Dave Feit's Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 19 - Kyle Larson

The Funk-y punter and the end of the Frank Solich era, plus the secret hero of Black 41 Flash Reverse

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 19: Kyle Larson, Punter, 1999-2003

Honorable Mention: Glenn Presnell, Willard White

Also worn by: Andy Birkel, Randy Borg, Quentin Castille, Marquel Dismuke, Clint Finley, Jalyn Gramstad, Morgan Gregory, Joe Keels, John Klem, Jesse Kosch, Jaylen Lloyd, Bruce Mathison, Mike Marrow, Farley Pickering, Wil Richards, Bryan Siebler, Frank Vactor, Kenny Wilhite, Mike Williams

Dave's Fave: John Klem, Wingback/Split End, 1998-2002


In 2001, Nebraska played for the national championship.

In 2002, we all thought the sky was falling.

Nebraska - for the first time in my nearly 30-year life - failed to win nine games. Even worse, the Huskers didn't even have a winning record, going 7-7.

For a team with a .500 record, they were less Even Steven and more Jekyll and Hyde. Seven wins by an average score of 38-15. Seven losses by an average of 33-16.* The Huskers were 0-4 against ranked teams.

Yes, I realize how quaint it sounds to freak out about a seven-win season in an era where Nebraska has won seven games twice in the last decade. But in the moment, coming off a 10-year run where Nebraska was 111-15 (.881) with three national championships, it felt like a plague of locusts wasn't far behind.

*Not only did the 2002 Huskers play like garbage at times, they also looked like garbage. Nebraska wore new "modern" uniforms that featured a large red side panel on the pants and jersey - similar to what the Denver Broncos were wearing at the time. It was fine for the Broncos (although not as good as their Orange Crush look), but on Nebraska it looked hideous.

On the road, Nebraska wore white pants with white jerseys. The 2002 team's 1-5 record away from Lincoln did not help the perception of the "surrender whites" look within the fan base.

I maintain that the greatest thing Steve Pederson did as Nebraska's athletic director was sending the 2002 uniforms back to whatever hell where they came from.

Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace sprints past Nebraska's Chris Kelsay during the Huskers' 36-14 loss to the Cyclones in 2002. | Rodney White/THe Register, Des Moines Register via Imagn Content Services, LLC

After the 2002 season, legendary Osborne-era assistants Milt Tenopir, George Darlington and Dan Young retired. Three other assistants, including defensive coordinator Craig Bohl, were fired. Bo Pelini was hired to replace Bohl, and five other assistants joined the staff. Frank Solich handed over the play-calling duties to new offensive coordinator Barney Cotton.

The 2003 season started out great. Nebraska opened with a conference win over preseason No. 24 Oklahoma State, the first of five straight wins that got Nebraska back into the top 10.

Then came a 17-point loss at unranked Missouri. The Huskers bounced back with wins over Texas A&M and Iowa State, the latter coming on the Blackshirts' second shutout of the season. Next was a trip to No. 16 Texas. Nebraska - ranked 12th - was dominated on both sides of the ball in a 31-7 loss. Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman wrote: "Texas out-physicaled the college football team that invented physical."

Back in Lincoln, fans were growing divided. Solich's Huskers were now 13-12 since the start of the 2001 Colorado game and just 3-9 away from home. A win over Kansas led into Senior Day at Memorial Stadium with unranked Kansas State taking on the No. 18 Cornhuskers.

Tied at 7 coming out of halftime, the Wildcats scored 24 straight points before Nebraska recorded a late safety (KSU's punter intentionally ran out of the end zone). A late Kansas State touchdown prompted Pelini to confront KSU coach Bill Snyder about running up the score. "I don't think I would care to repeat what he called me," Snyder said. Fortunately, the incident was not broadcast nationally on ABC - the network had switched to a more competitive game earlier in the fourth quarter. It was (then) Nebraska's worst home loss in 45 years and K-State's first win in Lincoln in 35 years.

For many, it felt like rock bottom.*

*We'll pause while anybody who has watched Nebraska in the last 20+ years has an ironic (and depressing) chuckle.

Speculation reached a fever pitch in the days before the Colorado game. Remember: At the time, Nebraska had not fired a head coach since Bill Jennings in 1961. Athletic Director Steve Pederson - in his first year in Lincoln - cited a personal policy of not commenting on coaches during the season.

Meanwhile, the Journal Star published a report from anonymous sources that Pederson decided during the K-State game that he wanted to make a change. One source claimed Pederson walked through the booster skyboxes saying, "We're going to do something; don't get upset." Another source said Pederson's plan was to try to persuade Solich to retire after the Colorado game and take a role in NU athletic department. While a win over the Buffs would reportedly not change Pederson's mind, the anonymous boosters believed that a win would allow Solich to "retire on a high note."*

*We're 80 entries into this series, and I'm not sure I've come across another Huskers-related quote that aged worse than that the notion that Frank would ride off into the sunset after beating Colorado. Solich would be a college coach for another 16 seasons after 2003.

But our anonymous booster did get one thing correct. He predicted that if the perception was that Solich was being unfairly pushed out the door, "things could get ugly."

Bill Callahan is introduced as Nebraska's new head coach on Jan. 12, 2004. | Nebraska Athletics

Nebraska beat Colorado 31-22 on Black Friday 2003 to improve to 9-3. Frank Solich was fired the next day. His record at Nebraska was 58-19. The search for his replacement stretched for 41 long days with (as The Athletic wrote in 2021) numerous failed attempts, strategic blunders and "what if" moments. The search finally resulted in Bill Callahan, who went 27-22 in four seasons. Fans have remained divided on Solich's firing ever since.*

*At the time, I thought firing Frank was the right move and agreed with Pederson's "gravitating toward mediocrity" comment. Maybe, if Pederson had managed to land one of his initial, preferred candidates, things would have worked out differently. It's fun to imagine an alternate reality where Mike Sherman created a Midwestern version of what Pete Carroll would build at USC.

