NO DEFENSIVE RESPECT - Mike Babcock Nebraska defensive coordinator Charlie McBride seemed irritated following the Huskers’ third victory of the 1994 season, 49-21 against UCLA at Memorial Stadium, September 17. Not with his defense, but rather with what seemed lack...
Mike Babcock
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.
Hail Varsity Digest | Looking Back at Cam Jurgens’ Move | 2/7/25
Time to enter the Wayback Machine, although it’s not “way back,” just a few years, mid-April 2019, an interview with Husker redshirt freshman Cam Jurgens. Yes, “the” Cam Jurgens, center for the Philadelphia Eagles, who will play against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super...
Hail Varsity Digest | Nebraska Football vs. Texas Tech, September 1994 | 2/4/25
Nebraska takes down Texas Tech 42-16 September 8th, 1994.
Hail Varsity Digest | Multi-Sport Background Shapes Approach for Nebraska Baseball’s Cael Frost | 01/30/25
WRESTLING APPLIES, TOO - By Mike Babcock In addition to playing baseball and football in high school, Cael Frost wrestled. “I feel like wrestling’s a big part of my life,” the Husker outfielder said. He wrestled four seasons at Don Bosco High in Gilbertville,...
Hail Varsity Digest | Mike Babcock Edition – Tom Osborne’s First National Championship Season Series | 01/28/25
(*Beginning this week, Historicals will go game-by-game through Tom Osborne’s first national championship season, 1994.) OFF TO A GOOD START At the end of the telecast of Nebraska’s 18-16 loss to Florida State in the 1994 Orange Bowl, NBC’s Dick Enberg noted the...
Rest in Peace, Jack
Near the end of the Nebraska football team’s 2013 spring intrasquad game in mid-April, Jack Hoffman took a handoff from quarterback Taylor Martinez and ran 69 yards for a touchdown. Hoffman was accompanied by members of both teams. He was 7 years old. Coach Bo Pelini...
More than Football for Nebraska
Rahmir Johnson, who had returned home to New York City, was named MVP of Nebraska’s 20-15 victory against Boston College in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. Had the Huskers chosen an MVP, Johnson almost certainly would’ve won that honor, too. Yes,...
Hail Varsity Digest | Mike Babcock Edition | 12/19/24
NEW YORK, NEW YORK Start spreading the news . . . Even before Nebraska received its official invitation to play in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl against Boston College at Yankee Stadium, Rahmir Johnson was preparing to go “home,” just in case. The Huskers’...
Hail Varsity Digest | Mike Babcock Edition | 12/13/24
LET’S BE FRANK Nebraska’s first bowl game since 2016, the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium, is the fan focus, of course, but let’s take a timeout and acknowledge the induction into the College Football Hall of Fame of former Husker player and coach...








