Great new Husker Football Book coming out soon

Now that I've given you a flavor for the types of conversations that take place in the book, I'll begin sharing a part of every chapter that I call "Notable quotes." It's where I find one or two golden nuggets of information and highlight it in the telling of "How" & "Why" Nebraska's 5 year 60 win-3 loss record came to be. Hope you guys enjoy these as I begin to ready the book for final draft and publication in the coming weeks...and by all means, please tell everyone you know about this, will you? I'm gonna rely heavily on word of mouth from you Husker fans/friends and let it grow from there. Thanks & GBR!

Notable quote #2:

Former NU Tight End Trumane Bell on team chemistry: “We did things together all the time. It got to where we could tell what a teammate was going to do at a certain point because we were so in tune with each other, because of the time spent together. We could read off of each other instead of having to talk it out, and that was a big thing for us. Getting to know each other on a personal basis, as well, makes you more willing to fight for him… We were a big family.”

 
Former Defensive ends coach Tony Samuel talking about the talent he had to work with:

"TS: The only guy that came close to being ready to play in my career there was (Grant) Wistrom, as far as being ready to play from the start. Trev was a guy that played every single spot on the football field in high school, so he was never able to lock in on any position. You know, a lot of great teams do that, and Trev and Travis were in that same boat. Travis Hill, I remember watching his high school film: he was returning kickoffs, he was playing linebacker one minute, he was playing defensive line the next, he was all over the place, you know?

Q: I bet that was interesting… watching some of that film.

TS: We had the benefit of doing that at Nebraska. We had the opportunity to look at them and determine the type of motor they had. And if they could play hard every play in the game, they stood out to me. It was only a matter of teaching them."

 
From the guy who intercepted Miami U's Frank Costa to seal the deal on the '94 Natl. Championship...talking about entering Memorial Stadium via the tunnel walk for the first time:

Notable quote #2:

Kareem Moss on fan support in Memorial Stadium: “Nothing was comparable to that first time walking out of the tunnel. In fact, me and Toby were walking next to each other, walking two by two, it was me and Toby Wright. He said, “Hey, this is what we’re here for.” And we both even started crying a little bit.”

 
NoPlaceLikeNebraskaPKoch said:
My book "No Place Like Nebraska" is absolutely HUGE, guys, so I don't mind posting snippets like this about every day...there is more than enough to go around without my fearing that I'll have blown my wad by the time it comes out. LOL
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FWIW, these snippets have convinced me to buy the book (probably Kindle version) when it comes out. Hard to say otherwise, maybe word of mouth or picking it up and taking a look in a book store would've done it, but you've turned a maybe into a YES, if that helps!

 
From backup Pipeline member Bryan Pruitt, a walk-on O-Lineman from Chicago talking about the Florida State/'93 Natl Champ Orange Bowl game's final field goal try by Byron Bennett:

"BP: Oh, I’ll be honest with you: I’ve seen the kick, but I don’t think I’ve watched the game. Ever. I have the game downstairs, but I’ve never watched it. If you break that tape out again, I was the left tackle on the kick. I remember that field, planting my left foot against one of those Alexanders for FSU. He played a few years for the Minnesota Vikings, that’s who I wound up blocking. I stepped and my feet gave out on me, and you can see I end up on the ground. And he got a pretty good push and someone comes up, over the left side of him and gets really high. I don’t know the kid’s name. I always wondered, because I gave up a little ground on my block, ‘Did that screw up Byron and affect him and his kick?’, you know? I always wonder if that may have contributed at all, you know? I sure hope not, but you think about it sometimes."

 
NoPlaceLikeNebraskaPKoch said:
From backup Pipeline member Bryan Pruitt, a walk-on O-Lineman from Chicago talking about the Florida State/'93 Natl Champ Orange Bowl game's final field goal try by Byron Bennett:

"BP: Oh, I’ll be honest with you: I’ve seen the kick, but I don’t think I’ve watched the game. Ever. I have the game downstairs, but I’ve never watched it. If you break that tape out again, I was the left tackle on the kick. I remember that field, planting my left foot against one of those Alexanders for FSU. He played a few years for the Minnesota Vikings, that’s who I wound up blocking. I stepped and my feet gave out on me, and you can see I end up on the ground. And he got a pretty good push and someone comes up, over the left side of him and gets really high. I don’t know the kid’s name. I always wondered, because I gave up a little ground on my block, ‘Did that screw up Byron and affect him and his kick?’, you know? I always wonder if that may have contributed at all, you know? I sure hope not, but you think about it sometimes."
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That was such a gut-wrenching game to watch. It was clear that we were as good as Florida State, it was clear we could win that game. To have them go up late like that, on a BS penalty and a blown TD fumble no less, then to rally and have a chance to win only to see it sail wide left... crushing. I was up in Fremont watching that game at a party and my stomach was in knots for the hour drive back to Lincoln. I can't imagine what it must be like for a guy like Pruitt to think maybe he contributed to the loss. I'm still not over that game and I didn't even play in it.

