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.
TRICKERY CAPPER You could just as easily find this on YouTube: Black 41 Flash Reverse Pass. But I’ll recount here. Not sure why I’m using capital letters, but that’s probably how you’ll find it. It goes on Nebraska’s trick plays list along the Bounceroosky and...
Two were enough — touchdowns, that is. Nebraska scored two touchdowns in the first half, then the defense made them hold up in a 14-7 victory against Rutgers Saturday at heat-drenched and wind-swept Memorial Stadium. And senior punter Brian Buschini was considered a...
SLOW IT DOWN Nebraska’s defense has seen this before, the offensive approach of the last three opponents: control the ball by running it, shorten the time the Husker offense has the ball. Rutgers might be challenging with that approach. The 4-0 Scarlet Knights rank...
WINNING STREAK BEGINS Nebraska and Rutgers first played at the Polo Grounds in New York City, on a Tuesday afternoon. That’s right, a Tuesday afternoon. As Casey Stengel said, “You could look it up.” The date was November 2, 1920. Henry “Pa” Schulte, the...
Nebraska’s offense didn’t get to West Lafayette, Indiana, until the second half ... metaphorically speaking. Actually, the Huskers had 210 yards of offense in the first 30 minutes. So maybe that metaphor is inappropriate, worthy of a flag. But they were 0-for-6 on...
An emotional Marques Buford Jr. spoke to the media following Nebraska’s 31-24 overtime loss to Illinois Friday night. Buford, a defensive back, was the first Husker to follow Matt Rhule to the podium. Asked if he was disappointed, Buford replied: “Extremely.” But, he...
Nebraska-Northern Iowa wasn’t the subject of Alice’s comment in Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland, of course. But “curiouser and curiouser” might well have been had she been among the 86,546 at Memorial Stadium on a pleasant Saturday night. First, consider Northern...
Nebraska has celebrities, too, Matt Rhule said after the Huskers rolled past Colorado, 28-10. Rhule was referring to Omaha welterweight boxing champion Terrance “Bud” Crawford, undefeated champion, I should say. Crawford spoke to the Huskers on Friday night and led...
Jalyn “Football” finished the UTEP game at quarterback for Nebraska. That would be Jalyn Gramstad. “Football” is his nickname, assigned by offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield. Gramstad is a senior transfer from Northwestern College, where he was the 2023 NAIA...