LINCOLN — One player represented Nebraska football in 2009.

He was 6-foot-4, 300 pounds. He rolled through opponents like a combine through cornstalks. He captured national acclaim — not via charisma or flamboyance, but with brute strength and rugged determination.

Ndamukong Suh rarely expressed his will in words. He put his head down, punched the clock and teammates followed him.

As fall camp 2010 begins, Nebraska football looks and sounds remarkably different. More spunk. More sass. More style.

This team's new personality appears to flow from two perimeter positions: Wide receiver and cornerback. More specifically, two seniors: Niles Paul and Prince Amukamara.

They're the poster boys, the tone setters, the flag wavers. Unlike Suh, they're explosive, dynamic, flashy. They prefer their substance with a little spice.

Above all, they like to compete with each other. Relentlessly.

“We actually raced in the summer,” Amukamara said. “You should ask (Paul) who won.”

Prince also suggested he can out-box Paul in the ring and out-leap him on the basketball floor.

“And I jump higher than (Brandon Kinnie), too,” he said.

“Such a liar,” Kinnie responded. “Good guy, though.”

Bo Pelini has revolutionized the culture in Lincoln in 2½ years. His accomplishments include pushing undefeated Texas to the brink in Dallas, and turning one of the nation's worst defenses into the nation's best in 2009.

A less tangible achievement, however, is nurturing an environment in which players don't just accept competition, they pursue it.

The 2010 Huskers engage in so much light-hearted banter, they're starting to sound like the Stoopses and Pelinis of Youngstown, Ohio. In the 1970s and 1980s, those boys found competition in chores such as house painting.

At Memorial Stadium on Saturday, linebackers Sean Fisher and Will Compton argued about body fat and foot speed. Alonzo Whaley and Graham Stoddard debated moustache maintenance.

NU receivers and defensive backs, however, take these disputes to another level. Which is why Paul brought boxing gloves to the locker room to celebrate the end of summer conditioning. Which is why Kinnie grabbed the gloves and called out every cornerback he could find.

It's not always offense vs. defense.

During one summer session, Paul and Kinnie lit each other's fuse as they dragged sleds across the practice field. It was a lazy Monday, but each receiver really, really didn't want to lose.

According to Kinnie, teammate Tim Marlowe watched the display, started laughing and said, “You guys just don't quit.”

The wideouts and cornerbacks are competitive “to the point where they'll start fighting,” quarterback Cody Green said.

“And then they break and they're like, ‘Why are we fighting again?' Then they'll go back at it again. That's just making everybody better. It's going to be scary if we keep doing it.”

Green went on.

“It's basically like Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali going against each other every day. Prince will call Niles out. Niles will call Prince out.

“BK will call Alfonzo (Dennard) out, or Eric (Hagg) or Dejon Gomes or somebody like that. It's just a constant battle over and over and over again, which makes them better. They love it.”

Nebraska's personality transformation arguably started in December, after the 2009 Big 12 championship game, after the Huskers realized they could play with anyone in the country.

At the Holiday Bowl, Pelini's team strutted and danced and trash talked to a 33-0 blowout of Arizona. Paul caught a 74-yard touchdown pass, spiked the ball and flexed.

Nebraska's swagger has carried over to 2010.

Suh is gone, and that will take some getting used to. But if Prince, Paul and the rest of the Huskers enjoy beating opponents as much as they do each other, they might be better without No. 93 after all.

If nothing else, football will be a little more fun.

Contact the writer:

649-1461, dirk.chatelain@owh.com

« Sports - Big Red Today

Share