[Husker] Freshman Team?

[Alan Siporin]

On 11/21/05 10:39 AM, "Mike Nolan" <nolan at romaine.tssi.com> wrote:

>> NU no longer has a freshman team; the 85 scholarship limit pretty well did
>> away with that everywhere. Air Force had a freshman team a few years ago; I
>> don't know if they still do or not.
> 
> There were probably 2 factors that led to the demise of the freshman team:
> 
> 1.  A lack of teams that they could schedule games against.
> 2.  The loss of a year of eligibility.
> 
> The 85 scholarship limit was an indirect factor, mostly at other schools.
> --
> Mike Nolan

I did a story for NPR on the Husker freshmen team. I think it was in 1984,
and since I can't easily locate my notes or tape, I'll have to rely on my
fading memory. But my best recollection is that they were already scheduling
half their games against junior college teams because so few school still
had freshmen teams. So I think scheduling was a problem they could have
overcome. The eligibility was a bit more troubling, but most of all were the
various limits, like coaches (more than anything), and scholarships, too.

Keep in mind that freshmen weren't eligible to play varsity in the heyday of
the freshmen teams. I recall going to see Van Brownson play on the freshmen
team. Varsity wasn't an option (pun intended) and he was highly touted. He
looked great, but every so often when it was third down and ten, they would
bring in this big, slow looking kid with his leg all taped up. Maybe it was
even in a cast. And then he would throw a bullet for a first down and they
would bring Van Brownson back in. The big kid with the rifle arm was Jerry
Tagge.

Alan Siporin