Dave Feit’s Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 43 - Lon Stiner

Dave Feit is counting down the days until the start of the 2025 season by naming the best Husker to wear each uniform number, as well as one of his personal favorites at that number.

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Greatest Husker to wear 43: Alonzo "Lon" Stiner, Tackle, 1925-1926 Honorable Mention: Warren DeBus, Ted Doyle, Terrell Farley, Todd Millikan Also worn by: Phil Bates, Al Eveland, Tyrin Ferguson, Sylvester Harris, Larry Naviaux, Trevor Roach, Scott Shanle, Bruce Smith, Ty Steinkuhler Dave's Fave: Terrell Farley, Linebacker, 1995-1996 On Dec.

4, 2014, Oregon State's Mike Riley was named Nebraska's head coach, replacing the fired Bo Pelini.

The hire was...

how do I put this politely...

surprising.

Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst conducted the coaching search on his own, without input from a hiring committee or independent search firm.

Numerous names were speculated during the search (including Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost, former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and others), but nobody expected Riley.

A big reason was nobody expected Mike Riley to leave Corvallis.

He was the dean of coaches in the Pac-12 and had resurrected the OSU program, giving the Beavers their first winning seasons since 1970.

Riley's Oregon State teams were good, but not great.

He led them to eight bowl games in his last 12 seasons and was known for big upsets (taking down No.

2 USC in 2006, No.

1 Cal in 2007 and No.

1 USC in 2008).

But only one of his teams (2006) won 10 games, and they never finished a season ranked higher than 18 (2008).

One of the narratives around Riley was that he could be a great coach at a school with more resources and support than Oregon State.

The Cornhuskers have bushels of both.

In announcing the hire, Eichorst said, "Mike Riley has a proven record of success, a sound approach to football and teaching, an understanding of the educational mission of our university and the integrity and values that we cherish at Nebraska." Mike Riley has the most wins of any coach in Oregon State's history (93), which he accumulated in 14 seasons.

And yet, Riley trails another coach - a Nebraska alum and Hastings native - in winning percentage and years spent at Oregon State: Alonzo "Lon" Stiner.

Before Stiner became a coach, he was a tremendous tackle for Nebraska in the mid-1920s.

Stiner started his playing career at Lombard College in Illinois but returned to his home state for the 1925 season.

In 1925, Stiner helped first-year coach Ernest Bearg to a 4-2-2 record.

In 1926, Stiner was selected as a team captain.

He controlled the line and received All-Missouri Valley Conference honors.

Stiner was also recognized as a first team All-American, making him just the fourth Cornhusker to earn All-America status.

Stiner got into coaching after his playing career, and the Nebraska alum served as Oregon State's head coach from 1933-1948.* He compiled a 74-49-17 .589 in 14 seasons (the Beavers did not field a team in 1943 or 1944 due to World War II).

*Two other Husker players - Edward "Doc" Stewart and Dick Rutherford - also spent time as Oregon State's head coach.

Like Mike Riley, Stiner's best game was an upset of USC.

In 1933, the two-time reigning champion Trojans brought 80 players - and a 25-game winning streak - to Corvallis.

Stiner played a total of 11 men, never substituting throughout the game.

The "Iron Men" game - which ended in a 0-0 tie - is still considered one of the greatest games in OSU history.

Mike Riley never made the Rose Bowl.

Lon Stiner did in 1942, even if his team didn't play in Pasadena.

The 1942 Rose Bowl took place just weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The game was played at Duke, but the Beavers won the game.

Riley's teams were known for their pro-style offenses.

Stiner's 1933 team innovated a new kicking defense.

In the "pyramid play," a 6-foot-5 player would be lifted onto the shoulders of two 6-foot-2 players before kick attempts.

Not surprisingly, the pyramid play was outlawed the following year.

We won't spend too much time relitigating the Mike Riley era at Nebraska.

Despite being universally regarded as one of the best human beings you could hope to meet, he mostly received a chilly reception from Nebraska fans and others with ties to program.

Riley went 19-19 in three seasons that had good moments (a 7-0 start in 2016, en route to a 9-4 finish) and bad (4-8 in 2017 with one of the worst defenses in school history).

