Dave Feit's Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 34

Dave Feit is counting down the days until the start of the 2025 season by naming the best Husker to wear each uniform number, as well as one of his personal favorites at that number. For more information about the series, click here. To see more entries, click here.

Greatest Husker to wear 34: Trev Alberts, Outside Linebacker, 1990-1993

Honorable Mention: Dave Butterfield, Raymond Richards

Also worn by: Stewart Bradley, Drew Brown, Bill Callihan, Cody Glenn, Mike Green, Harold Holmbeck, Vershan Jackson, Tyreese Knox, Barret Liebentritt, Andy Means, Cameron Meredith, Terrell Newby, Simon Otte, Garrett Snodgrass, Randy Stella, Dennie Stuewe, Doug Wilkening

Dave's Fave: Alberts

This pick - like with Frank Solich at 45 - necessitates a reminder that our selection criteria are not determined by what happens after a player's college career ends.

But unlike Frankie - who remains a widely beloved figure within the Husker fan base despite being fired - Trev Alberts has had a much harder time keeping his Q rating up over the years. Here's a quick (and likely incomplete) version:

Injuries derailed his NFL career (he was the fifth overall pick, a selection loudly mocked by Mel Kiper, Jr.). As a college football commentator for CNN/SI and ESPN, Alberts seemingly went out of his way to not show a speck of bias toward his alma mater.

Trev Alberts pressures Kansas State quarterback Chad May in 1993. | Nebraska Football Media Guide

Alberts did many good things in his 12 years as the athletic director at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. At the top of the list is the move to Division I, and the addition of the popular and successful hockey program. But the means to that end - cutting the successful Maverick football and wrestling programs - along with the very unprofessional way he did it - cast a shadow over his tenure.

Alberts left Omaha to become the athletic director at his alma mater in Lincoln. In his 31 months on the job, Alberts did a number of good things. He was the driving force behind the record-breaking "Volleyball Day in Nebraska." Most (if not all) of Nebraska's biggest sports improved during his tenure. And he replaced the floundering Scott Frost with Matt Rhule, widely perceived as a home run hire.

But in March 2024, Trev Alberts left Nebraska to take the same job at Texas A&M with little warning or explanation. His reputation and respect within the fan base evaporated instantly. He will likely be forever vilified as "Traitor Trev."

So, yeah… to say that Trev Alberts is no longer a beloved figure in the state of Nebraska is an understatement.

Trev Alberts in action during his freshman season. | Nebraska Football Media Guide

Therefore, I will once again remind you that our focus is about what a player accomplished on the field during his career. With that in mind, Trev Alberts is one of the greatest Blackshirts in Nebraska history. Period.

Alberts was a two-time All-Big Eight selection. A first-team All-American. The Big Eight Player of the Year. His 1993 season, featuring a school-record 15 sacks, remains one of the greatest campaigns by a Blackshirt.

I’ll never forget how strong he was. Several times, he appeared to be blocked, or the quarterback looked like he was about to escape. Alberts would simply grab him with one arm and pull him down to the turf.

Alberts won the 1993 Butkus Award as the nation's best linebacker (the only Husker ever to win that award). In the 1994 Orange Bowl, he sacked Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Charlie Ward three times, despite having dislocated his elbow a month earlier. Trev's #34 is one of 17 retired jerseys at Nebraska. As such, his name will remain on the Memorial Stadium façade forever.

Nothing he did after graduation changes that.

If you want to forever hate Trev Alberts for how he left Nebraska, be my guest. I too was disappointed by his decision to leave, but I am willing to acknowledge the many good things he did as Nebraska's AD. Much like with the native son coach he fired, I'm can separate my feelings about the player from my feelings about the coach/administrator. If we're going to forever vilify one of them, my vote would be for the 16-31 coach we had to pay to leave, and not the guy who was so successful at Nebraska he was sought out by one of the biggest and richest schools in the country. But that's just me.

Trev Alberts definitely has been polarizing since his playing career ended, but there is no doubt that he is one of the all-time greats.

***

For a very long time, Nebraska's primary defensive formation was the 5-2. Five players at the line of scrimmage, two linebackers, and four players in the secondary. The coordinators changed over the years (Monte Kiffin, Lance Van Zandt, Charlie McBride) and some of the position names did too ("defensive end" became "outside linebacker," "monster back" became "safety," etc.) but the basic 5-2 structure existed for nearly the first 20 seasons of Tom Osborne's tenure.

