Articles by Paul Koch

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued….   Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/IN-STATE PLAYERS & THE WALK-ON TRADITION   IN-STATE PLAYERS/THE WALK-ON TRADITION Anyone familiar with college football has surely heard of the famed Nebraska Walk-on Program. If one were lucky he received a scholarship offer, but for others…

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued….   Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/UNITY COUNCIL & TEAM BONDING UNITY COUNCIL/TEAM BONDING Drawing on the community-minded and rugged, undying individual spirit of the Nebraska scholarship and walk-on players, what at first began as small position-based cliques among the linebackers, the…

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued….   Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/MOTIVATIONS   MOTIVATIONS Now that we’ve exhausted the most tangible, measurable items telling us how that era came to be, we now move from the physical to the abstract to find what motivated them, moved them,…

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued….   Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/GOAL SETTING   GOAL SETTING Branching off of the whole spectre of motivations listed just previous, the team’s next logical step was to annually set their sights on some goals. They went about it by arriving…

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued…. Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/DEDICATION & DEVOTION DEDICATION/DEVOTION Along with those goals mentioned yesterday -or “vows”, per se-  among the coaches, staffers and student-athletes came the dedication and devotion fueled by the multitude of those motivations. This is another key point…

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued….   Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/PLAYER SKILL & TALENT PLAYER SKILL/TALENT What made this gathering of young men different? Unique? What kind of dynamic existed among them? Was it a smorgasbord of individuals or one, big, amorphous congregation? Was it merely…

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued….   Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/LEADERSHIP ELEMENTS   LEADERSHIP ELEMENTS (Author's note: Today's segment of the final chapter is quite large. That in itself should be a good indicator of the vast leadership roles played by so many during the 90's…

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued….   Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/HUSKER POWER & PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT   THE HUSKER POWER PROGRAM/PLAYER DEVELOPMENT It appears that peer leadership played its most primary role not on the field of play, but instead in the preparation for those practices and…

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued….   Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/ PRACTICE INTENSITY/COMPETITION   PRACTICE INTENSITY/COMPETITION We’re now keenly informed and quite aware of: 1) the coaching staff’s diversity, fairness, preparation skills, methods of feedback and personal attention, 2) the three equally important modes of play…

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued….   Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/THE NEBRASKA SYSTEM THE SYSTEM/SUMMARIES Wrapping up this “how it all happened” portion of this concluding chapter, we’ll end with a few thoughts, theories, summaries, and short statements about the “system” that comprised Nebraska Football during…

Excerpted from Chapter 104, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 2 by Paul Koch Continued….   Anatomy of an Era: Final Chapter/LOVE & PROVIDENCE   WHY the Great 60 & 3 Success was achieved:  LOVE “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels… and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,…