Callahan's failure - and the ultimate failure of every coach to follow him - has done nothing to dissuade the loyal Solich supporters that he and his new staff should have gotten one more year to prove themselves. While I believe Frank's staff would have improved upon Callahan's 5-6 record in 2004, I also believe they would have regressed from 2003's 10-win season.

As we discussed , it was becoming harder and harder for Nebraska to find quality quarterbacks to run the option system Solich knew (and Husker fans preferred). Maybe Solich - like Osborne before him - could have evolved the offense, but big changes were needed to stay at the highest levels.

Kyle Larson set the school single-season record for yards per punt during his senior year at Nebraska. | 2003 Nebraska Alamo Bowl Media Guide

If you're going to struggle offensively - as Nebraska often did in 2002 and 2003 - make sure you have a good punter. In Kyle Larson, Nebraska had a great one.

The pride of tiny Funk, Nebraska,* Larson was one of the best punters in school history. A three-year starter, Larson had a record 195 kicks, averaging over 43 yards per punt, which puts him third all-time at Nebraska.

*Funk is a town of 175 people near Holdrege in the south-central part of the state. One hundred and seventy-five people. Raise your hand if your graduating class had more people than the town of Funk. I graduated in a class of 61 people, but my hometown of (then) 2,000 people was a metropolis comparatively.

And yet, Funk isn't the smallest town represented in this series. Our honoree at #71, Dean Steinkuhler, is from Burr (population 52 in the 2020 census).

As a senior, Larson set the school record for yards per punt (45.12), was a consensus All-Big 12 pick, an All-American and one of three finalists for the Ray Guy Award, which is given to the nation’s best punter. He owns one of the three punts in school history to travel 80 yards or more.

After a lengthy NFL career, Larson was elected to the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2018.

***

By my count, John Klem played in 33 games at Nebraska over his career. He caught one pass. For nine yards. In the fourth quarter of a nonconference game with Nebraska leading by 45 points.

Honestly, this is what makes me love John Klem.

Klem was a blocker. Period. With apologies to standouts like Quincy Enunwa, Niles Paul and Kenny Bell, Klem is one of the best blocking receivers ever to play at Nebraska. A big reason why was the lack of deception in his game.

My buddy Husker Luke figured it out before we even knew his name: If #19 is on the field, it is going to be a run. It didn't matter if it was 3rd and long, if ol' Klem* was out there, Nebraska was running the dadgum ball.

*The ironic side note is that Klem was actually a prolific prep receiver. As a senior at Lincoln East, he had 46 catches for 905 yards. 

From John Klem's bio in the Huskers' 2002 Independence Bowl media guide. | Nebraska Athletics

Klem's effectiveness as a blocker is a big reason Black 41 Flash Reverse, the legendary reverse pass from Thunder Collins to Mike Stuntz to Eric Crouch, was run in the 2001 Oklahoma game - and why it resulted in one of the most famous plays in school history.

Black 41 Flash Reverse worked because Frank Solich - who was calling the plays - set it up beautifully, and Klem executed his role to perfection. Let's dive in:

Late in the second quarter, Nebraska ran the jet sweep for the first time, sending Thunder Collins streaking to the right. Klem was split out wide on the right side and came down to block OU safety Roy Williams. Williams read the play and tried to hurdle Klem. Klem put his shoulder pads through Williams' knees, sending the All-American flying through the air like a pinwheel. Collins gained four yards.

Early in the third quarter, Solich called the jet sweep again. This time, Collins went around the left end. Klem was split out wide and attempted to run through Williams's chest. ABC's Gary Danielson highlighted him on the replay: "A backup, in for one play. Your whole gameplan, Klem. Just come in and get Roy Williams."* Collins ran for 39 yards. A diving ankle tackle was the only thing keeping him out of the end zone.

*"Just come in and get Roy Williams," Danielson said.

Okay, Gary.

That season, Roy Williams won the Bronco Nagurski Trophy and Jim Thorpe Award. He was a unanimous All-American and was the eighth pick in the 2002 NFL draft.

No big deal.

Now, the stage was set.

First-and-10 from their own 37-yard line. The play starts with the same jet-sweep look. Collins comes sprinting behind the linemen and takes a handoff from Eric Crouch. Roy Williams recognizes the jet sweep immediately. But instead of attacking the edge, Williams plays back, head on a swivel looking for kamikaze Klem.

But this time, ol' Klem isn't out there.

In his place is a rarely used true freshman quarterback/wingback named Mike Stuntz. Stuntz isn't looking to pancake Williams. He runs to his left as Collins pitches him the ball. Stuntz, a lefty, rolls across the backfield as Williams tries in vain to catch up. Stuntz lobs a pass down the left sideline. Crouch catches it at the Oklahoma 40 and nobody is fast enough to catch him.

Touchdown Nebraska.*

*Near the end of the first half, Oklahoma attempted to run a similar play. End around, reverse back and a throw to the quarterback. However, Sooner QB Nate Hybl - all alone on the right side of the field - tripped over the 20-yard line and could not catch the pass.

Eric Crouch hauls in the pass from Mike Stuntz. | Nebraska Athletics

Black 41 Flash Reverse - the name of the trick play - remains the loudest single moment I've ever heard in Memorial Stadium. Louder than Alex Henery's field goal, louder than the Jordan Westerkamp Hail Mary catch. It was an ear-ringing moment of delirium.

That play - just like thousands of big plays before it - was made possible by the guys like John Klem, who unselfishly did their jobs to the best of their ability.

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