Scholarship, walk-on players receive same experience

It's something every high school athlete dreams of, but few actually achieve. Some are too short, too slow or can't jump high enough. The ones who can, get the reward.

This, of course, is a scholarship to play Division I college football.

It comes at the discretion of the athletic director, assistant coaches and most importantly, the head coach. A scholarship can come in many forms, but when you are offered one to play Nebraska football, it's the full-ride.

Many players receive such an offer, but with Nebraska's walk-on program expanding next season, several will not.

Players like Ty Steinkuhler, Zach Potter, Joe Ganz and Marlon Lucky all leave Nebraska as scholarship athletes from start to finish. But other players like Tyler Wortman and even former Cornhusker Brandon Rigoni went through a completely different experience.

Both Potter and Wortman started on Nebraska's defense in the 26-21 Gator Bowl win over Clemson on New Year's Day, but they had much different paths leading up to that point. 

Wortman was a glorified member of a Grand Island Central Catholic football team that never advanced past the first round of the Nebraska state playoffs in Class C1.

Potter was an equally glorified member, but on Class A powerhouse Creighton Prep, which won the State Championship his senior year.

Essentially, Potter knew he was going to play for Nebraska while Wortman hoped with crossed fingers.

"For me, I started out getting a lot of talk from Division II schools from around the state," Wortman said. "I wasn't that heavily recruited by Nebraska. With the coaching change, there was a lull of nothing, and I didn't know if I would have the opportunity I had hoped for."

Before the firing of former NU Coach Frank Solich and the end of his extensive walk-on program, Wortman was offered a spot as a walk-on athlete for the Huskers in the fall of 2005. With the hiring of Bill Callahan and reduced walk-on numbers, Wortman's dream of being a Husker was almost stopped before it could get started.

"A letter came sometime in January," Wortman said. "I think (the reduced numbers) made it more special. When I talked to the new coaches they said they were going to have ‘priority walk-ons.' It was pretty special to be one knowing there were not a lot of guys coming in."

Potter came from a different stance that same year. The coaching carousel of Callahan and Solich occurred during Potter's senior year, but his concern was significantly less than Wortman.

Potter was offered a scholarship to play for NU the summer after his sophomore year of high school during his attendance at the Nebraska football summer camp. Potter said he'll never forget the way he was offered the scholarship.

"Coach (Scott) Downing came to me and said Coach Solich wanted to talk to me in his office," Potter said. "He offered me a scholarship right then. I called my dad and he thought I was lying because it was pretty early to get a scholarship, but being a Nebraska kid, I knew I couldn't turn it down."

Potter didn't accept it immediately. His decision still wasn't made heading into his senior season, and once Solich was fired, Potter's concern about the scholarship offer rose quickly — only for three days though, thanks to swift action by Callahan.

"It was weird when Solich got fired, but within three days Callahan was at Prep watching me go through basketball practice. He said ‘we still really want you at Nebraska,' and all my conversations with him were great. Coach Downing was still there as well."

Potter and Wortman exemplify true opposites in terms of becoming a Husker, but both agreed the separation between a walk-on athlete and a scholarship athlete was reduced to almost nothing once the pads and helmets were on.

That was four years ago, however. A lot has changed in the landscape of recruiting at Nebraska, thanks to the hiring of Bo Pelini.

With Pelini back in Lincoln, the number of walk-on athletes has grown once more.

Under coaching legend Tom Osborne, the Nebraska walk-on program was famous for turning aspiring athletes into All-Americans. Athletes of the time would turn down scholarship offers from other colleges to become a walk-on at NU because they felt they had a better chance of succeeding.

Those ideas left when Callahan came in with his "priority walk-on program." With Pelini back, the coaches are trying to restore what used to be the best walk-on program in the country. Just ask NU recruiting coordinator Ted Gilmore.

"The history is on our side," Gilmore said. "This is one place that can say we have rewarded young men scholarships who walked on originally. You can earn your way onto the field, and then you'll make that scholarship."

Gilmore went on to say it takes a certain type of person to fill the shoes of a walk-on and understand the road ahead of him. On January 21, Ty Kildow became one of those people.

Kildow became a strong verbal commit in late January, and hasn't regretted the decision. Kildow will be joining the Big Red as an in-state player hailing from Millard South where he primarily played wide receiver.

Kildow said it was somewhat of a tough decision, but couldn't be happier to be a walk-on athlete at Nebraska.

"Once Coach (Barney) Cotton showed us a video, he said there isn't a difference between a walk-on and a scholarship athlete," Kildow said. "I really started getting behind that idea after that."

As of now, Kildow joins 12 other incoming walk-ons who will be future Huskers. Whether he was a walk-on or scholarship athlete, Kildow said he's just glad this road has finally come to an end, and he can just focus on football once again.