HASTINGS, Neb.—Over the years, Milt Tenopir has seen his share of Nebraska Cornhusker football games.
After watching Nebraska go 9-4 last year in Bo Pelini’s first season as head coach, the former NU offensive line coach believes the Huskers are headed in the right direction.
“Bo is a player coach,” said Tenopir, who was the keynote speaker at the University of Nebraska Walk-On Club’s Kickoff Celebration on Thursday evening at Lochland Country Club. “That’s what you need, a guy who can relate to kids. That’s Nebraska. We don’t have a bunch of hot-shot people coming around.
“You recruit kids for the culture that you’re playing in. Bo is the right kind of guy to nurture those kids along and get the job done.”
Tenopir, who coached at Nebraska from 1974-2002 before retiring and has continued to attend home Husker games since, said it may take a few years before the Huskers can be the best in the Big 12 and contending for a national title.
“They’re not Oklahoma or Texas yet,” Tenopir said. “But they’re gaining on it. The talent level dropped off the last seven or eight years, before Bill (Callahan) was even here, for whatever reason. It’s going to take them a little while yet. People have to be patient.
“What Bo did last year in winning nine games was pretty spectacular, considering he had an uphill battle.”
Tenopir, a 1958 graduate of Harvard High School, spoke to a group of about three dozen Husker supporters Thursday at Lochland about the importance of the Husker walk-on program.
During his time with the NU program, Tenopir witnessed first hand what the walk-on program can do to a team.
“Kids who you might not think are quite scholarship level end up being good football players,” Tenopir said. “Over the years, the last 30 years, walk-ons have been critical to the success Nebraska has had.”
A pair of Hastings-area athletes who played eight-man football in high school are walk-ons at Nebraska looking to be key contributors this season.
Colton Koehler, a graduate of Harvard, is battling for the starting spot at middle linebacker. Derek Meyer, a graduate of Silver Lake who initially attended Kansas State on a full-ride scholarship before ending up at Nebraska as a walk-on, is battling for a spot on the offensive line.
“What level you play at doesn’t signify how good of a football you are,” Tenopir said. “It’s harder to get attention from an eight-man team. It’s harder to evaluate those kids. But those kids who walk on are critical. You don’t know quite what they’re made up of, but they show enough heart that you try to recruit them.”
Also in attendance Thursday at Lochland was former NU walk-on Troy Hassebroek, who is a member of the Walk-On Club board of directors. Without the walk-on program, Hassebroek may have never gotten the chance to be a Husker.
“Let me give you a statistic. In fall camp, we have 105 guys. Thirty of those guys are walk-ons or have been walk-ons,” said Hassebroek, who was a senior on the 2002 Husker team. “In some capacity, you figure the walk-ons are going to contribute to what the Husker team does this year.”
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