BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, October 7, 2004 7:00 pm
Bo Ruud has a pretty good idea of how his older brother, Barrett, learned to become such a good tackler.
It dates to the days when the Ruuds, as young boys, would play football in the front yard. Or in the basement. Wherever they got the inkling to grab a ball, and then each other.
"Growing up, he could never tackle me, so he got good practice," said Bo, who's only 16 months younger than Barrett.
"He could never get me down. Too quick. Ask him about it. He'll tell you. He'll probably lie."
OK, Barrett, what about it?
"No. Definitely not true," Barrett said. "That's never been a problem. I don't know where that came from."
He didn't crack a smile.
Perhaps the only person who could settle this little debate father Tom Ruud simply chuckled and said the boys "have their own little deal" that only they could iron out.
"Bo usually was the type that would drive his brother crazy," Tom Ruud said. "Say (Bo) did elude his brother. He'd say, That's the winning touchdown,' and was done. That would drive his brother crazy.
"He knows how to get under his brother's skin just right."
Today, the Ruud boys are Nebraska football teammates. They're both linebackers.
Bo's a redshirted freshman, and Barrett's a senior.
A senior who's about to break a 34-year-old record.
For tackles, of course.
With eight tackles in tonight's game at Texas Tech, Barrett Ruud will pass Jerry Murtaugh on Nebraska's career tackles list.
"It's one of those things that's great for Barrett," Bo said. "We'll all be proud of him."
Is it really a surprise that a guy named Ruud will hold the career tackling record at Nebraska? It's been well documented that Barrett's father, two of his uncles and his great-grandfather played football for the Huskers. Tom, an All-Big Eight linebacker, was a first-round NFL Draft pick in 1975.
Must be in the genes.
"That may help," Tom Ruud said. "(But) your family genes aren't helping you when you're out there in the middle of battle. That's all the kid."
A kid that's been through three defensive coordinators in three years. A kid that's escaped major injury yet endured the regular bumps, bruises and broken hands that come with playing middle linebacker.
"You've got to be on the field for a long time to do that," Tom Ruud said. "Anybody that's played it knows that that's real difficult to do with the nature of the game and how fast it is and the collisions and what-not."
People will approach Barrett and ask him how many more tackles he needs for the record. He never knows the answer, because, well, he doesn't know.
There are no tally marks hanging by his bed. He doesn't seek out a stat sheet the second a game's finished.
The only time he does think about the record is when somebody asks him about it, which, recently, is about once every five minutes.
"I'm just going about things as usual," Barrett said. "It will be nice when it happens, but I won't think about it very much this year. I'm really busy right now, and I don't have a lot of time to think about it.
"Honestly, probably when the season's over and they show the updated list and I see that I'm on top of it, I'll be happy."
So will Murtaugh, who finished his Nebraska career in 1970, the year Bob Devaney led the Huskers to the first of two straight national championships.
"Let the young guys have it," said Murtaugh, who piled up 342 career tackles. "Give it to him. I'm happy for him. He deserves it."
Murtaugh, perhaps only half jokingly, said Ruud is the best linebacker to play at Nebraska in 34 years.
So impressed is Murtaugh that he believes Ruud will be one of the top linebackers selected in the NFL Draft.
"I'm going to be so happy to watch him on Sundays. Some team will build their defense around him."
Murtaugh has spent the last 14 seasons coaching linebackers at Creighton Prep High School in Omaha. Although he never met Barrett until last month, he coached against him when Barrett played at Lincoln Southeast.
"I knew Barrett would be top-notch (at Nebraska), but this year he's really, really impressed me," Murtaugh said. "He's so darn quick now. And he's fast, but his quickness has improved. Now he'll make that initial hit and he'll slide off of him. You've got to hit and slide and react, and he does it so well.
"And covering passes. You've got to learn how to cover passes in the NFL, and this young man knows how to do it."
And, don't forget, Ruud can tackle. Did we mention tackles?
Thirteen times in his career, Ruud has recorded double-figures in tackles in a game. Ten of those have occurred since the beginning of the 2003 season, when Ruud began to flourish under new defensive coordinator Bo Pelini and linebackers coach Jimmy Williams.
The new coaches moved Ruud farther away from the ball, and Ruud blossomed. He recorded 149 tackles as a junior, breaking NU's single-season record of 141, set by Lee Kunz in 1977.
Ruud was learning more than ever before: How to take that first step, how to read defenses, how to slide off blocks, finding creases, then darting toward the ball carrier.
"What the coaches did last year for me I think I improved more last year (than) in basically anything, ever," Ruud said. "That includes like any kind of sport I've ever done, like golf, basketball, whatever."
Pelini and Williams are gone, but Ruud's stellar linebacker play isn't.
"I think this year, the coaches have continued to do a good job of teaching you how to play and keeping you learning new things," Ruud said.
New defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Kevin Cosgrove, who's been coaching linebackers for more than 20 years, said Ruud is as efficient a linebacker as he's ever been around.
"Very smart," Cosgrove said. "He's always in the right spot. He's becoming a more physical player, has tremendous range. Just a smart player, really understands the game, picks things up very well.
"You know, bad tacklers are usually in bad position, (have) body control, and he has excellent body control."
Nebraska coach Bill Callahan is equally as impressed with Ruud and his approaching milestone.
"I can see why he makes the tackles he does, because he's well-prepared," Callahan said. "He's into the game, he loves football. You see him work and function on the field, and you see a desire to make a play.
"He has the ability to diagnose a play, an offense, a blocking scheme. And then he's relentless. Even if he's not there, he's going to chase the ball, and he's going to get there. That's, to me, is one of the outstanding attributes of his play."
So how did Ruud become such a good defensive player?
Maybe it's the Ruud gene. Maybe it's the overall athleticism in a player that had offers to play running back in college. Maybe it's instinct.
Maybe Ruud learned a thing or two from watching NFL players, or, as he said, from former Husker Mike Brown, and the way Brown tackled.
Maybe it's all the above, combined with a little dedication and some hard work.
"In the time since he was about 10 years old, we talked about how to properly tackle, and every season that he played afterwards, he was probably as hard on himself as anybody as far as trying to perfect the art of tackling," Tom Ruud said. "You have to want to put your hat on somebody, and it takes an art to get good at tackling."
Whether he really tackled his younger brother or not.
"That," Bo Ruud said, smiling, "is where he got his skills from."
And perhaps Barrett would be more than willing to display them for his little brother, now, too.
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.