Senior tight end Josh Mueller entered the season as one of three tight ends with significant experience, although he has yet to catch a pass through Nebraska’s first nine games. He had five receptions for 26 yards last season, including touchdowns against Louisiana Tech and Kansas State. Mueller’s first career catch came in 2005 against Kansas State.

A native of Columbus and a graduate of Columbus Lakeview, Mueller was also an accomplished basketball player. He helped Lakeview to the Class C-1 state championship in 2001 and to a runner-up finish in 2002, but didn’t play basketball his senior season because of injuries.

Mueller spoke about the football season and his continued love for basketball during an interview Tuesday with the Journal Star’s Brian Rosenthal.

“I can’t really tell you what’s happened this season, but it really hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to go. But it’s important that we take a look at how we played last week (against Texas) and try to finish out the season like that. We played a great game, we just have to learn to finish. We were on the road, and we just knew that if we were going to turn the season around, we had to get fired up, get down there and get a win. Everybody let it all hang out. Everybody played well. Coaches did a good job of mixing up all the calls, mixing it up a little bit. We just went out and played, and played with high energy.”

“Sam (Keller) is a strong kid, but this has got to be hard for him. His college career is done now. He’ll take it well. Sam’s pretty tough mentally and physically. I think it’s going to be hard on him a little bit. Joe (Ganz) is a cool guy. Everybody on the team likes Joe. He’s a great guy. He’s pretty fun to joke around with. He’s a great leader. As you saw in the Texas game, he stepped in and took control of the offense right away down there. He didn’t miss a beat. Joe’s a great leader on the field. He takes command in the huddle. He’s a calm guy. He gets in there, takes control and kind of does his thing. Everybody respects him.”

“If I hadn’t played football, I probably would’ve played basketball. I miss basketball. During the offseason, we always got on those rec intramural squads. I played with Andy Sand a couple of years, I played with a couple of buddies from Columbus one year. Sean Hill, Corey McKeon, Bo Ruud. We kind of mix it up. Throughout the years, we’ve been on a bunch of teams. It’s been pretty fun. J.B Phillips is pretty much a defensive specialist. He’ll come in there, take a few fouls and rough up some guys, play some defense. That’s definitely J.B. Sand is kind of a slasher, Bo’s just Bo. Bo’s pretty fundamentally sound. Corey just shoots the three pretty well. Sean plays the post pretty well. Corey shoots the three really well, actually. He just drops ’em back there. He was good in high school, too.”

“I got some looks from a lot of different school for basketball. They weren’t really Division I much, but a lot of schools, getting a lot of letters. I love basketball a lot, but it would be hard to play pros when you’re only 6-6. Anymore, you’ve got point guards who are 6-6. I don’t play point guard. Definitely not. No way. Not a chance.”

it’s just an up-and-down game. In high school, we were really good. We came together as a team, won a state championship and we had a lot of fun. We had a good team. Get some dunk, get the crowd hyped up. It was pretty fun.”

“Basketball is fun,

“Coach (Joe) Rudolph is a pretty cool guy. He keeps us pretty loose, which is good, fits his type of personality pretty well. It’s his first year, and he knows the offense pretty well. He’s really big on fundamentals. He’s great, great in the run blocking. He played O-line in the pros and he had a great career. He knows a lot of footwork and a lot of blocking techniques. He’s really big on the backside cuts, which is always fun to get somebody jacked up a little bit. He’s great on the block and he knows a lot of the techniques, a lot of fundamentals. And in the passing game, running routes, he’s good there as well. A fun coach, pretty high-energy.”