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When the Huskers take the field Wednesday for the Holiday Bowl, The World-Herald will have a staff of 13 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego to provide the most comprehensive coverage for the newspaper and Omaha.com.
Generations of Nebraska football fans have looked to The World-Herald for the most thorough pregame and postgame coverage. We know the expectations are great, and we remain committed to meeting that challenge.
The World-Herald is committing more people and resources — not fewer — to our coverage of the Huskers and college football. It is a massive effort that goes beyond our sports reporters and columnists and extends to much of the entire newsroom.
The Holiday Bowl provides us with one more opportunity to present readers with a complete package of game stories, columns and photos, all of which will be completed in a matter of hours from the end of the game for your Thursday morning World-Herald.
This will be the seventh night game of the season. The days of all games kicking off at 1 p.m. are long gone. Half of the Husker games this season ended at 10 p.m. or later. With the time demand, The World-Herald has to field professional journalists to bring perspective to the game in words, photos, video and graphics with the support of more than a dozen editors and designers back in the newsroom.
At the same time, our online staff is posting an early game story within minutes of the final gun. A photo showcase is quickly built and updated through the night for Omaha.com's popular Big Red Pages, where you can also find online chats with one of our Husker beat writers before and after the game. And when coach Bo Pelini takes his seat for the postgame press conference, it will be streamed live for those who want more than they get from ESPN.
As we look around the country, we're hard pressed to find another newspaper that puts as much effort and as many resources into its coverage of a college football team. Sports Editor Thad Livingston shoots for “NFL quality.”
The goal is to cover the Huskers the way the Dallas Morning News covers the Cowboys or the Washington Post covers the Redskins.
University officials sometimes are surprised at our commitment when we apply for game credentials. Livingston often has to tell athletic departments for away games that, yes, we really are bringing that many people — sometimes as many as 15 — whether it's a short drive to Lawrence, Kan., or flights to the East Coast, West Coast or the heart of Texas.
The effort pays dividends to our readers and viewers week after week during this long season. Three to four photographers are placed strategically along the sidelines to make sure every important play is captured. At the agonizing conclusion of the Iowa State game, we wondered whether we had photos of all eight turnovers. Yes, we did, and all eight appeared on the front cover of the Sunday sports section. (If it would have been eight touchdowns, we would have had all of those photos as well.)
We don't just parachute our staff in on game day.
For the Holiday Bowl, The World-Herald's first wave of staffers — reporter Jon Nyatawa, photographer Matt Miller and videographer Kyle Benecke — landed Christmas Day and a local reporter from San Diego has been on the job for us since Christmas Eve. It's been no day at the beach for them or the remainder of the staff in Southern California as their work already is appearing in the paper and online.
Once we wrap up in the newsroom about 2 a.m. Thursday morning, the work goes on as a video package of highlights is assembled with analysis by Husker beat reporter Mitch Sherman.
Why do we do it? Because Husker Nation expects it.
We understand that not all of our readers are Husker fans. Many want more on the Hawk- eyes or Cyclones or whatever is your alma mater. We scour our wire services for insightful coverage of college football. We will have daily bowl coverage from around the country, particularly for our Iowa readers with coverage of the Iowa State-Minnesota matchup and the Orange Bowl pitting Iowa against Georgia Tech.
But The World-Herald pledges to remain the definitive source on Big Red. And it doesn't end with Wednesday's bowl game.
The thirst for Husker news is 24/7/365. So it's on to recruiting wars, spring game, summer workouts, opening of practice and the Big 12 meeting. It will be no time until Memorial Stadium is rocking with the Sept. 4 kickoff of the 2010 season.
Contact the managing editor:
444-1125, dave.kotok@owh.com
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