How a promise pushed former Husker Niles Paul to graduate

Niles Paul played football at the highest level for the better part of a decade. But this latest challenge had him feeling a different kind of anxiety.

Fifteen credit hours stood between the former Nebraska receiver and a degree he didn’t quite complete after his final college season in 2010. What made those hours look like an All-Pro defense in his eyes was the technology piece. Online class discussion boards about the history of the state? All-virtual sessions about Native American heritage?

“I think it was the scariest part of going back,” Paul said Sunday. “I always will prefer to be in a classroom.”

Paul went back anyway. And — as he often did during an All-Big 12 career in Lincoln — Paul finished. The Omaha North product officially graduated Saturday with a degree labeled as “individualized program of studies” that is essentially a modified version of the communications major he had been working toward before eight NFL seasons put it on hold.

The degree fulfills a promise Paul made to longtime NU academics leader Dennis Leblanc shortly after the 2010 Holiday Bowl. Leblanc looked Paul full in the face and asked if he would follow through on his last semester.

“I told him, ‘Yeah,’ then immediately moved to Tampa and started training for the NFL combine,” Paul said. “He was disappointed that I didn’t finish.”

Paul went in the fifth round (No. 155 overall) to the then-Washington Redskins — he remains the highest-draft Husker receiver who played receiver in college since Irving Fryar went No. 1 overall in 1984. Seven years in Washington and another with Jacksonville consumed him even as Leblanc occasionally checked in.

The timing wasn’t right to resume classes, Paul always replied. He retired before the 2019 season and struggled to find his purposer. The man with roughly $10 million in NFL earnings fought depression while searching for who he was after football.

He found a place back at North — where he once starred in football, basketball and track — a few years ago at the invitation of football coach Larry Martin. Paul works with receivers and helps with special teams. He’s also the boys track sprints coach who gushes at the progress made by his young runners last spring. North’s 400 relay team finished third at state while breaking a school record Paul once helped set.

“I just love seeing their success,” Paul said. “It’s fulfilling for me; I enjoy doing it.”

Somewhere in that transition, Paul felt ready to finish what he started. A class or two in the spring. Another in the summer. He interned with the Warren Academy and helped work its 7-on-7 program, earning credits for a youth and family studies class.

His last hurdle this summer was a course — with a lab — on weather and climate. He learned how to read weather maps. He figures he took “probably 30” quizzes during the five-week span.

The former receiver’s final stats: five classes, five As. He left college the first time with a 3.4 grade-point average.

“I’m an improved student,” Paul said.

There’s another reason — another person — why Paul reached the end zone with his degree. He knew his late mother, Marjorie Paul, would have wanted him to do so. The woman who wouldn’t let Niles or his brothers play football if they didn’t have good grades died of a prolonged illness when he was 12.

“I know if she were here, to me, she would be turning in her grave that I was so close to finishing and getting a college degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,” said Paul, who becomes the first of his mother’s sons to graduate beyond high school. “She never got to see how far I came from when we were growing up to this being something real. She was my driving force.”

Paul didn’t formally walk for the ceremony Saturday morning — much of his family couldn’t make it, plus Omaha North had a football practice he didn’t want to miss. Maybe it was in his head, he laughed, but he’s also 35 years old. Time for him to get the diploma and get out of the way.

He attended a student-athlete reception that afternoon, catching up with Leblanc, his former NU academic counselor Kim Schellpeper and others who had him feeling like a college kid again.

Paul’s interval between playing football and graduating lands among the longer time periods but nowhere near a Nebraska record. Johnny Rodgers set the standard among high-profile Huskers to return later in life when the 1972 Heisman Trophy winner completed a degree as a 46-year-old in August 1997. Offensive lineman Lawrence Pete graduated in December 2022 as a 56-year-old whose senior season was 1988.

Paul received a shoutout from Matt Rhule as the Nebraska coach opened his Saturday press conference — “I think that’s awesome that Niles came back,” Rhule said.

Paul has a first cousin on the team now in freshman receiver Isaiah McMorris. The former Husker toured the new facilities for the first time last weekend with a twinge of envy.

“Sleep pods in the stadium?” Paul said. “I would have loved that, especially during training camp.”

Paul’s schedule remains full as he transitions to being a father of a daughter who is now nearly three months old. He’s training high school football players and coaching while still helping at the Warren Academy.

One of his favorite imperatives — finish! — now carries a fuller meaning.

“I want to help others succeed on whatever level they can,” Paul said. “Just being older now, it comes full circle for me.”