LINCOLN One and done.
Latravis Washington played safety for about a day.
At the start of the Nebraska football team's preseason practice in early August 2007, former defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Kevin Cosgrove told Washington, who was expecting to play safety, "You're coming with me."
Washington was skeptical. At 212 pounds, he figured he was too light for linebacker, not to mention the fact he hadn't played the position in high school.
Defense wasn't even his focus at Bayshore High in Bradenton, Fla., for that matter. He was a quarterback, a running quarterback, and he was recruited by Ohio State and West Virginia, among other NCAA Division I schools, at that position. Even so, he figured his future in college and beyond was defense. But linebacker?
Later that day, he called his cousin, former Cornhusker cornerback Fabian Washington. "I was like, 'Cuz, they moved me to linebacker,'" he said.
Fabian, a first-round draft pick of the Oakland Raiders in 2005, had worked with him during the summer on his footwork and getting his hips "right" in preparation for his playing safety. Fabian "was shocked, too," Latravis said.
"He was like, 'You can play anywhere on the field. Do what's best for the team and play at 100 percent, like I know you can.' So I took it from there."
Latravis began at strongside linebacker but soon moved to the weakside. Mostly, however, he played on special teams, all of them when given the chance.
He didn't expect that, either, playing on special teams. When Cosgrove told him he would be playing linebacker, he was certain he would be redshirted to give him time to get bigger and stronger and learn the intricacies of linebacker. Not so.
As he remembers, he got in the second game on special teams and gave it his best shot. But looking back, "I should have redshirted," said Washington. "I tell everybody, if you're not getting 20, 30 reps a game, you should have just redshirted.
"There's no point. You can develop as a student and an athlete and a player."
He adjusted to the classroom, earning a place on the Big 12 Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll in the fall semester. He's 18 pounds heavier than when he arrived. And late in the season, he got an opportunity to play linebacker.
Had he redshirted, though, he would still have four seasons of eligibility remaining. "I still tell myself, 'Man, I should have waited it out, got in the weight room, just gutted it out, started lifting and getting better,'" he said. "But hey, what's done is done.
"It helped me a lot, helped me develop. It was a learning curve for me."
He has continued to learn this spring, in a new system, with a new position coach, a new defensive coordinator and a new head coach.
For one thing, the footwork is different. For another, so is the level of energy. Spring practice has been "very intense, very competitive, as competitive as I've had since I was a freshman in high school, man," said Washington.
Everyone is "trying to make a name, trying to be on the field, competing every day. So you've got to come out every day with your 'A' game because somebody's breathing down your neck, trying to do the same thing you're trying to do, get on the field."
Cody Glenn is among those trying to do the same thing he is, establish himself at weakside linebacker, after moving from I-back early in the spring.
"That's my boy," Washington said. "We talk. I always correct him on his mistakes. He always corrects me on my mistakes. We just bonded like it was nothing. We communicate a lot. It's nice having him over on defense. He's real cool."
Competition has brought out the best in both of them, just as it has brought out the best in all of the players, according to Washington. And the enthusiasm that Bo Pelini and his staff brought with them has been maintained this spring.
"I know some teams, the first couple of weeks, they'll be very hyped but then they start dragging, going through the motions," said Washington. "But I think we've been very steady bringing our intensity every day.
"The coaching staff, they're going to bring out intensity every day, too. It doesn't matter what kind of mood they're in. They're going to bring out their best every day. So we've got to bring out our best every day. It's really great."
Even as a linebacker?
"I scratch my head every now and then," he said.
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