LINCOLN, Neb. -- Five years ago, Nebraska coaches finalized a recruiting class that featured the likes of quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr., who seems to be setting career records weekly, and prolific receiver Jordan Westerkamp.As a footnote to the 2012 class, the Cornhuskers announced the addition of 18 walk-ons, a group that grew in the offseason to include 10 players who earned scholarships. Defensive end Ross Dzuris, tight end Trey Foster, quarterback Ryker Fyfe, running back Graham Nabity, receiver Brandon Reilly, linebacker Brad Simpson and center Dylan Utter remain as fifth-year seniors, contributing to a team with a chance to win 11 games for the first time at Nebraska in 15 years.Gone from the collection of former walk-ons are Andy Janovich, a rookie fullback with the Denver Broncos, receiver Lane Hovey and All-Big Ten punter Sam Foltz, who died July 23 in an auto accident after attending a kicking camp in Wisconsin.The image of Foltz shines brightly in the minds of his former teammates this week.Together, they extended a meaningful legacy as perhaps the most accomplished class of walk-ons at a school rich in walk-on tradition.When the No. 18 Huskers host Maryland on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, the seven seniors and Foltz will be honored before the home crowd as their stories -- touched by triumph and tragedy -- near a close in Lincoln.Heres a look at the highs and lows of the journey, as told by those who experienced it:An unreal feelingArmstrong, Westerkamp, Foster and linebacker Josh Banderas visited Chicago on the fourth weekend of July this year to attend the wedding of Westerkamps cousin. After the ceremony, all but Foster were set to stay in the city for Big Ten media days. But after Banderas took an early call from coach Mike Riley on July 24, they all came home to mourn Foltz. Word of the accident quickly spread that morning through other calls and by text messages to stunned teammates.Brandon Reilly: I got the text from Zack Darlington and didnt believe it was real. I turned my phone off, then turned it back on. I just thought there was no way it could be true.Dylan Utter: Brandon Reilly called me. It was an unreal feeling.Brad Simpson: I got a call from Dylan Utter. He said Foltz was in a car accident and it sounded pretty bad. There was a pause. We were both like, Is this real?Graham Nabity: I got a text from a teammate, Ty Bekta, who said something about praying for the family and for Sam -- that he had passed away. To me, it wasnt actually Sam. I had to read it a couple times, but I didnt have any emotion. I didnt know what to think. I had no idea how to respond. I was in shock.Andy Janovich: I was in disbelief.Trey Foster: I didnt know what to do, but we all knew we had to get back to Lincoln.Early signs of successFrom the impromptu prayer vigil outside Memorial Stadium hours after Foltzs death, rewind 49 months to June 2012, the unofficial moment of launch for this walk-on class. All but Hovey, from Iowa, played at Nebraska high schools. They converged for two weeks of practice before the Shrine Bowl, an annual prep all-star game in Lincoln. Immediately, the future Huskers noticed Janovich, rock solid at 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds. Turns out, they were on to something. He skipped a redshirt season. Two months ago, Janovich ran for a 28-yard touchdown on his first NFL rushing attempt.Brad Simpson: We all wanted to be Janovich. He basically motivated our whole class to play.Trey Foster: I showed up for the initial meeting, saw Janovich and remember thinking, Wait, this guy couldnt get a scholarship? I have no chance at Nebraska.Andy Janovich: I dont think its right to say I was a big motivating factor. I wouldnt say I set the bar by any means. The other guys knew what they wanted to accomplish. Whether I got a scholarship or not, that wasnt going to determine anything for those guys.Ross Dzuris: We realized about the third practice that a lot of guys in this group were pretty special.Brandon Reilly: The day after the Shrine Bowl, most of us enrolled in class. And I think early on in summer workouts, we all knew that our walk-on class might be different.Graham Nabity: We knew we could compete with anybody. Through the trenches of training in the offseason, in my opinion, it was really the walk-ons who pushed everyone through. We were willing to lead this team even if nobody knew our names.Ryker Fyfe: Me and Foltz (a former Grand Island High School teammate) figured we could hang with these guys. We went out right away on the scout team and played with something to prove. I was a quarterback, and he played receiver. And he was good, a 4.4 guy. Mainly, he just ran past people.Trey Foster: Youve got to realize, Foltz didnt come here to punt. He was a guy who was going to play safety or wide receiver and, without a doubt, he was one of the most athletic guys on the team. In the spring after our first year, Coach [Bo Pelini] talked to Sam and asked him to punt a couple balls.Ross Dzuris: Thats when you realized he was going to start the next year, and there really wasnt any question about it. I was like, Wow, thats an NFL punter on our team.Trey Foster: And