“When things get tough and I’m tired, I just think about playing in that stadium and 90,000 people yelling for my team and being friends with people on the team and jumping around and screaming and being a bunch of psychos, and I can’t wait,” Nelson said last week before he officially committed.
Nelson likes Wisconsin, too — he went to a football camp there, and his favorite players include former Badgers J.J. and T.J. Watt — but Nebraska is his dad’s alma mater. Nebraska is the team that, in the spring, sent offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh to Scottsbluff on a recruiting visit. A Husker coach hadn’t visited in several years, and Scottsbluff, a Class B basketball power, isn’t known for its football prowess — yet.
“When any Nebraska coach comes to our area, it’s a buzz in our community, but to have a football coach come out to the high school, there was definitely a buzz,” said Chris Nelson, who wrestled at Nebraska from 1988 to 1992. “It was exciting for Garrett.”