Nathan Kaspar

Meet Nathan Kaspar, a dyed-in-the-wool, burnt orange Top Gun.

Brad Hermes walk-on story is at:

https://www.texaslsn.org/2001-brad-hermes

More on Nathan Kaspar is at https://www.texaslsn.org/nathan-kasper

 Q & A: Nathan Kaspar

TLSN:  Following high school, what was your path to UT and walking on?

Nathan:  I came from the very small town of Ganado.  There are less than 2000 people in that town, and playing “big time” ball is pretty rare for people out of there.  We’ve always had a lot of talent, but small town guys often get overlooked.  I was a Longhorn from birth.  My parents met at the stadium, at the Texas Relays in 1973.  My father was a walk-on javelin thrower on the UT Track Team and lettered his senior year of 1970.  So, I grew up at UT sports and always knew that walking on was an option.  After high school, I also knew that if I went straight to UT, that I’d probably drink beer, chase girls and fail out.  The first two of those things were a big part of the Navy’s recruiting pitch.  So, instead of going straight to college, I enlisted in the Navy because I knew that I needed to grow up some.  

After a couple years of being an enlisted sailor, I earned a Navy ROTC Scholarship and selected Texas as my school.  I got to UT in August of 1998, which was Coach Brown’s first year.  I spent that fall working out and getting ready for try-outs.  I walked on the spring of my freshman year, and played the next 3 seasons.  

TLSN:  You’ve noted before that you, as a Longhorn walk-on, knew your role and that it was to push the scholarship teammates who were ahead of you.  How hard was it to keep that humble yet challenging credo, day after day?

Nathan: The first few weeks after making the team, it was kind of surreal to just realize that I was on the squad.  Those first few practices, just putting on the uniform and the white helmet and orange Longhorn was a feeling of accomplishment.  The work and the daily competition was enough to keep me humble.  I was part of an incredibly talented DB room, and there was no way that I could fool myself into thinking that my talent would ever be on par with those guys.  So, I had to work my tail off to not be out of place.  

The work paid off though, and being a little bit older from my time in the Navy helped.  I was a 21 year old freshman, so I put on weight a little easier.  I was 168 pounds when I walked on, and in good shape from running 5K’s while on active duty.  From January 1999 to September, I put on 35 pounds and got a lot stronger.  That strength from the weight room was required to get through practices and drills with future NFL 1st round picks.  

The team was very much like a family, and walk-ons were treated as equals by our scholarship teammates.  There was never any lack of respect because we weren’t on scholarship.  If anything, there was more respect because we were out there “for free”.  We wanted to win though, and Coach Brown did a good job of keeping us motivated to improve the team.  We also had a really good shot of getting special teams reps if we proved ourselves in practice.  

TLSN:  How close a bond did you have with your fellow walk-on teammates?

Nathan:  I have a really close bond with those guys.  From the spring of 1999, there were about 120 that showed up to tryouts.  Most quit before the first day was even over.  Eighteen of us made the team, but only four made it to graduation.  Myself, Marcus Walther, Chris Stroup, and Brad Hermes.  These guys are all lifelong friends and we stay in touch.  Chris and I were both Navy veterans, and we went to have a beer or two after tryouts.  Chris ended up coming back into the Navy after college, and I was his commissioning officer in Pensacola.  We went to flight school together, and our careers crossed several times.  We are way closer to brothers than just “teammates”.  

Other walk-ons like Tien Nguyen, Scott Emley, and Kyle Hunt are also very close friends.  It is noteworthy that all of these guys are very successful professionally as well.  

The walk-ons were always tight, but it isn’t like we were a separate tribe from the scholarship players.  We were and are all very close.

TLSN:  What was the most satisfying aspect of practice and game day before you got playing time?

Nathan:  I loved playing ball, especially the scout team defense periods.  I was a safety, but I played a lot of linebacker on the scout teams.  I approached our Tuesday/Wednesday practices like they were my “game day”.  I wanted to put on the jersey for the other team’s star player and give the offense the best look possible.  When I saw our OL kicking the crap out of that guy on Saturday, I knew that I’d done my job well.  I loved learning the different positions and getting tons of reps in practice.  Winning as a team is a seven- day-a-week effort, and it requires a full roster to get that done.

TLSN:  When you got to see action on special teams as a senior, how rewarding was it and what kind of pressure did you feel?

Nathan:  It was rewarding, but I can’t say that I felt any pressure.  I had a ton of respect for my coaches, and it was validating that they had seen how much work that I’d put in and that they trusted me to go out and do my job on special teams.  

TLSN:  You were a Longhorn when there was a fan/media controversy on who should be playing QB, Major Applewhite or Chris Simms.  Both saw a lot of success at Texas.  How would you characterize their different personalities as team leaders?

Nathan:  Both of those guys were great teammates.  Major and I were in the same senior class, and Chris ended up a year behind us.  Major was a more established leader because of his time there (having redshirted) and experienced success as a redshirt freshman the year Ricky won the Heisman.  There were a lot of pre-conceived notions about Chris before he got to campus,and being the son of a Super Bowl MVP carried a burden with it.  There was no harder worker on our team than Chris Simms, and he was a great teammate both on and off the field.  If people knew how humble and friendly Chris was, he would have been treated a lot better by our fanbase.  

The fans had a lot of strong opinions about who they thought should start and why.  I was confident that we could win with either of them, and I know the competition made us all better.  In hindsight, having two quarterbacks that you can go out and win ten games with is one heck of a luxury.  

Cole Pittman’s story is at:

https://www.texaslsn.org/colepittman

TLSN:  The death of teammate Cole Pittman, in an auto accident before your senior season, was a huge blow to the team.  What do you most remember about Cole and about how the team responded to losing him?

Nathan:  Cole was one of the first players to enroll early, so he showed up the same semester that I walked on.  We were both “country”, and I considered him a good friend.  Cole was in position to have a breakout season too.  He’d been really grinding in the weight room, and we just had Casey Hampton and Shaun Rodgers drafted.  So, we had a big hole at D-Tackle and Cole was ready to step in and dominate.  The last time I saw him was the Friday before the accident.  I was walking to my car, and he was driving to a parking spot.  He tapped the gas to try to make me sprint through the street…and I played it cool and he locked up his brakes and darn near hit me.  The last thing I told him was “You better be more careful!!”  It was a funny/stupid thing to happen.  

Losing him was awful.  I remember that team meeting like it was yesterday.  Our team was already close, but losing our brother made us closer.  Marc Pittman (Cole’s father) is so loved by our team, and the relationship that he had with Cole has inspired all of us as fathers.  My oldest son is named Cole, and several other teammates are raising (sons named) Cole right now.  

https://www.stjude.org/inspire/series/possibilities/cole-life-lessons-in-texas-garage.html

And you can hear Cole Kaspar talk about faith here:

https://youtu.be/tTam0722Yyw?t=832

TLSN:  That’s about as big a tribute as there is in life.  Looking back, how would you describe Mack Brown as a coach, leader and face of Texas football during your playing days? Texas was starting an incredible run of ten-win seasons at that time.

Nathan:  When I was enlisted in the Navy, an old Master Chief defined leadership as “Being able to tell someone to go clean a toilet, and have them WANT to do it.”  

Mack Brown had that leadership trait.  He was very matter-of-fact with walk-ons.  He’d tell us what our role was, that that we needed to know it and do well with it, and if we did, that we’d get a shot at playing time.  But that we needed to not ever, under any circumstances, ask about playing time.  They’d tell us.  He was true to his word on that subject.  He would also tell the scholarship guys that he was going out every weekend trying to recruit them out of their position.  We knew what we had to to do to earn his trust, and we knew that if we got on that field on Saturday that we’d earned his trust.  He always treated everyone with the dignity and respect that made you want to earn his trust.  When we lost, he took the blame even when it wasn’t his fault.  When we won, he gave all the credit to the players and staff.  

One of the things that Mack talked about was staying even emotionally.  Sometimes it would seem like the world was falling apart, and there would be Mack, clapping on the sidelines not worried at all.  We’d have screwed up and fallen behind, and he’d tell us at half-time what we needed to do to win and what the score would be.  Then, we’d come back and win.  I lost track of how many games we won through the years on last-second kicks or final drives.  We always believed we’d win, and nobody ever freaked out because of extra pressure from the coach.  Mack was great about instilling confidence in his players.  

TLSN:  You became a Navy helicopter pilot and served in Iraq shortly after graduating from UT   What led you to that field and position?

Nathan:  I saw Top Gun when I was nine years old and told my parents in the parking lot after the movie “I’m going to be a Navy Pilot when I grow up.”  I can’t say that I always kept that as my top goal, but I knew that there was a lot of opportunity in the Navy when I enlisted.  My father had also enlisted in the Navy out of high school.  He was only in for three years, but was an Aviation Air-Crewman, so he had the same leather flight jacket that the movie made famous.  Once I got my ROTC scholarship, becoming an aviator once commissioned was my primary goal.  My teammate, Chris Stroup, had been a SEAL when he was enlisted.  The War on Terror started our senior year in college, and Chris and I discussed our futures and that the conflict was going to be Special Operations Centric, and that Helicopters would be the place to be to fight that war.  So, that’s the route that I decided to take.  

I never fired a shot in combat during my flying career, but I did fly five medical evacuations.  I take a lot of pride in “knowing my role” and doing my part to save those lives.  That’s five families that still have their loved one at home instead of a white marker in a graveyard.  

TLSN:  Those are deeds that keep on giving, I’m sure, with the way you put it.  You know, sports journalists and players sometimes get criticized for referring to football as “war” or as “a battle.”

But are there any legit comparisons, regarding preparation, strategy or mentality?

Nathan:  The team aspect and working together for a common goal are apt comparisons.  I can honestly say that going through two-a-days at Texas helped me prepare for war.  When you are wearing full flight gear, body armor, weapons, and flying a helicopter in 120+ degree heat in Iraq, it’s nice to have a background wearing pads and doing challenging physical/mental activity in Austin.  Flying in the desert wasn’t the first time I’d had sweat roll into my eyes from a helmet and have to work through it.  

But, nobody’s mother is getting a notification from a casualty officer the next day because their son lost a football game.  Football is the best game on the planet, and only the toughest men play it.  It’s not war though.  We need to keep perspective.  

TLSN:  You famously delivered an American flag from your tour in Iraq to the 2005 team, and it was run out onto the field that season, which would become a national championship year.   What brought that about and what do are your most cherished memories from having done that?

Nathan:  I bought that flag at an Army PX at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, and flew it on a counter-insurgency patrol up to Basrah.  It was just intended to be a gift to Coach Brown, but he wanted to make a bigger deal out of it.  That deployment started right after we beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl, and having been stationed in San Diego, I was able to make that game.  We got back in August, so I brought the flag to Austin when I was on post-deployment leave.  It was awesome that they came out with that flag on the National Championship run.  A lot of those guys on the 2005 team were teammates, so I felt really connected to that squad and I got to go back to the Rose Bowl for the game against USC.  

TLSN:  All these years later, how closely do you follow Longhorn football, and what’s your outlook for the coming season, after a long stretch of mediocrity in the program?

Nathan:  Very closely.  (Again mentions grandmother and parents and brother being Longhorns)  I have an unhealthy emotional attachment to this football team, and I do believe that I know a thing or two about what it takes to win.  I don’t particularly like the direction of college sports in general these days.  The transfer portal and NIL have robbed the sport of some of the bedrock emotional elements that are critical for long term success.  I don’t feel that players who go to a school specifically for short term money or fame are able to commit fully to the institution as they could just twenty years ago.  When you make transfer easy, there isn’t the need to commit to a university and a team if you can just log into a computer and find someplace where you can play without competing as hard.  When you make a bunch of money as a teenager, it’s hard to feel the push to learn the mentality and habits that will make you a successful adult.  

To a large degree, Texas has been a victim of our own success in this regard.  Tom Herman’s Houston Cougars had no illusions about being the big dog in their games.  Their facilities were crap, and most of that roster had been snubbed by the schools they wanted to go to.  So, they played with a chip on their shoulder, and angry.  Angry players win football games.  It’s hard to manufacture anger and emotion to do something very difficult and somewhat dangerous with comfortable/rich teenagers.  There is no doubt in my mind that recent Texas teams have battled not just their opponents — who always play up for Texas — but also their own entitlement issues.  

I don’t envy the motivational task that our current coaching staff has in this regard.  

TLSN:  You’ve got plenty of company in that regard, whether it’s with media or fans. Texas has too long been referred to as “soft,” and not done much to dispel that image.  A magazine this summer (Athlon) has an anonymous opposing coach on record as basically saying that UT players look better than anyone coming off the bus but none of that lasts when they hit the field.  And he said he felt the defense last season essentially didn’t play hard enough to win or didn’t know how. 

