Minnesota, No. 25 Nebraska football's next opponent, allows an average of 108 rushing yards per game. The Huskers’ Emmett Johnson averages 108.3 rushing yards per game. How’s that for coincidence, though Nebraska’s running game involves more than Johnson, whose...
Mike Babcock
Hail Varsity Historical: Despite Fan Indifference, Nebraska Football Wins Orange Bowl
Nebraska football fans weren’t waiting in line to buy tickets in advance of the 1996 New Year’s Eve FedEx Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech. Quite the contrary. Each team received 15,000 tickets. If not sold the university had to make up the difference. That was no...
Nebraska Football Secures Another Dramatic, One-Score Victory
Matt Rhule sent his players back out from the locker room to the field following Nebraska football's 34-31 victory at Maryland Saturday. Of course that’s not something he ordinarily would do. But the energy from Husker fans, about a quarter of the 39,623 in Maryland...
Accent the Positive as Nebraska Football Prepares for Maryland
Matt Rhule’s comment was light-hearted, with an element of intent. “It’s OK to say something positive,” he told media during his Monday news conference. The comment came on the heels of questions related to issues needing correction. So let’s begin with some positives...
Hail Varsity Historical: Texas Dashes National Title Hopes for Nebraska Football
Texas gambled. And the gamble paid off. With time running out in the first Big 12 Championship Game in St. Louis on Dec. 7, 1996, the Longhorns faced fourth-and-inches at their own 28-yard line. Nebraska’s defense, which had already allowed 30 points, lined up to stop...
Nebraska Football Wins, Michigan State Covers
For some reason the point spread for the Nebraska-Michigan State game at Memorial Stadium Saturday was the Huskers by 12.5. Or so I was told. That seemed a bit much. But when Nebraska scored a touchdown, an Emmett Johnson 2-yard run, on its first possession, and then...
Nebraska Football Looking to Show Off Idle Week Work Against Michigan State
You might say Nebraska football plays the most important game of the season Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium against Michigan State. And you wouldn’t be wrong, taken in context. The game is more important than any the 3-1 Huskers have played because those games...
Hail Varsity Historical: Nebraska Football Tops Colorado, Wins North Big 12 North
Defense was the difference for fourth-ranked Nebraska. “I thought the defense played awfully well,” Tom Osborne said following the Huskers’ 17-12 victory against Colorado in the final regular-season game at Memorial Stadium, the day after Thanksgiving 1996. Consider...
Hail Varsity Historical: Nebraska Football Faces Heisman Candidate in Iowa State Victory
It was a showdown of sorts for the Nebraska football defense at Iowa State’s Cyclone Stadium/Jack Trice Field on a rain-soaked, 50-degree afternoon in mid-November 1996. The Husker defense was matched against Iowa State running back Troy Davis. The Blackshirts ranked...








