Will Shields Named to CFP Selection Committee

Football
1/26/2021 2:45:00 PM

NU Athletic Communications

Former Husker offensive lineman Will Shields was named to the College Football Playoff (CFP) Selection Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 26. Shields was appointed by the CFP Management Committee, and his three-year term on the selection committee will begin this spring.

Shields is the second Husker to serve on the CFP Selection Committee, as Hall of Fame Coach and former Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne was on the selection committee in 2014 and 2015, the first two years of the College Football Playoff. Shields was one of five new committee members selected to replace five outgoing members.

Nebraska’s first scholarship player from the state of Oklahoma, Shields enjoyed an outstanding collegiate career followed by a long and successful professional career in the National Football League with the Kansas City Chiefs. A member of both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, Shields helped the Huskers win 37 games from 1989 to 1992, including two Big Eight championships and three NCAA rushing titles in his four seasons.

He was named a first-team All-American in 1992, when he won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s top interior lineman. Shields earned his speech communication degree from the University of Nebraska in the spring of 1993 and one year later, Nebraska retired his number (75). He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.

A third-round pick in the 1993 NFL Draft, Shields enjoyed a 14-year hall-of-fame NFL career with the Kansas City Chiefs. Shields never missed a game during his career, playing in 224 games with 223 starts. A seven-time All-Pro, Shields was named to the Pro Bowl in each of his final 12 seasons. The 2003 NFL Man of the Year for his work in the community, Shields was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015. He is one of three Huskers who are enshrined in both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

Will’s son Shavon was a four-year starter for the Nebraska basketball team who concluded his career in 2016 with a second straight first-team CoSIDA Academic All-America honor.