Posted: Sunday, November 28, 2004 6:00 pm
Looking through some old Husker Extra sections Friday, I came across the statistics for the Sept. 1, 2001, game against Troy State, Nebraska's second game of the season.
Under tackle leaders, the first name listed was that of a true freshman.
Barrett Ruud: UT-5, AT-5, TT-10
Some things never change.
Ruud was still near the top Friday with nine tackles (Josh Bullocks led the team with 12). Ruud's NU career total of 432 tackles is almost 100 better than No. 2 Jerry Murtaugh.
But this isn't the way it was supposed to end for one of the great Husker warriors.
I can't remember a time when Ruud didn't come out for post-game interviews, but he declined Friday.
It's hard to blame him. If anyone deserved a better Senior Day, it's Barrett Ruud.
"He's really disappointed that they didn't win this game," said his dad, former Husker Tom Ruud. "It's hard because he's done with Nebraska football."
Barrett Ruud shared captain duties with Josh Bullocks, Joe Dailey and Ross Pilkington this season, but we all knew which captain had the key to the executive washroom.
Ruud wasn't the perfect Husker linebacker, but he was close. Hometown kid. Outstanding football player. Excellent student. Great guy.
Just not a good dancer.
"He always thinks he's got the dance moves," said friend and fellow linebacker Adam Ickes. "He doesn't really have it."
Sounds like choreography along the same lines as Ruud's first kick coverage as a Husker.
Against Texas Christian on Aug. 25, 2001, he plunged into his NU career head-first.
"I face-planted," Ruud said after that game. "It will be one of the most embarrassing things I think I've ever done."
As a Blackshirt, he never fell on his face again.
There is a chart in one of the team meeting areas at Memorial Stadium that shows which players are making the most plays on defense. It takes into account everything from tackles to pass breakups.
Ruud's playmaker total going into Friday's game was 565. The next closest wasn't close at all Stewart Bradley with 260.
But for Ickes, that's a small part of what makes Ruud so impressive. He's a big-time player without the big-time ego.
As freshmen, Ickes said, "some of us looked at him like, Gosh, he's probably a cocky sucker.'
"Totally different than what you'd expect. He's always nice to underclassmen coming in."
Ruud came into the program with defensive tackle Titus Adams, a Creighton Prep star who shared Journal Star Super-State captain honors with Ruud after the 2000 season.
"He played a huge, huge role on this team this year," said Adams, a junior who redshirted in 2001. "Great player. Great person."
He could have been a good middle linebacker at Nebraska on instinct alone, but it was study that made him great.
"Every time you go up in the film room, Barrett's always sitting there watching film," Ickes said. "He comes up to the line and he's checking three or four different things to make sure the line is set up right."
The good news is that there's another Ruud in the system. Bo Ruud, a freshman linebacker, displayed the same tenacious DNA Friday when he stuck it out despite a broken finger.
"I've got another kid who wore a cast on his hand and made two tackles (today)," Tom Ruud said. "I'm real proud of both of them."
But only one of them ended his Husker career Friday.
Ickes, a junior, said it will be strange not having Barrett around next season. It's a loss that will not be easily absorbed.
"He's a perfect captain," Ickes said, "a perfect leader."
All that was missing Friday was a perfect ending.
Reach John Mabry at 473-7320 or jmabry@journalstar.com.