DeShon Singleton claims Nebraska will 'make people in wheelchairs stand up' in season opener

The Nebraska Cornhuskers are getting ready to kickoff a season with increasing expectations on Thursday night. There’s certainly a lot of confidence coming from the players too. In particular, defensive back DeShon Singleton, who recently joked that they’re going to make people in wheelchairs stand up with their opening performance.

Several Nebraska players, including Dylan Raiola and DeShon Singleton, among others, appeared on Behind-the-Scenes with Nebraska Football ahead of the season. There, they turned their attention to the trip to Kansas City and their neutral site opener against the Cincinnati Bearcats. That was also when Singleton shared his rather bold prediction for the game.

“We finna make people in wheelchairs stand up,” DeShon Singleton said. “You heard me? Yeah. Get like that. I’m telling you.”

The group of Nebraska players laughed at the visual image that Singleton concocted. None of them necessarily built on that idea, though they did maintain confidence going into the season.

This all comes a year removed from taking the program to its first bowl game since 2016 last season. It was a year that many of them, including Singleton, who came to Nebraska as a three-star recruit in the Class of 2021, had been working to get to over multiple seasons. Now, they do want to build on that.

Nebraska recently announced team captains for the 2025 season. DeShon Singleton is among those six players who were named to the team. That’s a group that has a lot to live up to this season. Expectations are high, and head coach Matt Rhule did nothing to temper them when he set the College Football Playoff as the goal this season.

“I want to get to the College Football Playoff. I mean, that’s why we’re doing all this, right? Like, you’re doing all of this to have a chance to get to the College Football Playoff. And so I think what’s really unique, what’s interesting is, like, you look at Ohio State last year, my boy Ryan Day, former Temple Owl Ryan Day, right … When was the last time you lose the last game of the regular season you can make it into the playoffs? It’s never happened before. You can finish 10-2 … and the great job he did of getting him into the playoffs,” Rhule said.

“And so for me, what I saw last year was like, hey, just get your guys to the tournament. So that’s our goal. Man, like, I mean, we want to be a great team. We want to win every game, we want to make people proud. We want to play the game the right way. There’s a lot of other things, but, you know, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that. We want to go to the CFP, because once you get in, man, who knows what can happen? It’s the team that’s the hottest that makes it happen.”

Nebraska opens its season at 9:00 p.m. EST on Thursday against Cincinnati. That will be a neutral-site game in Arrowhead Stadium. After that, the Cornhuskers return to Lincoln for their home opener against Akron on September 6th. The hope with those two games is to find a way to hit the ground running.