2023 Nebraska Season Thread

[FearlessF]

1984 and 2003 - Osborne/Solich offense

2003 - Pelini defense

[FearlessF]

You think a crowd of more than 92,000 is large? 100 years ago, a crowd of 43,000 for the Nebraska Football vs Notre Dame Football at Memorial Stadium set a record.

https://history.nebraska.gov/game-day-nebraska-vs-notre-dame-part-2/?fbclid=IwAR3NbU8fILnbaMaxrzOtpnujKt_O460fB1dHKYkHTh6LQx2OPpPLv2D2-64

The November 10 game was a classic. Nebraska upset Notre Dame 14-7. Between 1922 and 1924, Notre Dame Coach Knute Rockne’s legendary “Four Horsemen” lost only two games. Both were at Nebraska.

The Irish got their revenge in South Bend in 1924, when they pounded the Huskers 34-6 en route to a national championship. Between 1915 and 1925, Nebraska and Notre Dame played eleven times, with five wins apiece and one tie. It was one of the most heated rivalries in college football. Then the series ended in a strange fashion.

These days, Nebraska fans are generally known for being polite to visiting teams. It wasn’t always so. Notre Dame returned to Lincoln in 1925, losing to Nebraska 17-0. Details are fuzzy, but strong anti-Catholic sentiment and abuse by fans led Notre Dame to cancel the 1926 game despite Knute Rockne’s desire to keep the profitable series going.

Nebraska football coach Ernest Bearg said that Notre Dame officials “informed me that the game in Lincoln was played in an atmosphere of hostility and that the klan spirit was apparently dominant in Lincoln.” This wasn’t empty talk. The Ku Klux Klan had 5,000 members in Lincoln at the time, about 10 percent of the city’s population. The organization was not just anti-black; it also hated Catholics and ethnic minorities. For his part, Coach Bearg blamed the decision on “disgruntled gamblers in South Bend” who were tired of losing their money. Either way, Nebraska and Notre Dame did not play each other again for twenty-two years.

[FearlessF]

THIS WEEK IN HUSKER HISTORY
The week of Nov. 17-23, looking back in five-year intervals

1898: Playing two road games in three days, Nebraska beats Colorado, 23-10, and the Denver Athletic Club, 11-10. The NU-CU game was the first between the two schools.

1913: Nebraska caps a perfect season in stirring fashion, shutting down high-flying Iowa of the Big Nine, 12-0. A third-quarter goal-line stand proved pivotal against the Hawkeyes, who entered the contest averaging more than 50 points per game.

1933: Favored to deliver a victory and vie for the national championship, the Cornhuskers fall at Pittsburgh, 6-0. Meanwhile, George Sauer's play continues to earn him national recognition.

1938: The Cornhuskers gain just three first downs and 100 yards of offense but make up for it by intercepting nine passes and recovering two Hawkeye fumbles in a 14-0 road win over Iowa. Omaha Benson graduate Nile Kinnick, future Heisman winner, threw six of Iowa's interceptions. Both of NU's touchdown drives — covering 37 and 19 yards — came after turnovers. 

1943: Iowa gets its first win of the year — and its first victory in Lincoln in a quarter century — 33-13. Nebraska trailed by just 14-13 after scoring late in the third quarter, but Iowa returned the ensuing kickoff 64 yards and took control of the game.
1948: After leading 6-0 at halftime, Missouri scores two touchdowns in the first six minutes of the third quarter en route to a 33-6 win on a sloppy field in Lincoln.

1963: A day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Nebraska secures an Orange Bowl berth with a 29-20 win over visiting Oklahoma. Thirty-nine points were scored after the third quarter ended with Nebraska holding a 10-0 lead. The win earned the Huskers their first conference championship since 1940.

1978: One week after a scintillating win over Oklahoma, the Huskers are upset at home by unranked Missouri, setting up a rematch with the Sooners in the Orange Bowl.

1983: Best team ever? That's the talk surrounding the Huskers, who are listed as 14-point favorites in their upcoming regular-season finale against Oklahoma.

1988: The Blackshirts make sure there's no Sooner Magic as Nebraska wins at Oklahoma, 7-3, in the Huskers' final game against a Barry Switzer-coached team. Also, Broderick Thomas is named one of four finalists for the Lombardi Awward, while he and coach Tom Osborne receive top Big Eight honors.

