Allen voted by teammates as Husker team captain

Captain Oz sure has a nice ring to it. 
Austin Allen made it no secret since spring ball that his goal was to become a captain for the Nebraska football team. 
A young man who has so many Nebraska youth looking up to him, both literally and figuratively, proved achieving your goals is possible. 
Speak it into existence. Anything is possible with hard work and dedication. A great message from a top-notch dude. 
Allen, a 2017 Aurora graduate, was selected by his Husker teammates as one of four captains for Nebraska, announced Saturday afternoon. 
As for Oz, he found out earlier that day as the Huskers went through the pregame routine in preparation for Saturday’s opener at Illinois. 
It’s a fun day of sorts, with fall camp officially in the rear view mirror and game week on the horizon. 
With the whole team listening in, Nebraska coach Scott Frost told the team that every year, the captains lead the squad onto the field. 
The team voted on their choice for captains the night before and those were tallied. 
Alongside Allen, the other team captains include quarterback Adrian Martinez, defensive lineman Damion Daniels and cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt. 
“Personally, I think we had three really strong leaders on offense with Adrian, Cam Jurgens and myself,” Allen said. “Any two of those three could have been picked and same way on defense.
“Those guys congratulated me and I told them that just because they don’t have the title of captain doesn’t make them any less of a leader or any less of an important role on this team.”
That, right there, is Austin Allen personified. 
Even in a small moment of others celebrating himself, Oz continuing to lift up others with his confidence and leadership. 
Becoming a Nebraska football captain is no small feat. 
To do so, one has to earn the respect from every teammate. It’s not a coaches decision on who the captains are. They’re voted on by the team. 
That makes the honor more special. The Husker players think highly enough of Allen, Martinez, Daniels and Taylor-Britt to lead them on and off the field. 
It was a goal achieved for Oz. But, at the same time, he doesn’t want anything to change about how he goes about his business. 
“Especially for me, the title shouldn’t change how I lead or lead more, I just have to keep doing what I’m doing,” Allen said. 
Oz becoming a team captain for the Nebraska football team is a lesson in humility, honor and chasing your dreams. The former Husky had a goal, wrote the goal down, repeated the goal in his head and woke up every day hustling to achieve it. 
The system works and Oz is the first one to tell anyone that. 
“It feels really good because I told myself this would be my goal all spring and summer, and for it to finally happen is a blessing,” Allen said. “Everyone has to be able to know and say their goals out loud to accomplish them. You have to have the mind-set and know your angle. I did that with myself and I’m very thankful for it.”
Joining membership in one of the most prestigious fraternities in college football all started back on a similar turf field one hour west of Memorial Stadium. 
The lights aren’t quite as bright there, but the passion for the team wearing red and white still burns white-hot. 
Austin Allen stood on the sideline of Aurora’s field turf, ahead of his senior year, wearing a knee brace and a coaches headset.
What? 
Allen was coming off knee surgery in the summer from a basketball game and would miss most of the season from that injury. 
Instead of stepping to the side, Oz stepped up in an effort to help any and all of his teammates and coaches. 
He made sure the coaches equipment was working prior to kickoff. He coached up anyone looking for that last-minute piece of advice. 
He was the most encouraging person on the sideline during the game, clapping and energizing his teammates toward a playoff push. 
During that time when Oz had his injury entering his senior year of high school, he found out a lot about himself deep from within and what being a good leader looks like. 
It was all a shift in mind-set for Allen, a birth of a leader that has blossomed over a five-year span to a Division I college football team captain. 
“That’s where I took my biggest step in leadership,” Allen said of his high school senior season. “I invested everything into football and it was taken away from me with an injury. It made me re-think where my values are in life and allowed me to see what I need to become a better teammate and not a selfish player.
“Because of that change of mind-set, it helped me become the teammate and leader I needed to be at that time in high school and that carried over to college.”
There was a point very early when Oz arrived in Lincoln as a freshman that he believed he could not lead, being such a young player. 
Now that he’s been in Lincoln for five years, he’s come to the realization that no matter how long you’ve been in the program, it’s not hard to be a leader. 
As for Allen, now that he’s accomplished one of his goals he’s worked months toward, his biggest goal now is to help the Huskers win games. 
“I’ve always had in-season goals, but I’m starting to find out that you only need to worry about the game at hand,” Allen explained. “For me, it’s about going game by game. There’s no long-term goal or trying to do anything specific. It shouldn’t matter. The most important game of the year is Saturday. We have to get things off on the right foot.”
Now that all of the extracurricular items have been decided, fall camp in the rear view, it’s the moment Oz, the Huskers and all of us have waited for since the Rutgers win in December. 
Illinois game week. 
Looking back at fall camp, Oz pointed out there were some bumps and bruises because of the physical nature, but all systems are go headed to Champaign Saturday. 
“Things went really well. Our defense is going to be really, really solid and our offense has a chance to be good, too. It’s predicated on how much we can get done up front. I’m excited to see what we can do because we all got better.”
It’s a week 0 matchup with not all of college football quite ready to kick off the season just yet. Much of the football spotlight will be on the Big Red Saturday. 
Game on. 
And if you happen to run into No. 11 anywhere, be sure to call him Captain Oz. 
RICHARD RHODEN can be reached at sports@hamilton.net.