Nebraska’s Thomas FIdone finishes spring with confidence

At the end of last season, Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule threw Thomas Fidone a curveball when he told the tight end that they had a great fall.

Rhule wasn’t necessarily talking about the Huskers, who finished 5-7 and went a seventh straight season without a bowl appearance.

He was talking about him and Fidone — mostly Fidone, who recovered from two ACL tears that hindered his first two years with the Huskers before finishing 2023 as their second-leading receiver.

“My point was,” Rhule said, “coming off two ACLs, to get through a spring, a fall camp and a season healthy, that’s what he needed.”

Saturday’s Spring Game proved it.

Freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola’s first target and completion was to Fidone, who caught a quick-fire pass in the flat and pushed through defenders for a 15-yard gain.

Midway through the third quarter, Fidone’s initial route was cut short when the pocket collapsed on quarterback Heinrich Haarberg. The tight end redirected across the middle, reeled in the catch, broke out of a tackle and found the end zone from 25 yards out.

“Having that spring and this spring — and last season — to get reps has been huge,” said Fidone, who ended up with three catches for 45 yards and a score in White’s 25-21 win over Red. “My confidence and comfortability on the field has gone through the roof. I’m excited.”

In 2023, Fidone played his first full season since stepping on campus. The only game he played through his first two years was at Wisconsin as a freshman.

He ended last year with 25 catches for 260 yards and a team-best four touchdowns. Since then — since Rhule’s off-guard compliment — Fidone has been getting in the reps that have him more comfortable now than ever.

He’s been in the weight room, too. There’s still work to do despite already being 6-foot-6, 250 pounds and running a 4.5-second 40-yard dash.

That’s one of the things Rhule loves about Fidone. The tight end wants nothing but to be great; it’s the reason he’s never happy. Fidone, Rhule said, wants to be the best tight end in the world, and he’s spent this offseason chasing that.

“He’s a physical freak,” Rhule said Saturday. “And he’s loyal.”

“Every team in the country is trying to get him to leave and go there, and he’s a Nebraska Cornhusker through and through. I love that guy.”

That isn’t anything new. Rhule has said for a couple weeks that some of his players have shown him messages from people at other schools trying to lure them away from NU.

Not Fidone, though. None of that stuff, he said, is a factor if you don’t let it be — especially to a kid who grew up about an hour away in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

He grew up in what he deemed a “typical” family of Nebraska fans. The playground at recess often included an argument about why Nebraska was better than Iowa. Fidone guessed about a decade of his trick-or-treating days were as a Huskers football player.

“It’s a dream come true,” Fidone said. “I was saying to the tight ends today, I was sitting on a knee and was like, ‘Isn’t it crazy we’re doing what — it’s here now, but we’re doing what I dreamed of doing as a kid.’ It’s crazy. It’s a surreal experience.”

This — catching passes in Memorial Stadium, dressing out in forever his favorite shade of red, playing for the team he always has loved — was what Fidone always saw when he closed his eyes.

“He just had to have a true offseason,” Rhule said. “Now, I think you’re really starting to see what he can do.”