Tradition can be a double-edged sword in college football. For the programs that rely on it, there is a point when it morphs from calling card to cumbersome. There is perhaps no clearer example of this than Nebraska. Few, if any, programs have a more illustrious trophy cabinet, but they haven’t put anything new in it of significance in the lifetime of today’s recruits. The constant push and pull between innovation and the old ways has been the story of the past two decades for the Huskers.
But there is one significant part of the program’s past that does stand the test of time if only some coach could unlock it amongst all the changes in college athletics: sports science. The future of that forges on, but it’s under new management as the Matt Rhule era begins. There is no better place to marry the past and present of athlete development than right where it began at the altar of strength and conditioning.
