Boerkircher is the one that had the appendectomy, last paragraph.
The beautiful, flowing hair from the back of his helmet makes him stand out in the crowd.
It’s a unique look, something that’s required a ton of patience to come in and now, enjoy the spoils of a business in the front, party in the back look.
But, it’s not just his mullet hairstyle that has former Husky Nate Boerkircher making waves inside the Husker football workouts.
His play on the field has started to impress, too.
Boerkircher’s new hair cut was inspired by fellow tight ends Travis Vokalek and former Husker Jack Stoll.
Their Mullet Monday posts have become more popular on social media and Boerkircher enjoys the uniqueness of the mullet.
“Jack and Travis had pretty unique hairstyles when I got here and theirs flowed really well,” Boerkircher said in a phone interview. “I liked how it looked flowing out of the helmet and decided to give it a try.”
While the mullet started to take form in front of all the fans at Nebraska’s Spring Game earlier this year, it wasn’t quite flowing well enough yet. Boerkircher is happy to report that the flow is right where he wants in going through fall camp.
“It wasn’t quite flowing right in the spring but we’re finally getting there now. It looks pretty sick,” Boerkircher noted.
While mom Sherry may have had a bit of reservation on the unique cut, the look is here to stay.
Gotta keep the neck warm for those late November contests.
His hair cut isn’t the only thing people rave about. His on-field play has started to turn heads as well.
It all started during spring practice, where Boerkircher pointed out a huge learning gap.
“Spring ball was a big step for me. Coach (Sean) Beckton is really good at improving players. With his help and a lot of others, I think I took a big step forward,” Boerkircher said. “Even with the weights, I made some big improvements there. That’s important too.”
In fact, the weight room is probably where he’s seen the biggest improvement. His weight is up to 230 and he would like to add a bit more before the season gets going.
“We have a great system going and the way they manage our diets, it does wonders,” Boerkiercher said. “It was very challenging to get used to. It isn’t like high school and took some time to adapt to it.”
A big help for Boerkircher was Cole Ashby’s arrival in Aurora during the summer of 2020.
Ashby was fresh off his time with the Huskers coaching staff and was able to show Boerkircher a few things in the weight room before joining the Huskers program.
Boerkircher is now entering his second fall camp with the Big Red and feels a lot better about everything than he did a year ago.
“It’s been amazing. The guys I didn’t know a year ago are family to me now,” Boerkircher said. “The team is full of really good guys and I’ve made a lot of friendships with those guys.”
In fact, he literally does have some family as a teammate.
Nate’s brother, Ian, has been with the Nebraska football program as a fellow walk-on player since 2019. Their relationship paid off when Nate joined the team in 2020.
“Our relationship has gotten a lot better. We just moved in together over the summer and he thought our relationship would get worse, but it’s actually gotten better,” Nate reported. “We are really close and do a lot of things together. Him taking me under his wing and showing me the ropes meant a lot to me.”
No worries, Mom. They’re getting along.
Because of all the COVID restrictions in 2020, the spring game was Boerkircher’s first chance to not only play for the Big Red, but run out of the tunnel, too.
“It was a really cool experience to one, see fans in the stands and two, run out in the tunnel walk for the first time,” Boerkircher noted. “There’s nothing like it.
“I started to get some jitters in the locker room right before. It was really fun to be in the tunnel walk with my friends and to run out in front of all those fans. There’s no experience that I’ve had in my life I can compare it to.”
Also experiencing that feeling for the first time was his brother, Ian. They shared that moment and feeling together while their parents and family watched with excitement.
“It was amazing. He was the guy that showed me the ropes when I got here at Nebraska so it was great to have him by my side,” Nate said. “We ran out of the tunnel not far from each other and we had fun with one another. He helped me get into this program and I’m grateful for that.”
Despite that, though, it wasn’t Nate’s first opportunity to play in Memorial Stadium.
That came in 2018 when the Aurora Huskies won a Class C-1 state championship, which included two touchdown catches by Nate.
In fact, the only thing Nate thought was different between the two games was the amount of fans in the stands.
Yeah, the spring game had a few more packed in there.
Boerkircher played quite a bit of the spring game at tight end, taking maybe more snaps than originally anticipated due to injuries.
But, that made the experience all the more memorable, especially having some fun with a former Duke rival.
“I went head-to-head with Simon Otte for a lot of the spring game,” Boerkircher said. “We’re good friends now with us coming from Aurora and York. We had fun with one another.”
Boerkircher’s biggest goal for the 2021 season is to make the travel roster and it sounds like that’s a very real possibility.
If you don’t want to take my word, will you listen to Oz?
“Nate Boerkircher has been balling. As of right now he would be on the travel squad,” Husker teammate Austin Allen observed. “He’s been doing really good things and he’s in the rotation if for whatever reason Travis (Vokalek) or I went down. He’s really smart and understands the playbook. What helped him was being on the scout team last year as a redshirt. That toughened him up a little bit.”
Most of us have seen Oz grow into the leader he is today, but what is it like to learn from one of the top returning Big Ten tight ends?
“Oz is someone I see every day and did a lot for me,” Boerkircher said. “He was another guy that showed me the ropes when I got here and he’s helped me out a ton.
“Oz is a role model of a person. He’s a great guy and has done a lot of great things for me.”
Sounds about right.
Everything was rolling along fine for Boerkircher until midway through last week, when he woke up with severe pain.
“Wednesday morning I woke up and had stomach pain in a specific area. I went in early and talked to the trainers and decided I should go to the ER,” Boerkircher explained. “I got some scans and decided it was appendicitis so I got that removed. Now I am recovering and be back in the meeting room soon and back on the field right after that.”
RICHARD RHODEN can be reached at
sports@hamilton.net.
