One more "No Place Like Nebraska" sniooet about Ron Brown from former walk-on Darren Schmadeke (Do you notice how I slyly market the book's name like that? LOL):
"I want to tell you a story, which I think is pretty funny: at the time we were doing one-on-one drills where I was on the receiver’s side and we would run routes. (I never really had great hands at catching the ball, okay?) I was a running back in high school and I never really was thrown the ball that much, but I remember I’d get a little nervous with Coach Osborne standing there and watching with Mike Grant or another one of the quarterbacks throwing to us as one of the defensive backs would cover us. Well, I’d always get nervous for that, for whatever reason, and sometimes I’d drop the ball or whatever.
One time during practice -and this was my second season as a wingback- Coach Brown pulled me aside and said, “You know Darren, I’d like to make a suggestion to you and kind of get your thoughts on this, but it might be a good move,” and he told me, ”Darren, the thing is… you’ve got hands like feet.” (laughs) I’ll never forget that! “I think I’d like to propose to you that you move over to the defensive side and be a cornerback.” And I kind of looked at him and said, ‘I thought you’d never ask.’ (laughs) So that’s really the transition of when I went over to the defensive side, and that was really a much better fit and role for me. I was much happier swatting the ball versus catching the ball and I got to play a lot more and everything. I’m glad that he as a coach recognized that and switched me over."
