Walk-on Program Taking Hold Under Frost

Frankly, Ryan Schommer hesitated, uncertain how to respond.
 
Sure, tempers flare in football practices, and fights happen. Schommer, though, was a true freshman, and a walk-on, at that.
 
So when the Nebraska scout team defensive lineman locked horns with a veteran starter on the offensive line, and said veteran starter became fairly agitated and grabbed the rookie's helmet …
 
"He kept yanking it from the facemask, and then he threw it," Schommer said, recounting the experience from last season.
 
Schommer's helmet skidded across the turf a few yards and came to a rest at the feet of none other than Scott Frost.
 
"He picks it up," Schommer said of Nebraska's first-year head coach, "he brushes it off, gives it to me, and says, 'Go get him.' "
 
So the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Schommer, a native of Norfolk, put on his helmet, and went to battle.
 
In hindsight, Schommer wonders if Frost merely meant for him to play better on the next snap.
 
Too late now.
 
Schommer is better for it.
 
"We had a great fight," he said, smiling.
 
What's more, Schommer and his teammate developed respect for each other as a result of their feisty encounter.
 
Schommer, especially, proved he wouldn't back down from a challenge. And that, he surmises, was the gist of Frost's original message – especially knowing Schommer was a walk-on.
 
"That's what walk-ons, that's what we really have," said Schommer, named Nebraska's defensive scout team player of the year in 2018. "We're a whole bunch of dogs that won't take anything for granted."
 
If there's anybody who understands and appreciates that mentality, it's Frost.
 
While the second-year coach and Nebraska native wasn't a walk-on himself, he played for the Huskers during an era in which the walk-on program thrived and earned credit for spurring a string of national titles in the mid-1990s.
 
Frost's goal is to return the Nebraska walk-on program to that same level.
 
"We're starting to see the benefits of the walk-on program now. I expect it to keep helping us more and more as years go along," said Frost, who last week awarded his first scholarship to a walk-on his staff recruited, Omaha redshirted freshman offensive guard Trent Hixson.
 
"We're starting to not just get depth from the walk-on program, we're starting to be able to identify some guys that may be able to help us win games and potentially be starters for us. That's the way Nebraska was when I was here, and we want it to be that way again."
 
Frost hopes Hixson is the first of many recruited walk-ons who comes in, works hard and becomes a starter, or at least a major contributor.
 
Just like in Frost's era.
 
With that in mind, Huskers.com is doing a weekly question-and-answer session with a walk-on football player this season, giving insight to his decision, his sacrifice, his battle, his expectations, and more.
 
Last week's first installment came with senior and Seward native Reid Karel.
 
"I would say just come ready to work, come ready to truly find yourself, come ready to become the best version of yourself," Karel said, when asked what advice he would give to new walk-ons, or those considering walking on to Nebraska.
 
"Because if you go through this every day and you do the things you need to do to put yourself in position to be successful, then you're going to come out on the better end than most other people would that weren't in your situation."
 
Senior running back Wyatt Mazour, who joined the team as a walk-on before earning a scholarship, said the culture under Frost is one of harder work, more passion and more excitement than previous seasons.
 
"He doesn't have any slippage when it comes to coaching scholarship players and walk-ons," Mazour said. "It could be a walk-on that's on scout team that barely reps on scout team, and he's still going to get on him like he would a scholarship player."
 
Or, a true freshman scout team defensive lineman who's had his helmet yanked and tossed aside.
 
"I've seen the standards and how they've been raised," said Schommer, who grew up going to Nebraska games with his dad, and seats on the 50-yard line. "I want – we all want – to get better and make a difference and earn a scholarship."

Schommer has since moved to outside linebacker, where's he worked in fall camp with the third and fourth-string units.

"I'm on scout team for now," he said, "and am just going to help make the offense get better and improve as I can."
 
Walk-ons, scholarship players, former walk-ons who earn scholarships – they're all the same in the eyes of teammates, and this coaching staff.
 
"We're treated like everybody else," said redshirted freshman safety walk-on Isaiah Stalbird, a Kearney native, and this week's Q-n-A subject after earning a No. 2 safety spot on the depth chart behind junior Marquel Dismuke. "There's literally no difference. We're really just one family. Honestly, you can't even tell who's a walk-on or who's on scholarship. It's nice. I love it."

Mazour said the walk-on program is the foundation of the team, helping instill a culture that's hard-working, hard-nosed.
 
It's for the love of the program.
 
"It means a lot to me. I'm really proud to be a walk-on," said Mazour, who shares second-team running back duties with true freshman Rahmir Johnson. "I feel like I bring a lot of passion, just always watching Nebraska and being a huge fan.
 
"Most of the walk-ons, it's been their dream ever since they were a little kid. It brings a lot of passion to the program."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.