Mike Babcock is in his 47th season covering Nebraska football. Babcock also covered most other Husker sports at some point in his journalism career. Mike earned his undergraduate degree in English from Cal State-Chico and Masters in English (teacher preparation) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Babcock spent seven years teaching English and Introductory Literature at Parkland Community College. Mike wrote sports part-time at the Champaign-Urbana Courier as well as for Lincoln Journal and Star for 17 years for the sports department covering Nebraska as a sports columnist. Babcock then wrote for Huskers Illustrated before Hail Varsity and Hurrdat Sports.
Nightmare on Elm Street, you say? Not exactly. Try Nightmare on One Memorial Stadium Drive, Nebraska’s “Blackout” game, on Halloween night, a difficult-to-process, 17-10 loss to Washington. And let me interject an opinion, a Washington team the Huskers should’ve...
Washington coach Jedd Fisch began his Monday news conference referring to the loss of starting center Landen Hatchett for the remainder of the season because of injury. Then Fisch, before answering questions, addressed the subject everyone was waiting for. “As for the...
Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder was happy to see Wildcat fans pull down the north goal post at Wagner Field following the Nebraska football game in mid-November 1998. That pretty much said it all. “It means so much to them, for those people who stuck through it,...
Sophomore Dan Alexander attracted attention for his performance in his first career start as 14-ranked Nebraska football rolled over Iowa State, 42-7, in snowy Ames the first week of November in 1998. Understandably so. “I thought he ran really well,” Coach Frank...
It was here-we-go-again for the Nebraska football team in Eugene early Sunday morning. In a scenario Husker fans probably could have imagined by now, Oregon won 17-14. In fact, it was sort of a replay of last week’s 20-17 loss to Indiana, a collapse in the fourth...
Matt Rhule passed on commenting on Oregon quarterback Dylan Raiola during Monday’s weekly news conference. “Best if I talk about our team,” he said. Nebraska plays Oregon Saturday night — kickoff 10 p.m. Central on FOX — in Eugene. And Raiola is among the possible...
Happy Halloween it was not, for Nebraska football anyway. The seventh-ranked Huskers lost for the second time in October 1998, and the first time at home since falling to Washington 36-21 in 1991. This time the loss was to — knock, knock, who’s there? — unranked...
For the first three quarters, Nebraska football controlled the game, you could say. The Huskers, not Indiana, played like the seventh-ranked team in the nation. And when Anthony Colandrea broke loose on a 39-yard touchdown run to increase Nebraska’s lead to 17-6 with...
Welcome Coach Curt Cignetti and his Associated Press seventh-ranked Indiana football team. “I’ve never been to the state of Nebraska, and I’m looking forward to it; heard great things about the stadium, the fans,” Cignetti said during his Monday news conference. He’s...