Word had gotten out.
Nebraska had their captains for Week 1. Three from offense, three from defense. The selectees were Dylan Raiola, Dane Key, Henry Lutovsky, Marques Buford Jr., DeShon Singleton and Ceyair Wright. All were either representing the Huskers at Big 10 Football Media Days, voted single-digit jerseys by their teammates or both. It’s an impressive group.
Here’s the kicker – they were voted in by their teammates to be captains for the entire season. And if it seems like I’m trying to make
that sound notable, it’s because I am and it is. This is the first time in his 10 years as a college head coach Matt Rhule has done this.
It wasn’t lost on Raiola, a sophomore and the only non-senior in the group.
“I think when you show Coach Rhule that you can handle things like this, he’s going to be open to it and do it. So I think it was pretty cool when he said yes to it. Me and a couple other guys went up to him and asked about it, and he approved it. And it kind of goes to show Coach Rhule’s not stuck in his own ways, but he’s a player’s coach, and he loves when his players come and talk to him. And that’s a cool thing to have, and that’s very rare in college football.“
Raiola was consistently placed in front of the media right out the gate as a freshman, and during the spring and fall camps instances like this showed how he has grown steadily more comfortable in front of the press, also letting his sense of humor out more – such as walking to the podium in glasses today, pointing at them going, “Happy first day of school everyone!”
It turned out those C’s on the jerseys came with a promise – a signed one.
All captains had to sign an oath, a promise, a proclamation or whatever you want to call it. What was in there?
The first to be questioned about it was Lutovsky who called being elected a captain “the highest honor I’ve ever been awarded”.
“We had a sworn oath that we had to take for it, stating the things we would do as a team captain.”
Such as?
“Just always look out for the team first. Put the team first in everything we do, defend the process, defend the things that we stand for as a program.”
Lutovsky speaks in a tone wise beyond his years. He impressed me at Big Ten Media Days with his honesty about the offensive line not being for everyone and when he talked about defending what was important to the team, it was tough to not get a little chill.
Raiola took it equally as seriously.
He thought about the question for a moment and responded.
“It was along the lines of I will protect the process and the brotherhood. And basically you’re committing yourself to the football team and everything the culture stands on. That you’re going to be a voice of him. And it was a serious deal. We stood in the team meeting room and and we basically took an oath, like we were getting elected to office. And it was cool. It was…“
“I’ve never experienced something like that.”
But in case anyone thought the oath, the proclamation, the promise was something Rhule came up with just for the captains?
Dane Key today was asked if there was anything Rhule said or did in the off-season to try and get everyone on the team to truly become one unit with one vision. His answer? Of course.
“Yeah, day one. I think those were the first couple words that came out of his mouth. Like, there’s a lot of new guys in these seats, but it can’t change how we feel about each other. This needs to be the tightest brotherhood. This needs to be a football TEAM.”
Key said he brought in former players from the national title teams as well as Coach Osborne a few times to speak to them about just that very thing and it had an effect.
“Just the people that Coach Rhule has brought into this building to talk to us – that’s what gave us the opportunity to become the tightest football team I’ve ever been a part of.”
As much as all of this has lifted my spirits, devil’s advocate must be played when firing up for a Huskers’ season where even the most jaded are daring to believe while craziness such as CFP predictions, 10+ wins, Matt Rhule’s third season magic, etc etc etc, is being bandied about while teams who have played Nebraska at around an .800 to .900 clip for a decade are seething while being caught in their amazing predictive wake yet again.
They say it’s this culture and brotherhood which will get them over the hump this time and, goddammit, do I ever want to believe it.
But those repeatedly prophetic Mike Tyson words come floating back – and you know exactly what they are. (If not, comment below & I’ll add them.)
Matt Rhule, whose confidence is so actually convincing me this season that I wrote about it, issued what might have been a warning when he said the only thing that can stop this team is their brains – something which has stopped multiple Husker teams again and again and again, including under him.
But again I dare to hope.
Because Ted Lasso was right – it’s not the hope that kills you, it’s the lack of hope that comes and gets you. I believe in hope. I believe in belief.
I don’t know if I hope as hard as Red did after being paroled from Shawshank. And I sure didn’t escape through 500 yards of shit-smelling foulness I can’t even begin to imagine like Andy Dufresne did. But I picked myself up after the Debacle in Dublin and I’ll sure as hell do it again.
But I really want the full turnaround this time. I just do.
And not just for me but also for a team who really seems to be building everything the right way. They’re gonna get punched in the mouth, maybe not Thursday, but 99.9% for sure before this 2025 journey is over.
And this time, just once, I want to see them fire right back and bust the bridge of some Hawkeye noses. As a brotherhood.
