I was basically standing on this mountaintop, and within an instant, I was at the bottom looking up and wondering what it all meant.

Things were going so well up until that point. I gave it everything I had and left it all on the field, but the decision was made that I would not be the starter. Looking back, it was the hardest thing I'd ever gone through as an athlete. But during my sophomore year, I was in a very competitive battle for the starting quarterback position. I played in 11 games and started in eight as a freshman. I was staying put in my home state and playing for my home university.īut what's a fairy tale without a little adversity, right? You spend your whole life working towards this goal, and just seeing it all come to fruition, right in front of your eyes-man, there's nothing like it. That made my decision really easy at that point. Out of all the schools that recruited me, Nebraska was the only one that stepped up and said, 'You're going to play quarterback here.' To this day, I still very vividly remember Coach Osborne's home visit - no doubt, it was one of the highlights during my recruiting phase.Įventually, I received that red letter with the big white 'N' on it. In my sophomore year then, Nebraska's recruiting efforts got more serious. Overall, it was a great workout, and I think that's when they started to follow my career a bit. I ended up throwing the ball for them and going through some speed and agility drills. I signed up for a summer camp at Nebraska as a freshman in high school and met with both Tom Osborne and Turner Gill. So, inevitably, I started thinking about college football as well. I wanted to be the best, and when you start talking about Nebraska football in the ’90s, they were the best. How could I not be amazed by what was taking place right here in my home state? I guess you can say I played two-way football in that backyard.īut growing up in the ’90s, Nebraska was starting to come alive, and I started paying closer attention to them as well.

If I wasn't Elway throwing the ball, I was Steve Atwater or Karl Mecklenburg laying a big hit on somebody. If you couldn't tell by now, I was a big Denver Broncos fan growing up. I really wanted to be at the top, you know? Some might say I skipped a few steps in thinking I was going to go from my backyard to the NFL, but honestly, that was the only thing I could think about as a kid.

I am i am da one