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.
Any Nebraska football fan of a certain age remembers Matt Davison’s touchdown catch on the final play of regulation in the 1997 Missouri game at Columbia. You can check it out on YouTube. Words don’t do the play justice, but ... The Scott Frost pass was intended for...
To quote from the movie "Jerry Maguire," as I’ve done before: “Show me the money!” It characterizes college athletics nowadays. Show me the NIL. What can you offer me to enroll at your institution? My loyalty to you will have a dollar sign attached to it, as well as a...
Appropriately, perhaps, Tom Osborne’s 250th career victory leading Nebraska football came against Oklahoma at Memorial Stadium, November 1, 1997. A no-question victory, 69-7. “I think after a few bad things happened, they maybe lost heart a little bit,” Osborne said....
Tom Osborne was concerned, even though Kansas was 4-3 when his top-ranked and undefeated Nebraska football team traveled to Lawrence to play in late October 1997. For one thing, he never overlooked an opponent, for another, the weather, which “can be a great...
What is there to be said about this loss for Nebraska football? Nebraska had its usual post-game media availability Friday. Matt Rhule spoke and answered questions for about 18 minutes, followed by players, among them Emmett Johnson. But what was there to say to...
Jon Zatechka scored Nebraska football's second touchdown in the second-ranked Huskers’ 29-0 victory against Texas Tech at Memorial Stadium in mid-October 1997. No, that’s not a misprint: Jon Zatechka, the right offensive guard. With 4:59 remaining in the third...
Will the real Nebraska football team please stand up? Husker fans hope it wasn’t the one that showed up at Beaver Stadium in “Happy Valley,” State College, Pennsylvania, Saturday night, the one that lost to Penn State 37-10. That was a Nittany Lion team with a 4-6...
As always, there are plenty of storylines related to Nebraska football’s game against Penn State at Beaver Stadium (capacity 106,572) in University Park Saturday night. Matt Rhule was a football walk-on at Penn State, an equipment manager, a walk-on again, the center...
For the second-consecutive game, Nebraska football I-back Ahman Green ran for four touchdowns. And for the fourth-consecutive game, he rushed for more than 100 yards — 158 on 20 carries. He carried only twice in the second half. Had he seen more playing time after the...