Filed by Rich Kaipust at 10:15 p.m.
Before center Jacob Hickman ever started 33 games at Nebraska, before ever playing in the first of his 40 as a Husker, the senior went through a humbling process that he still remembers vividly four years later.
Hickman was part of the highly touted 2005 recruiting class when he signed with players such as Marlon Lucky, Ndamukong Suh, Harrison Beck, Leon Jackson and Phillip Dillard.
Because he was coming off two surgeries and weighed about 235 or 240 pounds, however, it was decided that Hickman would grayshirt. No big deal, he thought.
That was until Hickman arrived and found that he not only couldn't practice with the Huskers, he basically wasn't part of the team at all as he attended school part-time. He was given a lifting regimen but had to carry it out on his own at the student rec center.
"It was unfortunate that the setting wasn't what you hoped for, not to be around the team,'' Hickman said. "But I think it's something that kind of made me stronger and told me what I had to do. Where I was starting was a little bit lower on the totem pole.''
It turned pretty quickly for Hickman, who went on scholarship in January 2006 and eventually made more out of his Husker career than a good chunk of those 2005 signees. He even started once as a true freshman in 2006 before pretty much becoming a regular the following season.
Did he ever wonder if it might turn out this way?
"You kind of get frustrated and maybe even kind of doubt yourself,'' Hickman said. "But don't let me fool you, I'm still about as arrogant as anybody else. Deep in the back of the head it was like, ‘Aw, I'm going to do it all,' but there are times where you wonder, ‘Hey, maybe I'm not as good as I think I am and maybe I won't play.'
"I just had a lot of guys help me out my freshman year and help me come along. And once I started playing, I kind of knew I could be playing a lot.''
Hickman will play one final time at Memorial Stadium on Saturday night, along with 12 other seniors. Look for a story in the Friday World-Herald about the veteran from Bakersfield, Calif.
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