Former Blackshirt & current governor
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00:00 Welcome to the Carriker Chronicles, the people show.
00:11 Checking the pulse of Mesoamerica brought to you by DPS Concrete Construction, your
00:15 local concrete expert.
00:18 Check them out at dpsconstruction.net.
00:21 I have a very special guest today.
00:23 Right before I bring him on, it's finally time.
00:28 It's arrived.
00:29 The site is here, ladies and gentlemen.
00:31 August 15th.
00:32 I've been talking about it for a couple of weeks, and I'm sure I'll talk about it a whole
00:35 lot more, but carrikerchronicles.com, easy for me to say, August 15th is here.
00:43 You can check out, of course, the Carriker Chronicles show, the Big Ten show, where I
00:47 have a whole lot of fun with my co-host, Jeff Turner, where the H is silent in his name,
00:51 93.7 The Ticket.
00:52 We got Carriker's crew with Ashley Spitznagel, all of her phenomenal art.
00:57 You got Connor Hayden of Corn Craze.
00:58 You got John Johnston of Corn Nation, who is not boring, quite entertaining.
01:03 We got merchandise stores.
01:04 We got highlight tapes.
01:05 We got features that are coming soon of former players from Where Are They Now?
01:10 We're going to be doing Fan of the Week sections.
01:12 All sorts of stuff.
01:13 I'm talking to Scott Strunk, possibly about Husker Hounds doing some stuff on the site
01:17 eventually as well.
01:19 Check it out.
01:20 It's finally August 15th, almost here, and arrived.
01:24 CarrikerChronicles.com.
01:25 First, it is time to bring on my special guest.
01:28 Now, this is a guy from Lakeview, Nebraska, the governor of the great state of Nebraska,
01:34 a former defensive back from 1975 to 1978.
01:38 A two-time first team All-Big-Eight performer, he played the monster, what a great name,
01:43 the monster position, a first team academic, All-American, Nebraska Football Hall of Famer,
01:49 and for those from my dad's generation who I heard about this a million times growing
01:53 up and I went back and watched it, he recovered Billy Sims in the 1978 game versus Oklahoma,
02:00 the Heisman Trophy winner.
02:02 The fumble of the Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims to seal Tom Osborne's first victory over
02:07 Oklahoma as a head coach in six tries.
02:10 They were number one that year.
02:11 Oklahoma, Nebraska took them down.
02:13 Mr. Governor of the state of Nebraska, Mr. Jim Pillen.
02:16 How you doing, my friend?
02:17 Jim Pillen (GM): Hey, Adam.
02:18 I'm great.
02:19 Thanks for having me on.
02:20 I feel like my life just passed before me there.
02:23 You know, any of us, for all of us who have had the privilege to wear the N, it's one
02:31 of those gifts that never goes away.
02:35 I think we all pinch ourselves and say, "How were we able to be a part of it?
02:41 How were we able to play for coach?"
02:45 Just a really, really awesome experience that never gets old.
02:48 Now, I agree with you on all of that, but when I was sitting down to prepare for this
02:53 interview, the first question that popped right in my mind, and I'm just going to read
02:57 it, is there anything you learned from your playing days at Nebraska that have helped
03:01 you when it comes to being Nebraska's governor now?
03:04 Oh, you know, honestly, everything.
03:08 Everything.
03:09 You know, things that stand out, obviously.
03:15 We learned extraordinary discipline playing for coach.
03:19 You do your single best every single day, and you give it all you have.
03:26 And that's a fundamental principle that stayed with me in life, and raising our family, building
03:34 our business, and couldn't be any more applicable being your governor.
03:38 It's such an incredible, incredible privilege to be the 41st governor of Nebraska.
03:42 It's seven months in, I still can't believe it, but we got our feet under us, we're going
03:48 hard, and we're giving it everything we have.
03:53 And sometimes that can be the challenge, right?
03:55 To win, we gave it everything we had, and sometimes we didn't have very good balances
04:00 competing athletes, and that's probably my biggest struggle, is saying no.
04:05 I can't be everywhere, and that's probably the hardest part.
04:10 We didn't learn how to say no with coach, right?
04:13 We just gave it all we had every single day.
04:16 That's a great point.
04:18 And we now have a new head coach, as everyone knows, Coach Matt Rule.
04:21 He's heading into year one under his tenure here at the University of Nebraska.
04:25 Now, however you want to take this, because some people go wins/losses, some people go
04:30 otherwise, but what would you consider to be a successful season for the Nebraska football
04:35 program this upcoming fall?
04:38 Well, I think that one of the things that we had that is fully much more appreciated
04:47 today is, we all had the gift of belief.
04:51 We believed, no matter who we played, that we were going to win.
