LINCOLN — Barney Cotton was a few days from taking a job, Ben Cotton a few hours from flying to Louisville on a recruiting trip and Jake Cotton a few years from making a college decision that likely wouldn’t involve his dad and brother.

Heading in different directions looked inevitable. Plans to stay together had fallen apart.

Barney and Ben had time to think about it as they sat in the Des Moines airport, delayed and stranded by a December ice storm in 2007. Ben already was committed to Louisville and was heading there for his official visit. Barney, who’d lost his job as offensive coordinator at Iowa State when the staff was dismantled a year earlier, was close to accepting a job elsewhere.

“At first I thought I was going to get the opportunity to play for him at Iowa State,” Ben Cotton said. “At that point I was thinking that opportunity’s probably diminished. Once that opportunity disappeared, I was going to take anything I could take.”

Call it good timing, a lucky break or a twist of fate, but something other than freezing rain fell from the sky that weekend.

Bo Pelini called that night to ask Barney Cotton to become Nebraska’s offensive line coach. Ben Cotton was offered a scholarship the next night and accepted. He never took the trip to Louisville.

Two years later, Jake Cotton signed with NU out of Lincoln Southeast, and the trio started their first Husker preseason camp together last weekend.

“It’s amazing the way things worked out,” said Ben Cotton, a sophomore tight end.

“It’s awesome,” said Barney Cotton, realizing how a few well-timed phone calls changed everything. He says he’s thankful each day for the chance it’s given him.

Barney Cotton and his two oldest sons could have been spread around the country for the 2010 football season. Instead they’re together daily and, according to NU tight ends coach Ron Brown, it’s easy to see what it means to them.

“They don’t really have to talk about it,” said Brown, who works closely with Barney and Ben. “They have their little dad-son things going on out on that football field, but I know Barney is very proud of Ben and he ought to be. And I know Ben is very proud of Barney, and he ought to be.”

Because Barney Cotton always had jobs in football, the time was never there to coach his sons. They made up for it with basketball in the driveway, throwing the football or playing some baseball.

Ben, Jake and younger brother Sam were all born in Minnesota when Barney coached at St. Cloud State. Barney then had coaching jobs at Hastings College, New Mexico State, Nebraska and Iowa State.

Barney and Ben did hook up for a season in 2007, when Barney held off on taking any jobs after his departure from Iowa State to volunteer at Ames (Iowa) High School during Ben’s senior season. Ben said he’ll look up to his father for the rest of his life for making that decision and giving them that time together.

“It was always a dream of mine — since I was a young kid, ever since I knew what football was — that I wanted to play for him at some level,” Ben said.

“I’ve always believed in everything he’s taught to guys, just simple things like being relentless, working hard .... that’s the kind of player I want to be: a hard worker, a guy who will never quit and a guy who will tough it out through anything.”

It was a primer, of sorts, for both father and son. What to do and what not to do.

“The apprehension is that every once in awhile it might get personal,” Barney Cotton said. “And there were times at Ames — not very often, but there were times — we’d have a father-son moment and then the coach would just say, ‘Hey, let those two deal with it.’”

Barney Cotton said he’s fortunate to have Ben working under Brown and also to have Jake, a defensive lineman, working under John Papuchis and Carl Pelini at Nebraska. Barney and Ben are far more likely to cross paths in practices than either is with Jake because of the tight ends’ involvement with the line on blocking schemes.

“There’s no question they’re father and son,” Brown said, laughing. “There’s a chemistry. They have their funny little things out there, and I kind of get in the middle of it sometimes.

“What I really love about Ben and Barney is that it never gets in the way of the professional thing that has to go on here, but neither does the professional thing get in the way of dad and son. That’s the beauty of it. Just watching them handle it has been great.”

It’s been special off the field, too. Barney pointed to times over the summer when one or both boys might poke their heads into his office to ask about catching lunch or sneaking in nine holes of golf.

Ben said he tries to visit the house when possible, and he usually does on Sundays during the season. Ben said his mother, Christine, tries to enforce a “no football at dinner” policy, but it usually ends up being broken by her sons and husband.

“They’re not living at home,” Barney said, “but it sure beats the heck out of having them a thousand miles away.”

Having them together has worked well for others, too. Barney’s parents live in Omaha. Christine’s folks originally are from Ogallala, but now split their time between Lincoln and Florida.

Ben said he thinks family proximity is one of the biggest reasons brother Jake signed with NU.

NU freshmen are not allowed to speak with the news media, so Jake Cotton could not be interviewed for this story. On the topic of playing where his father was coaching, Ben said he usually wanted to give Jake more information than Jake wanted.

“He wanted to figure things out on his own, figure it out for himself, and he did it,” Ben Cotton said. “I think the biggest opportunity for him was going to Southeast instead of going to high school where I went to high school. He was able to create his own future, create his own path, and he did a great job of doing so.

“I’m so proud of him for making it here so we could play together.”

Barney Cotton grew up going to high school games with his dad or following Dick Cotton when he would referee games. Even before getting to Omaha Burke, where Dick Cotton was athletic director until 1992, Barney would always be around the school.

Hanging with dad isn’t always easy, Dick Cotton said, and he’s sure Ben and Jake have learned that with Barney.

“They know they have to work hard for him,” Dick Cotton said. “I think that’s important to Barney — as a demanding coach and demanding father and demanding person — that he expects those boys to do the right thing. They know that dad is right on top of things, and they had better do what they’re supposed to do.”

Barney can keep a closer eye on them through their college years than he would have imagined three years ago.

Cotton won’t say what job he was set to take in 2007, but the final interview was put off only because he wanted to make that trip to Louisville with Ben.

“He wasn’t into changing his mind,” Barney said. “But coming back home and playing where his dad played, and with grandma and grandpa and everything here, that’s a different story.”

What a story, really. And the Cottons know they could be telling a completely different one right now.

“God works in mysterious ways, I guess,” Ben Cotton said.

Contact the writer:

444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com

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