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.
[Note: Last Tuesday’s Digest recounted Nebraska’s first bowl victory in the Gotham Bowl at old Yankee Stadium, the second, and most recent, time the Huskers have played in New York City. So here’s a Digest about another bowl.] COINCIDENCE, PROBABLY Nebraska fans...
NEW DAY DAWNING When Nebraska hired Matt Rhule, then University President Ted Carter and Athletic Director Trev Alberts, told him, Rhule said, “We want you to build a program built on player development.” Rhule was speaking before the Wisconsin game. “They said...
RELATIVELY FEW ON-HAND Nebraska’s 1963 media guide account of the 1962 Gotham Bowl, in Bob Devaney’s first season as Husker head coach, indicated “some 11,000” attended. Newspaper accounts had 6,166 tickets sold and 5,000 youngsters admitted free. So the numbers...
Numbers don’t lie. Except when they do. As they did in Nebraska’s 13-10 loss to Iowa Friday night in Iowa City. Seriously, a 13-10 loss on a field goal as time elapsed. Sound familiar? The same thing happened a year ago — same score, field goal as time elapsed. The...
STOP THE RUN Fittingly enough, Iowa will wear all-black uniforms against Nebraska on “Black Friday.” And Hawkeye fans are encouraged to wear black. “Black Out Kinnick Stadium” is the theme. Nebraska’s “Blackshirt” defense needs to pay special attention to the...
Nebraska is bowl eligible. Let me repeat that. Nebraska is bowl eligible. For the first time since 2016, Nebraska is bowl eligible, after defeating Wisconsin for the first time since 2012, 44-25 at Memorial Stadium Saturday. Official attendance was 86,923, NCAA-record...
11-19-24 SECOND-HALF REBOUND Wisconsin led Nebraska 20-10 at halftime. The Huskers fumbled on three of their first four runs, including the first two, losing the second by Rex Burkhead, no less. It was a rough first half for the then fifth-largest Memorial Stadium...
Dylan Raiola offered a reason for future optimism in the wake of Nebraska’s fourth-consecutive loss, 28-20 to USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum Saturday. “We’ll be explosive next week,” he said. Coach Matt Rhule found something positive in the overall negative, too. He...
11-12-24 “SHELL-SHOCKER” Howard Brantz of the Omaha World-Herald described the game as a “shell-shocker.” Hal Brown of the Sunday Journal and Star wrote that the game “threatened” to turn into a track meet “early in the second half and wound up in a dead heat.” The...