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Cool article by Mitch Sherman. I'm drinking all of the kool-aid about Fields.
ARDMORE, Okla. — Eric Fields was 5 when his dad showed him how to fight. He was 9 when he started training to box at the gym with his brothers, one younger and one older.
So when Fields later tried football, he said he was “never scared to get hit.”
“We’ve got pads on,” Fields said. “I don’t really feel anything.”
It explains a lot about the Nebraska linebacker signee, a reputed steal in coach Matt Rhule’s first Huskers recruiting class.
Late in Fields’ junior season of high school, his Ardmore Tigers, unbeaten in Oklahoma’s third-largest classification, faced Noble, a 5A rival. Fields stopped a running back near the goal line, but the defender planted awkwardly as he readied to deliver the big hit.
He felt a crack in his lower leg and a sharp pain. He thought it was a soft tissue injury, staying on the field for another snap before he hobbled to the sideline. The hairline fracture ended Fields’ season.
More than a year later, he had recovered to run the lead leg of a state championship 4×100 meter relay team and post 180 tackles in 10 football games as a senior.
Fields stands a shade under 6 foot 2 and weighs slightly more than 190 pounds, a ferocious defender who played with a violent streak as the son of a two-time Golden Gloves heavyweight champion. Fields’ father, also named Eric, won 24 of 28 professional boxing matches. In three of his defeats, he fought for cruiserweight belts.
The younger Fields’ football film is equally as strong. On tape, Fields streaks from his spot in the middle of the Ardmore defense to ball carriers on every part of the field.
“He’s got the speed factor that’s just different than other kids,” said Grant Naylor, who coached Fields on defense for his three seasons as a starter at Ardmore.
Said Fields: “See ball, hit ball. I’m just trying to make a play. I’m trying to win. I’m doing whatever it takes.”
As Thanksgiving approached last year, though, not a single Power 5 program paid him close attention. Oklahoma inquired about Fields as a safety.
“From a mentality standpoint,” Ardmore coach Josh Newby told the Sooners, “he’s a linebacker.”
Texas Tech talked to Fields about a walk-on opportunity, with a shot to earn the equivalent of a scholarship in NIL earnings. North Texas wanted him. The offer he considered most seriously came from Arkansas State.
That is, until Nebraska hired Rhule on Nov. 26 — and Evan Cooper got on the phone with Newby.
The call came right away.
“It was like the day that I heard coach Rhule got the job,” Newby said. “He called my cell phone. I didn’t know him. He says, ‘This is Evan Cooper from Nebraska. I want to talk about Eric Fields.’”
The hire of Cooper as the Nebraska secondary coach and Rhule’s most trusted talent evaluator was not announced until Dec. 1. But there he was, on the phone with Newby.
“If we ever offer a guy that no one’s heard of,” Rhule said, “it’s because of Evan. Because he stays up at night and texts me at 3 in the morning, watching this guy, watching that guy.”
Cooper told Newby that Fields’ play and athleticism rated as more striking than any film of a linebacker that the new Nebraska assistant had watched.
“I started smiling,” Newby said, “because I know what Eric is all about. And then (Cooper) said, ‘What’s going on? Why has he not been taken?’ I was like, ‘Good question.’”
So what is it that kept recruiters away? Newby shook his head in disappointment.
“We’re a drive-through community, right between Oklahoma City and Dallas,” he said. “You stop in Ardmore to get gas and go to Chick-fil-A. There are schools that have a whole lot better resources. We have to fight for everything we’ve got.”
If Fields played in Midwest City, Okla., or in Denton, Texas — or at a long list of other more prominent high schools — he would have collected 10 to 12 scholarship offers, Newby said.
“Seems like nobody stops here to see us,” Fields said.
Within a day, Cooper connected with Fields over FaceTime.
Cooper introduced himself and told Fields that he’d not yet been revealed as a member of Rhule’s staff.
Fields wondered if Cooper was even a coach.
“I was kinda confused,” Fields said. “I was like, ‘Dang, are they really looking at me?’”
Fields believed in his talent. He knew he deserved bigger offers. But he had grown up here and watched programs overlook players that he admired. According to Newby, the son of an Oklahoma high school coaching Hall of Famer who’s been on the sideline for 24 years at Ardmore, the only player from their town who had captured Nebraska’s interest was Jermaine Gresham.
