1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - January 3rd, 10:25am - Vershan Jackson joins DP

Episode Date: January 3, 2022

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You're listening to one-on-one with DP. Sponsored by Beatrice Bakery. On 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Welcome back to one-on-one, 93-7, The Ticket, 4-6-8-5. Starter Lincoln Hotline. Honolinkin Hotline. You can text in. This is the one where he literally ran through the station like John Sina

coming down to the ring. He flexed on him for a little bit. Got in the ring and said, I'm ready. Let's bring in a three-time national champion. Let's bring in the captain. Let's bring in the Sean Jackson. How you do it, bro? Man, I'm awesome, man.

It's great just to be heard from. Right? Yeah, man. You know, they'll dig a whole 12 feet deep and put you in alive and just say, sit there. Friction is required for greatness. Hey, man, that's how diamonds are made. Right? Like friction.

was required and people said, okay, you need to fill the line up, you need a spot. And I said, I need to hear from people who have something to say that's their own. Sure. From their own experience, their own knowledge, their own space in this thing, right? That not everybody can tell me what it's like to play in a national championship game. Not everybody can tell me what it's like to be on the bottom end of a roster and fight your way to the top. Not everybody can, right, can go to, can say that they know where the bottom is.

It's hard of a line. You got to think about, everybody thinks about the king of the jungle when he's there. He's got a big man. He's running the pride. But he had to get there. He got kicked out of a pride. He had to go through some things to get back, to know how to take back over the pride. So, you know, sometimes, you know, it's just my, my grandpa says the son,

shines on the dog's butt twice sometimes. Look, every blue moon. Right, but through all of this, right? When I got the word that I need to fill a spot, like I need to give the microphone to somebody. And it's like the old cultural thing, the hip-hop thing, where he has to grab the mic, he has to grab the mic session. And he got people over and go, well, who do people want to hear from?

and I thought you and your contact base, you and your Rolodex, I'm old school, you and your roller decks, of people that you can have conversations with on a day-to-day basis that are important to Husker fans, there are people that we want to do it and then the people that need to do it. I think you need to do this. I think this validates your place in this space. and I'm looking forward to what you do every day from 11 or 2. Absolutely.

I look forward to it. It's a big time major opportunity. And, you know, we got a lot. I call them the others. You know what I mean? There's a lot of others that play for Nebraska that needs to be heard. They got something to say. They understood what it took in order to win national championships.

And in order for us to get back, I think we need to know. We got to know our history so that we can repeat our history. We got to know it, though. If we don't know it, then we have no idea where we're going. Well, you and Jay and Strick can hold people accountable for things that I can't hold them accountable for. Right. And you will lead us in celebrating the things that we need to celebrate. Like when we see something good, you see something good, you say something good.

Well, coming from you, when it says, hey, this is a good thing, we can all kind of stick our chest out a little bit going forward. Let's go back before we go forward. Tell the story of you young, Sean, and how you end up as a Nebraska cornhusband. You know, I grew up in Nebraska, Omaha, in projects, of course. And I was blessed enough to have the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program. Shout out to now teammates, Coach Osborne in them. Shout out to that program. But I had a great big brother who kind of took some time with me, you know, even though he was of the opposite color.

he came to the projects to pick me up, you know, he took me, he showed me a different life. He said, listen, I tell you what, I have a deal. If you do well in school, I'm going to take you to Nebraska football camp. Well, come on. I'm five years old. I've always wanted to be a husker. So to go to a game in that sense, and to not only go to the game, but to go to football camp, it just lit me up.

It made me feel like, okay, I got to get my grades, and that's what I went and did. ninth grade year. I came down. I went to football camp. I had to go up against a guy named Troy Dumas. We got to talk about that too when we talk to Troy. But I'm a ninth grader. He's a senior.

He's coming to Nebraska. And, you know, the heart of a champion says, you're going to get run over. You're going to get truck, okay? But you know what? At least stick your head in there and act like you've been there before. No matter what the outcome is, still stick your head in there, stick your nose in there. And that's what I did.

and Coach Steele brought me back to the bus because, you know, back in those days, you took the Greyhound bus everywhere. So we back to the bus station, I told them I'll be back in three years. I'll be back as a player. And I had a pretty good season at South High School. We went four and five,

which was a winning record for us. You know, and then the next year we went five and four. So we had a pretty decent team. I had a decent year. And the rest is kind of, So I was on my way to Iowa. It seems like Iowa was stealing a lot of players from our own backyard. And I was on my way to Iowa.