 
Knapp. That game was so similar to the Texas '09 CCG. Take the lead late, then give them a big play and a big penalty on their go ahead drive. In both instances, we just seemed to snatch defeat from the hands of victory when it was obvious we outplayed the opponent on both accounts. I was 10 at the time. Our washer in the laundry room died that night. Dad went in there with his radio to listen to the kick.

 
That 1993 game was why I watched the 1994 game (1995 Orange Bowl against Sapp & Co.) alone at home. I couldn't bear to watch another national championship game around other people. The wife was basically hiding in our room while I was sitting on the floor in front of the TV like a four-year-old watching Saturday morning cartoons. I knew it, could feel it, that we were going to lose that game after their last TD in the third quarter, putting us down 17-7.

All those years of disappointment throughout the 80s, combined with the gut-wrenching loss the year before, still hadn't numbed me to the pain of that impending loss. I felt just wretched.

I couldn't believe we were going to lose.

Again.

And then we got that safety, and it seemed like the defense was figuring these guys out.

And then Tommie came back into the game. And Schlesinger busted up the middle for that score, and Frazier converted that two-pointer to tie it up. And it all just felt... different.

Then the defense was like a pack of ravening wolves, all over the Miami quarterback, and we got the ball back. And Tommie had that run, that zig-zag through the whole Miami defense where, after he was tackled, he popped back up and did that kind of dancing jig, like, "I can do this all night, boys. Whatta you got?" And Schlesinger popped back through for the go-ahead score.

And Miami came back out for their final drive, and you could just see it in the eyes of the Blackshirts that they weren't going to score, no way. And then the interception, and the Victory Formation.

I remember sitting there in that room, all alone, saying over and over, "I can't believe we won."

"I can't believe we won."

 
knapplc said:
That 1993 game was why I watched the 1994 game (1995 Orange Bowl against Sapp & Co.) alone at home. I couldn't bear to watch another national championship game around other people. The wife was basically hiding in our room while I was sitting on the floor in front of the TV like a four-year-old watching Saturday morning cartoons. I knew it, could feel it, that we were going to lose that game after their last TD in the third quarter, putting us down 17-7.

All those years of disappointment throughout the 80s, combined with the gut-wrenching loss the year before, still hadn't numbed me to the pain of that impending loss. I felt just wretched.

I couldn't believe we were going to lose.

Again.

And then we got that safety, and it seemed like the defense was figuring these guys out.

And then Tommie came back into the game. And Schlesinger busted up the middle for that score, and Frazier converted that two-pointer to tie it up. And it all just felt... different.

Then the defense was like a pack of ravening wolves, all over the Miami quarterback, and we got the ball back. And Tommie had that run, that zig-zag through the whole Miami defense where, after he was tackled, he popped back up and did that kind of dancing jig, like, "I can do this all night, boys. Whatta you got?" And Schlesinger popped back through for the go-ahead score.

And Miami came back out for their final drive, and you could just see it in the eyes of the Blackshirts that they weren't going to score, no way. And then the interception, and the Victory Formation.

I remember sitting there in that room, all alone, saying over and over, "I can't believe we won."

"I can't believe we won."
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Nice.

Did you flip at the safety? Basically, I felt the same way as you did, but once we got that safety, I knew we had it one way or another. That team just felt different, and it just seemed to turn at that point.

 
I didn't feel like we had that game won until Schlesinger's second TD. Until then it felt like any other game, except that we had come back in this one to tie it up. Once he went in for the second time, and watching Miami's defense sucking wind, I figured even if they did score again, we had at least one score left against them.

Poor Warren Sapp looked so gassed at that point. I felt sorry for him.

 
The thing is, if the FSU game hadn't been so gut-wrenching, the Miami game wouldn't have been as sweet. (I think I cried after both games).

Also, if we'd beat FSU would we have won against Miami? The players' attitudes would have been different. Who knows. I always felt bad for Trev Alberts though.

 
I loved reading these comments directly above. I was a staffer and was crushed just the same, as these people were my friends, my "kids", my co-workers, my mentee's...we were family. What I can't/won't share on this board is my book's introductory chapter, which begins the whole tale by piecing together the final 1 minute & 16 seconds of that game in real time. Sorry to say, but you'll relive it all over again...and even see yourself in the story. Better days were on the horizon, though. GBR!

 
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