Those who are feeling the loss of Tyler Butterfield the most were reminded that they aren't alone in their grief over the weekend. The Nebraska football marching band lost one of their own just before Halloween in a tragic car accident. Tyler Butterfield was a junior at UNL and a trumpet player for the marching band. He was also, as the Omaha World-Herald reports, a passenger in a car that collided with another in Lincoln on October 26. While his bandmates and family are suffering through dealing with the loss, other bands across the country have gone out of their way to show they feel the Cornhuskers' pain and wanted to pay tribute.

Bands pay tribute to Nebraska's loss

The first tribute came from a rather unexpected source when the Boise State Broncos' Keith Stein Blue Thunder marching band put out a picture on Twitter of a recent practice. There on the field that is affectionately known as the "Smurf Turf" throughout the college football world, the Boise State band managed to group themselves together in order to make the block letter "N" that Nebraska is so famous for.

In addition to forming the letter, the band put out the message, "our hearts are with the Nebraska Cornhusker Marching Band and the family of Tyler Butterfield, a member of the trumpet section who lost his life last Friday in a car accident." They also tagged the official accounts of the UNL band as well as the UNL school of music.

The Blue Thunder marching band might have been among the first to show Nebraska support but they weren't the last.

On Saturday afternoon, at halftime of the Nebraska football game against Ohio State, the Buckeyes' marching band finished its live performance by spelling out Tyler on the field.

While this was going on, a tribute to the young man was read out over the public address system. The Buckeyes' band then walked off the field in the Tyler formation. That group too, put out a message on Twitter addressed to the UNL band saying, "our hearts are with you on your loss of junior trumpet player Tyler Butterfield."

Huskers dealing with grief again

This isn't the first time Nebraska has been at the center of an outpouring of support in recent years.

In 2016 the Nebraska football team lost its punter Sam Foltz in a tragic car accident that also claimed the life of former Michigan State punter Mike Sadler just weeks before the season was set to start. That year, college football programs across the country found ways to honor Foltz and show respect to the Huskers. That included Fresno State, who was the Cornhuskers' first opponent that year, declined a delay of game penalty. The Huskers had lined up for their first punt of the season without an actual punter, as a way to show how much they missed their teammate.
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