College Football Hall-of-Famer Rimington: Nebraska Still the Place to Be

Last Saturday, before Nebraska hosted Arkansas State, Bo Pelini asked one of his guest coaches to address his team.

Dave Rimington, the only player ever to win the Outland Trophy in consecutive years (1981 and 1982), was only happy to explain that oh, how the years go by, and that's why every player should work as hard as he can, so he can get better every day.

The Academic All-American, All-American, Lombardi Award winner and College Football Hall of Famer, who has the best center award in college football named in his honor, said he was impressed with the Husker coaching staff and enjoyed meeting and watching Nebraska center Jacob Hickman play.

"He's on our trophy watch list, so I kept my eye on him," said Rimington, who had flown from Israel to his home in New York only to turn right around and head to Lincoln to see his first Husker football game in five years.

"We have 3 ½-year-old triplets and had another baby last January, so my game-day activities have been curtailed," Rimington said.

The only lineman in Big Eight Conference history to win the league's Offensive Player of the Year Award, Rimington in 2004 became the first Nebraska student-athlete in history to be inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame.

Two other Husker student-athletes have since added that same honor - former Nebraska women's basketball player Karen Jennings and ex-Husker football player Pat Tyrance.

Rimington spent seven years in the NFL - five with the Cincinnati Bengals, who drafted him in the first round, and two years with the Philadelphia Eagles. He retired from pro football in 1989 and has spent the last 10 years as the president of the Boomer Esiason Foundation, which raises money for cystic fibrosis.

HuskersNside caught up with Rimington after the game, and his full interview is on our premium website.

It ends with the logic of his no-spin zone.

If he was a player just coming out of high school now, he would ask himself this question: "Why not come to Nebraska?" he said. "It's a great place to be and a great place to live. This is the place where you want to be if you're a college football player . . . right here."