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Published Tuesday August 29, 2006 After painful summer, Ruud earns a reward BY RICH KAIPUST
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LINCOLN - In a way, maybe it was a sign that Bo Ruud's doing OK.

The first Nebraska football depth chart Tuesday showed Ruud as the No. 1 weakside linebacker. No small accomplishment, considering Ruud beat out talented cohort Steve Octavien for the right to start Saturday against Louisiana Tech.

Practicing with so much else on his mind all month was a testament to Ruud's ability to hold it all together for a few hours every day.

"When I'm off, I can just do whatever," he said. "But when I'm on the field, I try to focus and not let anything get to me."

Life dealt Ruud and his family a blindside hit two months ago. While vacationing in Minnesota, Bo's mother, Jaime Ruud, died of a heart attack at 52, and things suddenly would never be the same for her husband, Tom, and for Bo and his brother Barrett and sister Kim.

Tom Ruud knew it, yet also realized that football was right around the corner for the boys - Barrett with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Bo with Nebraska - and that what happened June 30 wasn't going to stop tearing at their emotions.

"It's really hard to judge and talk about that, because everybody handles it a little differently," Tom Ruud said. "But I think sometimes that being out here and with your teammates, it may help you a little bit just because you're not thinking about other things. You concentrate on being the best you can every day, and that's all you can do."

Tom Ruud was waiting for Bo Ruud after practice Tuesday, proud to see his son doing well in practice and talking publicly about his mother for the first time since her death.

Bo and Jaime Ruud were extremely close. So close that he looks back on his time with his mother with no regrets.

"Some people, when they lose someone, they always wish they could have done more or whatever," Bo Ruud said. "But me and my mom, we never really had that problem. We always were great together. We never had a problem with each other ever in our entire lives. That's really the good feeling I have, that I never have anything to worry about with her."

Ruud said his mother "did everything for me, every day." Said his life revolved around her. That makes it hard for him to even guess what he might miss most.

Ruud could do something in her memory, say something before games or write something somewhere on his football gear, but he's not sure that's the best idea, either.

"You always want to do stuff like that, but I don't know," he said. "That would almost make it harder, I think, to even play. I'm just trying to get to just playing and get through that stuff."

Bo has Tom around, and can stop by the house and see how Dad's cooking is coming along. He's got Kimmy, and his girlfriend, and most of his close friends.

And that's when he thinks about Barrett, who's entering his second season with Tampa Bay.

"We talk on the phone almost every day," Bo Ruud said. "My brother's kind of stuck out there on an island by himself. That's got to be way harder, I think."

Jaime Ruud rarely missed Husker football games, so Saturday will be different for Bo, a junior from Lincoln Southeast. But he's got a job to do - a starting job.

Ruud and Octavien had been battling pretty evenly through preseason camp. Octavien then needed an appendectomy, and a few missed practices by the junior from Naples, Fla., probably decided the race.

NU defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove said he's going to "roll them" Saturday, meaning both will play. With Octavien sidelined by a broken leg a year ago, Ruud went on to start 10 games and make 80 total tackles.

"I like his exactness in what he does," Cosgrove said. "He's about 100 percent at everything he does. He's exactly where he's supposed to be, and he has big-play ability. I have a lot of confidence in him, as I do with Steve."

Ruud never worried about the depth chart. He said he didn't know he was No. 1 until told by reporters Tuesday. If life has taught him anything recently, it's just to keep his mind on what he's doing.

"That's something you just let work out by itself," he said. "You just do your best, and the way it falls it falls."

No. 1 I-back? Maybe Lucky

It's still not perfectly clear who starts at I-back on Saturday when Nebraska opens its football season against Louisiana Tech.

"I guess you're going to have to come to the game to see who's going to get that first call," coach Bill Callahan said Tuesday.

Other than listing Marlon Lucky's name before the others, the first Husker depth chart was inconclusive. It placed Lucky and Cody Glenn together on the first line - with their names separated by a slash - and Brandon Jackson and Kenny Wilson the same way on the second.

"I couldn't fit 'em all on one line, so I had to put two on one and two on the other," Callahan said. "They're all going to play."

Nonetheless, Lucky was the first I-back to join the No. 1 offense as practice drills started Tuesday. As preseason camp wrapped up, the sophomore was starting to be considered the favorite.

But the I-backs themselves were unable to explain whether they were co-No. 1s or if there was another way to look at it.

"It was just explained to us that we were all going to play," Glenn said. "So it's not going to be a No. 1 person. You never know who's going to start a game. It's going to be different probably every week."

The depth chart did reveal that freshmen Rickey Thenarse and Major Culbert not only are in line to play, but could be the top backups to starting safeties Andrew Shanle and Tierre Green. They're listed as co-No. 2s with Bryan Wilson and Ben Eisenhart.

Callahan said both are ticketed for duty on special teams.

"I like them," he said. "They are what we thought they were, or what we thought they were going to be. They have good speed, athleticism, physicality."

Green and Kenny Wilson are set to be the Huskers' top kickoff return team. Lucky and Jackson are listed No. 2.

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