How OU football standout Reggie Grimes is embracing his return to Nebraska roots

The phrases hung up in Mikaela Perry-Grimes’ throat.

“I by no means thought in 1,000,000 years I’d be yelling ‘Boomer Sooner,’” Perry-Grimes mentioned.

Greater than two years after the Omaha native and lifelong Nebraska fan first sat within the stands and cheered for her son, Reggie Grimes, enjoying for the Sooners, Mikaela Perry-Grimes will return to her dwelling state for Saturday’s OU-Nebraska matchup in Lincoln (11 a.m., Fox).

She’ll achieve this along with her son a big a part of the Sooners’ protection.

Via two video games, Reggie leads OU with 4 sacks and 5 tackles for loss. 

In Grimes’ first two seasons with the Sooners, he had three sacks whole and simply 3.5 tackles for loss.

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“He’s extra disruptive,” OU defensive coordinator Ted Roof mentioned. “He’s extra aggressive. He’s enjoying sooner and he’s been actually constant.

“I feel he’s enjoying with some confidence. And, , confidence is such a strong factor.”

Grimes has all the time been analytical, his mom says.

That comes from his grandparents. 

His grandfather on his father’s aspect, Nathaniel, is a preacher. His grandmother, Barbara, is named “Mama” far past her youngsters.

Mikaela’s dad, Otis, was a faculty administrator. He nonetheless competes within the Senior Olympics and holds powerlifting data for his age group in Florida.

Her mother, Doris, taught first grade for greater than 35 years on the similar Omaha faculty.

“He’s simply received an previous soul,” Perry-Grimes mentioned. “He simply steps again and appears at all the things, analyzes it and he places his tackle it. He’s all the time finished that.”

Otis and Doris Perry graduated from Southern College, a traditionally Black faculty and college in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, earlier than transferring to Omaha, the place Mikaela was born.

Perry-Grimes grew up round athletics and the household gravitated towards Cornhuskers’ soccer.

“We might go to as many video games as doable,” she mentioned. “We’d journey to bowl video games. We didn’t have knowledgeable soccer crew, so that you cheered for Husker soccer. That’s what you probably did.”

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Considered one of Mikaela’s older brothers earned a monitor scholarship at Nebraska and was a captain on a Huge 8 championship crew. 

Eight years later, Mikaela determined to observe in his footsteps after successful state titles in monitor.

She, too, earned a monitor scholarship and in 1993 additionally turned a cheerleader for the Cornhuskers, one of many first Black cheerleaders on the faculty.

Her remaining dwelling sport as a cheerleader there, Nov. 26, 1993, was on a chilly, windy day as Tommie Frazier and Nebraska knocked off the Sooners 21-7.

After her freshman season, Mikaela transferred to Alabama — the place she met Reggie Grimes Sr. — however didn’t quit Cornhuskers soccer.

“All I ever knew was Tom Osborne. Tom Osborne and Bob Devaney,” Perry-Grimes mentioned. “I received to Alabama, didn’t have a clue who Bear Bryant was.”

None of Grimes’ household lives in Nebraska any longer. Otis and Doris retired to Florida. Mikaela and Reggie Sr. settled within the Nashville space. Considered one of Reggie’s uncles lives close to his mother and father in Florida, whereas one other lives in Louisiana close to the place his mother and father went to school.

However Reggie Grimes has been to Nebraska earlier than.

Throughout his sophomore yr in highschool, the Grimes household went again to Omaha for Mikaela’s induction into the Omaha Public Colleges Athletic Corridor of Fame.

“You develop up in Nashville and your dad is who he’s and he’s clearly actually well-known across the metropolis, across the state and across the south,” Reggie mentioned. “However you then return (to Omaha) and also you truly see it (what Mikaela achieved), you’re like, ‘OK, she truly means all these things.’ … It was actually, actually cool to have the ability to see that. Can’t wait to get again.”

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Nebraska — together with nearly each different main faculty within the nation — recruited Reggie.

However he needed to go his personal approach.

And although the considered rooting for the Sooners was exhausting to swallow for Mikaela, she wasn’t about to get in the way in which of what her son needed to do.

“We advised all our children, ‘You write your individual story,’” Perry-Grimes mentioned. 

Saturday can be Perry-Grimes’ first time in Memorial Stadium since that long-ago Nebraska victory over the Sooners.

She’ll attend the sport along with her childhood greatest good friend and her good friend’s son — a center schooler who roots for the Cornhuskers. 

Now, although, there can be no hesitation as Perry-Grimes belts out “Boomer Sooner.”

“Now, I’m a tried and true fan,” she mentioned.

And although her son by no means lived in Nebraska and hasn’t even visited fairly often, her son is savoring his return to a spot that is a crucial a part of his household’s historical past.

“That’s part of the place I’m from,” Reggie mentioned.

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