Days of walk-ons are waning with roster limit on the horizon. No place loved them more than Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Derek Wacker is living the dream of many boys who grew up in small town Nebraska, and he's holding onto it as long as he can.

Wacker is a walk-on football player for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He has no scholarship, no NIL deals and no idea if he'll still be on the team in the fall.

The undersized linebacker was in on a few tackles in a scrimmage among third- and fourth-string players at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. A few thousand fans showed up to watch, so the day just might end up being his career highlight.

“I feel I've made a lot of jumps this offseason and I'm ready to attack it again come summer,” he said. “Status with the team? Keep working and we'll find out in the end. I don’t think anyone knows at this point.”

The days of walk-ons in college football and other sports are numbered because terms of the looming $2.8 billion House vs. NCAA antitrust lawsuit settlement requires Football Bowl Subdivision teams to pare their rosters to 105 players. The average FBS roster was 128 players in 2024.

Programs had been operating under the assumption the 105-man limit would go into effect this fall, but the judge overseeing the case has indicated she wants the sides to phase in limits over time.

“There's a little bit of stress because of the uncertainty of the events going on,” Wacker said. “No one really knows for sure what’s going to happen. I have to trust my coaches, trust God, have faith and keep working and everything will be all right in the end.”

Rhule was a walk-on, too

Of the 129 players on Nebraska's current roster, 64 participated in Saturday's scrimmage. Most were walk-ons like Wacker.

Coach Matt Rhule has a bond with the pay-your-own-way players. He was a walk-on linebacker at Penn State, and he has spoken often this spring about how he dreads having to tell some of them they won't be with the team going forward.

Wacker is from Yutan, a town of about 1,400 that's 45 minutes north of Lincoln. He played small-school high school football and received some interest from Minnesota and a couple Division II schools. His sights were always squarely on Nebraska, with or without a scholarship.

“I was a die-hard Husker fan growing up,” he said. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be than here. I bleed Husker red and it’s an amazing feeling to come and play in Memorial Stadium in front of fans and in front of my family.”

Nebraska's walk-on program dates to 1962, when Langston Coleman hitchhiked from Washington, D.C., to Lincoln after he had written to coach Bob Devaney asking for a chance. Devaney wrote back he had no scholarship to offer but would give him a fair shot. Coleman lettered three seasons from 1964-66.

Tom Osborne's teams of the 1970s through '90s often carried 60-70 walk-ons on a 150-man roster, creating depth and allowing for the development of some of the most dominant offensive lines of the era.

I.M. Hipp became a star

I.M. Hipp is perhaps the most famous walk-on — partly because of his name, but mostly because of how he burst onto the scene in 1977 when he rushed for 200 yards three times and was named All-Big Eight.

Hipp, who grew up in Chapin, South Carolina, said he became obsessed with the Huskers after he watched future Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers’ signature punt return for a touchdown in 1971 in the Game of the Century against Oklahoma.

Like Coleman, Hipp wrote a letter asking if he could try out. Osborne was non-committal but did let Hipp know the 1975 fall reporting date. Hipp bought a one-way plane ticket to Lincoln.

Hipp grew into such a sensation that T-shirts saying “I.M. Hipp-notized” were hot sellers across the state, and the legend of the Nebraska walk-on grew. In his wake was another walk-on running back, Jarvis Redwine, who earned All-America honors in 1980.

Makovickas consummate walk-ons

No players represented the tradition more than the Makovicka brothers of tiny Brainard, Nebraska. Jeff and Joel played eight-man football in high school, walked on and turned into standout fullbacks on the great teams of the 1990s.

“It’s just a huge culture thing for the University of Nebraska because there are a lot of Nebraska kids who would do anything for the university, and that’s all they wanted to do is play at Nebraska,” Joel said, adding that the out-of-state scholarship players would learn from the walk-ons about how important football is to the state's collective psyche.

In those days, walk-ons who got playing time had to wait until the fourth quarter of blowouts.

Practice is their game day

“Where they really contributed was at practice when you had to go up against them,” Joel Makovicka said, “because they knew what it was all about. That was their game day. So it just made everybody better."

Steve Glenn walked on as an offensive lineman in 1974 and, newly married, managed a mobile home park to make ends meet while going to school and playing football. He said there was a brotherhood among the walk-ons, and he was proud of represent his hometown of Pawnee City.

“When there's a walk-on from a place like Lexington, Nebraska, the whole town is supporting that walk-on and they’re supporting the program,” Glenn said. “You don’t have that walk-on from Lexington, Nebraska, you’re basically going to lose support around the state from small towns. That’s the sad part.”

Wacker didn't play in a game last season, his first at Nebraska, and it's possible he never will.

He was satisfied with how he played in the scrimmage and looked forward to seeing his parents, grandparents and other family members afterward. Before that he milled around the field with teammates, not knowing if he would play in the stadium again.

He said he would be here for the long haul — however long that is — and ruled out entering the transfer portal.

“I love this sport, I love this team and I love this state,” he said. “There's nothing I would change. I'd do it all over again.”

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