Suh, Hickman say the other has made him better
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By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
They’ve banged helmets too many times to count. Collisions in the triple-digit heat. Collisions in the November cold. Collisions in the midst of a 5-7 season neither could have imagined.
Wherever this Husker roller coaster took them, there was always another practice, another collision. Funny. It’s those paint-swapping meetings between the hash marks that have made Hick and Big Suh such good friends.
Ndamukong Suh, the man so high on Mel Kiper’s draft board, doesn’t hesitate when asked to name one player who impacted him more than any other in his Husker career.
A win over Kansas State would not only send Nebraska to the Big 12 Championship, but it would be worth an extra $150,000 for coach Bo Pelini.
Pelini’s contract includes performance bonuses of $150,000 for reaching the Big 12 title game, an additional $100,000 for winning the title game and another $100,000 for getting Nebraska into a bowl game.
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Easy. Jacob Hickman.
“He’s the one guy that has really understood my game and has been able to nitpick it and been able to find my weaknesses,” says Suh, who will no doubt be met with the greatest “Suuuuuuuuuuuh” call you’ve ever heard when introduced Saturday night.
Suh the nose tackle. Hickman the center. Two seniors about to play their final home games as Huskers. Neither thinks they’d be as good without the other.
“We talk all the time,” Suh says. “I might beat him on a play. He might beat me on a play. … After we get done with our reps, we get back and talk and ask what we were doing on this play.”
Why not? Hick already speaks about the game as if he’s a coach, a profession offensive coordinator Shawn Watson thinks Hickman should consider.
“He’s meant a lot over the last three years to me especially,” Watson says. “I’ll miss Jake a lot. If he ever wants to be a coach, he’ll be a great coach.”
It’s in the blood. Hickman’s brother, Billy, is a tight ends coach at Colorado School of Mines.
Billy wants Jake to join him in the coaching ranks. “That’s always a possibility,” says Hickman, as cool as anyone on the team in front of the media.
Hickman and Suh have, in a many ways, become the mouthpieces for this team – leaders for this small Husker senior class of 13 players.
What’s interesting is neither one of them is what you’d call a rah-rah guy. They’ve led by action more than voice.
“There were some times in the summer where we’d go out there and say that’s not good enough and stuff like that,” Hickman says. “But for the most part, we really just kind of figured the best way for the two of us to do it was just go out there and do what we know how to do, and that’s work hard and show guys what you’re supposed to do.”
Hickman knows he’s improved his game greatly going against Suh on a daily basis. When you compete against a guy who is seemingly on the short list for every college football award, there’s not really any opposing defensive linemen who can make your knees quake.
“This year the ceiling’s been blown off with how good he is,” Hickman says of Suh. “I know having blocked him every day there’s really not anybody that’s more difficult that I’ve gone against.”
For Suh, the Husker experience has taught him plenty as a player and a person. You learn a few things about yourself, when, at age 20, you are caught in the middle of a season like 2007.
There was bad football, which brought negativity, which brought rumors, which brought a coaching shakeup. Tough memories, but there’s a certain pride for these seniors in what followed.
The terrible season didn’t sink them. They won nine games and a Gator Bowl the next year. Saturday they’re chasing a Big 12 North title.
“I definitely feel that we can pride ourselves on being able to be adaptable to the changes and different situations we’ve been thrown into,” Suh says of this year’s seniors. “Not everybody is going to be thrown into that (2007 situation) and have to deal with that. … I think we’ve handled it very well and pretty much come out to the top.”
Thirteen names will be called Saturday: Asante, Brooks, Cammack, Christensen, Dillard, Harvey, Hickman, Holt, Koehler, Meyer, O’Hanlon, Suh and Turner.
One last run from the tunnel? Hickman is better prepared for a Suh bull rush than that.
“Senior Day, the more I get asked about it, the more I try to make it sink in and just say, ‘Yeah, this is it,’” Hickman says. “I can’t think about it that way right now for whatever reason.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at bchristopherson@journalstar.com or 473-7439.
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