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Every so often, you glance at the great history of college football, and you probably wonder, as I do: How did a flyover state full of sandy hills, prairie grass and homesteads ever fight its way into the royalty of the game? And, more than that, how did it do so a full decade after World War II?

We don’t ask that question, I find, because we don’t know. In fact, we know the answer by heart. And, sometimes, it’s simply too long and rich to tell at a dinner party, right? We ask ourselves just as a reminder how extraordinary an achievement it really is. And how that achievement defined this state, spoke to its work ethic and pride and faith. It is not a small thing, what’s been done at NU. That’s why it’s so important. And that’s why, rhetorically, we ask.

Unquestionably, a part of that answer is the walk-on program. As depicted in the newest NET documentary “Walk On: Huskers Edge,” you get a terrific sense of how and why those young, sacrificial men - often from dusty farm towns that hug our state’s two-lane highways - volunteered to serve the Cornhuskers with little reward and no guarantees. They took that famous admonition from President Kennedy and made it their own: Ask not what Nebraska can do for you, but what you can do for Nebraska.

And as scholarship limits got tighter, the need for the walk-ons went up. You know the scores of guys who came through here, on their own dime, and won games, awards, jobs in the NFL. We won’t list them again.

Now, in this era of 85 scholarships, and an era when technology allows high school players to reach out and touch their dream of college football, every team – not just Nebraska – has to use its walk-on program wisely.

It’s an excellent place to develop kickers, punters, long snappers, coverage gunners and holders. It’s helpful for overall depth when injuries strike. Occasionally the walk-on pool will produce a dynamic athlete like Matthew May, an Imperial kid who played for a great football program out near Panhandle, and didn’t get the attention he deserved.

Some would argue walk-ons provide a character boost, that “Rudy” quality that wills the more talented scholarship players to excel. That can be true, and has been true, often, at Nebraska. And that can be false. After all, walk-ons are 18-22-year-old kids, just like the rest of the players.

The best possible scenario is that the walk-on pool is a combination of all those things. A launching pad for late bloomers. A training ground for future coaches. An inspiration to the fans. A way to keep NU connected to the high school programs, and the state in general. You get excellent stories, like that of Derek Meyer, who left Kansas State, and turned down transfer offers to Western Michigan and San Diego State, for a shot at one year with the Big Red.

But the walk-on industry, like anything else, has changed. The economy has changed, recruiting has changed, the world has changed. The romance is largely gone.

Let’s be clear: Head coach Bo Pelini, undoubtedly with the guidance of athletic director Tom Osborne, has improved the perception of walk-ons at NU. Pelini produces a list of committed walk-ons on Signing Day. Then, he refuses to talk about any one player – scholarship or walk-on - individually. He integrates preferred walk-ons into summer conditioning. There’s a Walk-On Club designed to support the funding of walk-on program. To his credit, Pelini neither patronizes walk-ons nor pretends to merely tolerate them. They’re just part of the group. As it should be.

But it’s getting harder to draw walk-ons to Nebraska – or anywhere, for that matter. Division I FCS and Division II programs are getting more sophisticated, more savvy, with their recruiting tools. Especially schools in the Dakotas. South Dakota State can offer a talented Nebraska kid a chance to play Division I competition on scholarship, rather than the kid footing the bill at NU. (This is one of the reasons Nebraska shouldn’t play SDSU). And UNO, with new AD Trev Alberts, will make some waves with its future recruiting classes. Just watch.

Why? With the rising cost of college, kids, and their parents, are going to listen. They have to listen. Their 401k has been raided by the stock market. Half of their investments have vanished. And God didn’t make every kid to be a classroom whiz who can cobble together a bunch of academic scholarships.

Walk-ons have always been about sacrifice. But, for some of them, the off-the-field price may be too high.

Another issue: I’m not sure, with the present state of high school football in Nebraska, that NU actually can draw as many players as it would like. Pelini and Co. wants speed. Track guys. Shawn Watson’s offense requires gifted tight ends and receivers, and that’s still not something the state provides in great supply. Nebraska’s gone to recruiting absolutely giant offensive linemen – almost all of them taller than 6-5 – and the state’s just not going to provide many of those. NU’s lone in-state recruit, 6-6 tackle, Andrew Rodriguez, is originally from New York City.

Finally, there’s this: High school programs are no longer tied at the hip to NU. They’ll send their kids where they can play. Pelini can’t just waltz into Omaha and have his pick or scholarship or walk-on players. Iowa has a relationship at a few schools, including Millard North. Kansas has connections within the city, and at the most consistent program in Western Nebraska, McCook. Now Oregon, after offering a scholarship to Daryle Hawkins, has an in at Omaha Central.

So we’ll see. Nebraska’s done well, so far, with its rhetoric about reviving the program. Bill Callahan didn’t exactly kill it, mind you – after all, Matt O’Hanlon and Colton Koehler, both potential starters on the 2009 NU defense, began as Callahan-era walk-ons – but he…well, you know the story.

Point is – even if Nebraska wants a return to the halcyon days of the walk-on program, it may not be possible. And utopia shouldn’t be the goal, anyway.