04:56 I was recently in Colorado for a Governor's Conference, and I laughed about, and somebody
05:04 brought up Colorado football, and I said, "Well, back in our day, in my senior year,
05:08 we were down 14 points in the first quarter, 14-0, and we all just sat there and said,
05:14 'Don't worry, we'll kill these guys,' and we won 56-14."
05:18 And so, having that mentality, that takes time.
05:23 I was in the locker room with my senior year, where nobody had ever beaten Oklahoma, and
05:30 that is a mental process.
05:33 And so, I think a big win is, there's not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that they're
05:38 going to be physically tough, they're going to be mentally tough, they're going to be
05:42 able to compete.
05:43 Then the last piece is the belief that they can win, and that takes some success, that
05:49 takes some confidence, that takes some leadership, but that's the piece that I hope can happen
05:58 sooner than later.
06:00 I want to talk straight to the fans real quick for a second.
06:02 I almost forgot to mention this.
06:04 We've had some pretty cool guests here on the show.
06:06 If you've been following the Chronicles throughout the month of August, I've got eight total
06:10 interviews in a row that have been coming out, starting with Prince of Mukamar, then
06:14 Roy Hulu.
06:15 The past couple ones, if you've missed them, have been the GOAT himself, Coach Osborne,
06:20 and Marcus Satterfield, who's coming up next after this, followed by Larry the Cable Guy.
06:25 Can't forget my most recent interview, which is Tony White.
06:28 I know I'm jumping all over the place here.
06:30 But try to follow along as I try to sound coherent and have fun on this show.
06:33 But do me a favor.
06:34 If you've been excited about all these interviews throughout the month of August, Husker fans,
06:38 smash that like button.
06:39 YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
06:42 Now you brought up Colorado, okay.
06:44 We're playing Colorado week two, and I don't want to jump over Minnesota, but I'm going
06:48 to just for the sake of this interview real quick.
06:50 They got Coach Prime.
06:52 Something you never do as a player or coach, but I'm not in that position anymore, so I
06:55 can.
06:56 So here's the big question.
06:58 In Boulder, Coach Prime, Matt Rule, does Nebraska beat Colorado on that given day?
07:04 What's your prediction, sir?
07:06 Well, I have great confidence.
07:08 I will never go against the Huskers.
07:11 And when you just think about how hard Coach Rule and his staff work, and how much energy
07:20 they put into all aspects of these kids' lives, and just our culture of Nebraska football,
07:32 yeah, I'm a big time believer that we're going to go in there and do well.
07:39 Do you have a win/loss prediction for the Nebraska football team this upcoming fall?
07:46 I tell you what, Adam, I don't.
07:48 I haven't had the opportunity or taken the time to really go through the list of all
07:55 the teams that they play.
07:57 I do believe they're going to compete really, really well.
08:01 I think that they're going to do way better in the West than people are predicting.
08:07 But you know, it'll be really, I wish we had a game early at home to have a little more
08:15 of the Nebraska energy fan base behind us, because getting off to a good start will really
08:22 help that belief system.
08:24 How about this, do you think Nebraska will make a bowl game?
08:27 Yeah, I sure think so.
08:30 I'm very optimistic that they can get to that six-win mark, because, you know, again, it
08:38 gets back to, can they get to that confidence level to win?
08:41 They certainly have the talent, they certainly have the coaching.
08:45 If they can execute a lot of the things that's getting talked about, if the kids can start
08:51 buying into it, they'll do better than six wins.
08:56 What's been the biggest surprise for you since you've been the governor over the past seven
09:01 months?
09:02 What's been the one thing that's maybe surprised you the most when it comes to actually being
09:06 the governor of Nebraska?
09:07 What's surprised you about the job a little bit?
09:09 Not necessarily that it's bad, but just surprising.
09:12 Yeah, yeah.
09:14 Let me tell you that some people, number one, the most extraordinary piece is, countlessly
09:21 every day I have people coming up and saying, "Jim, I'm praying for you."
09:24 That's Nebraska.
09:25 People are so incredibly faith-filled, and it's overwhelming, you never get used to it.
09:35 The thing that some people can't believe, but it is, I don't have anything, I don't
09:43 allow any negative experience to take place.
09:46 I'm having the time of my life, and I'm working hard to be governor of all Nebraskans.
09:54 That doesn't mean we have to agree on everything, but we can have respectful ... I'm grateful
09:59 everybody's giving me a chance, and I'm not saying that's a surprise, but that's cool
10:07 stuff.
10:08 Nebraskans are incredible people, and the good news is we probably agree on at least
10:15 80%.
10:17 We believe in faith and family and hard work.
10:19 We believe in the American dream.
10:21 We believe in working hard to make things better for our kids.
10:25 We all believe in our kids.
