Dave Feit's Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 11 - Jerry LaNoue

The tremendous teams of the Dana X. Bible era and the legend of Matt Turman

Counting down the greatest Nebraska football players by jersey number. | HuskerMax

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 11: Jerry LaNoue, Halfback, 1933-1935

Honorable Mention: Austin Allen, Matt Herian, Robert Mehring, John Pucelik

Also worn by: Cethan Carter, Joe Chrisman, Braxton Clark, Ira Cooper, Mark Dowse, Joshua Fleeks, Currenski Gilleylen, Andrew Green, Neil Harris, Boaz Joseph, Cameron Lenhardt, Terry Luck, Jeff Quinn, Casey Thompson, Matt Turman

Dave's Fave: Matt Turman, Quarterback, 1992-1996


Pop quiz: What does the "X" in Dana X. Bible stand for?

Xavier? Xander? Xylophone?

In this case, X stands for Xenophon.

Xenophon of Athens was a Greek military leader, philosopher and historian. (Bible's father was a Greek scholar and a professor at a college in Tennessee.)

Dana Xenophon Bible of College Station, Lincoln and Austin was a American football leader, T-formation pioneer and coach of some of the greatest teams in Nebraska's history.

Coach Dana X. Bible | University of Nebraska

From 1925 to 1928, Nebraska was coached by Ernest Bearg. His teams went from 4-2-2 in 1925 to 7-1-1 in 1928, winning the inaugural Big Six championship. Despite the steady growth and success, Nebraska fans were critical of Bearg. Husker fans felt Bearg's style relied too must on brute power. They clamored for a system with more strategy and deception. Bearg grew so tired of fan complaints that he resigned and returned to his first job at Washburn College in Kansas. His winning percentage at Nebraska was .742.

*I don't know which amuses me more - Nebraska fans of 100 years ago not wanting to run the dadgum ball, or the parallels between Bearg and some modern Husker coaches whose successes were not good enough for vocal fans.

Are there any secret recordings of Bearg sharing his uncensored thoughts on Nebraska fans?

After Bearg, Nebraska tried to hire Knute Rockne from Notre Dame. Rockne passed, but he recommended Texas A&M's coach: Dana Xenophon Bible. In 11 seasons at A&M, Bible had won 5 conference championships. The 1917 and 1919 Aggie teams were undefeated, winning their games by a combined score of 545-0. A&M's fabled "12th Man" tradition was born during Bible's tenure. A 5-4-1 record in 1928 might have helped Bible believe a change of scenery could do him good.

Early in his Nebraska tenure, Bible traveled the state selling his vision and asking for support from fans. Historians say this is when the Cornhuskers went from "the university's team" to "Nebraska's team."

In Lincoln, Bible was very successful. His teams - often referred to in the press as the "Biblemen" - won the conference in six of his eight seasons. Bible coached some of the program's all-time greats. Seven of his players have previously been honored in this series. An eighth - Gerald "Jerry" LaNoue - is today's honoree.

Jerry LaNoue, Nebraska halfback. | University of Nebraska

On his very first carry as a Cornhusker, sophomore LaNoue scored a 13-yard touchdown against Texas in 1933.

LaNoue had excellent speed and was elusive in the open field. This made him a tremendous return man.

The Cornhusker yearbook described his exploits in the 1934 opener against Wyoming: "Jerry LaNoue was the individual star of the game for the Cornhuskers although he did not score during the afternoon. Getting his first try at returning punts, he dazzled the spectators with runbacks from ten to thirty yards at a clip on twisting, twirling spins down the field, and sped off-tackle and around end for gains that set up the pins for the other scores."

Unfortunately, LaNoue broke his collarbone in practice the following week and missed the remainder of the season. The team went 5-3 without him on the field, the worst stretch of LaNoue's three years on varsity.

When he was on the field, LaNoue was a great complement to other Biblemen stars like George Sauer, Lloyd Cardwell and Sam Francis. "Short and stock, Jerry ranks as one of the finest broken-field runners on the squad, is an excellent passer, and a fair kicker," wrote the Daily Nebraskan. The Omaha World-Herald was a little more blunt, referring to the 5'9," 165-pound LaNoue as "the Wisner midget." LaNoue was an All-Big Six pick in 1935.

Cornhusker fans who wanted more strategy and deception got what they were looking for with Bible's offense. His teams utilized passes, laterals and early versions of the option with LaNoue pitching the ball to Sam Francis before being tackled. The Huskers were stout defensively, shutting out 28 of the 73 teams they faced.

Dana X. Bible's 1935 Cornhuskers were known for lateraling anywhere on the field. | The Evening Standard (Uniontown, Pa.) • Newspapers.com

In the season after Jerry LaNoue graduated (1936) Nebraska went 7-2 and was ranked No. 9 in the first season-end AP poll. In January 1937, Bible received a 20-year, $15,000 contract to become the head coach at Texas. Bible - who was also Nebraska's athletic director from 1932-1936, stuck around to assist in the search for his replacement: Maj. Lawrence "Biff" Jones. Jones would lead Nebraska to its first bowl game in 1940.

