12/29/2017 football Edit

Decision to walk on instantaneous for Southwest's Shefke

Lincoln Southwest lineman Collin Shefke could hardly wait to accept a preferred walk-on offer when it came from Scott Frost. (Nate Clouse)

Matt Reynoldson • InsideNebraska

Staff

Lincoln (Neb.) Southwest lineman Collin Shefke always knew his dream was to play for Nebraska. Growing up in Lincoln, it was hard to ignore the towering football cathedral on Stadium Drive.

So when new head coach Scott Frost extended a preferred walk-on offer at the “HomeGrown” walk-on event earlier this month, Shefke could hardly wait until the words were out of Frost’s mouth.

“It was probably milliseconds because when I got it, in my mind I’d already committed,” Shefke said. “It took a while to come out of my mouth, but pretty much as soon as I got it, I committed.”

The 6-foot-5, 280-pound prospect from minutes south of the UNL campus didn’t have a preferred walk-on offer from former head coach Mike Riley’s staff. Many of the 40-plus attendees at the HomeGrown event didn’t.

But consistent with his mission of locking down the state’s borders, Frost organized the event in the middle of UCF bowl preparations to persuade Shefke and other talented prospects to don the scarlet and cream.

“When Coach Riley got fired, I thought that was it,” said Shefke, who the old staff had kept tabs on throughout the process. “I didn’t know if they would carry on my name or what would happen to Kenny (Wilhite).

“I was preparing for the worst and I didn’t know Coach Frost would be so into walk-ons as he is and wants to make us a part of the program again.”

Shefke drew walk-on interest on both sides of the line from surrounding schools and would’ve likely ended up a Wyoming Cowboy if Nebraska hadn’t called. As a senior, he played in all 10 games in the trenches on offense and defense, tallying 48 tackles and 5 sacks on defense.

When a chance came to play for the Huskers, Shefke knew he wanted to stay home. When he heard the rallying cry from his new coach, he was ready to go to work.

“We all want to bring Nebraska back,” Shefke said. “I think he came back because he wants to bring us back to prominence. It’s truly an exciting time and I want to be a part of that and be a part of his first class.”