10:26 Our kids are our future.
10:27 So there's a gob of things that we believe in, and believe it or not, the perception,
10:37 because two people filibustered this last session, we had a gob of issues that we had
10:44 46 votes.
10:47 So we had tons of issues that we had bipartisan support, and I didn't think that could happen
10:55 as quickly as it did.
10:56 So that was a little bit of a surprise.
10:58 I'm really proud of it.
10:59 >> Well, that's awesome.
11:00 Let's get to one more question, and you said you haven't shared this story very much.
11:05 So apparently something interesting happened to you on the day that you got your blackshirt,
11:10 a little behind-the-scenes story.
11:12 So go ahead and share that with the fine folks at home, if you don't mind, sir.
11:17 >> Yeah.
11:18, so I think that it all affects us all differently, but getting that blackshirt,
11:25 you know, it took three years, and I would have jumped off of buildings to get it.
11:32 And this was the cool thing about our culture.
11:36 This was the cool thing about playing for Coach Osborne.
11:39 I mean, we competed our tails off every day, year-round.
11:47 And when I got my blackshirt, it was just transformational.
11:52 What happened is, okay, my job now is to help seven guys under me take it away from me.
12:00 And that is the epitome of team.
12:03 And I think one of the things that was, after you reflect in your way, one of the key reasons
12:09 why we were so successful, there was no I in it.
12:14 This wasn't about me owning the blackshirt.
12:16 Now my job was to help everybody take it from me.
12:20 And that's why we had the teams we had.
12:22 It was pretty cool.
12:23 It was a cool, cool thing, and it's something that I've cherished.
12:30 >> So in your opinion, because every defensive coordinator does a little bit differently,
12:36 how do you think the blackshirts should be handled?
12:38 And kind of what I mean by that is, should they be handed out at the end of camp, after
12:43 a couple of games?
12:45 Should it be a limited amount of blackshirts?
12:46 Should it be all the starters plus a nickelback?
12:48 What are your thoughts on that?
12:50 Because that's always something every new defensive coordinator tries to figure out
12:53 when they get to Nebraska.
12:54 >> Yeah.
12:55 Well, I think everything changes.
12:57 And now, because of so much situational football, back in the day we had 11, 12 guys, and that's
13:07 the way it was.
13:08 I'd say that when you look at all the situational football, if there's 15 people that are relied
13:14 on for every, they play these sets, they're a blackshirt, they give it.
13:18 I'm a believer in the blackshirts.
13:20 I'm a believer that wearing them is an extraordinary privilege, and that it puts a little more
13:26 juice in every person's step.
13:28 Anything to keep a person helping kids be their best every day.
13:32 And I mean, I had my blackshirt taken off of me in the middle of a practice.
13:38 And that was not a good day.
13:41 That was not a good day.
13:43 I didn't think it was fair, but that's another story.
13:46 But you know, everybody does it a little differently, but I think wearing the blackshirts is, you
13:54 know, I was a blackshirt believer in the spring.
13:57 So you know who your 11 best are today, that matters today.
14:04 So I'm a believer in wearing them all the time.
14:08 But earning them every day.
14:10 And if you lose them, get with it.
14:13 They're not a rite of passage.
14:16 You compete for it every day.
14:17 So let me ask one more question.
14:19 So you talked about having it taken away in the middle of a practice.
14:22 How did you earn it back, the blackshirt?
14:26 You just, well you got one of two choices, right?
14:29 And the beauty, in retrospect, the beauty of that is you want to know who's with you
14:33 when it's down in the nitty gritty in the fourth quarter.
14:36 So you know, if you lose your blackshirt in the middle of a practice, what are you going
14:41 to do?
14:42 Are you going to throw it in a certain path?
14:43 Are you going to give it more and do the best you possibly can?
14:47 I chose to keep going and do the best I possibly could to earn it back, and I did.
14:52 All right, well I appreciate your time.
14:54 Thank you for joining me.
14:56 And all you fine folks at home, do me a favor.
14:59 Again comment below.
15:00 Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.
15:02 All right, let me know any questions you'd like me to ask my upcoming guests.
15:06 Marcus Satterfield, Larry the Cable Guy.
15:09 Let me know your thoughts on the blackshirts.
15:11 You know, do you agree with the governor?
15:14 When they should be handed out?
15:15 How many should be handed out?
15:16 How they should be handled in general?
15:18 Okay.
15:19 And let me know, are you excited about the Carriker Chronicles website?
15:22 Because I know I am.
15:23 I am.
15:24 This thing's been, we've been working on it for months.
15:25 So simply comment yes or no.
15:27 Let me know.
15:28 And until next time, Husker Nation, Go Big Red!
15:30 And always remember, throw the bones, Adam.
15:33 Throw the bones.
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