The 5-2 was effective at stopping the run-based offenses of the Big Eight - even if it sometimes struggled with the Sooner wishbone. But as the 1980s ended, teams outside of the Big Eight were beginning to see cracks they could exploit.

Charlie McBride - Nebraska Football Defensive Coordinator — Longtime Nebraska defensive coordinator Charlie McBride. | Huskers.com

In 1989, Utah (then of the Western Athletic Conference) came to Lincoln for a nonconference game. Ute quarterback Scott Mitchell threw the ball an unheard-of 44 times, completing 26 for 297 yards and four touchdowns. The No. 4 Huskers survived a 42-30 scare. In 1991, Washington's Billy Joe Hobert led four touchdown drives in the final 16 minutes of the Huskies' 36-21 win. Hobert threw 40 times for 283 yards.

Nebraska's bowl games were eye-opening experiences - on both sides of the ball. In NU's bowl appearances at the end of the 1987-1991 seasons, Nebraska played Florida State twice and Miami twice.* The Seminoles scored an average of 36 points in their two Fiesta Bowl wins. The Hurricanes held Nebraska's offense to a total of three points in two Orange Bowl victories.

*The other bowl game in that stretch was the 1991 Citrus Bowl vs. Georgia Tech. The defense allowed 45 points to the eventual co-national champions. The 45 points set a program record for a bowl game (since tied in bowls after the 2012 and 2014 seasons).

In the Florida State games, defensive coordinator Charlie McBride learned that his 5-2 wasn't going to cut it against balanced and pass-first teams. In the Miami losses, McBride could see how the Hurricanes' speed at nearly every position caused problems for Nebraska's offense. Florida State and Miami were both running a 4-3 defense.

In 2019, McBride spoke to the Omaha World-Herald's Tom Shatel about what he was seeing. "When we played Miami and Florida State, we looked like a bunch of turtles on defense," McBride said. "They were flying all around. We needed to get some speed. And we needed to get pressure on the quarterback."

The bowl games against Miami and Florida State in the late 1980s were eye-openers for the Husker staff. | RVR Photos-Imagn Images

McBride started experimenting with a 4-3 defense as early as 1988. In Nebraska's 1988 game at Oklahoma, the Blackshirts used a defensive look they referred to as "Husker." It was essentially a 4-3. Nebraska won 7-3. It was the first time NU kept the Sooners out of the end zone since 1942. As we’ll discuss at #32, McBride was active in trying to get more speed on the field.

But the coming-out party for the 4-3 was against Colorado in 1992.* In 1991, the two teams fought to a 19-19 tie in Boulder. For the 1992 game, NU and CU were both ranked No. 8 when they met in Memorial Stadium for a nationally televised ESPN game. The Halloween game quickly turned into a house of horrors for the Buffaloes.

*Adding to the reasons for the switch: The week before the CU game, Missouri threw for a (then) opponent-best 480 yards on 29 completions (also an opponent record).

The first play of the game was an interception by Travis Hill. Colorado quarterbacks Kordell Stewart and Koy Detmer were a combined 12-24 passing for 136 yards and no touchdowns. They were intercepted three times, sacked five times, and probably still have nightmares about Trev Alberts and Hill pressuring all night long.

ESPN's Gary Danielson raved about the original Husker rush ends: "It's like having two sprinters coming around that corner."

Danielson again: "You know it's a bad sign when (Colorado's) offensive line is holding and (Nebraska's) still getting pressure." After a quarterback hurry, Danielson says "Guess who?" He and Brad Nessler say in perfect unison: "Trev Alberts." Danielson: "We say it in stereo because this guy is some linebacker."

Trev Alberts was the 1993 Butkus Award winner. | Nebraska Football Media Guide

The box score credits Alberts with only five total tackles (1 solo, 4 assist) but he was an absolute, unstoppable menace creating havoc wherever he went.

The 1991 Blackshirts, playing the 5-2 almost exclusively, finished 49th in total defense. The 1992 Blackshirts, who started to make the move to the 4-3 midseason, finished 24th.

In 1993, the 4-3 took off and Nebraska finished 12th in total defense as Alberts won the Butkus Award. The Huskers barely missed winning a national championship against Florida State - largely shutting down the offense that had given them fits in previous bowls.

Charlie McBride's Blackshirts were fourth in total defense in 1994 as Nebraska completed its unfinished business with Osborne's first national championship in a win over Miami, in Miami.

Defense wins championships.

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