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Bison greats still conquering challenges through college days
KEARNEY, Neb. — Snorkeling among strange creatures near Hawaii almost paints a perfect picture of Zach Schlager and DJ Gross during their college football careers.
What in the name of Aquaman are they going to run into next?!
“Before our first game this fall, I looked around and saw probably 15 guys I didn’t even know,” McCook 2018 Nebraska Super Stater DJ Gross recalled about the 2023 University of Nebraska-Kearney Antelopes. “We had like 40 new players due to the coaching staff change and transfer portal.”
Don’t forget the four positions, four coordinators and three head coaches DJ experienced during five seasons.
Perhaps he’d finally found a home at tight end, where Gross made one memorable 32-yard catch in UNK’s first win this season on Sept. 9.
“I kind of wish I had played tight end all along,” he said after playing strong-side linebacker, weak-side linebacker and UNK’s backup long snapper.
Yet like every Nebraska football win streak this century, the good times suddenly went ...
SNAP!
“I was trying to play with a groin injury, then I felt something else that was way worse,” DJ recalled. “The next morning, I couldn’t hardly get out of bed. I mean it hurt to do anything.”
DJ had partially torn a part of his abdomen right near the pelvic bone.
There was no more running, no lifting, barely any comfortable breathing as the 6’2”, 235-pound son of McCook coaching legend Jeff Gross missed those next five games.
“It’s somewhere around a six to nine-month recovery,” DJ revealed on Monday. “It still hurts to cough. I’m really not supposed to lift anything.”
Certainly playing football has not been among DJ’s suggested activities.
But this wasn’t the NFL with future contract concerns. This was something DJ had dreamed about since his earliest years of awareness in McCook’s elementary grades.
Plus there were still many UNK teammates playing through a painfully disappointing 3-8 season.
Not just friends, but mainly friends he would have for a lifetime.
“I couldn’t really run pass routes or do a lot,” DJ admitted. “But I was glad that coach (Ryan Held) let me suit up and be out there. It was tough to miss those five games.”
Perhaps best was how so many McCook Bison friends attended his final collegiate football game against Northwest Missouri State on Nov. 11.
“It was something. There were probably 40 McCook people there or more,” DJ recalled. “My mom and dad never missed a game.”
Don’t it was former McCook coach and teacher John Gumb who helped DJ’s Kearney experience get started.
“I got here just as COVID hit. I spent about the first year not really knowing anyone,” DJ said. “But coach Gumb lives in Kearney now, and he took me in. I lived most of that time at his house.”
Fellow Bison all-state great Schlager can share a similar story. He transferred from Colorado State to University of Nebraska-Lincoln to finally Kearney in 2020.
There was yet another Bison great — all-state lineman Hunter Hays who was an NCAA Diision II All-American in 2022 — ready to help Zach get settled.
“I was living in a place below Hunter’s house with no windows. They called it ‘The Dungeon’,” Schlager recalled. “But we’ve lived and hung together all those years since. Hunter, DJ, myself and Cam (Berry, a 2020 McCook High grad-UNK recruit). They’re some of my best friends.”
They’ve also grown to love Kearney which Zach and DJ described as a clean, friendly community.
Other Bison like 2023 grad Shawna Wilkinson is currently attending UNK on a track-field scholarship.
“We get such great support from the community,” Schlager and Gross both remarked.
Both have already earned their bachelor’s degrees: Zach for marketing and management which has been followed with a master’s degree in business.
He’ll always be thankful to the Lopers for getting his football career back on track.
Zach sat through the 2019 season after transferring to be a Nebraska Cornhusker.
COVID also affected his career path and other Huskers moved past him on the Big Red depth charts.
“All the coaches there were great guys. I still have good friends in Phalen (Sanford), Luke (Reimer) and Nick (Heinrich). It just didn’t work out.”
He also missed 2020, but 2021 arrived in triumph as Zach helped the UNK Antelopes earn an NCAA Division II playoff sport.
The Lopers won 10 games that season including a 31-24 first-round playoff win over Western State in Gunnison, Colo.
“It was definitely a fun season. We had a bunch of six-year guys and we started winning right away,” Zach recalled. “Kind of like being with McCook. I was used to winning.”
Sadly, the setbacks for Zach were not quite finished.
He was preparing for a great 2022 season until..
“I broke a metatarsal bone in my foot that is very slow to heal,” he said. “I got stepped on. I’d been stepped on many times, but this one was a bad one.”
After earning all-conference honors for 2021, Zach didn’t play any football through an 8-3 UNK season in ’22.
“I could have come back late, but our playoff chances were not looking good,” he said. “But there was no doubt I wanted to play again.”
Mission accomplished.
Zach returned this fall to earn all-MIAA (Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association) honors yet again.
He would finish his two Loper seasons with 139 career tackles — including 13 during that season finale vs. Northwest Missouri.
A 56-7 loss where some players maybe depart to rest various ailments.
Not Zach or any leader on that UNK squad.
“I could have left after a coaching change, but I had done enough of that,” Zach said. “I decided to stay, keep the younger guys motivated and keep a positive mindset. I was flying all over the place in that last game.”
Zach added he has one more year of college football eligibility due to that lost 2022 season.
He wasn’t confirming anything on this Monday morning in Hawaii. He was looking at the Hawaiian rain forests, beaches and mountains with this thought:
“All my options are open,” he said.
DJ’s career path is more career: he’ll finish his Master’s degree for elementary education then student teach at McCook High and Central Elementary this spring.
All leading to another beautiful achievement:
“I’m getting married in June,” he said in reference to McCook High sweetheart Bailey Wiese.
Both Bison are pleased they have stayed with college football all these years.
However, Zach added it’s another path which brings different options for future college recruits from Bison land.
“I’ve had buddies quit football and been happy with what they did next,” Schlager concluded. “And if you don’t love football, maybe you should quit. There are going to be tough moments. If you feel you still love the game at all, you should stick with it.”