Young Nelson Has Blackshirt Attitude

After listening to a fiery, passionate Garrett Nelson speak for a mere 10 minutes about playing Nebraska football, you realize only one answer would suffice to the one question the young outside linebacker asked.
 
"Would you believe me," Nelson said, his piercing eyes narrowing in toward yours, "if I told you I fell asleep to old Blackshirts films?"
 
Yes.
 
Yes.
 
A thousand times, yes.
 
Nelson, a Scottsbluff native, said he began that practice early in his high school years. Whom did he watch? He rattled off the last names of Foreman, Peter, Kelsay, Brown and Wistrom, all the while, his voice ascending.
 
Oh, that Grant Wistrom.
 
"I soon as I saw 98 go level the dude and get up and scream and yell," Nelson said, "I'm like, 'That's what I want to be. That's what I want our defense to be. That's what all 11 dudes to be.'
 
"As soon as somebody makes a play, I want 10 dudes going to congratulate that dude and screaming like a bunch of wild men. I want the other team to say, 'Holy s---, we're in for something."
 
Take a deep breath. Back away from the wall.
 
Oh, and mind you, Nelson is a true freshman who's played in all of three games, participating mostly on special teams, with three tackles.
 
That he speaks like a veteran shouldn't concern, well, anyone.
 
"I love it. I love it," Nebraska assistant coach Barrett Ruud said. "Because he loves football. He's one of those guys … I think this day and age, a lot of times there's a lot of excuse makers out there. He's the furthest thing from that.
 
"He wants to be coached hard, and he wants to be the hardest worker on the field, and he makes a pretty strong effort to be that guy every day."
 
This already sounds like one of those Nebraska-born walk-on stories, except that Nelson isn't. He's among five in-state scholarship players in the 2019 recruiting class. In fact, Nelson committed in 2017 to become the first member of the class.
 
Pity the fool who'd have the gall to ask Nelson if he considered going elsewhere.
 
Ruud, whose Husker bloodlines are as deep as anyone's in the Nebraska program today, isn't Nelson's direct assistant coach – Nelson plays outside linebacker, Ruud coaches inside linebackers – but he's seen enough of the youngster to understand his potential place in Nebraska lore.
 
Would Ruud consider Nelson to be the closest thing to a throwback Blacksh…
 
"Yes," Ruud said, smiling, knowing full well he'd cut off the question.
 
"He's awesome. He's one of those guys who would have fit in a lot of years here. He probably would've fit in with Tom Novak. He probably would've fit in with those guys in the 70s, Munford in the 80s and Jason and Grant in the 90s.
 
"I think he would've fit right in with those guys."
 
What's best, Ruud said, is that Nelson's attitude is becoming contagious.
 
Even the veterans are taking notice, and have little problem with Nelson's fire.
 
"I think they respect him, honestly," Ruud said. "I think they respect him because they know it's not phony. They know it's real. Because every single day is the exact same. I haven't seen him have a day where he's tired. That's a pretty good deal."
 
To help illustrate, consider Nebraska plays a night game Saturday at Illinois. It's the second of three straight night games for the Huskers, who must sit in a hotel and wait all day, while watching others play on TV.
 
This is where Nelson is learning a hard lesson – learning to stay calm. Wait.
 
It's a difficult task for someone who doesn't have the word "chill" in his vocabulary.
 
"I'm not really a chill guy," Nelson said. "Flipping the switch when I need to is definitely a big part of my learning right now."
 
Yes, teammates notice Nelson always "smacking dudes' helmets" and "just yelling all the time."
 
In other words, perhaps keep an eye on the hotel furniture.
 
"You got to flip the switch when you're ready," Nelson said. "You can't just be amped up all day like I am."
 
He comes by his ways in good faith. From the time he played Pee-Wee football, Nelson learned it was sacrilegious to merely walk on a football field.
 
Always, always run.
 
"I always felt like that's the way it should be," Nelson said. "It's one of those things that's second nature, and if you see it any other way, it's like learning a foreign language. You have no idea what even is going on. You don't know how to react to it.
 
"So when I see dudes walking or moping around, I get on them … like, 'Why wouldn't you run to the ball?' There is no other thing besides run to the ball."
 
Nelson approaches any duties, on and off the field, in the same manner.
 
"I'm a grinding type of dude. I have to do it a million times to understand it," Nelson said. "I can't just do it once and be like, 'Alright, I'm good.' I have to do it a million times. I have to mentally rep it. I have to visualize it. I have to do it. I have to do know something perfectly before I move on to the next thing."
 
Train over and over and over, Nelson said. And when done training, train some more.
 
No other method is acceptable.
 
" 'Work hard all the time and keep your nose to the grindstone' are the only things that work out," he said. "True with life, true with anything. You want a job, you work your ass off. You want anything, you work your ass off."
 
That, basically, is what Nelson has done since he arrived on campus in time for the spring football season. He hit the weight room hard, and learned how to maneuver with the extra muscle he added before he lost some fat and trimmed to his currently acceptable weight of around 245.
 
Nelson enjoyed increased playing time in Nebraska's 44-8 victory over Northern Illinois.
 
"It was a blast, man. I had so much fun. It was awesome," he said. "I was talking to Coach (Jovan) Dewitt about it and how fun it was to be on the field, being on kickoff and running a million miles an hour, going to go level somebody. It was awesome."
 
"I love being on the field. I love playing defense with the guys around me. I can't imagine the fun I'm going to have."
 
Nelson was an accomplished wrestler in high school, and his father, Chris, wrestled at Nebraska in the early 1990s. Nelson realizes he has a long road ahead. He understands the concept at Nebraska of setting standards, meeting them, then setting higher standards, and exceeding him.

He listens to his elders, both players and coaches. He specifically mentioned teammates Eli Sullivan and Reid Karel. Both are walk-ons.
 
"Those guys are pretty much coaches," Nelson said. "They know so much about the defense. All the older guys, they help me a ton. I ask questions all the time, and they're happy to help. Coach Dewitt is happy to help. He might yell at me a couple of times, but that's the kind of coaching I need to have."
 
It's the kind of coaching Nelson wants to have, especially if he wants to someday be known in the same light as Wistrom, Peter or Kelsay.
 
"I never meet my expectations in my mind. I'm always trying to consistently get better," Nelson said. "The process has started. I'm still on the journey to be where I want to be, and I always will."
 
A business administration major, Nelson has clear-cut goals for himself the remainder of this season.
 
"Get as many snaps as he can, be the best teammate he can, try to be a game-changer on the field," he said.
 
"I just want to love my team. I want to love everybody. No matter where you come from, no matter what happens, I want to love you."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.