1993: Nebraska finds national respect hard to come by despite a 10-0 record. Trev Alberts is named one of three finalists for the Butkus Award.

2003: The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Steve Pederson plans to force out Frank Solich.

2013: Pat Smith's field goal in overtime lifts the Huskers to a 23-20 win at Penn State.

2018: Barret Pickering's three fourth-quarter field goals lift the Huskers to a 9-6 win over Michigan State in snowy Lincoln. It was the first time in more than 80 years that Nebraska won without scoring a touchdown. Six days later, an Iowa field goal on the final play sends Nebraska to a 31-28 defeat in Iowa City.

[FearlessF]

THIS WEEK IN HUSKER HISTORY
The week of Nov. 24-30, looking back in five-year intervals

1893: In the snow, Nebraska gets its first victory over Iowa in three tries, 20-18.

1898: A missed conversion after touchdown is the difference as Iowa holds on for a 6-5 win over Nebraska in Council Bluffs. Nebraska was in position to score in the final moments but then made what the Omaha Bee described as a "fatal change of tactics" and was pushed back 20 yards.

1903: Two days after Nebraska's 22nd consecutive victory, the Big Nine rejects the membership applications of Nebraska and Notre Dame, saying it likes its current size. The Cornhuskers capped their second consecutive perfect season by blanking Illinois, 16-0. More game coverage: 1, 2, 3

1908: Nebraska returns two fumbled punts for touchdowns (James Harvey from 45 yards, William Chaloupka from 40 yards) and Orlando Bentley runs 70 yards for another score on an onside kick as Nebraska dominates Wabash, 27-6, in Lincoln. The Nebraska State Journal reported that "the Wabash players tackled well, but the weight and spirit of the Cornhuskers was too much for them." | Omaha Bee coverage

«1918: Notre Dame and Nebraska battle to a 0-0 tie in Lincoln. Nebraska relied on the stellar punting of Paul Dobson in a game of field position against Knute Rockne’s first Notre Dame team.

1928: The Cornhuskers suffer their only defeat of the season, 13-3 at Army, a loss that may have cost them a Rose Bowl invitation. That is followed by an 8-0 win over Kansas State in a Thanksgiving Day snowstorm in Lincoln. A pass from Claude Rowley to Cliff Ashburn provided the only touchdown as the teams combined for eight first downs, 168 yards of offense and 26 punts. Big Six champions in the conference’s inaugural year, Nebraska placed seven players on the Associated Press all-Big Six team.

1933: On a windy day in Lincoln, Nebraska uses some good fortune in the kicking game to defeat Iowa, 7-6. The Huskers then finish their season with a 22-0 home win over Oregon State in a game in which a George Sauer punt was pivotal. Also, NU places six players on the 11-member AP All-Big Six team. »

«1938: Nebraska stops a Kansas State drive inside the one-yard line midway through the fourth quarter to preserve a 14-7 win in Lincoln. Both of the Huskers’ TDs came in the first half, on a 60-yard left sweep by Jack Dodd and a 48-yard pass from Thurston Phelps to Roy Petsch. 

1943: Nebraska is outyarded by 392-154 as Oklahoma beats the Huskers 26-7 for the Sooners' first victory in Lincoln in 11 tries. For Nebraska, it was the start of a 16-year losing streak in the series.

1963: Nebraska learns that Auburn will be its Orange Bowl opponent, and the Huskers are glad to be headed to a warmer postseason destination than a year ago. Meanwhile, three Huskers are named to AP's All-Big Eight team, still a single-platoon squad.

1978: The rematch with Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl elicits much distress and grumbling in Nebraska.

«1983: The unbeaten and heavily favored Huskers win a wild one in Norman, 28-24, as Neil Harris bats away the Sooners' fourth-down pass in the end zone with 32 seconds left. Meanwhile, three Huskers are named first-team Walter Camp and Kodak all-Americans.

1993: Nebraska breaks open a defensive stalemate with two fourth-quarter touchdowns in a 13-second span to fend off visiting Oklahoma, 21-7, keeping the Huskers in the hunt for a national championship.

