Great new Husker Football Book coming out soon

So many of the conversations in this upcoming book reveal the motives behind the men. In this case, here is just a little something from the Head Blackshirt himself, D Coordinator Charlie McBride:

Q: You were never averse to a challenge, were you Charlie?

CM: No, that’s the whole thing. You’re challenged every day because you’re teaching, and that’s a challenge in itself.

I think the whole thing, when I look back on it? My whole pay was the kids in the locker room when you won. And I have so many different stories of kids that I’ve had. I had one kid who basically brought himself up, one of the first kids I coached at Wisconsin when I was coaching on the offensive line. I had Dennis Lick, who was the fifth player picked in the draft, and then I had Terry Steve and Mike Webster. And of course, Mike, they said he was too short and he played 18 years in the NFL and is in the Hall of Fame. And Terry Steve was the captain of the Cardinals and played like 10 or 12 years. And Dennis Lick, the first rounder, he only lasted like five, broke his leg and he was done. But Mike Webster was a special guy. His mom had left, his dad was an alcoholic, his brother was in prison, and he lived way up in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. He was a self-made guy and what a competitor! When I go back and look at the players I’ve had, he’s in that one group where you talk about guys: their motors were running a million miles an hour all the time.

And when you’re coaching and teaching, your whole thing is to make them the best you can make them. And sometimes it takes a little tough love, sometimes it takes some patience. A lot of kids are different. Some kids it takes two years to really learn the stuff you’re trying to teach and some kids pick it up in two seconds. It’s just that way.

 
I'm getting extremely close to completing the pre-publishing work on my "No Place Like Nebraska" Husker Football book! A lot of great behind-the-scenes news to share, too. But for now, here is a quick Tuesday snippet from OLineman Brenden Stai, talking about the first national championship & Miami's Warren Sapp:

"...it’s something I’ll never forget. I can close my eyes and remember everything. Just the smell and the air of competition. It was just tremendous.

Q: Somebody else just the other day, they remembered the smell of that night…

BS: The smell. That, I remember, it was not only that humidity, but if you remember they had a circus, with elephants out there on the field. There was the smell of elephant poop out on the field, too. It was weird.

Q: (laughs) Did you ever get the chance to talk to Warren Sapp about that game?

BS: All the time. I shouldn’t say ‘all’ the time. You know, when I was playing against him he’d always jab at me here and I’d jab at him there.

Funny, it was about 4 years ago and I was sitting outside the L.A. Convention Center while taking my real estate licensing exam right after I retired, and I was sitting at a little Starbucks Coffee stand, and he was actually standing in line. Somebody goes, “Isn’t that Warren Sapp?” And I turned around and said, ‘No way.’ So I get up and go over and started talking to him, and turns out he was there for some adult entertainment convention or something (laughs) giving autographs, and I say ‘What!?’ And it was about the time Nebraska baseball was in the College World Series the year we were playing Miami, so I basically told him, ‘You know, it’s Miami versus Nebraska. And you know what’s gonna happen?’ And he says, ”What does that mean?” And I say, ‘Well, of course, Nebraska is gonna win,’ and he says, “Only if they cheat!” or something like that, and then he says, “Stai, you hold!” I said, ‘Hey, did I ever get called holding on you? No! It’s only holding if you get called for it.’ (laughs)"

 
NoPlaceLikeNebraskaPKoch said:
I'm getting extremely close to completing the pre-publishing work on my "No Place Like Nebraska" Husker Football book!
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An Independence Day teaser from the book where I asked Tom Osborne about game-planning:

"T.O.: Because of the style of offense we ran, we’d come out and first series we’d find out they were lined up on defense with something they’d never shown all year, that we hadn’t worked on at all that week, because there was no way to anticipate it. But we had enough experience as a staff and had enough institutional knowledge to draw on that we could think about maybe what we had done when something like that had happened four years before, five years before. So I think we were a staff that was able to adjust during a game quite well. Sometimes people get locked into a game plan and they’re gonna stick with that game plan no matter what; sometimes the game plan goes out the window that first two or three minutes and you’re gonna adjust.

