Tad Stryker: An Interview With Jared Tomich

A scholastic casualty, he broke through barriers to become a difference-maker on defense for the Big Red in the mid-1990s

Steve Dunn/Allsport via Wibbitz

This is the second in a series in conjunction with Thursday night's premiere of the Nebraska football documentary "Day by Day: The Rise" about the Huskers' dominant run in the 1990s.

Jared Tomich walked on at Nebraska and became a starting defensive end in 1995 and 1996. The two-time all-conference performer was a first-team All-American and a Lombardi Award finalist as a senior. He was drafted by the New Orleans Saints, where he played four seasons, then went to Green Bay and played two more for the Packers.

Q. Where do you live today and what are you involved with?

Jared Tomich: We are near where I grew up, kind of north-central Indiana, about 45 minutes away from Purdue-Lafayette. I have a farm here, I’m married, we have two boys. About six years ago, we purchased a little hobby farm and have been plugging away and living the good life, lovin’ it.

Jared Tomich vs. Colorado in 1996 | Nebraska football media guide photo

Q. How did you get from a Chicago suburb in northwest Indiana to Lincoln as a walk-on?

JT: My story is a little bit of a different one in the path that I took. I was pretty fortunate, the strength coach from East Chicago Central used to be a strength coach at Nebraska. He happened to send a film of a game I played against them to Coach McBride, and he called me and said “We saw something on film and would like to talk to you.” I met Coach Osborne and the others. I had problems with grades and so forth, and I knew that with Coach Osborne and his pursuit of education, if anyone would help me, it would be Nebraska. I was a Prop 48 my first year and walked on after that, and that was my best offer.

Q. Coach Osborne, at least in your mind, was someone who cared about education?

JT: Right. I struggled with grades in school so I could even play sports. When I got to Nebraska, they helped me learn in the way I could learn best. I’m a very audible learner. They worked with the professors. I had trouble with written tests. The profs at the university were so great, and I would meet the professors back at their office, and they would read the test to me, and it would be untimed as well. That changed my whole world. They made sure I had extra time to take my tests, and I really started enjoying it. When you have to struggle, struggle, struggle, you don’t enjoy it. I started enjoying it and it changed the way I went through school. I went from not being able to hold a 2.0 to, by the time I left, I was on the dean’s list. It was evident to me that them putting the time in, it helped me make it work.

Q. What did you experience when you came to the Husker football program as far as high expectations and a winning attitude is concerned?

JT: It was like nothing I’d ever been around, I quickly learned the culture, quickly learned the pride and learned how big of a deal and what an honor it was to be there, and even have the position of trying to make the team, it was a big deal. That was all stuff that was taught to me by other players. It was nothing that came from the coaches, but it was the culture that was created by the coaches over a period of years.

Jared Tomich vs. Colorado in 1995. | Jed Jacobsohn /Allsport via Wibbitz

Q. What was a major turning point for you as a player, something that turned you personally toward success? How did the coaching staff play a role, and how did older players play a role?

JT: For me, the first time it started clicking that I was going to have the opportunity to play and have an impact on the team, was after my freshman year, my first spring ball, before the 1994 season. I kind of came out of my shell, had a very good spring ball and spring game. It was right after that that Coach Osborne offered me a full ride. It got exciting, I found out that I could play at this level.

Q. Who did you learn from?

JT: I was Dwayne Harris’s backup that year. Donta Jones and Dwayne Harris — I was in good company. I learned a ton that year. I got the opportunity to play and start developing into a leader.

Q. What things about leadership did you learn?

JT: There was so much from so many different avenues, whether it was the players before you, just by example, watching and learning from them, and how everything was about the team. There wasn’t a lot of individualism on the team. We were all playing for something much bigger than ourselves. That was through Coach Osborne’s coaching, really that wasn’t something we created. It was created years before our group got there. We just got the max benefit from it.

Q. How did you grow as a player and as a man while playing for the Huskers?

JT: Coach Osborne had an incredible way of building us up as young men, and putting us in positions to self-regulate and to be leaders among ourselves, with what we called the Unity Council. That was a group of players from each position who were the top guys, the top leaders at each position, and that’s who made the decisions for the team. It’s one thing to miss something, maybe a class, or if you didn’t have your grades high enough, it’s one thing to have to go to Coach Osborne’s or Coach McBride's office, it’s another thing to have to go to a group of your teammates and explain yourself. It’s very driving, at least it was for me, because we didn’t want to let each other down on the field. We didn’t want to let each other down off the field, either.

Jared Tomich vs. Michigan State in 1995 | Photo courtesy of Nebraska Athletics

Q. What was your favorite on-field moment as a Husker?

JT: It has to be the championship games (vs. Miami and Florida), being able to win those. Both of them had their levels of excitement, but to be able to do that and be a part of that, we had a pretty good idea of what we were doing and the things we were accomplishing at the time, but now it’s great to be able to look back and see how special a time it really was, and how the coaching staff did a great job of bringing together the right people at the right time to be able to accomplish that. That’s a difficult thing to be able to pull that all off, for that many years.

Q. What was your favorite off-the-field moment as a Husker?

JT: For me, getting my degree was pretty incredible. That was certainly one of the highlights of my career there at the university and not just accomplish that for myself, but to accomplish it for Coach Osborne. I knew how much that meant to him, so that was a huge moment for me. I was glad I got that out of the way (in December 1996), because to go into the NFL Draft and still have to go to school would have been extremely difficult.

Q. Speaking as a defensive player, what did Tom Osborne do best as head coach while you were there?

JT: I think one of the best things with Coach Osborne was he was such a glue for the players and the coaches and expected so much from us, individually, but he knew we had it in there, whether it was on the field or off the field. He knew what we were capable of. He was an incredible conduit to the team. That’s what the head coach should be. Sometimes the coach gets too caught up in the offense or the defense. He was everything to the offense and the defense.

Q. Are you coming to Lincoln for the film premiere?

JT: Yes, I’m bringing my family. For me, this is pretty exciting. My wife and kids never saw me play. So this is the next best thing for them to actually see me play on the field, is to have them be part of this event. I think they’re going to knock it out of the park. When I got goosebumps just watching the trailer, you know it’s going to be good.

Image: Daybydaymovie.com

• Wednesday: Tom Osborne interview
• Coming Friday: Grant Wistrom interview
• Over the weekend: Video & interviews from premiere night
• More about the series

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Highlight reel

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