Garrett Nelson first thought his parents were crazy, but then the Nebraska commit laid out all the pros and cons before ultimately making a decision.

Nelson will never again don the Scottsbluff head gear and singlet. A Class B champion is passing on the thrill of defending a title next year. Instead, the longtime wrestler, the son of a Nebraska wrestler, now plans to enroll early at Nebraska next January and chase his dream of earning a Blackshirt.

Nelson, who committed under the previous staff but quickly found a rapport with the new one, is working toward graduating in December.

“My goals in football are bigger than high school wrestling.” he said. “I want people to remember me for my career and hopefully beyond, and not my high school wrestling season.”

The driving force behind the decision is Nelson can’t imagine spending a day on the sidelines, let alone a redshirt year.

“I’ve always been a starter or a huge contributor on every team I’ve ever been on,” he said. “Picturing myself sitting on the sidelines and not doing anything kills me. I don’t like that image at all.”

It’s not that the defender thinks he’s going to come in and set Lincoln on fire, far from it, but Nelson wants the spring to work the kinks out, learn the system and grow into the college player he’s already working toward becoming.

“I’m going to be seven months ahead of the guys who come in the summer and that’s a huge advantage for me if I want to play,” he said. “I have a thing, where I know I’m a young player and I expect to go down there and dominate, but realistically I’m going to make a lot of mistakes. I’m going to get chewed out. I understand that. Being a young player down there and getting that experience ahead of guys in my class is huge for me and that’s part of the reason. I get the first part of college practice out of the way, settle in and play the spring game.”

Nebraska views Nelson as a 3-4 outside linebacker and this past weekend at the spring game the staff spent some time talking with the defender about his role and what the position means to the totality of the defense.

“My position is a big part of how the rest of the defensive scheme runs,” he said. “If I’m in a cover two, if I’m blitzing, if I have flats or the responsibility of the running back or quarterback, how I move, then it sets the scheme for the cover guys and how different the coverage is for them.”

In a lot of ways, Nelson’s story is one of the highlights of the old staff and even defensive coordinator Bob Diaco. The Scottsbluff native came to Nebraska’s camp, worked out on a Friday, caught the attention of Diaco, was encouraged to workout for Friday Night Lights and then as the event came to a close he landed an offer.

At the time Nelson was so overcome with emotion he needed a minute to process it all. The Huskers were offering him a chance. A short time later he committed, and never looked back. Even with the staff change, Nelson’s bond to Nebraska grew stronger as did his commitment to success.

Now that he’s been committed for awhile, Nelson wants to do whatever he can to help the team achieve success and find personal success along the way.

“I’m one of the only Division I athletes out here (western Nebraska),” Nelson said. “It’s great that I’ve earned the scholarship, but now I’ve got to do something with it. I don’t want people remembering me as a guy who just went to Nebraska. I want to be Garrett Nelson, good linebacker, leader of the defense, maybe even captain of the team. That’s what drives me. That’s what compels me to work even harder after I received the scholarship.”