like that, he was done playing wide receiver.Sharing the joyJanovich, as expected, got his scholarship first -- in camp before the 2013 season. Reilly and Foltz came next in the summer of 2014, followed by Fyfe in August of that year. New coach Mike Riley delivered the news to Foster, Hovey, Dzuris and Utter in August 2015. Nabity received a scholarship last spring, and Simpson got his three months ago in addition to Logan Rath, another 2012 Shrine Bowl vet who transferred to Nebraska after one season at South Dakota State. Each time, the whole group shared in the joy.Brad Simpson: I had been waiting for those words since I got here. As soon as I told my parents, my mom started crying.Brandon Reilly: We always wondered which one of our guys was next. And so down the line, as they started coming, it was a great experience.Ross Dzuris: Some teams will make a big deal out of it, but here at Nebraska, were a lot more subtle. Its somewhat expected.Trey Foster: Every single time one of us got put on scholarship, a month would pass and wed all start joking around, telling that guy that hed changed and forgotten where he came from. But Foltz was the main guy to make sure you knew he remembered what it was like to not have school paid for -- to have to figure out student loans and finances with your parents.Walk-on visionEarly in the careers of the 2012 walk-ons, Foltz initiated a ritual. It might happen at practice or in the weight room or in a game. At any moment that required, he would make rings with his fingers and press them over his eyes.Brandon Reilly: We joked about how we always had to keep the walk-on vision. We joked about it, but it was true. Youve got to have that chip on your shoulder. We all had the mindset that we werent good enough coming out of high school, so we had to continue to prove ourselves.Mike Riley: What I have found [in walk-ons], most all of them really, really work hard to achieve their dream. These guys who got scholarships and are playing are great examples to the rest of them of what might occur. They were rewarded for a reason.Graham Nabity: Foltz was the natural guy who took things to the next level. If he ever saw a guy who was slacking off, he would call him out. He didnt care. Sam Foltz was a punter. Since when do punters have that type of leadership role, especially in the weights and the running? They just kick balls. Well, that was definitely not the case with him.Brad Simpson: In our summer workouts, he would lift with the early group, then stay after with the late group and encourage those guys. There was one time where the linebackers had to run stairs because some guys had missed a workout. Foltz ran them with us. It was awesome. Thats just the kind of guy he was.Foltzs senior legacySaturday marks a ceremonial conclusion for this group. Theyll play again next week at Iowa, then at least once more. But for the former walk-ons, every relationship began in the state of Nebraska. Foltzs parents, Gerald and Jill Foltz, have attended each game this fall, traveling on the team plane and eating meals on the road with Sams teammates this month. Nebraska figures to involve its late punter in the Senior Day ceremony. To his walk-on classmates, the presence of Foltz has remained strong, fueling their path to eight wins in 10 games.Brad Simpson: Hes always going to be in my heart. Hes just that special kid. He wasnt like anyone else, just so positive all the time. If anyone needed to talk, he was there, the most down-to-earth guy. He connected with everyone.Trey Foster: It still hurts, but I think it would hurt more if we looked back and didnt feel like we honored him every single week.Ryker Fyfe: Its hard not to feel like hes with us. When Im by myself, its something I think about all the time. Im still trying to get through and hope things get better. I know its never going to be easy. Itll always be there, and Ive definitely felt like hes watching over me. But this is the last game. I should be walking out with Sam.Brandon Reilly: Different guys have different rituals. The specialists carry his jersey. Other guys write No. 27 on their tape. Even the guys who dont, I know its still on their minds. You go through what we did, the bond we had, thats something youll never forget, especially on game day. No one loved game day more than Sam.Mike Riley: Hes one of those guys that set the bar and was a great example and had that great passion and dedicated his sports life to making it here. And he did. And so were always reminded of that. Its part of the identity, not only of Nebraska, but particularly this group.Graham Nabity: We never stopped fighting. We dont ever give up. More than anything, thats the legacy of Sam Foltz. Jim Otto Jersey .R. Smith realized how easily basketball can be taken from him, and he wasnt going to take his place in the NBA for granted anymore. Charles Woodson Raiders Jersey . 