Foltz's passing far too familiar for Riley, NU staff

When Nebraska head coach Mike Riley got the heartbreaking phone call from director of operations Dan Van Driet that senior punter Sam Foltz had tragically been killed in a car accident, a gut-wrenching feeling took over him that was far too familiar.

Sadly, that was the second such call in five years that Van Driet had made to Riley informing him of unfathomable news.

On Dec. 8, 2011, Oregon State freshman defensive tackle Fred Thompson collapsed during a pickup game of basketball the campus recreation center. The 6-foot-4, 317-pound Thompson was transported to a Corvallis, Ore., hospital, but was pronounced dead soon after.

That’s why Riley knows as well as any coach in the country the pain that comes with the death of a player. But that fact hasn’t made losing Foltz any easier.

“It’s like I said, the phone calls are stuck in time,” Riley said. “They are vivid… (Van Driet and I) had talked through the years how that was an experience we never ever wanted again.”

If anything, Riley’s experience with Thompson’s death at least allowed him to know that getting his team together as soon as possible was the first and most important step in such a situation. The Huskers gathered at Memorial Stadium on Sunday evening immediately after Riley, who was out of town, returned to Lincoln.

“One thing is it’s just such a déjà vu of shock,” Riley said. “Kind of surreal - not connecting the realness initially. Then going through it with the team is probably the biggest thing of how that went. You get them the support that they need in going through that whole process.”

When Oregon State finally had to return to football in 2012, the Beavers dedicated their season to Thompson and wore No. 92 stickers on their helmets. When the team took on Texas in the Alamo Bowl, they reserved an open locker for Thompson.

"That (locker) thing was done by players and equipment guys and that's what those guys, and our whole team, that's how everybody in this football family feels about Fred," Riley told the Portland Oregonian prior to the bowl game, just over a year after Thompson’s death.

"He's part of this deal. I was telling (Van De Riet), it is absolutely still surreal to me; to this day I still can't imagine that we lost a player. But the locker, it's one of those constant reminders that Fred has been a part of this group."