'Hungry' Sullivan Making Most Of Opportunity

To be sure, Eli Sullivan takes pride in his craft.
 
When he joined the Nebraska football team as a walk-on, Sullivan took pride serving on the defensive scout team, helping give the starting offense the best possible looks in practice from that week's opponent.
 
He also took pride excelling on special teams, knowing how essential that is in catching the eyes of coaches and earning bigger opportunities.
 
"It's doing the gritty work that maybe not everybody necessarily wants to do," Sullivan said, "and giving your all, no matter if you're right or wrong, trying to make a difference here and there."
 
And when that bigger opportunity came in Nebraska's first game of the season, Sullivan took pride in knowing and playing his role on defense.
 
Yes, Nebraska's walk-on program is once again beginning to make a difference.
 
"And Eli is a great example," Nebraska coach Scott Frost said. "He's just battled and battled and improved and improved. When he got his chance, he came in and made plays.
 
"He was hungry, and came in and did a great job. He's a guy we feel good about if he's pressed into service."
 
Sullivan, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound junior, moved into the safety rotation against South Alabama after starter Deontai Williams left the game with an injury and didn't return.
 
"I mean, it really is the next man up. That's how our room operates," Sullivan said. "We know it's that way. We know the next man up has the same abilities. We know the next man up knows what he's doing.
 
"That's why we're put in that position."
 
Sullivan showed up big on two third-quarter plays. Both times, Sullivan perfectly read passing plays and waited for them to develop before striking like a missile with a textbook open-field tackle, driving his foe backward.
 
They appeared to the naked eye to be tackles for loss, but officials ruled forward progress to the line of scrimmage on both plays.
 
"Obviously, Coach Frost says it all the time, 'No fear of failure,' " Sullivan said. "When you're put in that position, and you know what you're supposed to be doing and you know your job, you know the dude next to you trusts you, it's impossible not to make plays like that."

Senior Eric Lee Jr., who also played in place of Williams and, like Sullivan, took advantage of the opportunity by making big plays, wasn't surprised by what Sullivan did.

"Eli, I mean, he's like having a coach on the field," said Lee Jr., who intercepted two passes, including one he returned 38 yards for a touchdown. "He's definitely extraordinarily smart. He's also just a physical, tough guy more than capable of playing safety, just like the rest of us out there."
 
Sullivan is also a stickler for details, and for wanting answers. That's what Lee Jr. meant when he said it's not uncommon to see Sullivan hashing out something with coaches – he's not afraid to speak up if he sees something is awry, or could go awry.
 
"I feel like being a quiet kid in this generation is too easy," Sullivan said. "You sit back and you don't catch all the details. Well, I'm not that type of kid. If something's wrong, if I need to know something, I'm going to learn.
 
"I'm going to find out one way or another."

Sullivan, a native of Longmont, Colorado, is eager to see faces of friends and family in the stands on Saturday, when No. 25 Nebraska plays at Colorado. While he's never played there, Sullivan remembers tossing the football around with Buffalo quarterbacks at Folsom Field when he attended camps as a kid.
 
A four-year starter at Longmont High School, Sullivan drew football interest from some Mountain West Conference schools, as well as from Division II schools, but knew the direction he wanted to go after attending a walk-on event at Nebraska.
 
"It was really the people – the doormen, literally just everyone you see around town, the waitresses, anyone around you get to see," Sullivan said, "and you can just picture yourself doing great things in a community like that.
 
"It was a no-brainer for me after we took a visit here, just to take that shot."
 
Once in the program, Sullivan said he needed a couple of weeks to sincerely embrace his role on scout team, where he joined the likes of scholarship newcomers Marquel Dismuke and Dicaprio Bootle.
 
"Those are the dudes making plays on Saturdays now," Sullivan said. "It all starts way back then with that mindset, 'I put in my work now, and I'll get my time down the road.'
 
"When a team wins, it feels great, it doesn't matter who you are. I tried to put myself in a positon where I could make myself better every day, but also help the offense get a good look, just like every other scout team."
 
Sullivan's next step was to make a splash on special teams. Most players don't automatically show up on defense, he knew, without first contributing, and excelling, on special teams.
 
"Special teams, I feel, is where the true dog comes out, where you see true grit," Sullivan said. "You might line up across a guy who's 40, 80 pounds bigger than you, and it's all about fighting and knowing your job and making that key play in a game, even if it's not a big hit.
 
"It might be the leverage you have or something, or just a bump, and that changes a game, one way or another."
 
Sullivan's first two career solo tackles came on special teams his redshirted freshman season. As a sophomore, he made his first tackle on defense, against Bethune-Cookman. Those were his only career stops until his four against South Alabama – three solo.
 
"When you have the dude behind you and in front of you, who know you know what you're doing, and vice-versa," Sullivan said, "and you have the coach watching you with a smile on his face, like, 'I can't wait to see this kid make a play,' it just gives you that much confidence to go make a play."

#25 Nebraska at Colorado

When: 2:30 p.m. Saturday (Pregame at 9:30 a.m.)

Where: Folsom Field, Boulder, Colorado

Radio: B103 (103.1 FM, b103.fm)