doctors delivered Hoffman and his wife, Brianna, a grim diagnosis: Their son had a golf-ball sized malignant tumor near the stem of his brain. On May 20, 2011, Jack underwent brain surgery, but surgeons were unable to extract much of the tumor because of its location on his brain.

Over the next several months, Jack suffered as many as a dozen seizures a day, and medicine was doing very little to control them. Doctors told Andy his son needed a second surgery to remove the rest of the tumor, but the procedure was so risky there was a chance Jack wouldn't survive.

"They said your son might not wake up," Andy said. "After several weeks of prayer, we decided to go for it."

Miraculously, Jack survived a second brain surgery on Oct. 10, 2011. Surgeons at Boston Children's Hospital were able to extract 95 percent of the tumor, and he hasn't suffered another seizure since the procedure. Now, Jack is nearing the end of a 60-week regimen of chemotherapy, and an MRI last week revealed the chemo has dramatically shrunk what's left of the tumor.

On Friday, as Nebraska's coaches pondered how to spice up their annual spring game, wide receivers coach Rich Fisher suggested getting a fan involved or even a child with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

"How about Jack?" Cornhuskers coach Bo Pelini asked.