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Because so many Nebraska sons from hidden corners would think of playing nowhere else, the "walk-on" yield of tryouts is bountiful. This is what expands the university's football-playing population to sometimes well beyond 250. Of the 95 to 105 players who dressed for home games this year, as many as 45 were former applicants who arrived at the school without any promises. Many walk-ons are eventually tendered scholarships, but at the moment three senior starters are paying their own way: Fullback Mark Schellen, Tight End Monte Engebritson and Middle Guard Mike Tranmer, a defensive co-captain. "I just wanted to start one game," says Schellen, who finally succeeded at that in the Orange Bowl last season. Now he is the blocking back for Rozier and says, "Even though I don't get the ball that much, when I've blocked well, I'm fully satisfied."
In the lavish weight room under the west stands, Schellen is a legend exceeding even departed Center Dave Rimington, that great tract of beef who was the Cincinnati Bengals' first draft choice this year. Restyling his bulk from 260 Ibs. to 219 Ibs., Schellen has bench-pressed 475
Ibs. and lifted 955 Ibs. in the clutches of a medieval-looking leg rack called a hip sled. Both are school records. On top of all this, he trails just a blink or two behind Irving Fryar in the 40-yd. dash. Schellen will be a professional football player. Mike Tranmer, also an enthusiast of weights, will not be. "If I was 6 ft. 4," says Tranmer, who weighs 230 Ibs. but is only 5 ft. 11 in., "I think I still wouldn't want to play pro. Football has been great, but it's almost over for me, time to move on."
Tranmer and his wife will return to a farming life in Lyons, a town of 1,214 some 80 miles north, and try to make enough money in hogs to pay the student loan he has taken out for tuition every year. "As long as I played football for Nebraska," he says, "that's all that concerned me. I'm fulfilled."
The small matter of the Orange Bowl remains. In the University of Miami, Nebraska meets a most suitable opponent Jan. 2. For a time, Texas, the only other undefeated team, was inspiring those irrepressible entrepreneurs who rise up every year and propose a college championship game. If lacking offensively, the Longhorns seem to be the defensive flip side of the Cornhuskers, and were widely admired by the New York Times computer, which uses bloodless logic. "I can promise you one thing," Texas Cornerback Mossy Cade said eloquently several weeks ago. "It would not be a high-scoring game." However, when Texas could barely beat Houston and T.C.U., the computer transferred its affections to Auburn, which had lost to Texas.