I attended UNL 2007–2008 and saw Suh perform a kickflip on a basketball court in the Harper-Schram-Smith dormitory complex quad while goofing around with, I believe, DJ Jones, a stellar Omaha-area offensive tackle who was a legitimate workhorse Big XII lineman whose injury history kept him from being more than a practice squad player at the NFL level. Suh’s athleticism was peerless, he stayed all four years, and was never strongly associated with the trouble players that held that team back from being consistency bruising (who I’ll refrain from mentioning, but Lincoln residents of the time know).
As time’s gone by, it hurts more and more that Suh’s prime had to be spent in the Ganz/Lee era with the yeoman receiving corps of Nate Swift, Todd Peterson, (opens CFBR) Culenski Gilleylen and young Niles Paul (another athlete I met, running middle school Omaha track — I quit track that same year). That Pelini defense was everything you could’ve hoped for in a high octane Big XII, and I had a lot of love for the heart those teams played with, but if he’d have been just a year younger and got to play with Martinez, Helu, Burkhead and Lavonte David in the Phillip Dillard role I think we could have done serious, serious damage in 2010 just off the strength of his impact on defense and our more explosive run-based offense.
Man, 2006–2011 as a Husker fan was a definitive capsule of what it’s like to be a fan of Nebraska college football in the post-Osbourne era.