| Nebraska Cornhuskers Football |
Article Index for Nebraska |
Website Links For Nebraska |
Information AboutNebraska Cornhuskers Football |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS FOOTBALL | |
| nebraska cornhuskers footballnebraska cornhuskers football | |
| nebraska cornhuskers | |
| football | |
| college football teams | |
|
The Nebraska Cornhuskers are a traditional powerhouse in College Football , and have the fourth-most all-time victories of any NCAA Division I-A team. HISTORY Husker football began play in , Rich Glover, Wayne Meylan, Bobby Reynolds , Dave Rimington, George Sauer, Clarence Swanson, Ed Weir, Dave Noble, and coaches Dana X. Bible, Bob Devaney , "Biff" Jones, Tom Osborne , Eddie "Robbie" Robinson, and Fielding Yost . Notable rivals of the Cornhuskers are the Oklahoma Sooners and, in recent years, the Colorado Buffaloes . The Huskers defense is known by the nickname of the "Blackshirts." Depictions of the Blackshirts often include a skull and crossbones. This nickname originated in the early 1960s and continued as a reference to the black practice jerseys worn by first-string defensive players during practice. This tradition developed when Bob Devaney had Mike Corgan, one of his assistant coaches, find contrastive jerseys to offset the red jerseys worn by the offense in practice. Further credit is given to George Kelly, Devaney's defensive line coach until 1968, who frequently referred to the top defensive unit by the name; eventually the rest of the coaching staff caught on, while the first mention of the Blackshirts in print was not until 1969. The coach who brought about the most wins in Cornhusker history is Tom Osborne, who led the team for 25 seasons, from 1973 to 1997 ; his final record at Nebraska was 255 wins, 49 losses and 3 ties. During his tenure, the team won three national titles, including one in his final season. Osborne was elected to the U.S. House Of Representatives from Nebraska 's Third Congressional District in 2000 . Since the 1994 season, Nebraska's home games have always opened with the Tunnel Walk , which signifies the triumphant entry of the team onto the field. When the Cornhuskers play at home in Memorial Stadium , the stadium holds more people than the third-largest city in Nebraska. They currently hold the record for the most consecutive sold out home games, celebrating the 250th occasion against Utah State on September 5, 2002. The sellout streak dates back to November 3, 1962, during Bob Devaney's first season at Nebraska. The Huskers lost the first game in the current streak, a Homecoming game, to Missouri 16-7; 36,501 fans were in attendance. The current Husker coach is Bill Callahan ; the previous three coaches were Frank Solich , Tom Osborne , and Bob Devaney . Callahan represents a break from tradition in many ways. First, Callahan is the first head coach in recent history not to be hand-picked by his predecessor. In a controversial move, Frank Solich was fired by Athletic Director Steve Pederson and replaced with Bill Callahan. Second, Bill Callahan has implemented the West Coast Offense at Nebraska. The Huskers had previously been known for the tough running game; specifically, running the option with a strong backfield, while their new style relies heavily on a balance between the run and the pass. In Callahan's first season as head coach in 2004, the team recorded 5 wins and 6 losses. Excitement over the Callahan's new system was bubbling amongst Husker nation when Nebraska cruised to 56-17 win over the Western Illinois Leathernecks, regardless of being heavily favored. However, the excitement quickly vanished when Nebraska lost a home game to Southern Mississippi. Things were dismal for Callahan when he returned to Lincoln from Lubbock, Texas, losing by the largest margin in school history: a 70-10 loss to Texas Tech, the first time Nebraska had ever lost to them. This did not go over well with many Husker fans who were used to Nebraska's winning ways. Speculation that the West Coast Offense could not work at Nebraska began to rise. Cahallan's first season brought something that was foreign to the vast majority of Husker fans, a losing season, and one without a bowl game bid. 2005 Season Bill Callahan's second season as coach in 2005 was much more successful and is arguably one of the most exciting seasons in Husker history. Nebraska was experiencing many changes to their team's roster. Not only did key wide receiver Ross Pilkington leave the team after he gave up football, but after the spring game, new junior college transfer Zac Taylor replaced the 2004 starter Joe Dailey at the key position of quarterback. Speculation that the 2005 season could perhaps be worse than the 2004 season began when Nebraska struggled to defeat the severe underdog Maine team 25-7. The team went on to crush the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (Zac Taylor's former four year college) 31-3. The win was unusual in that Nebraska's defense scored more points than either team's offense (Nebraska's defense scored 18 points, their offense 6, their special teams 7). Their next game is arguably one of the most climactic in the history of all of football. The score was Nebraska 7 and the Pittsburgh