Osborne offers scholarship
The Kreikemeier phone rang shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday.
“About 5:13,” according to Jodi Kreikemeier.
Normally, a family would not take note of the exact time of a phone call, but this one was different.
This call was from Tom Osborne — the very same Tom Osborne that had just been on their television an hour before announcing Bo Pelini as the next football coach at Nebraska.
Osborne wished to have a word with Micah Kreikemeier, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound senior at Class C-2 West Point Central Catholic High School.
A great student. A good football player, though perhaps the kind whose name doesn’t show up on those big recruiting sites that rate football talent in the form of stars.
A few Ivy League schools wanted him, and Iowa State and Kansas were giving him looks, too. The 2007 Husker coaching staff had not paid him much attention.
So Dave Ridder, West Point Central Catholic coach and former Husker player, gave Osborne some game film and a message: You might want to take a look at this kid. He plays tight end and defensive end and does both well.
“Coach Osborne’s not one to look at all-state (honors) and all that stuff,” Ridder said. “He wants to see the kid on film, what the kid looks like. That’s kind of different than what has been going on, I guess.”
Osborne looked at the film and saw plenty to like. And so when Kreikemeier picked up the phone Sunday evening, he was shocked by the voice and question that awaited him: Would you like a scholarship to play football at Nebraska?
“He was going to wait to see who the new staff was,” said mom Jodi. “If anything wouldn’t have changed, he was leaning toward Iowa State. But once Tom Osborne called last night, he told my husband, ‘I can’t say no to him. It’s Tom Osborne.’”
So he said yes. At least he thinks he said yes. The conversation was so shocking, so thrilling, such a blur.
Explained the 17-year-old: “When Osborne calls, it’s usually automatic.”
Consider the change in recruiting philosophy underway at Nebraska.
Bill Callahan would not have offered a scholarship to a player like Kreikemeier, and the first person to tell you that would be Kreikemeier.
Callahan, fired Nov. 24 after four years at Nebraska, was often heralded for his recruiting abilities. His recruiting classes were usually highly rated and came with “four- and five-star” talent.
Callahan’s teams looked wonderful on paper, but average on the field. He left here with a 27-22 record, and because of that, there are now a plenty of Husker fans who look with skepticism at the star rankings given prep players.
Osborne is one of the skeptics.
“Take this four- and five-star stuff with a little grain of salt,” Osborne said recently. “These fellas that are recruiting analysts make a living by four- and five-star stuff.
“But, really, you have to look at film, talk to coaches, get in camp. You’d be surprised how many guys are 4.4 (seconds in the 40-yard dash) on paper, and then when you put a stopwatch on them, they are 4.9.”
Osborne has talked often about the importance of having more of an emphasis on in-state recruiting, maybe finding that under-the-radar type who will bust his tail to make a tackle for the school he grew up rooting for.
Kreikemeier, whose dad Keith was a walk-on at Nebraska in the early 1980s, might fit the bill.
“You got to take what’s under your nose,” Ridder said. “I don’t think Coach Osborne thought that was being done.”
Going by his opening statements as head coach Sunday, Pelini seemed well aware of the importance Husker fans place on having the state well-represented on the team.
He made sure to pay particular respect to the walk-on program, long a major source of pride among Nebraskans.
“One of the unique aspects of this job and the university is everything it means to the whole state,” Pelini said. “So the more young men, and the more people, and the more towns you get involved and have represented on your football team, and in your program around your state, (that) is going to keep building strength.”
At one point, Pelini was asked what he would tell recruits.
“That you have the opportunity to come and play for the most special university in the country,” he responded without hesitation.
“We want to challenge them and ask them if they want to come be part of something special, because that’s what we’re looking to create here.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
Copyright © 2002-2008 Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved.