The Nebraska Cornhuskers have had their fair share of “what if” moments over the past decade, but this one might sting more than most. According to former Husker linebacker Josh Banderas, Nebraska was this close to landing Micah Parsons - yes, that Micah Parsons - before a coaching shake-up sent the future NFL star down a different path.
On a recent episode of the WIRED Access podcast, Banderas dropped a revelation that hadn’t made its way into the public eye until now: Parsons was a silent commit to Nebraska. The five-star linebacker, who would go on to become one of the most dominant defensive players in the NFL, was ready to suit up in scarlet and cream - until the Huskers made a move that changed everything.
“I got confirmation from him,” Banderas said. “We had Mike.
Micah Parsons was coming here. He was silently committed to Trent Bray and Mark Banker.
Like, nobody knows that.”
Let that sink in. Micah Parsons - the same guy who’s been terrorizing NFL quarterbacks since 2021 - was all but locked in for Lincoln.
But then came the coaching carousel. When head coach Mike Riley fired defensive coordinator Mark Banker and brought in Bob Diaco ahead of the 2017 season, Parsons backed off his quiet pledge.
Banderas, who played under both Banker and Diaco, didn’t mince words about the impact of that decision. “We could have had Micah Parsons.
We had this good thing. Like, we had a bunch of good recruits going … and then, you know, politics and backroom stuff- or whatever it is- like they ended up making the change to Diaco.
You know, it obviously went downhill from there.”
And downhill it went. Nebraska’s defense, which had already been under scrutiny, took a step back under Diaco.
The Huskers stumbled to a 4-8 finish in 2017, and Riley was shown the door at season’s end. The ripple effects of that coordinator change were felt far beyond the stat sheet - they may have cost Nebraska a generational talent.
Instead of anchoring the Blackshirts, Parsons took his talents to Penn State, where he racked up 192 tackles and 19 sacks over just two seasons. He then declared for the NFL Draft and was selected 12th overall by the Dallas Cowboys in 2021. Since then, he’s been nothing short of a wrecking ball at the pro level, never logging fewer than 12 sacks in any of his first five seasons with the Cowboys and Green Bay Packers.
It’s one of those alternate-reality moments that Husker fans can’t help but wonder about. What would Nebraska football have looked like with a player like Parsons patrolling the middle of the defense? Could his presence have stabilized a program that was desperately searching for an identity?
We’ll never know for sure. But thanks to Banderas, we now know just how close it came to happening - and how one coaching decision may have altered the course of Nebraska football history.