Shatel: Meet the man — and the process — behind Nebraska's light show, game-day atmosphere

LINCOLN Oklahoma.

LSU.

Oregon.

Texas.

Wisconsin.

Michigan.

Creighton.

Those were the teams I saw on students' gear as I dropped my daughters off at elementary school, middle school and high school the past two decades.

Nebraska, not so much.

That has to change.

The Husker brand needs to become trendy here at home, with a younger generation growing up in Nebraska.

How do you become hip? By winning.

Coach Matt Rhule is in charge of that.

How do you get kids to pay attention? With game-day experiences that push the envelope.

Drone shows, LED lights that do tricks, hype videos and music that gets the party started on the field and in the stands.

Brandon Meier is in charge of that.

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Here's the full list James Darren, 'Gidget' teen idol, singer and director, dies at 88 Coffee shop operates in historic Hotel Wilber Diller-Odell football improves to 2-0 Secretive church under investigation by FBI holds annual York convention Meier is senior associate athletic director for marketing and multimedia at Nebraska.

So hes in charge of all the cool stuff you saw last Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.

From the Tunnel Walk video to the Will Compton peptalk to the music during timeouts and between quarters, the amazing red light show after the third quarter and the jaw-dropping drone light show, people were talking about the atmosphere as much as the game.

It was the talk of college football Sunday, once videos began showing up on social media.

ESPNs Kirk Herbstreit called it incredible.

The ultimate stamp of approval came from an unlikely source: Colorado star Travis Hunter said the Nebraska atmosphere was top 10, and praised the light show and noise from Husker fans.

When the opponents are paying attention to the show, youve done your job.

Competitive advantage is a lot of it, Meier said.

Creating a louder stadium can really help.

Its part of the game now.

Somewhere, the late, great Jeff Schmahl would be amazed and proud.

When Schmahl founded HuskerVision in 1994, Meier was a UNL journalism student who worked as a photographer for KNOP-TV in his hometown of North Platte.

There were no videoboards at Husker football games the famous Mutual of Omaha scoreboards were in the corners.

The crowds were in charge of getting loud.

Winning a lot of it took care of that.

Schmahl and HuskerVision changed the game, literally.

And Meier, getting his master's degree in marketing and communications, was hooked on this stadium revolution.

He took a job in HuskerVision, where he worked until 2002.

Jeff always preached 'Entertain, inform and inspire,' Meier said.

They were trying to engage fans more.

And those three things still hold true today.

Were trying to give people a reason to come to the stadium and experience things they cant sitting at home watching on TV.

Meier left NU to work with the Houston Rockets, and learn what the NBA was doing for game atmosphere.

Then he spent 12 years at Oklahoma, where he helped raise the bar in game entertainment, constantly pushing the envelope with videoboards and music.

When he came back to NU in 2018, he was ready to transform his home team.

It happened bit by bit.

Meier said the third-down piece with public address announcer Nate Rohr started at OU.

The Day-yo thing on the videoboard came from Rutgers.

Every year, people around the country get together and trade ideas, Meier said.

Chris Del Conte (Texas athletic director) coined the term RAD ripoff and duplicate.

And we do.

A few years ago, Meier and his staff began to experiment with red LED lights, which became a fourth-quarter tradition where fans would use their phone flashlights to create a surreal effect.

Now Alabama has used the same thing for their team entrance.

Oh, really? Meier said.

I didnt see that.

All is fair in LED and competition.

Meier says his team has taken things from the NFL even Grand Canyon University basketball.

Meier admits, Weve kind of embraced it as a circus.

But if you think that gets in the way of the football, think again.

Last offseason, Meier and HuskerVision got a visit from Rhule, who challenged them to think differently about music.

It was really good getting his feedback, Meier said.

He said, 'You guys can change the course of the game.

We can have a competitive advantage if you can help us with music and videos.' Some of the ideas you saw the other night came from him saying, 'Im behind you.

Push the limit.

Lets create a raucous atmosphere, something with real high beats per minute.' That green light led to the addition of Compton, the former Husker linebacker who helped start and stars in the podcast Bussin With the Boys.

We envisioned a WWE wrestler about to go into the ring and he gives some crazy hype speech, Meier said.

I remember (Compton) saying, 'I was born for this.

"He did a great job.

Then there were the drones, which came with a Nebraska touch from the Norfolk-based Fantasy Drone Shows.

It provided 180 drones last year for Volleyball Day in Nebraska.

Last Saturday, 350 drones lit up the sky behind the stadium, programmed to take shapes of a national championship trophy and other Husker images.

The drones are controlled by four workers on laptops.

They all leave from the practice field, Meier said.

Each drone has a job to do.

They cant fly over people.

If the drone doesnt do what its supposed to do, it just falls out of the sky and to the ground.

Good news: Meiers son Brady, 15, and daughter Bailey, 11, gave last Saturdays show two thumbs up.

Meier says his kids are my worst critics theyll tell me when something is lame.

Sometimes, Meier said, Brady will give him ideas from TikTok.

This is the world of college football in 2024.

And thats good.

The game needs young fans to grow with the sport into the future.

Meier credits his team of over 100 including an army of students for keeping HuskerVision on the cutting edge.

They keep us young, Meier said of the students.

They bring these crazy ideas.

Sometimes we shake our heads.

Other times we go, 'Wow, this is really good.

We need our students.

Im proud of our student section.

Theyve really embraced it.

The entire fan base feeds off their energy.

The show goes Saturday night.

And Meier says much like the team HuskerVision hasnt shown the entire playbook yet.

Weve got some tricks up our sleeve still, he said.

Bring it.

This kind of party will never get old.

Toms Pick: Nebraska 34, Northern Iowa 10 Get local news delivered to your inbox!.

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