Rather, NU should use its walk-on program wisely and efficiently. Now that Callahan is gone, Husker fans don’t have to argue its importance anymore. Pelini, Osborne and director of football operations Jeff Jamrog all appreciate its worth.

It doesn’t matter how small or large the walk-on program at Nebraska is. It doesn’t need to be our version of the Peace Corps. It just needs to be strong. And if it’s that – then it’s the right size.

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Sometimes the benefits of Nebraska’s walk-on program are easy to recognize.

For years they came by way of dive plays from the Mackovicka brothers, who turned earning scholarships and punishing linebackers into a family business.

Other times the benefits are much more subtle. NET filmmaker Joel Geyer set out to capture all aspects of the walk-on program with his latest documentary on Nebraska football: “Walk-Ons: Huskers’ Edge.” The film debuts statewide on NET Aug. 4, at 7:00 p.m., but more than 100 Husker fans got a sneak peak Thursday at Village Point in Omaha.

“What Nebraska needs to know is that we’re one of the most connected places in the world,” Geyer said. “Football connects us all together.”

An example is how people from small towns throughout Nebraska show up in droves on game day just to see a local boy warm up, Geyer said. He might not ever play during a game or earn a scholarship, but he works hard for the scout team and the fans, coaches and players appreciate him for it.

Other times, the walk-ons win flat out win football games.

With just under two minutes to go and facing a fourth-and-25 on Colorado’s 40-yard line, senior walk-on T.J O’Leary, the long snapper, knew “one way or another I was going in.”

O’Leary did a double-take when the coach Bo Pelini opted for the field goal.

“I knew (Alex Henery) had the leg to get it there. The only question I had was if he could keep it straight,” O’Leary said. “Obviously he did.”

O'Leary was at Village Point on Thursday to see the film for the first time.

"I know what it means to me," O'Leary said. "to have someone visualize their idea of the walk-on program was pretty cool."

The film uses that kick as a symbol of a successfully revitalized NU walk-on program. The three main players involved in that play – O’Leary, Henery and holder Jake Wesch – were walk-ons. Henery, whom some believe may be the nation’s best kicker, is expected to receive a scholarship this fall as a junior.

Adrian Fiala, the analyst for the Husker Sports Network and former player in the Devaney era, said you can’t talk about Nebraska football without mentioning the fans and the walk-on program.

He said in the last two games of last year, if you add up all of Henery's field goals and extra points and Todd Peterson’s touchdown receptions, a good chunk of NU’s points came from players who started their careers as walk-ons.

“Probably without those guys doing what they did, we don’t win those games,” Fiala said.

Geyer also wanted to show the history of the walk-on program and to answer, “What went wrong?”

The film successfully does both with testimony from Husker coaches, former players and the sports journalists who follow the team.

Langston Coleman is credited as the starter of the NU walk-on program when he hitchhiked from Washington D.C., to Lincoln and eventually became the starting defensive end in 1964-66. The walk-on program became the backbone of Nebraska football after 1973, when the NCAA started decreasing the number of scholarship position allotted to each team with the hope of creating more parity in college football.

Then Steve Pederson and Bill Callahan, the film’s antagonists, deemphasized the walk-on program.

“There was a disconnect,” Geyer said. “They got the blue-chippers… Why didn’t it work? They didn’t have the chemistry and the spirit.”

Former athletic director Pederson hired former NFL coach Callahan with the hope of keeping NU at the top of college football. Successful teams around the country were developing more pro-style offenses and Pederson didn’t want Nebraska to miss the boat.

Callahan didn't like having 160 players, which is close to three times the number on a pro roster. So he made the team more manageable by doing away with some the excess players.

Who needs an eighth-string tackle anyway?

“Basically, they’re there to back those guys (scholarship players) up and say ‘if he’s not willing to do it I am’,” said Kelly Saalfield, a former Nebraska walk-on and current Big 12 referee.

Saalfield came to Lincoln in 1975 without a scholarship or even an invitation to walk-on, but he had heard Coach Tom Osborne was fair and willing to give everyone a shot.

He played on the freshmen team, redshirted his sophomore year and was the starting center by the end of his third year.

Like all walk-ons, he had to make sacrifices. To earn money he spent his first two years of college working as a bouncer at a bar. Instead of going home in the summer to help with his family’s farm in Columbus he was practicing and lifting weights every day; often till after the dorms had stopped serving food. Saalfield ate cheese sandwiches for dinner many times during those summers.

“There are all kinds of things you have to weigh,” he said. “Everybody has to do that in life.”

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"You are never 100 percent perfect in recruiting. You would miss on some scholarship players. By redshirting players, by their junior or senior years, particularly walk-ons would be ready to play and they would be just like (good) scholarship players. This would be particularly true of positions like tight ends, fullbacks, and the offensive line, where there were a lot of walk-ons. It helped Nebraska to never have a bad year." -Turner Gill

Turner Gill was Quarterback for Nebraska in the Osborne era and went on the coach at Nebraska and is Head Coach at Buffalo. He took the Buffalo team from losing years to the championship game.

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