1 week Ago By Jon Walker World-Herald staff writer
LINCOLN — Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule grabbed the mic and called out Mike Ekeler, not knowing he was about to burn a hole in his pocket. Rhule told Ekeler, NU’s first-year special teams coordinator, that every rep of bench press Ekeler completed, he would give $5,000 for the TeamMates Mentorship Program. Right there.
On hardly any notice. With everyone watching. All said and done — after Ekeler had 13 and alumnus Will Compton pumped 10 reps to double the original offer — it cost Rhule $130,000.
It was an impromptu moment on an impromptu day. Fans scattered across Memorial Stadium on Saturday for the Husker Games, Nebraska’s spring game alternative designed for younger, inexperienced players to put some things on film. NU’s starters participated in a series of mini-games.
Benching. Roping. Racing.
Eating. “I’m having fun. I’m enjoying it,” senior defensive lineman Elijah Jeudy said.
“It was a fun little experience.” Jeudy spent days practicing for the Roping Round Up, where players sat on a makeshift, motorized horse and tried to lasso a makeshift, motorized calf. Jeudy, who was successful on his second try, had never done anything like that back home in Philadelphia.
Senior tight end Heinrich Haarberg didn’t need practice, simply a refresher. Haarberg grew up in Kearney, and his teammates nicknamed him Spirit — yes, after the horse — for the way he runs sometimes. “That was a first-time experience for me,” Haarberg said.
“I haven’t roped in about four years, but doing it on a mechanical, robotic horse was pretty cool.” Former Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook showed up and showed out when he hopped on the horse, way different from the ones on his ranch in Wyoming, and roped the runaway robot on his first attempt. “Yeah, he’s a real cowboy,” Jeudy said.
Alabama transfer Elijah Pritchett put his strength on display in the tractor pull, partnering with fellow offensive lineman Justin Evans and dragging a John Deere some 30 yards downfield faster than the other team. Sophomore wideout Jacory Barney Jr. won the fastest man competition, narrowly beating out Malcolm Hartzog Jr.
, like the speedster said he would after Thursday’s practice. In the middle of it all, sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola made the crowd pop as loud as it did all day. Raiola, last in the Quarterback Shootout, hit the moving target on all five attempts, hit a standing dummy twice in five throws and, from the 40-yard line, started chucking into the wind toward the basketball hoop in the end zone.
SWISH! “I was like, ‘Nah, that’s going right,’” said Raiola, who got a roping lesson from Haarberg earlier in the afternoon. “I actually didn’t even see it go in. I just heard the crowd.
It was pretty cool.” To end the day, Nebraska’s entire team swarmed one of the sidelines to watch four different groups of five — offense, defense, coaches and alumni — try to eat 100 chicken wings in three minutes. Defense ate 95 to win.
Offense was the closest with 89. David Borchers, a 6-foot-4, 300-pound defensive lineman, was as messy as could be. When the buzzer sounded, the sophomore had buffalo sauce from ear to ear, top of his nose to the bottom of his chin.
“I mean, I was hungry,” Borchers said. “I was ready to eat.” Some Huskers would’ve preferred a traditional spring game.
Barney, Raiola and Haarberg all wanted to play football, but they understood why Rhule decided to make Saturday the way it was. Nebraska’s veterans were fine with the younger guys getting an opportunity. They’ll have plenty of them in the fall.
“We’re gonna wait till August to show what we’ve been working on,” Haarberg said..