Any theories on what has changed with young athletes in two decades since you played???

Nathan:  There are two things that have happened in the past twenty years that have impacted the way the kids grow up..  When I was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, we didn’t have video games or social media.  In my small town, the boys played tackle football on recess from kindergarten through elementary school on every recess, every day.  Sometimes we picked sides, and on short recesses we played “kill the ball carrier” where whoever got the ball had to run from 20 classmates and you gave up the ball only when tackled.  We got the Sears “Wishbook” and circled the football pads and helmets so we could play in pads in our backyard games before we got issued gear in junior high.  Then my class went 20-0 through middle school and won our first district title in decades as seniors. Ganado is the small town football/sports-obsessed community like they make movies about. The entire town values athletic excellence and they groom their kids for success through sport.   

In Ganado, Texas in 1995, if you wanted “likes”…you had to go knock someone out on Friday night, or win a race, or bring home a trophy.  The whole town would be out to see it, so that was our “social network”.  I think today, the young men get that same emotional hit of acceptance and feeling of community through their phones.  If someone tells them something they don’t like, even if it’s something they need to hear, they can just block them.  If they don’t like what the coach is telling them, they can transfer.  

One practice comes to mind when the term “soft” comes up.  It was my senior year (2001), and we were in the Holiday Bowl.  We all knew that we should be in the National Championship Game, but the Big 12 Championship game against Colorado got away from us.  None of us wanted to go out a loser, but the schedule of that game had us practicing in full pads on Christmas Day.  I don’t care who you are, it’s hard to get up on Christmas morning away from your family and grind in a morning padded practice.  The first contact drill was always a tackling drill called “Gauntlet Tackle”, which was full speed except for going to the ground.  Coach (Duane) Akina was the DB coach, and he’s one heck of a motivator.  I love that guy, and he’d always get the walk-ons –who were the ball carriers in the tackling drill– fired up.  This day he could sense that the team was dragging ass, so he gets myself, Brad Hermes, and Brandon Hedgecock to the side and he tells us to “Wear their asses out!  Run them the (bleep) over!! Kill em!”…  He didn’t even let the younger DB walk-ons run in the drill, just me, Brad, and Brandon.

Not to misuse an analogy, but an effing WAR ensued during this drill.  The starting/scholarship DBs weren’t ready for what Coach Akina had ordered us to do, and we start smoking those guys.  They are getting pissed off at us because it’s Christmas morning and they just want to get through the period.  Coach Akina starts tearing them up and telling them that they’d better wake up..and we aren’t leaving the drill until they get their minds right.  The horn blows for the drill to be over, and Coach Akina keeps us going.  Each side got more and more amped up, and the starters started tackling us to the ground, so we started working even harder to win the rep.  I was so locked in, I didn’t realize that the entire team had gathered around to watch the melee and were going nuts rooting for either side.  Coach Brown finally stepped in and blew his whistle and said something along the lines of “Now that’s how you practice if you want to win this game!”  

The day after that practice, I was awarded “The Admiral’s Cup” by the Holiday Bowl for Leadership…which was from a team vote.  I was very honored to receive that confidence from my teammates.  Several coaches told me after the game that we wouldn’t have won if that drill hadn’t turned into a war.  Something had to happen to make the game personal again.  I didn’t play a single down in that Holiday Bowl, but I know that I helped win it.  None of the DBs were mad at each other for the fight.  We are brothers, and brothers fight.  At the end, everyone knew that it was our role to turn the heat up and break out of the funk.  

Deep down, I knew that I was a low-talent walk-on, and that my ability was the floor of the Texas Football program.  But the harder I worked, and the harder I pushed the guys that were blessed with talent, the better our team would be.  If I could go hard in every rep in practice and train the starters that they couldn’t take a rep off, then they wouldn’t take a rep off in the games.  If I’m the floor, the harder I work then the higher the ceiling gets.  A lot of the teammates that I pushed and challenged as younger players went on to win the Rose Bowl and the National Championship.  I wasn’t the only one with that mentality, we had a core group of walk-ons with maniacal work ethic and drive.  I also want to note that there was leadership and support from the scholarship players.  Ahmad Brooks in particular would cuss a guy out if he heard them telling a walk-on to “take it easy”.  He would always tell us to never let up, and challenge us to make the team better.  Leonard Davis was a guy who would always want your best.  Having that respect and support from team leaders strengthened our bond up and down the entire roster.  

