Curt McKeever: Todd, other NU seniors worked hard to get where they are
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In 1999, the last time Nebraska went 5-0 against its fellow Big 12 North Division members, the Huskers had 11 first-team all-conference players.
Seven years later, NU enters its regular-season finale against Colorado positioned to pull off another sweep. But if anyone other than defensive end Adam Carriker and quarterback Zac Taylor (who would have to get the nod over Texas’ Colt McCoy) receive first-team honors, it’ll be a surprise.
The point is, no one will confuse Bill Callahan’s 2006 club as being among the most talented in school history. And that’s exactly why if these guys beat Colorado today, they should be lauded for doing something great.
The last time I checked, Nebraska was hardly the overwhelming favorite in the Big 12 North. The Huskers got their preseason tag based on last year’s strong finish.
Still, the prevailing thought was that they’d simply be the cream of the mediocrity that’s characterized the North the past couple years. For sure, no one was suggesting they’d have the division wrapped up before their regular-season finale.
But as today’s kickoff approaches, Nebraska is still waiting to see whether Texas or Oklahoma will be its opponent in next Saturday’s Big 12 Championship Game in Kansas City, Mo.
You think there’s some pride swelling inside fullback Dane Todd? He’s one of nine homegrown athletes among the 19-player senior class — 10 of whom redshirted in 2002 (when NU went 7-7) and, essentially, had to start from scratch again after Frank Solich was fired in 2003.
You think Todd doesn’t consider the Huskers going from 5-6 two years ago to where they are now a great accomplishment? Years from now, when he looks at the 2006 team photo, he’ll see a champion team before he sees the individuals.
“We’ve got some superstars, obviously — Carriker and Jay Moore. But as a whole, my class, we were just guys who could play football and have worked hard at trying to be the best that we could,” Todd said. “That’s what defines us.
“You look at a guy like (special-teams standout) Brandon Rigoni, who has all the heart in the world and (at 5-foot-6, 185 pounds) lacks the physical tools necessary to do it. For some reason, he’s always making a play. I’d rather play football with a bunch of guys like that than a bunch of great players who can’t play together.”
Fourteen of the seniors were around for that 5-6 season, and if you ask Todd today, he’ll tell you he believes that team had good enough players to be much more successful.
One needn’t have the intellect of someone like Todd — who’s graduated with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average in biological sciences and now is on the ballot for Academic All-America honors — to deduce that he had plenty of company regarding that opinion.
But rather than getting too high on themselves, those players went about things like it was them against the world.
“I hope the younger guys realize that at some point you just have to come to work and get the job done,” said Todd, “as opposed to rely on getting hyped up for a game.”
Added Callahan, “Our team has come together and put aside egos. That’s what is impressive about these kids. They don’t get hung up on any of these (individual) accolades. They just want to win a championship.”
And put an exclamation point behind it.
A victory today would be Nebraska’s fifth straight in the month of November — a stretch that includes last season’s 30-3 dismantling of Colorado in Boulder.
That victory, of course, set the stage for the Huskers’ first big goal of 2006. Now, having already achieved that, they hope to have their sometimes-hard-to-please audience hailing them with nothing but bravos.
“We haven’t won the Big 12 championship since 1999, and a sweep (of the North) would mean a lot,” said wide receiver Maurice Purify, in his first season at Nebraska. “That would mean we restored the order in the North, and it would just give us all the more momentum to go into the Big 12 championship.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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