2018 Gameday Program Senior Feature - Cole Conrad

The Nebraska football walk-on program was an integral part of the Huskers’ National Championship years in the 1990s, and continues to produce high-quality starters more than 20 years later. Unlike other programs around the country, Nebraska has a sense of pride when it comes to walk-ons, and treats the process as a building block to a successful career.

Nebraska’s starting man in the middle knows about the walk-on program first hand. Fremont native Cole Conrad is entering his senior season, and is one of many Huskers to go from a walk-on to a scholarship player.

Like many kids growing up in Nebraska, being a Husker football player was always one of Conrad’s goals. While he is now in his fifth season in the program, the feeling of pride and astonishment has never left Conrad.

“Being from Nebraska, one of my goals has always been to play for Nebraska and be a Cornhusker,” Conrad said. “Now that I’m in that role and have been here for a while now, it’s still surreal. It’s a surreal feeling and something I need to cherish every single day.”

Conrad understands how important the walk-on program is to Nebraska’s success, and sees the pride the team takes in it. While other teams around the country may look at it in a different light, the Huskers understand that their walk-ons were and will always be a vital part of the team’s success.

“Some of the biggest roles on this team have come from the walk-on program,” Conrad said. “Definitely back in the day, that was something that Tom Osborne really instilled in Nebraska is that they take pride in their walk-ons. A lot of different schools around the nation don’t take pride in being a walk-on. Some people take it as disrespect, but it’s really something in this program that you take pride in.”

After starting seven games at center during his junior campaign, Conrad will be working with a new starting quarterback this fall for the third time in his career. For Conrad, regardless of who is under center, the process of building trust remains the same.

“When you transition to a new quarterback, the leader if you will, it can take some time to build that connection and that trust, especially because they are younger guys that the older guys might not talk to as much,” Conrad said. “But we’re all brothers out here, and we know each one of those guys have special talents and things they bring to the table. You just need to grow to become one heartbeat.”

Many people see this season as a new beginning for Nebraska football. However, for Conrad and his fellow seniors, this is the last ride. He, like his teammates, are not worried about narratives. Instead, they’re simply focused on working hard every day and getting better day by day.

“I think obviously any new season you have big goals and aspirations, championships, things like that,” Conrad said. “As a team, we are focused on championships, making it to the Big Ten Championship and have the rest figure itself out.”

He hopes that as a collective unit, this year’s team can accomplish its goals and compete for championships. However, as an individual, Conrad just wants to be remembered as someone who walks into Memorial Stadium every day looking to be better than he was the day before.

“As a team, you want to be together, one team, one heartbeat,” Conrad said. “You just want to show up as a unit positive every day. Individually, I just want people to take pride in the walk-on program. I want people to say ‘this guy came out here and gave it his all each day. He wore the ‘N’ with some pride.’”