TLSN:  Those are awesome memories.  Fires me up.  I still have that Holiday Bowl comeback on a DVD somewhere.  Your recollections hammer something else home…regarding “the floor impacting the ceiling.”  Last season, amid that unbelievable losing streak, I heard a lot of people saying that “x” number of defensive guys should no longer be starting….but that it didn’t seem like anyone behind or below them was pushing enough to make sure they got replaced.

Nathan:  Over the past decade, the walk-on program at Texas had really suffered.  Steve Patterson (former athletic director) didn’t understand the importance, and Coach (Charlie) Strong allowed it to languish.  Coach Herman was a GA while I was at Texas and coached the scout teams.  I wish his time at Texas had turned out better, but I don’t think many understand just how bad of a situation he inherited.  One thing Coach Herman did have success with was to prioritize revitalizing the walk-on program.  Fans don’t see practice or understand how they are structured, but you have to have close to the full 120-man roster, with only 85 scholarships, to have a fully functioning practice to maximize reps for the starters.  If you don’t have a foundation of committed, hard-core walk-ons who challenge the starters, your ceiling will never get to fan expectations.  It’s probably a coaching challenge to recruit and maintain a player who will work their tail off for little glory, when they can get “likes” through their phone.  I know one thing though.  If a business owner gets a resume from a letterman walk-on football player at Texas, you need to hire that guy.  If he is going to be your floor, the ceiling is going to be pretty high.  I know that we need guys like that in the program, and the coaching staff needs to recognize who they are and inspire them like Coach Akina and Coach Brown inspired my group.  

TLSN:  I think you’re gonna hear a lot of hearty “Amen” responses to that.  Before we wrap up, let’s talk about your work in the agri-business field, and how you’ve also become involved with a Political Action Committee, or PAC.  How important do you think it is for Americans, and veterans in particular, to be well-informed about our country’s interests and the political process?  And…are you interested in holding a public office?

Nathan:  I think that Americans see military veterans, at a minimum, as someone who has demonstrated integrity and the willingness to do hard and complicated work.  So, the endorsement of veterans groups, or service of those groups is something that politicians seek.  Unfortunately, politicians don’t always tell the truth and there is a disturbing trend of political “stolen valor”, where candidates will either misrepresent their service or personal history with veteran’s organizations.  My Political Action Committee was formed to keep that practice in check, and also to educate civilians on political matters from the Veteran’s perspective.  Going all over the world and seeing how different countries function both economically and politically is a valuable perspective that the public should be interested in.  Veterans have seen how other nations have screwed things up, but also things that they do well.  Not all veterans are pre-disposed for public office, but I believe that we all have valuable perspective that can benefit the general public.  

To run for public office, I’d have to be drafted by the right group of friends/supporters.  I’m very happy now building a deer feed brand, called Cervid Complete, and expanding my company’s line of Equine CBD (Equine Serenity) to help horses live their best lives. 

TLSN:   You’re a busy man.  What do you have planned for any leisure time this summer, before football kicks off again?

Nathan:  We still own our home in Gulf Breeze, Florida from my last active-duty assignment in Pensacola.  My awesome wife, Heather — who is also a retired Navy officer — and I are converting that home to an Air B&B.  Selfishly, I want to do that so I can spend more time on the Florida coast when I get some down time.  We have some weekends when I’ll bring the kids down to Ganado and go fishing and floundering with my Dad.  My youngest son, Kyler, and I also spend time looking for Indian artifacts, so we have some trips and secret places to that later this summer.

TLSN:  Sounds like lots of good times ahead.  Okay, a final question that I like to close with.  What’s something.that most people would not know or guess, about you?

Nathan:  Suburban dads ofter joke that every man has to make a decision… You either get into cars, guns, sports, or smoking meat.  I’ve managed to get into all of those.  A lot of my friends come from those hobbies, but my biggest passions are raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and leading the High School Boy’s youth group at Real Life Church.  My oldest son, Cole, had cancer when he was two.  The good Lord and doctors and nurses at St. Jude in Memphis worked a miracle for us.  Cole is 18 now, and was a varsity wrestler for four years at Dripping Springs.  He starts at Tarleton State in the fall, and I’m really proud of him and very thankful to the donors of St. Jude for building that hospital before Cole got sick.  Anyone that wants to see that story, can read it and watch the video here: