Newby relishing opportunity for familiar season finale in bowl game
Following Nebraska’s loss to Iowa to close out the regular season, Terrell Newby had no clue where his team’s bowl chances lied. As it turned out, the postseason fate couldn’t have ended up much better for the Huskers or Newby, all things considered.
With NU earning a berth in the Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif., on Dec. 26, the junior running back gets another chance to return to his home state and reunite with family and friends back in the Golden State.
“I’m real excited,” Newby said. “It’s only four hours away from the house, so I’m excited. I’m going to have a lot of people up there… I’m definitely going to be asking around for tickets from my teammates. Hopefully they’ll be looking out for me.”
Not only that, Nebraska also gets to face off with a UCLA team that finished 8-4 on the year in a primetime showdown on ESPN. Seeing how Newby hails from Los Angeles, he said he has competed with and against several Bruin players as a youth as well as two years ago when Nebraska hosted UCLA in Lincoln.
Newby said he was probably the closest with Bruin wide receiver and fellow L.A. native Devin Fuller, as their fathers are still good friends to this day.
To top it off, Newby said UCLA was the second school on his list behind Nebraska coming out of Chaminade High School as the nation’s No. 10 running back in 2013.
“I was so close in my decision between here and UCLA. That was my top two,” Newby said. “I probably couldn’t even count how many (Bruin players) I know. We’ll definitely be out there talking on the field.”
Along with hoping to end his junior year on a high note, Newby said he’s still working to improve his overall game and acclimate into the Huskers’ new offense every single day. That’s why getting an additional two weeks of bowl practices is something he’s not taking lightly.
“I feel like I made a lot of progression throughout the season,” Newby said. “A lot things I can definitely pick up on in the offseason. Just overall as an offense, I think we learned a lot about ourselves and we can learn a lot from last season.”
Physically, Newby said his lingering ankle injury has also finally been able to heal up close to 100 percent during the time off since the Iowa game. Newby said he suffered a series of ligament strains that started in the first half of the Purdue game and continuously got worse over time.
“I’m feeling great right now with the ankle stuff,” Newby said. “I had a lot of treatment throughout the week, so I’m feeling pretty good.”