Q: Any particular games come to mind as far as that happening?

TO: Well, I can remember one time we played Kansas up here and they basically came up in an 8-man front and they essentially were challenging us to run wide, and so we did some things and eventually we figured out some ways to pick it apart: some trap plays and a few passes.

And when we played Tennessee that last game I coached, I think they had eleven people within 3 or 4 yards of the line of scrimmage that first series and just stuffed the run. I think we threw four straight passes the next series and completed every one of them, and they backed off and we ate ‘em up. We might have had close to six hundred yards that game. My feeling is if they’d stayed with what they had originally lined up in they’d have given us a harder time, but they got taken out of it when we hit the passes.

So that’s just the way it was. There were times when people played pretty vanilla and played the way you had practiced & what you had expected, and there were times when they just felt we were so good on offense or defense they figured they might as well roll the dice and come up with something that we’d never seen before."

 
I awoke at 4:15 a.m. and JUST FINISHED the placement of all photos in "No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era" Volumes 1 & 2. What a relief! Sooooo close to having this book ready for publication....

Here's a little snippet talking about the old Cornhusker practices/war games from DBack Mike "Biff" Roberts:

"One of Coach Solich’s fullbacks went at it with a middle linebacker and the fullback lost the fight. Well, Solich grabbed his helmet - which was torn off during the fight- and said to the player, “If you’re gonna go...GO!” Then he took the guy’s helmet and tossed it over to the sideline. (laughs) I was like, ‘Man!’

The practices, that’s where I think we became great, and the chemistry was so good. It was just blood, sweat and tears in those practices. But it got us all closer when it came to the games."

 
Another little tidbit from former LB Ed Stewart, talking about some offense/defense leadership and personalities:

"Q: So what did Tommie bring to the team?

ES: I remember Tommie, it was the game in ‘92 at Washington. It was a competitive game and I think we were down 3 or seven points and Mike Grant was hurt and we were backed up at our own 10 yard line and thinking, ‘Oh crap, we’re in this situation playing a true freshman.’ And Tommie played like a stalwart. And I remember thinking, ‘You know what, this guy might be okay.’ I used to joke with him and call him ‘The Trash Man.’(laughs) Tommie wasn’t always the most graceful runner, but he was effective and you couldn’t bring him down. I used to give him a hard time all the time.

Q: Did he have a unique attitude or mindset?

ES: Tommie was a winner. He was a winner, now. And as a young guy, I remember my senior year -and this was something a senior would go and say to a young guy, but I remember Tommie- and the first couple games of the year I was getting four or five tackles and I didn’t get off to a blazing start in those first couple games- and I remember Tommie walking up to me and -one thing, a quarterback?- (laughs) and kind of calling me on the carpet and saying, “I’ve been looking at the stats and what’s this? You only had five tackles?” And I’m looking at him and thinking, ‘A freaking quarterback giving me hell?!’ But that was the type of leadership that he had, even as an underclassman, was to be confident enough and comfortable enough to walk up to a starting guy to kind of say, “Hey, what’s up, man?” He and I have joked about it since then, but it was a good, little, extra spark. (laughs) I think I went off and rattled off a few ten tackle games after that.

Q: Anything to shut him up, huh?

ES: That’s it. (laughs) Because you know about those Florida guys… they like to talk, now."

 
Great news! After a long period of thought & prayer, I had a heart-to-heart talk with myself and chose to reach out to the Team Jack Foundation a la Andy Hoffman. Even before Jack's inspiring TD run last April it's been weighing heavily on me to somehow bless as many people as possible with my soon-to-be-released book(s) "No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Volumes 1 & 2". Well, after short phone conversation and a few e-mails later, today I proudly announce that a portion of the proceeds will go toward helping find a cure for pediatric brain cancer via the Team Jack Foundation. It heartens me to know that Husker fans far & wide will someday be able to say that they played a part in finding a cure to a malady that so many children should not have to suffer through. There is no place like Nebraska. GBR!!

