Jamrog: Learning patience is tough for young players
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BY TODD HENRICHS / Lincoln Journal Star
OMAHA — More than the heightened speed of the game, and its more physical nature, the biggest adjustment for many players entering college football is learning how to be patient.
Jeff Jamrog, assistant athletic director for football at NU, addressed that issue when asked about redshirt freshman I-back Collins Okafor returning to practice with the Huskers on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini released a statement saying that Okafor had left the program.
“When you are very successful in high school, and now you’re in a position where you’ve got to be patient, sometimes that is tough to do,” said Jamrog, the speaker at Friday’s Big Red Breakfast.
Jamrog said that Okafor, an Omaha Westside graduate who has practiced primarily with the scout team this year, indicated that playing at Nebraska maybe wasn’t for him. Pelini, however, “left the door open” if he changed his mind.
Jamrog said Okafor and others can draw from the patience that a player like Joe Ganz showed in the program, or the patience of assistant Tim Beck, his position coach at Nebraska.
“Tim Beck wants to be a head coach,” Jamrog said. “He wishes that he could be an offensive coordinator.
“At some point, those things are going to happen. You just never know when your turn is going to be called.”
To that end, Jamrog said that of the 88 Nebraska players set to travel to Virginia Tech for Saturday’s game, 26 came to NU as walk-ons.
Jamrog, a walk-on himself as a player at Nebraska, listed true freshman long snapper P.J. Mangieri and redshirt freshman walk-ons Justin Blatchford of Ponca, Jace Dean of Bridgeport, Justin Jackson of Norris, Brett Maher of Kearney, Mychael McClure of Wisner-Pilger, Sam Meginnis of Lincoln East and Graham Stoddard of Lincoln Southwest as players on the travel roster.
Nebraska can take as many players at it wants to Saturday’s game, and Jamrog said “we’re going to bring some guys that may not play in the football game, but we’re going to reward those guys.”
Once Big 12 play begins, however, there is a limit.
“This year we’re going to have some tough decisions on who those 70 players are,” Jamrog said. “Last year, we brought guys like (an injured) Barry Turner to away games because we didn’t have enough who we thought could help us. The competition is increasing.”
Jamrog addressed a number of other subjects in his appearance before a ballroom filled with NU fans:
* On the reputation of Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium, Jamrog said NU assistants Marvin Sanders and Carl Pelini both rank the atmosphere as the loudest of anywhere they’ve been.
Sanders visited Virginia Tech while an assistant at North Carolina, and Pelini did the same while coaching with Frank Solich at Ohio.
* On Saturday’s pregame preparations, Jamrog said NU has invited the captain of a Navy SEAL team to talk to the Huskers at their team hotel in Roanoke, Va., a short drive from Blacksburg.
* Jamrog spoke of his association with the team’s Unity Council, which set the goal this year to have no off-the-field incidents.
So far, so good, he said.
* On Rex Burkhead, Jamrog said the freshman was one of the first in the office to review film of Nebraska’s first practice in August.
“I don’t know what stars he was,” Jamrog said, referencing the popular recruiting rankings. “But they can’t measure passion, heart and character.”
* On Virginia Tech averaging nine wins over coach Frank Beamer’s last 16 seasons: “That’s the standard Nebraska has always been judged on,” Jamrog said. “Although one year, we won 10 and got fired.”
Jamrog, who drew laughter with that comment, was an assistant on Solich’s staff at Nebraska from 2000 through 2003.
Reach Todd Henrichs at 473-7320 or thenrichs@journalstar.com.
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