Ross Pilkington was in the crowd of 76,287 that watched Nebraska beat Colorado 52-7 at Memorial Stadium in 1991. The 11-year-old Pilkington was with his father, Greg.

They had driven from their home in Colorado.

It was a night game, Pilkington said, and “real cold.”

Nebraska’s freshman split end grew up a Cornhusker fan. “My first toys were Husker footballs and stuff like that,” he said. “So I was kind of ingrained with a love for Nebraska football.”

His dad occasionally talked about the Cornhuskers, contributing to his youthful affinity for them. But “I think it was more subliminal than just telling me right out,” said Pilkington.

When it came time to sign a letter of intent, to choose between Nebraska and Colorado, his dad “wasn’t real pushy where I went,” he said. “He wasn’t pushing me either way.

“He just told me to go where I felt like I fit in with the coaching staff and players.”

Pilkington visited both schools before settling on Nebraska.

“I felt like I was a better fit here than at Colorado,” he said. “I felt a lot more connection with Nebraska than Colorado, because of the family ties. It just felt like home for me.”

How that could be, having grown up in Colorado with parents both from there, is a tribute to his dad’s brief experience with Nebraska football. Greg Pilkington was a running back on the Cornhusker freshman team in 1971, and if not for a foot injury, he would have continued to play.

Ross has seen photos of his dad on a 4-0 freshman team that included Josh Davis’s dad, Tony, and Barrett Ruud’s dad, Tom. His dad rushed for 169 yards and three touchdowns and caught three passes for 29 yards, in addition to returning punts and kickoffs for freshman coach Jim Ross.

Ross Pilkington came to Nebraska after playing two seasons of minor league baseball. He signed a letter of intent in the Cornhuskers’ 2000 scholarship recruiting class, which also included offensive linemen Jake Anderson from Littleton, Colo., and M.J. Flaum from Westminster, Colo.

Pilkington played his junior and senior seasons at Loveland High School, after transferring from Fort Collins. He and Josh Davis were teammates when he was a junior.

In addition to his father’s having played at Nebraska, Colorado was changing coaches, with Gary Barnett replacing Rick Neuheisel, “so that was another reason for me to not go there,” said Pilkington. “Overall, it wasn’t too bad. But there were still people that gave me a lot of grief.”

After opting for baseball, Pilkington wasn’t certain the Cornhuskers would still be interested in him. When they contacted him, however, “that just showed a lot of respect for me,” he said.

He would have taken the initiative if Nebraska hadn’t. And if there had been no interest, he probably would have gone to Colorado State, which also recruited him out of high school.

His professional baseball experience has been a “mental positive,” allowing him to mature. But “I think if I would have come here out of high school, I would have had more physical tools than I do now in football,” he said. “I think I’ve got a lot more physically to work on.

“My speed for one, I think I can get better. And my strength, I think I can still get stronger blocking. There is still a lot of football stuff. When you’ve been away from the game for two years, it’s tough to step right back in and play with guys that have been playing all the way through.”

The biggest adjustment has been accepting the structure imposed on student-athletes. “That was huge,” he said. “I went right into the work world. You could do what you wanted. You come back and you’ve got coaches and teachers telling what you have to do and when you have to do it.

“In baseball it was like, ‘If you want to make yourself better, we’re here for you. But we’re not going to push you. You’ve got to push yourself if you want to get to the top.’ They didn’t have anyone yelling at you every time you made a mistake, every time you didn’t show up for practice.

“They didn’t really care what you did. It was up to you to make yourself better.”

In a sense, it has been like a “step backward,” giving up personal freedom and responsibility he once had. He has learned “to look at that as a positive instead of getting frustrated with it.”

Dealing with the losses also has been difficult, of course. “It’s frustrating to think how this team is going to be looked back upon,” given “the athletes and the way we know we can play,” he said. “If we come out and make no mistakes, there’s no team in the nation that can beat us.”

Despite such frustrations, however, he is happy at Nebraska, and his parents are happy, too. They have come to Lincoln for home games and even made the trip to Penn State.

“They love it,” said Pilkington.