Gresham, an uberathletic pass catcher, signed with Oklahoma in 2006 and turned into an All-American, a first-round NFL Draft pick and a two-time Pro Bowl tight end.
“Nebraska came out of nowhere,” Fields said. “I was dumbfounded that they would hit me up, a guy like me from Ardmore.”
Cooper and Omar Hales, the director of player personnel who filled in as a full-time recruiter until Rhule completed his coaching hires, visited Fields in Ardmore. That’s when he knew it was real.
Fields made a trip to Arkansas State in early December, his first journey outside of Oklahoma or nearby Texas. A week later, he flew to Omaha with his great uncle and cousin.
“I had a dude come pick me up from the airport,” Fields said.
They drove the 60 miles to Lincoln in a van. “It felt Hollywood,” Fields said.
He was awed by the sight of Nebraska’s under-construction, $165 million football complex. Rhule brought Fields into the head coach’s office.
“He’s not flashy,” Fields said. “He related with me.”
Fields made up his mind quickly.
“He came back,” Newby said, “and told me, ‘Coach, I’m going to Nebraska.’”
Less than a week later on signing day, 30 minutes into the news conference to unveil his first recruiting class — which ranked 24th nationally per the 247Sports Composite after its completion in February — Rhule answered a question about Fields.
“I don’t want to make any promises,” the former Carolina Panthers coach said, “but everyone here is going to know who he is. He’s an elite player, an excellent talent, fast, physical. There’s a big difference between great recruits and great players. Sometimes, it’s the same.
“(But) sometimes in recruiting, how you’re ranked is really a function of what you were in 10th grade.”
Rhule said he looks for a prospect like Fields, who made a jump in his senior year of high school.
Fields has reached his ceiling at Admore. In the weight room that’s connected to the school’s locker room by a hallway with images on both walls of Gresham, a chart hangs that details the single-rep maximum lifts of Fields and his classmates.
For Fields, it’s a 430-pound squat, 320 bench press and 275 power clean.
“He comes into the building every day at 1:30 and works out like a machine,” Newby said.
Fields could lift heavier weight, but the coach won’t let him. Newby isn’t comfortable finding someone to safely spot Fields. When they run through conditioning drills, Fields hurdles a 30-inch plyometric box on which the workout is designed for him to land with two feet.
In August in the Ardmore opener against Lawton Eisenhower, Fields chased down and buried the QB on a designed sprint from the pocket.
“That little quarterback never came back in the game,” Newby said. “I felt sorry for him.”
When Newby returned to the high school after a break for Christmas, he checked with Nebraska. Was Fields supposed to pack up and move to Lincoln or spend the spring at home and graduate with his class?
He had enough credits to receive his diploma.
Rhule told him to stay in Ardmore. Go to his senior prom. Fields won’t run track this spring. It’s not his love.
“He loves football,” Newby said.
Fields plans to work to maintain weight and get ready for the summer and his move. Six newcomers enrolled early in January out of high school at Nebraska. Rhule’s approach indicates that the Huskers plan to provide guidance geared directly for Fields, essential to his successful transition and growth, said Naylor, the Ardmore defensive coach.
“They’re not all robots,” Naylor said. “They’re individuals. So you better go figure out how to reach the individual. He’s got a lot of upside if you can get him to that second year.”
Nebraska coaches are confident they’ll tap into Fields’ potential and that he’ll thrive in an environment with the resources to bring out the best in him.
“He’s explosive. He’s rangy. He can run. He’s physical,” first-year Nebraska linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek said. “He’s everything you want. But I also think he’s a really good person. That’s what we need here.”
Newby’s proudest moment from last season came in October after Midwest City beat Ardmore 32-6. Fields, who also played running back, was so exhausted that he couldn’t remove his shoulder pads. The coach had to help him change clothes so Fields could walk to the bus before the ride home.
“I pretty much did everything here,” Fields said. “I learned all I can. I need something better now.”
It’s coming.
Fields appears a strong fit in coordinator Tony White’s 3-3-5 defensive scheme. He’ll add 20 to 25 pounds and keep his speed as he takes advantage of the strength and nutrition programs at Nebraska, Newby said. If the Huskers do their jobs up front and create space for Fields to operate as a linebacker, he’ll hit gaps and make plays from sideline to sideline.
“They’re going to have to develop him,” Newby said. “But once he gets that confidence, it’s going to be a good thing.”
