Tyler Legate articles

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

I won't post both articles in their entirety. Instead just a couple of snippets from each

 

Omaha World Herald

 

Legate's quickly found his way at Nebraska and is entering his second season as the starter at fullback. It's a thankless role that includes few carries or catches, and Legate has shown running backs coach Tim Beck he's the perfect man for the job.

 

“He's a tough sucker,” Beck said. “He just does everything right. He's a fierce competitor and a tough kid.

 

“He's the typical Nebraska fullback, I can tell you that.”

 

Three years ago, though, Legate was a scholarship linebacker at South Dakota.

 

And he certainly wasn't unhappy about that. Nebraska didn't give him a chance to walk on after he rushed for 2,051 yards and 29 touchdowns in his senior year at Neligh-Oakdale, and USD was easily the best offer he'd received.

 

But Legate said he'll never forget the day Bo Pelini was hired, because on that day Nebraska's new coach vowed to restore the emphasis on the walk-on program.

 

“I liked it up at South Dakota,” Legate said, “but coming here was always a dream.”

 

So Legate sat down with USD coach Ed Meierkort and asked to be released from his scholarship after only one semester.

 

“He thought I was crazy,” Legate said, “and I knew there was a chance I'd come here, they'd turn me down and I'd just go to school here or elsewhere.”

 

But he just couldn't ignore the opportunity, so he got his release and secured a meeting with Jeff Jamrog, NU's assistant athletic director for football.

 

Legate handed over his high school film, and an invitation to join the team in January 2008 followed shortly thereafter.

 

And Legate has been living his dream ever since.

 

 

NE Statepaper

 

Like most of those fullbacks, Legate is a bit of a raconteur, too. He can chat up a media guy, even if the Neligh native looks like he turned in a 12-hour shift at the mill. Not a kid with aspirations of teaching grade school. He worked his practicum last year at Lincoln’s Huntington Elementary. Fifth grade.

 

“I liked that age group,” Legate said. He relates to them well. And he remembers his own fifth-grade experience. He never got in too much trouble, either.

 

“Fun times,” he said.

 

He tried not to tell his students he played football at Nebraska. Practicums are hard enough without playing ask-a Husker.

 

They found out anyway.

 

“They get pretty excited,” he said. “The ones that like football. Kinda like me growing up. If I had somebody come into the classroom who played football, I’d have been the same way.”

 

The future profession is a sharp contrast to his current day job. Legate doesn’t mind indulging a little in that, either.

 

“It’s the manly part of everybody,” he said. “Nobody wants to get pushed around. Nobody wants to get beat on something.”