Nebraska and The Walk Ons

huskerguy

huskerguy

New member
With the new staff we are obviously trying to reestablish the walk on program so I was wondering with the recent announcement that a guy like Jeremy Wallace (Omaha Bryan) will walk on even though he had offers from UNO, NWMS, SDSU, and other area university's and even said awhile back that financially it will be hard for him to walk on, but things must have changed...

So do you think it's evidence of just how important our walk on program is after a year in Division II football where we had 2 colleges from Nebraska in their playoffs, and UNO supposedly being one of the best teams, that these programs were benefiting that much from the players BC and staff weren't persueing enough and didn't get to walk on?

Or is the decline in our walk ons and the success of area Division II schools just a coincidence?

 
Good question and I really have no idea. I am just very glad that the walk on program is being revitalized. I sincerely hope it is more than just talk.

 
BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA said:
I believe the decline in the walk on program under Callahan and the rise of the smaller Nebraska colleges went hand in hand.
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I agree with you also. I personally was contacted by the previous staff about walking on. I decided to go to a division II school instead. I picked a scholarship and a chance to play right away, instead of struggling just to make the team with not many walk on's accepted. If I was just coming out of high school now I would definitely rethink my decision with this new staff, but I think the division II schools in Nebraska benefited. UNO and Chadron State- nationally ranked teams, and Wayne State with their best season in 15 years.

 
College costs. Period. No additional amount of recruiting walk-ons will change that. Some who can afford it will walk on, but given the choice to pay your way at NU or get paid to go to school somewhere else I imagine that some will choose the latter. I know I probably would have.

After all, if I had a good chance to actually make money playing football, I probably would have had a division 1 scholarship. That's not to say that some great players haven't come out of division II. But most come out of Division 1.

 
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Parity is the whole reason other schools are getting the talent they are getting now. With the reduction in the number of scholarships, there are players left out there that would have been picked up in past days by the "haves" just to have them on the bench in reserve, that are now having to go somewhere else to find the free ticket to play college ball.

Parity...loved by the NCAA, hated by the power houses of old...it has become true: on any given Saturday, any team can rise and beat any other team. That was proven over and over again this year. Just proof that talant can win.

 
DaveH said:
College costs. Period. No additional amount of recruiting walk-ons will change that. Some who can afford it will walk on, but given the choice to pay your way at NU or get paid to go to school somewhere else I imagine that some will choose the latter. I know I probably would have.

After all, if I had a good chance to actually make money playing football, I probably would have had a division 1 scholarship. That's not to say that some great players haven't come out of division II. But most come out of Division 1.
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tell you what, I read Kolowski's 'Diary of a Husker', and throughout I was amazed at the amount of 'food money', etc. he was given as a 'walk on' player... it seemed to parallel what I was able to scrape up going and humping regular jobs all thru school (early 80's). has something changed since then?

 
I am sure it affected some of the players decisions, but if I remember correctly Woodhead was recuirted as a walk-on but wanted the scholly. I don't know how much they went after him or anything but he had the oppurtunity. Besides anyone can walk on they just might have to wait until they arrive at school instead of being sought of. I know Callahan never came to my school to recuirt Corey Iske (a recuirted walk-on last year, who has now quit playing) but either Bo and/or Osborne was there making their rounds around omaha high schools and have asked Jake Drwal to walk-on and talked to a couple more about opputunites in the future to walk-on.

 
Frank Solich invited me to walk on in 1980...came to my house and everything. All 12 of the other townspeople showed up to gawk. Dad wanted to sic the dog on him..."my boy ain't going to be no damn Corn Husker"...is the way I believe he greeted Frank.

Didn't have the money to walk-on and Nebraska wasn't offering much in the way of help for walk ons then. ISU at least got me a job in the cafeteria. All the leftovers I could eat!

 
i think we just got lucky with this kid. the walk on program didnt go anywhere we just didnt have 30-40 walk ons on the team every year under billy c. csc doesnt really effect the walk on program because we have only had one full ride scholly ever that is dw, with a total of like 30 schollys give or take cple.

 
Reading the book "Heart of a Husker" really desribes the importance of the walk-on program all the way through the 90's.

Many became All-Conference and played in the NFL for a short time but the thing that made the walk-on program go was TO.

The players interviewed said he made you feel like you were a scholarship player, he knew your name, you werent just a face in the crowd and they were not treated any differently from the other coaches or players. You had to prove yourself, but you were not just a tackling dummy.

I can personally say that is not always the case. I was a scholly player at USD and the walk-ons were treated real bad, also I have a co-worker who was a SS at OK St who walked on and from what he said the walk-ons were treated like worm food there.

So with the walk-on program making a rebuild I hope the new staff takes a cue from Coach Osborne

 
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