Panthers 6. With 7 seconds remaining, the Panters were going to attempt a game winning field goal from 36 yards. The ball was snapped with the holder unprepared for the play. The ball bounded off of the holder's helmet. Pittsburgh's kicker recovered the ball and threw it incomplete to preserve time. One second remained on the clock as Pittsburgh prepared for the final play. Pittsburgh attemted the kick again, the holder prepared this time. Pittsburgh's kicker looked as though he would have made the field goal had it not been blocked by Nebraska's Adam Ickes. Nebraska's next game was equally exciting as unranked and undefeated Nebraska took on the #23 Iowa State Cyclones. They won in a hard fought match that went into 2 overtimes by a score of 27-20. The game marked the first time that overtime had occurred in Memorial Stadium. Regardless of the quality win, Nebraska remained unranked. Nebraska was the only team that was unranked and had no losses going into their next game against the 15th ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders. After trailing 21-0 in the first half, Nebraska fought back and eventually gained a 31-27 foothold over Texas Tech. In the final minutes of the game, Nebraska seemingly sealed their victory and a top 25 ranking when lineman LeKevin Smith intercepted a Texas Tech pass only to fumble it seconds later to return posession to Texas Tech. The Red Raiders were given a second-chance and with time winding down threw the game winning touchdown pass to defeat Nebraska. The Huskers lost 3 of their next 4 games, including losses to their rival Missouri Tigers, a crushing 44-15 defeat to the Kansas Jayhawks, and rival Oklahoma Sooners, the latter being lost in the final minutes of the game. In a particularly windy game against Kansas State, Nebraska trailed 25-24 with 4:18 remaining in the game. Zac Taylor was on the receiving end of a hard hit that landed him with a mild concussion, removing him from the game. Zac remained on the ground for a couple of minutes with Callahan and KSU's Bill Snyder towering over him. The sold out crowd began to chant his name, as Taylor tried to recompose himself. Backup quarterback, freshman Harrison Beck, recorded his first action in a college football game. After throwing an interception in his first drive, he threw a key reception in Nebraska's final drive. Freshman kicker Jordan Congdon came in to make the go-ahead field goal. This was a risky move as the wind was swirling and was so strong that it ripped the stadium's mammoth United State's flag off of a crane that was suspending it, seemingly as a testament to it's power. Regardless Congdon made the 40-yard field goal to give Nebraska the win. Nebraska's final regular season game of 2005 was at Colorado. Colorado, who was leading the Big 12 North division in the race to the Big 12 championship game, was the heavy favorite. Many Colorado fans believed that Nebraska was going to be the easiest team they would play all year, as they were cold after 3 straight losses followed by a near miss against a struggling Kansas State team. Tension built up between the rivals as a verbal skirmish involving every player erupted in the center of the field between the two teams when Nebraska mistook Colorado players walking toward their half of the field as an insult. Colorado was stunned, however, when Nebraska dominated Colorado in every aspect of the game. Wearing motivational T-Shirts reading " RESTORE THE ORDER " underneath their jerseys, Nebraska beat Colorado 30-3 with breakout performances from nearly every player, particularly Zac Taylor and Colorado native Cory Ross. The team finished with 7 wins and 4 losses in the regular season. Nebraska would play their bowl game against the Michigan Wolverines in the 2005 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. With 2 seconds left in the game the Wolverines trailed the Cornhuskers 32-28 and set up the hook & lateral play for a miracle touchdown. In one of the wildest finishes ever, Michigan lateraled the football 9 times, fumbling once on their way to a 59 yard gain. In the midst of all this the entire Nebraska sideline stormed the field in celebration thinking the game was over when Michigan fumbled the ball (from their point of view they could not see that the ball was loose and assumed the Michigan player to be down). Many players thinking the play was over stopped playing allowing the Michigan ball carrier to run by them, while Michigan players did not block for their carrier. Before the play was over the Cornhuskers, several Michigan players and coaches, and several other individuals along with the awards podium were on the field, and the game officials had left to submit their votes for the award winners. When all was said and done, Nebraska came off with a victory and ended their season with an 8-4 record. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SEASONS #Shared with Texas #Shared with Michigan INDIVIDUAL AWARD WINNERS Heisman Trophy Lombardi Award
Outland Trophy
Maxwell Award Walter Camp Award Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Davey O'Brien Award Butkus Award Rimington Trophy Permanently retired jerseys
SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|