08.30.2012 | Football

Bill Little commentary: 'S' has more than one meaning

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

So let's take these one at a time.

Important: Bill Little’s article is about walk-ons Cade McCrary and Nate Boyer. So each can be celebrated individually, TLSN shares their separate stores, but in the comments below, there are still some overlapping comments about Cade and Nate.

When the Longhorns convened for their first team meeting this week, the coaches and staff announced to the team that two junior walk-on players had been awarded one year scholarships. Under NCAA rules, universities are allowed to maintain in a single year no more than 85 scholarship players. Traditionally, when through attrition Texas has been under that ceiling, the coaches and staff have at times deemed particularly deserving walk-on players eligible for a one-year scholarship.

And Sunday night, they dipped right into their theme of sacrifice to grant full scholarship to two players whose backgrounds are as different and diverse as one could ever imagine -- holder/receiver Cade McCrary and deep snapper Nate Boyer.

That night, even through their humility, both had every right to walk proudly with a little swagger.

Nate Boyer's story may be the most unusual of any Longhorn ever.

In a way, it is fitting that Nate Boyer was once an aspiring actor in Los Angeles, because the story of his life seems destined for a novel or a movie. An honor student who is the 2012 winner of the Greater Austin Chapter of the National Football Foundation's Distinguished Young American Award, Nate has packed a remarkable odyssey into thirty or so years of living.

Boyer, has (in no particular order) found employment on a fishing boat in San Diego, sought work as a young actor in Hollywood, worked with autistic children in L.A. and refugees in Darfur in Africa, and joined the U.S. Army following the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

A graduate of Valley Christian High School in Dublin, Calif., Boyer not only joined the Army, he was admitted into the elite Special Forces Unit of the Green Berets, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant. He served six years in the Middle East, earning a Bronze Star -- the nation's fourth highest combat medal -- for his service in Iraq.

Their loyalty to the Longhorns interested him, so he applied to Texas and was accepted. He had been a good athlete in high school, but Valley Christian did not have football. But that didn't stop Nate. He figured as long as he was at Texas, he should try to make the nationally ranked Longhorn football team. He studied all he could about the game, tried out as a "walk-on," and made the team as a defensive back and special teams player.

At Texas, he is a member of the Athletics Director's Honor Roll as a 4.0 student and a Provost Award semi-finalist studying physical culture and sports.

The respect the Longhorn coaches and staff have for McCrary and Boyer was mirrored by the team members, who gave rousing standing ovations to both as they were announced as recipients of the scholarships. There, standing side-by-side, were two young men who came from widely different backgrounds, yet they had arrived at a very special place in the life of the 2012 Longhorns football team.

As their teammates cheered and each struggled for the right words, the moment was not lost that Hardee McCrary had dreamed of his son one day playing on scholarship at The University of Texas. And Nate Boyer could now save his G.I. Bill funds and apply them to graduate school.

That's why "s" has so many meanings. Both young men sacrificed to be here, both are confident enough in themselves to embody all the positive things in swagger (as opposed to conceit or arrogance).

And most of all, they, and their teammates reinforced the meaning of solidarity -- a togetherness that represents all that is right in the word "team."