to nearby schools to walkon at NU.

 

Take up practice time????? Give me a break.

[DJR313]

Which gives you better odds of developing an all american? 80 walkons or 20 Walkons?

 

Are we talking in hypotheticals, or literally, because there are roughly 50 walk-ons on the roster. Obviously 80 is more than 20, so that is just simple mathematical odds. Read Diary of a Husker if you want the insight of a walk-on going through the enormous walk-on program. It's a pretty eye-opening read.

[Danimal]

I'm not a big BC-fan but I don't think he was wrong in thinning-out the walk-on program some. It is a great Neb-tradition but that doesn't mean we need to take every Tom, Dick, and Harry.

[REDSTEEL]

I'm not a big BC-fan but I don't think he was wrong in thinning-out the walk-on program some. It is a great Neb-tradition but that doesn't mean we need to take every Tom, Dick, and Harry.

 

Every Tom, Dick, and Harry have been and are the life blood of this program. To bad NU couldn't have talk Danny Woodhead about walking on.

[junior4949]

I am glad Callahan cut the fat with the walk-on program. Tell me exactly what you are going to do with upwards of 180 people on a god damn football roster? Please, I really wanna hear it.

 

 

Oh I don't know, maybe if we had 180 people on the team we could actually practice in full pads with full contact a couple of times a week? IMO, the reason the walk on program was even discussed was because a kid from Nebraska had a very good game for Colorado last Saturday. People are pissed that our border isn't closed.

 

Btw, most of the food that is so called "free" is donated. I know that all of the meat on the training table is donated food, so what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? If you're worried about an extra 40 people or so getting free food, then we should probably start cancelling sport programs out there you deem unworthy?

 

How many walk-ons became starters for NU? For several years, all of our FB's started their career as a walk-on. Scott Shanle started his career at NU as a walk-on. IMO, the more people you can have on the team the better.

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

Those that actually listened to the press conference would have gotten the history lesson from TO. Years ago the scholarship limits were much higher at 45 per year and 150 total. That's 150 SCHOLARSHIP players they had to manage. Then the scholarship limits were gradually reduced to the current rate of 25 per year and 85 total. To bolster the number of players needed the walkon program was established.