No Place Articles

Anatomy of an Era: Boyd Epley Part 1

3/29/18 | Paul Koch
Excerpted from Chapter 5, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1   “Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it…”     -Abraham Lincoln It’s a common misconception that Omaha’s airport was named after Boyd Epley, godfather of collegiate strength training. That honor…

Anatomy of an Era: Linda Ybarra

3/27/18 | Paul Koch
Excerpted from Chapter 4, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1     "Courage; Generosity; Fairness; Honor; In these are the true awards of manly sport." -Inscription on the Northwest Corner of Memorial Stadium, Hartley Burr Alexander, former UNL professor of philosophy   Mama Husker Power: that’s Linda Ybarra. Though surrounded by alpha males in the confines…

Anatomy of an Era: Bryan Pruitt Part 3

3/26/18 | Paul Koch
Excerpted from Chapter 3, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1   Bryan Pruitt Part 3 Walk-on, Offensive Guard, Midlothian, Illinois (St. Laurence)   Continued…   Author: Bryan, anybody behind the scenes play a large role in your development? BP: From an academic standpoint, I’ll be the first one to say Dennis Leblanc in Academics. That guy…

Anatomy of an Era: Bryan Pruitt Part 2

3/25/18 | Paul Koch
Excerpted from Chapter 3, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1   Bryan Pruitt Part 2 Walk-on, Offensive Guard, Midlothian, Illinois (St. Laurence)   Continued…..   Author: Bryan, let’s continue talking about Coach Osborne... Bryan Pruitt: Sometimes you’d try to make a name for yourself in practice and you’d get into a fight with Jason or Christian…

Anatomy of an Era: Bryan Pruitt Part 1

3/24/18 | Paul Koch
Excerpted from Chapter 3, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1   Chicago Police Officer Jim Malone: You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife? You pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital? You send one of his to the morgue. That's the “Chicago Way”! And that's how you get…

Anatomy of an Era: Matt Turman Part 3

3/22/18 | Paul Koch
Excerpted from Chapter 2, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1   Matt Turman Part 3 Walk-on, Quarterback, Wahoo, Neb. (Neumann)   Continued…   Q: Where were you for the ‘94 Orange Bowl versus Florida State? In the stands or on the sideline? MT: I was standing on the sideline. My redshirt freshman year. My redshirt year we…

Anatomy of an Era: Matt Turman Part 2

3/21/18 | Paul Koch
Excerpted from Chapter 2, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1   Matt Turman Part 2 Walk-on, Quarterback, Wahoo, Neb. (Neumann) Continued…   Q: Matt, is there anything you look back on today that makes you chuckle about that era? Matt Turman: Well, there was, I don’t know if you were familiar with the big meeting room…

Anatomy of an Era: Matt Turman Part 1

3/20/18 | Paul Koch
Excerpted from Chapter 2, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1   “We were that close to going out forever. But there was one man who taught us to fight, to storm the wire of the camps, to smash those metal mother%*ers into junk. He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink.” - The…

Anatomy of an Era: David Seizys Part 2

3/18/18 | Paul Koch
Excerpted from Chapter 1, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1   David Seizys Part 2 Walk-on, Wingback, Seward, Neb. (Ft. Calhoun) Continued from previous…   Author: David, is there anything you wish you could do over again? David Seizys: It would have to be that field goal (to end the ’94 Orange Bowl). Q: Let me…

Anatomy of an Era: David Seizys

3/17/18 | Paul Koch
Excerpted from Chapter 1, No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1 To kick these interviews off in proper fashion I sent former athletic trainer and NU player-liaison Doak Ostergard an e-mail requesting contact info for a number of people. He was kind enough to mass-mail it out to the players from that era to get me started,…

Preface & Intro: Anatomy of an Era

3/16/18 | Paul Koch
Preface & Intro excerpted from No Place Like Nebraska: Anatomy of an Era, Vol. 1 by Paul Koch   Prelude to a Miss or A Providential and Fortuitous Confluence of Events   Place-kickers aren’t normally prone to run this fast. “Yeee-haaw! Shit-fire, you sonsabitches! Shit-fire!!” Adrenaline coursing, tongue cursing and legs furiously back-pedaling across the grass, Byron Bennett crosses the…

Paul Koch

3/16/18 | Paul Koch
Paul Koch, former Husker Power strength & conditioning coach (1987-1995), hails from Petersburg, NE and resides in Southern California. A lifelong fan, failed walk-on candidate & eventual staffer, his unique perspective of Nebraska Football comes from experiences of that greatest era. A 1991 graduate of the University of Nebraska with a BS in Education with an emphasis in Exercise Science,…