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Best #5 in Husker history

Lots of good ones, I'm going with All-American PR DeJuan Groce. Single-handedlly won a few games.

Honorable Mention...
- IB Marlon Lucky. He finally let the game come to him rather than pressing so much after the number change. Checkdown specialist in 2007.
- CB Josh Mitchell. What a fighter.
- WB Shevin Wiggins. Too bad he was booted off the team. The 1999 offense could have been better with him.
- Walk-on SE Brendan Holbein. Another key member of the itty bitty receiver committee.
- FS/CB Lorenzo Brinkley
- CB Tahaun Lewis
- S Brian Washington
- CB Rodney Lewis
- MLB Dedrick Young. I mean, he does have the record for most tackles by a true freshman. He didn't seem to improve much throughout his career, though.

What could have been...
- IB Braylon Heard, sort of.

Futures Consideration...
- WR Omar Manning
- DB Cam Taylor-Britt
 
Brendan is my favorite as he
Lots of good ones, I'm going with All-American PR DeJuan Groce. Single-handedlly won a few games.

Honorable Mention...
- IB Marlon Lucky. He finally let the game come to him rather than pressing so much after the number change. Checkdown specialist in 2007.
- CB Josh Mitchell. What a fighter.
- WB Shevin Wiggins. Too bad he was booted off the team. The 1999 offense could have been better with him.
- Walk-on SE Brendan Holbein. Another key member of the itty bitty receiver committee.
- FS/CB Lorenzo Brinkley
- CB Tahaun Lewis
- S Brian Washington
- CB Rodney Lewis
- MLB Dedrick Young. I mean, he does have the record for most tackles by a true freshman. He didn't seem to improve much throughout his career, though.

What could have been...
- IB Braylon Heard, sort of.

Futures Consideration...
- WR Omar Manning
- DB Cam Taylor-Britt

This illustrates just how stupid good our 90's teams were. Brendan Holbein was a stud RB and put up all kinds of numbers for Cozad and won the award for the best RB in Nebraska rushing for almost 2800 yards and yet he was just a walk-on. He was a really talented dude.
 
Brendan is my favorite as he


This illustrates just how stupid good our 90's teams were. Brendan Holbein was a stud RB and put up all kinds of numbers for Cozad and won the award for the best RB in Nebraska rushing for almost 2800 yards and yet he was just a walk-on. He was a really talented dude.
His high school stats were amazing. But remember, he had Chris Dishman on his OL in high school and they were Class C1 (?).
 
His high school stats were amazing. But remember, he had Chris Dishman on his OL in high school and they were Class C1 (?).

The were class B at that time. Dishman did help and there were a lot of good athletes on that team, but Holbein was a stud, but I am probably jaded as he is a family friend.
 
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Brendan is my favorite as he


This illustrates just how stupid good our 90's teams were. Brendan Holbein was a stud RB and put up all kinds of numbers for Cozad and won the award for the best RB in Nebraska rushing for almost 2800 yards and yet he was just a walk-on. He was a really talented dude.
I'm thinking that he had a full ride academic scholarship.
 
I'm thinking that he had a full ride academic scholarship.
At Cozad, Holbein was a teammate of fellow Huskers Chris Dishman, Matt Hunting and Casey Macken. There he played running back and cornerback for Coach Gene Hunting and helped lead the Haymakers to the Class B state title in 1991. As a junior, Holbein rushed for 1,648 yards and 22 touchdowns. He bettered that in 1991 with 2,740 rushing and 38 touchdowns, averaging 10.6 yards per carry. He was awarded the Bobby Dodd Award from the Touchdown Club of Atlanta for being selected the top running back in Nebraska. A two-time all-state athlete, he was also named the honorary captain on The Omaha World-Herald's All-Nebraska team and was that paper's offensive player-of-the-year. He also intercepted four passes and recovered three fumbles as a senior. He played in the 1992 Nebraska Shrine Game. Holbein earned 12 letters, four each in football, basketball and track. He turned down a scholarship at Iowa State in order to walk on at Nebraska.
 
One of my favorite Holbein plays was this little inside shovel pass in 1994. I think it was against UCLA heading toward the north end zone. Holbein went in motion across the OL from right to left, stopped at the snap of the ball at the left end of the OL, Frazier faked a handoff, and with the DE or OLB coming free on the right side, flipped the ball inside to Holbein.
 
