Running on Overdrive
After breaking the freshman record for tackles last season, Nebraska linebacker Michael Rose-Ivey continues to exceed expectations.
According to his father, Michael Rose-Ivey’s first word was “touchdown.” Before he could say it, he’d throw his arms in the air when he heard the word, like a referee signaling a score while he watched the Kansas City Chiefs play, with his dad and grandfather. Rose-Ivey was “brainwashed” from a young age, Michael Rose Sr. says. He was always going to play football, before he climbed recruiting big boards, or even before he took a role as his namesake MIKE linebacker at any level.
“After a while, I just noticed that he had like an extra gear, every time,” Rose Sr. says. “Every time there was a drill or anything like that, he’d just put out an extra effort to stand out.”
Sacrifices were made by the Rose family to keep him in Rockhurst, a private Kansas City high school with tuition fees not far off from the cost of an in-state student to attend the University of Nebraska. “Sacrifice,” however, is synonymous with “investment,” in the eyes of Rose Sr., who fathered Rose-Ivey at age 15, still playing high school ball himself.
With Rose-Ivey coming off a strong freshman season as the lynchpin to Nebraska’s defensive turnaround in 2013, his father sees changes in his personality. The 20-year-old linebacker — a self-proclaimed old soul — says he’s taking on qualities of his father, the man who sold his beloved 1983 Olds Cutlass with t-tops and an engine he built himself to keep his son in private school.
“I was a really rebellious spirit at the moment,” Rose-Ivey says. “I don’t think I appreciated that as much as I should have at the moment. If I do get to a place at the next level, I definitely have to get him something he can ride in.”
Rose Sr. cried when he sold that car, he says, but not for long. That’s what a man is supposed to do for his family, he says. “I’d do anything I can for my kids, especially so they could chase their dreams. Michael had a dream to play college football,” he says. “It was a sacrifice, but I never told him it was a sacrifice. I always told him it’s an investment.”
Inside and out of the Nebraska football environment, those around Rose-Ivey have seen him invest in his own potential as a leader at linebacker for Nebraska, looking to become the proverbial “quarterback of the defense” as the middle linebacker is so often called. They don’t talk football much, Rose Sr. says, but he sees changes in his son, such as staying in Lincoln over spring break to work out on campus instead of making the trip back to Kansas City, or to a beach somewhere warm.
As one of the few Huskers left in Lincoln over spring break, Rose-Ivey’s presence caught the attention of former Husker Jeremiah Sirles, who trains at Memorial Stadium in preparation for the upcoming NFL Draft.
“I think that it shows his dedication,” Sirles says. “I mean, he got a taste a little bit last year of what big-time college football was like, and I really think he wanted to step into that leadership role, and to do that, you’ve got to put in the extra time, especially being a younger guy.”
The work ethic shows.
One can’t look past the uptick in production in the Husker defense after the redshirt freshman became a staple at linebacker against Illinois, finishing with 11 tackles in his first career start. In the final five games of 2013, Rose-Ivey was credited with 49 tackles, including a career-high 17 against Iowa in the regular-season finale. At 66 total tackles on the year, he now owns the Husker freshman record for tackles. If there’s an athletic honor roll, he’s probably on it; Rose-Ivey was not only on the Academic All-Big Ten team, but Nebraska’s Brook Berringer Citizenship team his freshman year, among others.
“I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard towards anything until I got here,” he says. “They kind of force it upon you — if you don’t take it, then, you know, on to the next guy. It’s kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t kind of thing”
Always looking forward, he’s taken to watching film of the San Francisco 49ers’ defense, specifically linebackers Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman, “two of the best in the game right now” as he puts it. Before that, it was Ray Lewis film with the Ravens. Spring ball mixed with 49ers and Ravens film had him focused on keeping his depth and playing patient. Let the ball take you where you need to go.
“There’s nothing wrong with looking at guys that are in places you want to get,” he says.
So he also looked to a former Husker linebacker from Kansas City in Blake Lawrence, founder of Hurrdat Social Media and Opendorse, the athlete endorsement platform that just connected with the NFL Players Association.
Since having his career cut short by concussions in 2009, Lawrence estimates he’s spoken to more than 50 groups of UNL students, from athletes to business students and aspiring entrepreneurs. Freshmen football players rarely have the initiative to approach him, Lawrence says. During Rose-Ivey’s first fall camp, Lawrence was called on to speak to the whole freshman class of 2012.
“It stood out to me that he would sit in the front and be attentive, but also be confident enough to come up and say, ‘Hey, I know that football’s not everything’ or ‘I know that sports won’t always be here,’” Lawrence says. “He was already asking, ‘Is there a way I could come work for you?’ Which shows that he has a great work ethic and shows he kind of understands what he has to do to prepare himself.
“He said, ‘What’s your phone number? Let me text you.’ I gave him my phone number, and before I got out to my car, he had already texted me, saying, ‘Hey this is Michael Rose, remember? I’d really like to come work for you sometime,’ and that stood out to me.”
It’s exactly the initiative Rose Sr. wanted to instill in his son, using the help of the people in Nebraska, investing in the success of the “N” on the side of the helmet. He’s learned the initiative, Rose Sr. says, it wasn’t a natural instinct for his son. Rose Sr. says he still wouldn’t put his son in the Imani Cross category of work ethic, but he’s immensely proud of his son seeking out Lawrence to look toward the future after Nebraska.
Rose Sr. shared the stories in a phone interview as he drove in his new Audi A8. Just a daily driver car, he says, not like the Cutlass he sold to keep his son in Rockhurst and out of the rough public school in his district. He’s in negotiations, too, for a 1971 Cutlass, one he’s already building an engine for.
“My dad’s a really initiative-driven person. He’s always tried to instill it into me,” Rose-Ivey says. “I’ve always been a kind of ‘wherever the wind takes me’ kind of person, so that was a big clash. Maybe that’s finally rubbing off.”
Grant Muessel is a staff writer for Hail Varsity magazine. This story and photos were originally published in Volume 3 Issue 3.