And, you know, I want to go to Nebraska. They don't know if I'm fast enough. I still want to go to Nebraska. But Iowa's really court me. Hayden Fry. All these guys are like, we really want you to come to Nebraska. Come to Iowa, come to Iowa. I had a basketball game on Friday.

I'll never forget this. And Dave Triplets, the run-a-back coach. He's like, I don't know how he caught winning. end of it, but I'm supposed to go see the five on Saturday. He comes to my basketball game because that morning, I get a phone call from Coach Solis. He says, hey, we want you to be a husker. And I'm like, oh, yes. Dang, no, wait, yes.

Because, you know, when you get that phone call, everything goes out the door, even though Iowa treated me with a lot of respect and a lot of dignity and said, we really want the fact that I was a Husker through and through since I was five years old, it kind of threw everything out the door and said, okay, we got to go to Nebraska. So, you know, I'm a young kid. The Fab Five is bawling. I was supposed to go to my, so I go to Coach Solis.

I had to call him back and I say, hey, coach, man, I want to go to my recruiting trip to Iowa. And he says, yeah, if you go to that trip, we'll pull the scholarship. So, you know, in that sense, I love it. I love the fact that, you know, I wanted to see the FAB 5, but I wanted to be Husker first. Husker time first. And so, you know, I did that and I accept it. And lo and behold, so we had a lot of good players, 1993. You know, Scott Frost was in that class.

And he was the biggest thing since Elvis Presley around here. I'm telling you, because we hadn't had a quarterback to come out like him that's from the state in a long time. that's from the state in Nebraska. So for him, you know, for me it was great that he went to Stanford because I got that last scholarship. You know, so, and I'm also appreciative for Scott coming back because I don't think we would have won the championship without Scott and him going through what he went through in 95 and then, you know,

struggling in 96 early and then finding some success, but then also coming back in 97 and winning. But that tells you how good of a team we had back then. So, you know, I was blessed enough to be able to play for Nebraska. I played in a great time, a great, great years. I had to go against the great Trev Alberts. That's the only reason I came in as a fullback. I played running back in high school.

Came in as a fullback. They put me through, you know, I had like Corey Schlesinger, who is one of the baddest fullbacks to ever put the pads on. To me, he's in my top three at Nebraska to put the pads on. but, you know, you have him pounding on you every day. You know, and back then you talk about that trial by fire. There wasn't a lot of true freshmen who played as true freshmen when I came through. You had your one and done.

You had your one and twos. You had your Leslie Dennis's. You had your Lawrence Phillips when I played. You had your, I think, Ralph Brown played as a true freshman. You've had your guys who play as true freshman. But at Nebraska, it was such a culture of there's five people ahead of you, and they're all jacking in for the number one spot. They might not be good enough, but, boy, they're trying.

So to have to go through that and go from one position, running back to fullback to, okay, you're on scout team now. You're on scholarship. We don't care, but you're on scout team. It never once crossed my mind to go to a different school. Not one time did it ever cross my mind. I'm going to transfer portal. Now, listen, the transfer portal ain't never went anywhere.

It's been here. That's how Scott got back. Transfer Portal. The only difference is they had to sit out a year, whereas now, because of COVID and everything else, you walk right into a team. So for me to be on scout team for two years, not one, but two years. And we're talking about going against the real black shirts. When I say real black shirts, I'm talking about the guys who would hit you. in the mouth and not even know your name, not help you up, not do anything, even though

its practice is their game. And so when you have that, you know, I kind of start competing because, you know, I had the Christian Peters, you know, I whammed him one time and he beat me smoothed down. Like, you little freshmen, I dare you chop block me. How dare you? How dare you? And I said to myself, after that beat down, that I would never get beat down again.

I don't care if his practice, it didn't matter what it was. He taught me how to be tough. Christian Peter. That was, and it was because he beat me down that I said, never again will I get treated like that. And I'm going to compete every day at practice. Like, it's my game because, you know what? For two years, it was my game.

But see, so we're talking to Vachan Jackson. Again, captain, three-time national champion. He will take over from 11 and 2 every day here on 9th. It's having the ticket. As you talk about that, right? That it was not only accepted, but it was how business was done, was that this program created people

who showed up for game day five days a week just to get to Saturday. Absolutely. You can't, listen, you can't show up on game day without practice days. It just doesn't work like that. You have to the ability, the will to prepare to win has to be greater than the will to win.