 
The book is so close to arrival. Waiting to hear from the publisher in case any last minute tweaks are necessary (and they usually are). I even acquired some personal behind-the-scenes photographs from former players to add to the fun. I'm hoping Husker Nation has a fun winter reading the whole thing when all is said and done...the two volumes should be a great way to pass the offseason. GBR!

 
I just came up with a few marketing questions that I think might make people sit up and take notice of my book. Do any of these sound interesting to you? If so, which one/s? I'd love to hear everybodys' opinion:

1) What member of the coaching staff fell asleep on a prospect’s living room couch…in the middle of the recruiting visit?

2) What position group was very nearly lost to mutiny just before the season began? What coach changed his methods as a result?

3) What piece of artwork inspired the Offensive line –known as the Pipeline- to dominate their opponents?

4) What player notoriously got into the most fights in Husker practices?

5) What were the infamous Ones vs. Ones scrimmages like? Who won most of those battles?

6) Which two teammates actually saved a Lincoln family’s house from burning down?

7) Unbeknownst to them at the time, two Husker fans played an extremely valuable role in the makeup of the championships…in what ways did they contribute?

8) What Blackshirt almost got kicked off the team for signing a professional baseball contract?

9) What was it like to be in the coaches’ meeting rooms and game-planning the next opponent? What was it like to take part in a player’s only meeting? To have to appear before the Unity Council?

10) What strict rule was implemented by the Unity Council in ’95 where being booted from the team was the penalty for failing to follow it?

11) What key walk-ons were major contributors and actually served as inspiration for the starters?

12) What recruiting methods were employed and what two NFL Hall of Fame running backs wanted to be Cornhuskers but were turned away?

13) Which eventual Super Bowl MVP said that he didn’t think he was good enough to play at Nebraska?

14) What bowl game routine was altered to win the National Championships?

15) What happened both in an elevator in Tokyo, Japan and a UNL dormitory parking lot that forever sealed the teams’ bonds of brotherhood?

16) Which offensive lineman talked the most smack to opposing defenders?

17) What Miami U. coach was instrumental in aiding Nebraska ‘s landing an All-American?

18) Which Big Ten team was notorious for verbally agreeing to play the Cornhuskers but always backed out when it came time to sign the contract?

19) Which player infamously snuck training table food to his mobile home throughout his college career to feed his pet lizard, named Phil?

20) What two players drove home to Chicago in a winter blizzard without working brakes on their car?

21) Who really invented Gatorade? Why should its proper be name be HuskerAde? How did the University of Florida gets its hands on the recipe?

22) Who first came up with the inspirational motto “We Refuse To Lose”? What other heretofore unknown inspirational mantras played a part in the championship years?

23) Who discovered the weak link in the team’s psyche? What stumbling block was finally overcome?

24) What role did technology play in the championship years? How was Nebraska a pioneer in its use?

25) What alterations in the famed Husker Power strength & conditioning program begat a more dominating athlete? What role did a simple change in nutrition play?

26) What was Lawrence Phillips’ like in the lockerroom, practice field & study hall, and how did his legal issues affect the 1995 team’s championship run? What other insider info reveals that uniquely troubling time in the Nebraska Football organization?

27) Which games, practices & assorted events left the most lasting impression most on the champion players from that great era?

28) How were varied players from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds melded into one unbreakable unit? What methods were key? Who played the lead role in building unity as well as the groundbreaking assemblage named the Unity Council?

*These questions and more are answered in the upcoming “No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era” Vols. 1 & 2 by former University of Nebraska Coach Paul Koch…. Soon to be released! You won’t be able to put it down.

 
Sorry Dude. Good guess, but it was actually a certain offensive lineman. :D I hope you enjoy the book when it comes out...there is a whole lot of really neat insider info contained throughout.

 
Nope. Think 1990's Pipeline, because that's what the book is about: What created those awesome National Champ teams.

As to who it might be, think of a walk-on who had to prove to his teammates, his coaches...himself even, that he was worthy of being a starter. I won't say the name and spoil it for everyone, so you'll have to read about it in the book. Needless to say, his is an uplifting story about guts, gusto & glory with a few giggles mixed in. GBR!!

 
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