Ad blocker detected: Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker on our website.
Omaha World Herald on 2/17/12 wrote:Minter has desire to follow his dad
By Mike Schaefer
HuskersIllustrated.com
LINCOLN — Mike Minter Jr. isn't going to lie. He wants a football scholarship offer from Nebraska.
The 6-foot-1, 175-pounder moved from North Carolina to Lincoln North Star to get it. He's willing to learn cornerback for it. And his dad, Mike Minter Sr., was an All-Big 12 safety for the Huskers in 1996.
Saturday, the son will be among a glut of high school players attending NU's Junior Day — an open house designed to impress prospective targets for the 2013 recruiting class.
From that article, it sounds like the only way we have a chance is if NU doesn't offer. Even still, he may choose to walk-on. I'm sure his dad could afford to pay for his school for a year or two
That pretty well sums it up. Our only shot is if the Huskers decide he's not for them and his dad has an awesome experience at Liberty that makes it enticing for Junior. Just thought I'd add a thread since it could potentially be a source of conversation moving forward.
Minter forced to wait
Michael Minter did not get the scholarship offer he wanted in February.
Minter attended Nebraska's junior day and visited with several coaches, including Pelini. Mike Minter, the former all-conference defender who played on two national-title teams in Lincoln, was there, too.
They met in Pelini's office, and the coach's words were clear: Get your act together away from football, and you've got a spot in this recruiting class. Until then, no offer.
"I love what Bo told him," Mike Minter said, "because now it's not just dad who's telling him that. The head coach at Nebraska is saying it. He told him, 'You've got the name. You're one of the best athletes out there, but everything you do is going to be looked at.'"
High school has not been easy for Michael Minter. Uprooted from Concord (N.C.) First Assembly and separated from his father and younger brother, Minter moved to Lincoln less than a year ago. The elder Minter coached last year at Johnson C. Smith, a Division II program in Charlotte, after moving his wife, Kim, and Michael to Nebraska.
Mike Minter said he hopes to climb the coaching ladder quickly. He didn't want Michael along for that ride, so he searched for a solid place to move the family.
"A place like Lincoln," Mike said. "I knew it was a great place where you won't find a lot of trouble."
Kim's younger brother, Austin Rose, is already a sophomore at North Star, so it worked as a natural fit for Michael.
Mike, who will coach special teams this season at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., where former Nebraska quarterback and assistant coach Turner Gill is the head coach, talks to Michael almost every night and attended several games in Lincoln last season.
Though he rushed for 1,174 yards and fared well as a cornerback last season, Minter couldn't stay out of his own way. Disciplinary and maturity issues plagued his first year at the new school.
"One thing that's so hard for kids is to learn how to receive the praise," Mike said, "keep it balanced and keep it in perspective. This world doesn't revolve around you, and most teenagers don't understand that."
In his father, Michael has an impressive role model. Mike captained the defense at Nebraska and for the Panthers, starting a franchise-record 141 games in Carolina. He considered a run for U.S. Congress after his 2007 retirement.
"He's been brought up the right way," Lincoln North Star coach Mark Waller said. "His parents are good people. They have great character and standards. He just needs to figure it out. And he will.
"It's in Michael's corner. If he wants to play at Nebraska, it's up to him to do what we want him to do, and what his mom and dad want him to do. If he can behave right and associate with the right kind of people, things are going to work out for him."
Michael, at 6-1 and 175 pounds, may grow into the same kind of physical safety as his father. He has offers from Purdue and South Carolina in addition to Kansas before Gill was fired in November.
"I like running back better for high school," he said, "but I feel I'm a DB in college."
As for the college choice, father and son remain on the same page. If Nebraska offers, it's an easy decision. The younger Minter said he, too, appreciated Pelini's direct style in explaining the situation.
"He said they want me to come here," Michael Minter said. "You've just got to show us you want to come here. It made me think real good of him. He's going to tell me how it is. That's the kind of coach I want to play for."
- By thecomeback
- By jmclaughlin