The annual Husker spring game is a chance for the “Greatest Fans in College Football” to preview the Nebraska Cornhusker Football team. It gives the new recruits their first taste of game day at Memorial Stadium, and gives the fans a glimpse of what is to come in the fall.
This year’s game, however, was a little different. Instead of the traditional four-quarter game; there was a different approach to this year’s Huskers Debut. Head Coach Bo Pelini stopped the game multiple times and the players would all meet at mid-field to conduct drills, such as one where one defender was pitted against two offensive linemen to try to get past them to tackle the ball carrier. The team would then return to tradition scrimmaging.
Each Spring Game always produces it’s own stand out players and this year’s game was no exception. The player who stood out this year, however, was an unlikely one. In fact, he was a player not even on the roster, who scored the touchdown that is being hailed on ESPN as the best touchdown ever scored in college football. He is seven-year-old Jack Hoffman, a first grader in Atkinson Nebraska, and he scored the game-winning touchdown for the red team on a 69-yard touchdown run.
Jack has been embraced by Husker nation this past year, after former running back Rex Burkhead befriended Jack, and still remains a big part of the Team Jack campaign. Jack Hoffman has pediatric brain cancer, and is currently undergoing a chemotherapy regimen to hopefully stop the cancer.
The night before the spring game, Andy Hoffman, Jack’s dad received a call from the director of football operations at Nebraska, Jeff Jamrog. The Hoffmans were already planning to attend the game, but they had no idea that the Cornhuskers planned to let Jack play a down. In the fourth quarter Head Coach Bo Pelini decided to put Jack into the game. Jack ran on to the field with senior quarterback Taylor Martinez who got in the shotgun formation with Jack by his side. He snapped the ball and handed it off to Jack, who ran to the left, before being directed by Martinez to the opposite side where there were blockers leading the way for him. Jack broke through and scampered 69 yards for the touchdown. Both benches were emptied as the whole team went to celebrate with him. “It was all unscripted, other than us letting him score a touchdown,” Pelini said in an interview on ESPN. “Our kids running into the end zone, I never told them to do that. When I saw both sidelines empty and saw them celebrating with him, that was special. Our kids have been around this young man and have such a tremendous amount of respect for him and love him. He doesn’t say much, but he’s an intense kid. Obviously, he’s been through so much.”
Jacks touchdown run was featured on ESPN Sports Center throughout the day and even made the number one spot in the top ten plays of the day. Jack’s run was then voted as The Best of the Best, where it has remained for the past week. Different celebrities, in and out of the sports world, took to Twitter to praise Jack and Nebraska. ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit tweeted, “One of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time.” Erin Andrews, a sports reporter for FOX sports praised Nebraska saying, “I love Nebraska, Bo Pelini, and the fball team for allowing that little fan to have a moment like that today!” Celebrities such as Larry the Cable Guy also commented. “Jack got-r-done!” said Larry.
The Huskers caused something to happen that only happens every once in a while: they got the whole world to stop and watch a seven-year-old cancer patient have the most exciting moment of his life. On YouTube Jack’s video has garnered over 2 million views and is still climbing everyday. Jack, as Pelini put it is, “The toughest kid in Nebraska.”