Bible was 50-15-7 in his eight seasons in Lincoln.

Bible's winning percentage at NU (.743) is just one point higher than that of Ernest Bearg (.742), the "unpopular" coach he replaced.

***

"Be ready. You never know when we'll need you."

Those words, said to millions of players on thousands of depth charts at every level of the game, are true. You never know when - or how - your chance is going to come.

Even I - a slow and unathletic lineman - heard those words from my high school coaches. Although in my case, "be ready" was less about anticipating an opportunity for me to contribute, and more of a substitute for "focus and pick up the intensity" in practice.

I've often wondered what the Nebraska coaches would say during practices to the players well outside of the top two units. "I know you've been getting mauled by Ndamukong Suh and Jared Crick every day for two months. But if we score 50 points on Saturday, you might play a few snaps in the game. Be ready!"

I'm not saying Matt Turman could relate to this at the start of the 1994 season, but he was pretty clearly Nebraska's third option at quarterback behind Tommie Frazier and Brook Berringer. As a redshirt freshman in 1993, Turman played in four games, throwing once (a 15-yard touchdown) and running once (a 1-yard touchdown). A similar season appeared in store for 1994. We know now that was not the case.

Matt Turman appeared in 33 games during his Nebraska career. | Nebraska Athletics

As time has passed, many Husker fans think the "Turmanator" story starts with the 1994 Kansas State game. But it actually started a few weeks before that. In a rout of Pacific, Frazier left after nine snaps. He would spend three nights in the hospital and didn't play again until January. Turman is now the backup quarterback.

Be ready.

After the Wyoming game, Berringer spent the night in the hospital with a partially collapsed lung.

Be ready.

Berringer started the following game against Oklahoma State and played well in the first half. But a halftime X-ray (ordered in advance by his doctor) showed the lung collapsing again.

Ready or not, it was Matt Turman's time.

Turman, listed at 5-11 and 165 pounds, walked on from Bishop Neuman High in Wahoo, Nebraska. He spent time as a defensive back and receiver before landing at quarterback, where position coach was his childhood idol Turner Gill.

Turman played well in the second half of the Okie State game. His stats (six yards on six carries, 1-4 passing for 23 yards) weren't what you would expect from the quarterback of a national championship contender. But here's the important part: He led three touchdown drives (each over 50 yards) and threw for a two-point conversion. Turman inherited a 9-3 lead and turned it into a 32-9 win.

No. 2 Nebraska's next game was at Kansas State. The Wildcats were ranked 16th and had one of the best defenses in the country, allowing just 9 points per game. Kansas State had not beaten Nebraska since 1968, but their players and fans could smell blood in the water given NU's quarterback crisis.

Matt Turman | Nebraska Athletics

It would be dismissive to suggest Turman was the "no other option" option in 1994. He could play and performed admirably in each of the 33 games he appeared in.

But things were getting really thin behind him.*

*Just how bad was it going into the K-State game? Let's take a look at Nebraska's quarterback depth chart going into the K-State game:

1. Heisman candidate Tommie Frazier. His season was believed to be over due to blood clots.
2. Brook Berringer. Recovering from a partially collapsed lung, he likely needed a doctor's note to climb a flight of stairs.
3. Matt Turman. These words were used in the Omaha World-Herald to describe the end of one of his runs in the OSU game: "(the Cowboy defensive end) applied a bear hug to Turman from behind and shook him back and forth like a rag doll."
4. Clester Johnson. A wingback at Nebraska, he was an all-state quarterback at Bellevue West.
5. Adam Kucera. Listed at 5-8, Kucera was a Husker student manager before being promoted to walk-on quarterback. He played at the end of the Pacific blowout. The word was he had hurt his shoulder in practice.
6. Ryan Held. A freshman walk-on receiver, the future running backs coach on Scott Frost's staff took the final snaps of the Pacific game.
7. The kid in the Apex t-shirt who held cables for Tom Osborne during games.

Additionally, there was Tony Veland. He was the No. 2 quarterback in 1993 until suffering a season-ending knee injury. He moved to safety in spring of 1994. The coaches briefly considered moving him back to quarterback, but with safety Mike Minter out with a knee injury of his own, Veland needed to stay on defense.

This is how Turman got the start - the first by a walk-on QB in a decade - against Kansas State in 1994. Yeah, his moment of greatness consisted mostly of handing the ball to Lawrence Phillips and getting out the way, but on that day that is what the team needed from him.

My personal favorite Turmanator moment came a year later at the end of the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. Turman got the final series and nearly led the Huskers to a touchdown. Osborne had him take a knee at the two-yard-line to end the game.

I love this quote from Turman after the 1994 Oklahoma State game: "It would be great if I got a chance to start against Kansas State. If not, I'll be ready to go. Either way, I'm living my dream."

Be ready.

---

---

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.