Nebraska Football: The Ten Percenters and why the Huskers are looking for more

Nebraska football coaches have talked both in person and on social media about the “Ten Percenters,” and this week, strength coach Corey Campbell expounded.

Since Matt Rhule and his staff arrived in Lincoln, they’ve instituted several new traditions. Some of those traditions, including who would get a single-digit number have largely been a mystery to those outside the Nebraska football program.

One of those “traditions” is talking about the Ten Percenters. There have been some tweets and other mentions on social media, but until this week, it wasn’t clear what the Nebraska football staff was doing with this particular group.

It’s been even more interesting considering that this group was just 10 names at the beginning. However, by June 25, the number grew to 36.

On Tuesday, Nebraska football strength and conditioning coach Corey Campbell finally shed some light on the Ten Percenters. He talked about what the Huskers are doing with this group during an appearance on Sports Nightly.

"“We talk about the 10-80-10 rule and that top 10 percent being your elite guys. They do everything the right way. They hold themselves to a high standard. They hold their teammates to a high standard. They do whatever it takes to be successful. And they bring guys along with them. That’s where we aim for everybody on this team to be is that top percent.”"

Nebraska football’s new culture

Scott Frost talked a lot about culture when he was running the Huskers. Though one of the reasons it always seemed so empty when he talked about it was that he never really seemed to have a plan to change the culture. Just a desire. Matt Rhule and his coaches want to change the culture and have an approach and a plan to do it.

"“And that 10-80-10 rule, you have the middle 80 percent that essentially could be swayed either way. And then you have that tail end, that bottom 10 percent. Those are guys that really don’t understand or buy into the way in which we want to do things.”"

The approach to changing the culture, to extract from what Campbell is saying, is that you get some guys to buy into the approach. Then they go out and convince some of their Nebraska football teammates.

"“If you have a team full of guys that have that 10 percent mindset, elite work ethic, you position yourself to be a really good team come August.”"