ARDMORE, Okla. — Eric Fields was 5 when his dad showed him how to fight. He was 9 when he started training to box at the gym with his brothers, one younger and one older.
So when Fields later tried football, he said he was “never scared to get hit.”
“We’ve got pads on,” Fields said. “I don’t really feel anything.”
It explains a lot about the Nebraska linebacker signee, a reputed steal in coach Matt Rhule’s first Huskers recruiting class.
Late in Fields’ junior season of high school, his Ardmore Tigers, unbeaten in Oklahoma’s third-largest classification, faced Noble, a 5A rival. Fields stopped a running back near the goal line, but the defender planted awkwardly as he readied to deliver the big hit.
He felt a crack in his lower leg and a sharp pain. He thought it was a soft tissue injury, staying on the field for another snap before he hobbled to the sideline. The hairline fracture ended Fields’ season.
More than a year later, he had recovered to run the lead leg of a state championship 4×100 meter relay team and post 180 tackles in 10 football games as a senior.
Fields stands a shade under 6 foot 2 and weighs slightly more than 190 pounds, a ferocious defender who played with a violent streak as the son of a two-time Golden Gloves heavyweight champion. Fields’ father, also named Eric, won 24 of 28 professional boxing matches. In three of his defeats, he fought for cruiserweight belts.
The younger Fields’ football film is equally as strong. On tape, Fields streaks from his spot in the middle of the Ardmore defense to ball carriers on every part of the field.
“He’s got the speed factor that’s just different than other kids,” said Grant Naylor, who coached Fields on defense for his three seasons as a starter at Ardmore.
Said Fields: “See ball, hit ball. I’m just trying to make a play. I’m trying to win. I’m doing whatever it takes.”
As Thanksgiving approached last year, though, not a single Power 5 program paid him close attention. Oklahoma inquired about Fields as a safety.
“From a mentality standpoint,” Ardmore coach Josh Newby told the Sooners, “he’s a linebacker.”
Texas Tech talked to Fields about a walk-on opportunity, with a shot to earn the equivalent of a scholarship in NIL earnings. North Texas wanted him. The offer he considered most seriously came from Arkansas State.
That is, until Nebraska hired Rhule on Nov. 26 — and Evan Cooper got on the phone with Newby.
The call came right away.
“It was like the day that I heard coach Rhule got the job,” Newby said. “He called my cell phone. I didn’t know him. He says, ‘This is Evan Cooper from Nebraska. I want to talk about Eric Fields.’”
The hire of Cooper as the Nebraska secondary coach and Rhule’s most trusted talent evaluator was not announced until Dec. 1. But there he was, on the phone with Newby.
“If we ever offer a guy that no one’s heard of,” Rhule said, “it’s because of Evan. Because he stays up at night and texts me at 3 in the morning, watching this guy, watching that guy.”
Cooper told Newby that Fields’ play and athleticism rated as more striking than any film of a linebacker that the new Nebraska assistant had watched.
“I started smiling,” Newby said, “because I know what Eric is all about. And then (Cooper) said, ‘What’s going on? Why has he not been taken?’ I was like, ‘Good question.’”
So what is it that kept recruiters away? Newby shook his head in disappointment.
“We’re a drive-through community, right between Oklahoma City and Dallas,” he said. “You stop in Ardmore to get gas and go to Chick-fil-A. There are schools that have a whole lot better resources. We have to fight for everything we’ve got.”
If Fields played in Midwest City, Okla., or in Denton, Texas — or at a long list of other more prominent high schools — he would have collected 10 to 12 scholarship offers, Newby said.
“Seems like nobody stops here to see us,” Fields said.
Within a day, Cooper connected with Fields over FaceTime.
Cooper introduced himself and told Fields that he’d not yet been revealed as a member of Rhule’s staff.
Fields wondered if Cooper was even a coach.
“I was kinda confused,” Fields said. “I was like, ‘Dang, are they really looking at me?’”
Fields believed in his talent. He knew he deserved bigger offers. But he had grown up here and watched programs overlook players that he admired. According to Newby, the son of an Oklahoma high school coaching Hall of Famer who’s been on the sideline for 24 years at Ardmore, the only player from their town who had captured Nebraska’s interest was Jermaine Gresham.