Mike Riley was Nebraska head coach for less than three calendar years, the shortest tenure since Pete Elliott coached for one season 1956.

When it comes to coaches who took downtrodden programs and turned them into winners, the conversation will always turn to Bill Snyder at Kansas State.

When Snyder was hired in 1989, the Wildcats were the worst program in Division I-A, with 510 losses* and just four winning seasons in the previous 54 years.

*For reference, in 1989, Kansas State had 510 losses in 93 seasons of college football.

Through 2024, Nebraska has 430 losses in 135 seasons of college football, with almost 70 of those losses coming in the last decade.

"Bad" does do justice to how poor Kansas State was before Bill Snyder.

But over time, Snyder built K-State into a force.

Even though the Huskers had beaten KSU every year since 1968 (and eight straight years prior to that), by the 1990s, the annual matchup with the Wildcats was no longer a guaranteed blowout victory for Nebraska.

In 1991, K State had Nebraska on the ropes.

Fourth-and-goal from the NU 7 with 40 seconds left in the game.

Linebacker Travis Hill knocked a KSU pass out of the hands of their tight end near the goal line.

The Huskers survived for a 38-31 win.

In 1992, the two teams played in Tokyo, Japan, in the Coca-Cola Bowl.

Nebraska won by two touchdowns, but the teams spent a lot of time around each other on the international flights.* *The legend is that Snyder - a bit of an obsessive planner - arranged it so the Wildcats would sit on one side of the airplane - away from sunlight, allowing them to rest on the 13-hour trip.

The Huskers sat in the bright light.

On the flights home, Snyder reversed the seating.

The 1994 game was the first in which both teams were ranked.

Kansas State (No.

16) had a strong defense and the strong arm of quarterback Chad May.

Second-ranked Nebraska was without quarterbacks Tommie Frazier (blood clots) and Brook Berringer (collapsed lung).

NU started walk-on QB Matt Turman and gave the ball to Lawrence Phillips (nursing an injured thumb) 31 times.

Nebraska won 17-6.

Kansas State didn't have a chance against the mighty 1995 team (a 45-28 win).

Terrell Farley was a defensive star in that game with 10 tackles and two sacks.

But in 1996, the Wildcats felt confident that they would finally win.

Frazier was gone, and NU had just been shut out by Arizona State.

Plus, the game was in Manhattan.

My buddies and I drove to Manhattan - our first away game.

In the bars and tailgates, you would never know that it had been 27 years since KSU last beat the Huskers.

Their fans talked like K-State was the team coming off of back-to-back national championships.

K-State got the ball to start the game and drew NU offside on first down.

On first-and-five, Terrell Farley came shooting through the line and sacked KSU quarterback Brian Kavanagh for a four-yard loss.

To this day, I cannot remember a faster play.

Farley almost took the snap.

He had another 11-yard tackle for loss later in the game - a 39-3 romp.

Farley - a junior college transfer - was an immediate impact player in Charlie McBride's defense in 1995.

He had a 29-yard pick-six in the 1995 opener at Oklahoma State and a 21-yarder against Arizona State.

He led the team in tackles, blocked two punts, had five sacks, 12 quarterback hurries, and probably played the trombone in the band at halftime.

He was an easy choice for Big Eight Defensive Newcomer of the Year and first-team All-Big Eight.

In the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, he led the team with eight tackles and two sacks.

He nearly intercepted a Danny Wuerffel pass that likely would have been his third pick six of the year.

Later, Farley was furious after sacking Wuerffel in the end zone, as the Florida QB just barely got the ball over the goal line.

(Jamel Williams got the safety on the next play).

Farley was suspended for the first two games of the 1996 season for an off-the-field issue.

He was having a great senior year when a different off-the-field issue resulted in him being kicked off the team.

It was a shame, because Farley was one of my all-time favorite Blackshirts.

As for Snyder and the Wildcats, they finally beat Nebraska in 1998 - thanks in large part to a no-call on one of the biggest facemask penalties you will ever see.

KSU's 38-9 domination of Nebraska on Senior Day in 2003 is considered the final straw that led to Frank Solich's firing.

It was the second of three straight losses to Kansas State, Nebraska's longest losing streak in the 98-year series.

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