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As the last of the soggy footprints were made near Lake Geneva, there was significance but not suspense.The Evian Championship did not have a taut finish like this years ANA Inspiration or KPMG Womens PGA Championship, and there was no pivotal caught-on-camera rules infraction as in the U.S. Womens Open. Even the Ricoh Womens British had tightened for a time in the final round before Ariya Jutanugarn, who had lost most of a big lead, reasserted control. The only doubt as In Gee Chun played the back nine on Sunday in Evian-les-Bains, France, was whether she would set a major championship scoring record in winning wire-to-wire.By saving par on the 18th hole at Evian Resort Golf Club, Chun made history, breaking the mark for lowest 72-hole score in relation to par not only in womens golf but bettering the mens standard too. Sure, the final major of the LPGA season was played on a vulnerable course saturated by rain -- and where Hyo Joo Kim shot a major-record 61 in 2014 -- but only seven golfers finished double-digits under par.Chun, a 22-year-old South Korean, was just in another league, shooting 21-under 263 for a 4-stroke victory over countrywomen So Yeon Ryu and Sung Hyun Park.Chuns tour de force performance surpassed the womens major record of 19 under shared by Dottie Pepper (1999 Kraft Nabisco Championship), Karen Stupples (2004 Ricoh Womens British Open), Cristie Kerr (2010 LPGA Championship) Yani Tseng (2011 LPGA Championship) and Inbee Park (2015 KPMG Womens PGA). Chun finished one stroke lower than the 20 under posted by Jason Day (2015 PGA Championship) and Henrik Stenson (2016 Open Championship). Chuns 263 score was shots better than Betsy Kings 72-hole total in the 1992 LPGA Championship.Beyond the scoring achievements, the most notable aspect of Chuns week is that it is her second LPGA win, following a surprise victory in the 2015 U.S. Womens Open, when she rallied past Amy Yang and Stacy Lewis in the final round. The only other player whose first two LPGA victories came in majors is South Korean legend Se Ri Pak, who won the LPGA Championship and U.S. Womens Open during a seven-week span in 1998. At the recent Rio Olympics, Chun tied for 13th in the womens golf competition as a member of the Republic of Korea team coached by Pak.Shes a rookie right now, but shes not really like a rookie, Ryu said of Chun, who has nine career titles on the LPGA of Korea Tour and was that circuits leading money-winner in 2015 prior to joining the LPGA in 2016.Chun got off to a solid start this season then was hurt on an escalator at the Singapore airport when the father of fellow player Ha Na Jang lost control of a piece of luggage and it tumbled into Chun. A lower-back injury caused Chun to miss three tournaments, with the incident heavily covered by Korean media and devoureed by that countrys golf fans.dddddddddddd Some of these fans believed Jangs family didnt apologize fully and that Jang celebrated too enthusiastically after winning a tournament that Chun missed because of injury.The accident and surrounding turmoil roiled Chuns rookie LPGA campaign, but she regained her mojo at the Olympics. I got my passion back at the Olympics, Chun told reporters after winning in France. Golf had become fun.The Evian victory gets the Chun narrative fully off the soap opera arc and back to what has been known since even before she won the Open at Lancaster Country Club last July: The complete player with a disarming smile could well be the heir apparent to seven-time major winner Inbee Park in the impressive chain of Korean womens stars. Although Park, who recently turned 28, won gold at Rio, she missed three 2016 majors, including the Evian, because of a thumb injury; having qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame, she might be short of goals and eager to start a family.Chuns victory made it six consecutive years that a Korean has won at least one LPGA major title, a streak dating to Ryus win in the 2011 U.S. Womens Open.Since 1998, when Pak burst on the scene, South Koreans have won 24 womens majors compared to 23 by Americans. Dont be surprised if Sung Hyun Park, a star in her native country who led the 2016 U.S. Womens Open after 36 holes -- and like Jutanugarn wows with her power -- joins Chun in having major success during 2017.Just as the tour has week to week, the LPGA majors were mostly a youthful domain this season. U.S. Womens Open champion Brittany Lang, at 30, was by far the oldest winner. Chun completed a young quartet of champions: Lydia Ko (19, ANA Inspiration), Brooke Henderson (18, KPMG Womens PGA) and Jutanugarn (20, Ricoh Womens British). Ko didnt factor at the Evian but with a runner-up finish at the Womens PGA and tie for third at the U.S. Womens Open won the Rolex Annika Major Award (named for 10-time major champion Annika Sorenstam) for the most outstanding overall record in the five majors.Ko and Henderson were among Chuns fellow players who greeted the amiable winner after she completed the final round at Evian.I think shes an amazing ambassador for the womens game, Ko, herself quite popular with peers, told the media. You can kind of see that from her personality. Shes always smiling, and shes there for other people. I think thats why everybody really likes her, and you can see that by the many of us that came out to support her and celebrate and spray champagne [and] water on her.Back home, there no doubt were plenty of toasts with Hite beer, one of Chuns sponsors, and not for the last time either. ' ' '