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At Cozad, Holbein was a teammate of fellow Huskers Chris Dishman, Matt Hunting and Casey Macken. There he played running back and cornerback for Coach Gene Hunting and helped lead the Haymakers to the Class B state title in 1991. As a junior, Holbein rushed for 1,648 yards and 22 touchdowns. He bettered that in 1991 with 2,740 rushing and 38 touchdowns, averaging 10.6 yards per carry. He was awarded the Bobby Dodd Award from the Touchdown Club of Atlanta for being selected the top running back in Nebraska. A two-time all-state athlete, he was also named the honorary captain on The Omaha World-Herald's All-Nebraska team and was that paper's offensive player-of-the-year. He also intercepted four passes and recovered three fumbles as a senior. He played in the 1992 Nebraska Shrine Game. Holbein earned 12 letters, four each in football, basketball and track. He turned down a scholarship at Iowa State in order to walk on at Nebraska.
#stud
 
At Cozad, Holbein was a teammate of fellow Huskers Chris Dishman, Matt Hunting and Casey Macken. There he played running back and cornerback for Coach Gene Hunting and helped lead the Haymakers to the Class B state title in 1991. As a junior, Holbein rushed for 1,648 yards and 22 touchdowns. He bettered that in 1991 with 2,740 rushing and 38 touchdowns, averaging 10.6 yards per carry. He was awarded the Bobby Dodd Award from the Touchdown Club of Atlanta for being selected the top running back in Nebraska. A two-time all-state athlete, he was also named the honorary captain on The Omaha World-Herald's All-Nebraska team and was that paper's offensive player-of-the-year. He also intercepted four passes and recovered three fumbles as a senior. He played in the 1992 Nebraska Shrine Game. Holbein earned 12 letters, four each in football, basketball and track. He turned down a scholarship at Iowa State in order to walk on at Nebraska.
I know he walked on. I'm saying I think he had an academic scholarship.
 
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I know he walked on. I'm saying I think he had an academic scholarship.
There was a period of time when the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, wouldn't let football walkons accept full academic scholarships. But that rule might not have been in effect when Holbein played.
 
There was a period of time when the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, wouldn't let football walkons accept full academic scholarships. But that rule might not have been in effect when Holbein played.
I feel like something similar happened with WR Todd Peterson in the mid-2000s. He was on a full academic scholarship for his first couple seasons, then some NCAA rule forced him to be placed on a football athletic scholarship.

Also, whenever there's a scholarship athlete who plays two sports and one of those sports is football, the scholarship has to count against the football scholarship limit but not the other sport.

The NCAA knows where its bread is buttered, I give it credit for trying to limit the "games" teams can play with scholarships. Just means teams have to find new "loopholes".
 
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I feel like something similar happened with WR Todd Peterson in the mid-2000s. He was on a full academic scholarship for his first couple seasons, then some NCAA rule forced him to be placed on a football athletic scholarship.

Also, whenever there's a scholarship athlete who plays two sports and one of those sports is football, the scholarship has to count against the football scholarship limit but not the other sport.

The NCAA knows where its bread is buttered, I give it credit for trying to limit the "games" teams can play with scholarships. Just means teams have to find new "loopholes".
Yes when I was in college there were a couple of walkons who were on Regents Scholarships. I can't remember all the details, but I think this was allowed as long as they were just on the freshman team and then became practice squad guys. But if they made the two-deep (or something similar) they had to be counted as scholarship players. I think the NCAA eventually eased this rule, but I don't know for sure.
 
Yes when I was in college there were a couple of walkons who were on Regents Scholarships. I can't remember all the details, but I think this was allowed as long as they were just on the freshman team and then became practice squad guys. But if they made the two-deep (or something similar) they had to be counted as scholarship players. I think the NCAA eventually eased this rule, but I don't know for sure.
I think they based it on game snaps. If played in an actual game, you had to be switched to an athletic scholarship.
 
I wish I could find the picture of the Miami Hurricane game where their entire offensive line was going after and cheap shotting Randy Gregory because he was kicking their ass so much. During one the of the scrums, a couple dudes were on top of Randy and nearby was tiny little Josh Mitchell with some 300 pound offensive linemen underneath him. Josh had a handful of his facemask driving his head into the turf and was being lifted off the poor guy by multiple players. Dude wasn't the best DB we ever had, but possibly one of the toughest and meanest.
 
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