Let me say that one more time for you. People want to write it down. The ability to prepare to win. The will to prepare, how you prepare, it has to be greater than the game. Yeah, the want to win, everybody wants to win. Not everybody was willing to do the work that guarantees the win,

or at least allows you the opportunity. to win. And I think within the program, and as the program sits currently, that, wow, what shows up on Saturday may indicate that that doesn't exist currently. Is that a fair statement? Absolutely. I mean, you've got to, you play the way you practice, period, point blank in the discussion. You know, you talk about change and change is good. I think Coach Frost and the boys are making great changes. I love the offensive hires. I think it's going to be a fantastic season. But we, we, have to have the ability to tweak what we're doing to better the entire team to better the organization. It might not look good at the time, but through the fire, through the time, through the practice, eventually you'll get a diamond out of it. But you got to practice the better, harder than the game.

The games were so easy for us. And I mean that. The games were, I'm not just saying that. The games were easy because you knew in practice. every day you're going to run 140 plays. It didn't matter that you was Joe Schmo, Vashon Jackson from Omaha South, walking in here, you got you rush for all these yards.

You're just an average Joe now. What are you going to do to separate yourself? Well, that took me having to line up at tight end and go against Treve I was against Slung all over the place. That took me to go against Dwayne Harris. That took me to go against some of these guys who, Ed Stewart, you know, Toby Wright. Baron Miles.

They took me having to go against the Terry Canelies. Now, I didn't have to get in there that far, but my point is, if they got a chance to tackle me, to slam me to the ground, that's what they're going to do because they had to practice tackling in practice. So then when they practiced tackling and practice, in the game, they didn't, like, arm tackle, go high.

They knew how to do the technique. Well, plus they were doing it. I always thought practicing against somebody who was better than you. Or at least they respected you, but there was also a certain level of disrespect. Because the guys in the black shirts that you faced were about their business. They had a high mission. Like they weren't allowed to go and ponder 500 football. Oh, no.

No, that wasn't a part of the deal. So when you hear people talk about in the current form that six, wins would be enough. What, what do you say? Come on, D.P. You're playing with me now,

right? You're playing with me, man? Like, I don't understand. You got to be playing with me, man. I don't understand. I hear it every day. You got to be playing.

I hear it every single day. On no level, okay, I coached Little League football. I started two Little League football programs, one in Omaha, one in Lincoln. And we won championships.

And on no level to six games say that you're, you've arrived. If you only win six, that's not arriving. Listen, I'll take you back. Just, Judy, just a second. I will take you back to not too many years ago we had a coach named Bo Pellini. It wasn't very fan-friendly or media-friendly because of just who he was as a defensive coordinator.

He was a defensive player. Those guys are cut different. Coach McBride's cut different. Right. Okay? They're cut different. but he won nine games every single season. But it wasn't enough then.

It depends on who it wasn't enough for. I'm a fan now. It was enough. It was enough. It was enough. Nine wins, man. Nine wins, it is the universe that this program's not close to. Listen, three and nine, nine and three.

That's light years away. Right. Like there's a difference. When people say they're close, I understand the base level, the mentally lazy thinking behind that, which is a play here or a play there. But it's a bunch of plays consistently. And the consistency is the greater story that you constantly find a way not to get done

what you need to get done. And that applies whether it's football, basketball, baseball. Like folks say, well, you take it easy on the basketball program. No, I do not. No. You are who you are until you change it. and the change requires in removing the BS at practice. Gary Pippen?

Is that the, what coach was he? Pepin's a track coach. He's a track coach. At the time, how long is Coach Cook being here? 20, what's it? 21? Yeah. 22?

Yeah. 21 and 22 years. Consistency. He's been here since 2000. Consistency. See, he knows. Everybody wonders how in the world has he gotten these volleyball players to play over 20 years span at a high level.

Still. Can't try to say, oh, the kids are different. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He has a formula. It worked. And he works his formula. He who fails to plan, plans to fail. So to me, you have to figure out what was the glue, what was the concoction that made the pie

smooth in order to get it back to where it's at. Oh, by the way, the pie was smooth, uh, frack. Yeah, but oh, he made sweet potato pie for listeners. I'm just going to say this to you. Uh, go and find for Sean and make sure, get some of his sweet potato pie. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, me to you, that's a love statement. Uh, you need to find this man and, uh, you, you need to, you need to do this. A hundred year old recipe.