Gresham, an uberathletic pass catcher, signed with Oklahoma in 2006 and turned into an All-American, a first-round NFL Draft pick and a two-time Pro Bowl tight end.
“Nebraska came out of nowhere,” Fields said. “I was dumbfounded that they would hit me up, a guy like me from Ardmore.”
Cooper and Omar Hales, the director of player personnel who filled in as a full-time recruiter until Rhule completed his coaching hires, visited Fields in Ardmore. That’s when he knew it was real.
Fields made a trip to Arkansas State in early December, his first journey outside of Oklahoma or nearby Texas. A week later, he flew to Omaha with his great uncle and cousin.
“I had a dude come pick me up from the airport,” Fields said.
They drove the 60 miles to Lincoln in a van. “It felt Hollywood,” Fields said.
He was awed by the sight of Nebraska’s under-construction, $165 million football complex. Rhule brought Fields into the head coach’s office.
“He’s not flashy,” Fields said. “He related with me.”
Fields made up his mind quickly.
“He came back,” Newby said, “and told me, ‘Coach, I’m going to Nebraska.’”
Less than a week later on signing day, 30 minutes into the news conference to unveil his first recruiting class — which ranked 24th nationally per the 247Sports Composite after its completion in February — Rhule answered a question about Fields.
“I don’t want to make any promises,” the former Carolina Panthers coach said, “but everyone here is going to know who he is. He’s an elite player, an excellent talent, fast, physical. There’s a big difference between great recruits and great players. Sometimes, it’s the same.
“(But) sometimes in recruiting, how you’re ranked is really a function of what you were in 10th grade.”
Rhule said he looks for a prospect like Fields, who made a jump in his senior year of high school.
Fields has reached his ceiling at Admore. In the weight room that’s connected to the school’s locker room by a hallway with images on both walls of Gresham, a chart hangs that details the single-rep maximum lifts of Fields and his classmates.
For Fields, it’s a 430-pound squat, 320 bench press and 275 power clean.
“He comes into the building every day at 1:30 and works out like a machine,” Newby said.
Fields could lift heavier weight, but the coach won’t let him. Newby isn’t comfortable finding someone to safely spot Fields. When they run through conditioning drills, Fields hurdles a 30-inch plyometric box on which the workout is designed for him to land with two feet.
In August in the Ardmore opener against Lawton Eisenhower, Fields chased down and buried the QB on a designed sprint from the pocket.
“That little quarterback never came back in the game,” Newby said. “I felt sorry for him.”
When Newby returned to the high school after a break for Christmas, he checked with Nebraska. Was Fields supposed to pack up and move to Lincoln or spend the spring at home and graduate with his class?
He had enough credits to receive his diploma.
Rhule told him to stay in Ardmore. Go to his senior prom. Fields won’t run track this spring. It’s not his love.
“He loves football,” Newby said.
Fields plans to work to maintain weight and get ready for the summer and his move. Six newcomers enrolled early in January out of high school at Nebraska. Rhule’s approach indicates that the Huskers plan to provide guidance geared directly for Fields, essential to his successful transition and growth, said Naylor, the Ardmore defensive coach.
“They’re not all robots,” Naylor said. “They’re individuals. So you better go figure out how to reach the individual. He’s got a lot of upside if you can get him to that second year.”
Nebraska coaches are confident they’ll tap into Fields’ potential and that he’ll thrive in an environment with the resources to bring out the best in him.
“He’s explosive. He’s rangy. He can run. He’s physical,” first-year Nebraska linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek said. “He’s everything you want. But I also think he’s a really good person. That’s what we need here.”
Newby’s proudest moment from last season came in October after Midwest City beat Ardmore 32-6. Fields, who also played running back, was so exhausted that he couldn’t remove his shoulder pads. The coach had to help him change clothes so Fields could walk to the bus before the ride home.
“I pretty much did everything here,” Fields said. “I learned all I can. I need something better now.”
It’s coming.
Fields appears a strong fit in coordinator Tony White’s 3-3-5 defensive scheme. He’ll add 20 to 25 pounds and keep his speed as he takes advantage of the strength and nutrition programs at Nebraska, Newby said. If the Huskers do their jobs up front and create space for Fields to operate as a linebacker, he’ll hit gaps and make plays from sideline to sideline.
“They’re going to have to develop him,” Newby said. “But once he gets that confidence, it’s going to be a good thing.”