1998: Colorado keeps Nebraska's offense out of the end zone, but the Buffs fall in Lincoln, 16-14, thanks to a Clint Finley interception return and three Kris Brown field goals.

2003: Nebraska beats Colorado, 31-22, in Boulder, but it isn't enough to save Frank Solich's job. 

2008: In the final two minutes of play, Alex Henery's dramatic 57-yard field goal and Ndamukong Suh's interception return lift Nebraska to a 40-31 win over Colorado in Lincoln.

2013: With speculation heating up about coach Bo Pelini's job security, Iowa gets its first win in Lincoln in 70 years, 38-17. Pelini says afterward, “If they wanna fire me, go ahead,” but Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst instead issues a statement of support for the sixth-year coach.

[847badgerfan]

Probably time to start the 2024 Nebraska Offseason Thread, but I'll drop this here for now.

[FearlessF]

gee, thanks

[847badgerfan]

Hopefully he will stay. He did a great job this year.

[ELA]

Being the scapegoat as to why Lincoln Riley can't get over the hump pays well

[FearlessF]

Tony will get a nice raise if he stays in Lincoln

the O-coordinator Satterfield might take a pay cut

the Trojans might offer cornsiderably more $$$ AND they have the Song Girls

[Entropy]

He ended up getting the raise.  It's well deserved.  Should have got more....  I'm really surprised UNL got their act together on this and made it happen.   Nebraska athletics still plays the mental tug-of-war of "doing things the old way" and keeping up with the times.   

[MrNubbz]

Dude - 3 years,WTH don't be a stranger

[FearlessF]

what Nubbz said........

yes, UNL is just a step ahead of Iowa when it comes to keeping up with the times

[FearlessF]

THIS WEEK IN HUSKER HISTORY
The week of Dec. 1-7, looking back in five-year intervals

1903: NU’s Athletic Board censures team manager A.A. Bischof for arranging the Denver Athletic Club game, and a censure is also issued because of Nebraska’s use of a suspended player, Ray Elliott.

1908: Nebraska finds it’s no match for Jim Thorpe and Carlisle.

1913: The Big Nine again rejects the membership applications of Nebraska and Notre Dame. Also, Nebraska Coach Jumbo Stiehm, riding a 13-game winning streak, says he'll stay in Lincoln rather than accept an offer from another school.
1918: In a game with disputed significance, Nebraska falls to Washington University of St. Louis, 20-7.

1928: Coach Ernest E. Bearg resigns after compiling a record of 23-7-3 in four seasons at Nebraska. Jack Wilce and Biff Jones are mentioned in the press as possible successors, but the job would go to Texas A&M's Dana X. Bible.

1938: Nebraska easily leads the Big Six in home attendance, even though its numbers are down from 1937.

1948: Former Nebraska All-American George Sauer gets national attention, including United Press national coach of the week honors, after his Navy team's surprising tie with Army.

1963: For the second consecutive year, Bob Devaney is third in balloting for national Coach of the Year honors by the Football Writers Association of America. Bob Brown, meanwhile, is named a UPI and AP first-team All-American.

1978: Tom Osborne is offered the Colorado job after meeting with CU officials in Boulder, but he turns it down. (Stories: 1, 2, 3.) 
1983: Mike Rozier wins the Hesiman Trophy, and the Lombardi Award goes to Dean Steinkuhler. Barry Switzer, meanwhile, says he thinks NU's 1982 team was better than the 1983 Huskers.

1993: Bob Brown is in­ducted in the College Football Hall of Fame, be­com­ing the 10th Husker player to be so honored. Also, a Kennedy Center salute to Johnny Carson includes football references and a spirited performance by the Nebraska marching band.

1998: Turner Gill turns down an offer to serve as offensive coordinator for new Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. Meanwhile, Husker fans make plans for Nebraska's Holiday Bowl appearance versus Arizona.

2003: With Steve Pederson's coaching search in its early stages, Steve Spurrier quashes rumors that he is a candidate. Meanwhile, Frank Solich turns down an offer from Army.

2008: The Nebraska-Clemson matchup in the Jan. 1 Gator Bowl becomes official, and Husker defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh says he’ll return for his senior season.

2013: The Big Ten reprimands Bo Pelini for his sideline conduct in the Iowa game and fines Nebraska $10,000 for his comments afterward.

[FearlessF]