That thing's, well, see, but that, that's the point. That's the point. Right there. that through all, you've got to make mistakes, you've got to err, and then once you figure it out, you have to stay true to it. Yeah, and people learn differently, okay?

So my grandfather had a third grade education. He died about 10 years ago. He was 98 years old, right? He made the pie all the way up until he died now. You know, we would come in the kitchen, he'd be making pies, and by the time he gets done, it's like an explosion went off,

but the pies were just like that, probably better, okay? Big-time pies. Sweet potato pie. Sweet potato pies, okay, the best thing. So he would never let you come in the kitchen and write it down. You could never say, hey, grandpa, I'm going to come in the kitchen while you make the pies and write it down. Why? Because he was going to put you to work, doing something.

So you weren't going to have time to write anything down. You had to pick up the pie recipe as you went. You had to pay attention. And it had to matter. It had to matter. Got to pay attention. And he showed us through what he did. He showed my brother.

My brother got it. My uncle got it. Certain people my son knows how to make it not as good. His consistency ain't good yet. He don't know how to make the consistency. But he hadn't been through what your grandfather went through. He ain't been through what his dad went through. Right, right, right, right.

Well, that's what what Kobe said. You know, my kids are going to be, like, I was poorer than my kids, but my kids are going to be super poor years from now because they didn't have to go through what I had to go through to get great. Friction is required. It really is. This is this program's friction. They thought the friction.

was losing a big game on national TV. That wasn't a statement of truth. The friction becomes here at the bottom where you either have to use it as leverage, you have to use it as something to bounce off of, and the real greatness is you have to bounce back greater than the depths to which you fell. That's the whole point of rebound and jumping.

but you, about how far you fall, greatness requires that you bounce back greater. And some of that requires that somebody's there to set the guide for how this thing is going to be done. I'll ask you over the course that we got two minutes here. We got two minutes here. Who's more important to the football season? Treve Alberts or Scott Frost?

Ooh. Ugh. Hey, man. You didn't tell me how I was going. You tell me I was getting in the room with Bud Crawford. You know what I'm saying? Hey, hey, hey. You didn't tell me I had to switch my style up in order to be him.

Hey, hey. They don't, I don't know why people don't know that. You got to switch your style to be Bud Crawford. But Trev Alberts or Scott Frost, you can't have one without the other. Sorry, you can't. You, in order to be successful, they're going to have to figure out a way to work together. And they're going to have to make this thing in the right way. Ultimately, because it's Coach Frost is his deal.

It's his deal. It's his deal. He was there before Trev got there, and I think that at the end of the day, Trev has to be at 50,000 feet because there's way more athletics than just football that he has to look. Now, he's to fix football.

It's to help fix it. But helping fixing football is not as hard as we think. It's just a couple of ABCs of football. ABC. That's the first thing you, normally we teach our kids. One, two, three, ABC's fundamentals. So there's some ABCs that I think, If we can get those things into control, meaning the blocking and tackling correctly,

meaning staying off sides, on sides when you're on offense, not jumping when you're on defense, not making the bonehead plays that we've made, not being going into a, if you're tied up, you have the ball, we're in their territory, and then we put up an errant pass that has no idea where we're throwing it. We're throwing a triple coverage. those are the things that we can take care of as players that they have to take care of that I think you might have been nine and three

because we're in every game. I like that we're in every game. But at the end of the day, three and nine is our record. That's who we are. That's what we have to fix. I'm going to say this before we go to break. Being close is like being in the bar

Friday night when it's a poppy. And you dancing with the girl, the real hot girl you dance with her all night all night you buying her drinks all night and then at the end of the crib end of the night

high state come in and take your girl and you have wasted your money yeah it was cool to be there you had a good time being seen with the hot check but in the end Bubkis zero

nada that's the line you're in the bar, you can get the girl to dance with you. You got to figure out how to close because that's the most difficult thing in all the sports. Absolutely. Closing is it. We'll throw the break.

We'll come back. We'll close out this segment and finish up one-on-one, and then I'm going to hand it over. I'm going to hand it over to Rashan and let him carry you to 2 o'clock. I think we do that. Rico, I'm going to ask you again. One more question. One more time.

One more thing to ask for Sean when we come back. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to One-on-One with Deep on 937 the ticket and the ticketfm.com.