Nebraska Cornhuskers football

The Nebraska Cornhuskers football team competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, representing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the Big Ten Conference. Nebraska has played its home games at Memorial Stadium since 1923 and sold out every game at the venue since 1962.

Nebraska is among the most storied programs in college football history and has the eighth-most all-time victories among FBS teams. NU has won forty-six conference championships and five national championships (1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997), along with seven unclaimed national titles. Its 1971 and 1995 teams are considered among the best ever. Heisman Trophy winners Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier, and Eric Crouch join twenty-four other Cornhuskers in the College Football Hall of Fame.

The program's first extended period of success came early in the twentieth century. Between 1900 and 1916, Nebraska had five undefeated seasons and a stretch of thirty-four games without a loss. The Cornhuskers won twenty-four conference championships prior to World War II but struggled through the postwar years until Bob Devaney was hired in 1962. Devaney built Nebraska into a national power, winning two national championships and eight conference titles in eleven seasons as head coach. Offensive coordinator Tom Osborne was named Devaney's successor in 1973 and over the next twenty-five years established himself as one of the best coaches in college football history with his trademark I formation offense and revolutionary strength, conditioning, and nutrition programs. Following Osborne's retirement in 1997, Nebraska cycled through five head coaches before hiring Matt Rhule in 2023.

History

Seasons

Conference affiliations Independent (1890–1891, 1898–1906, 1919–1920) Western Interstate University Football Association (1892–1897) Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association / Big Eight Conference (1907–1918, 1921–1995) Big 12 Conference (1996–2010) North Division Big Ten Conference (2011–present) Legends Division (2011–2012) West Division (2013–2023)

Head coaches

Nebraska has had thirty-one head coaches in its history, with five others coaching at least one game on a non-permanent basis. Eight have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame: Edward N. Robinson, Fielding H. Yost, Dana X. Bible, Biff Jones, Pete Elliott, Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne, and Frank Solich. Osborne is the program's leader in most categories and holds the fifth-highest career win percentage in major college football history.

NU's earliest coaching history is unclear, as several men were appointed to assist or oversee the young program in an unofficial capacity. The school recognizes Frank Crawford, hired in 1893, as its first official head coach. Early in the twentieth century, Nebraska became a regional power under Walter C. Booth – during a twenty-four-game win streak from 1901 to 1904, it was written that Booth could "weep with Alexander the Great because there are no more teams to conquer," given Nebraska's difficulty finding competitive and willing opposition in the Midwest. Twenty-four-year-old Ewald O. "Jumbo" Stiehm was hired in 1911 as the school's first full-time coach. Stiehm lost just two games in five seasons and his 8–0 1915 team was retroactively awarded a national championship.

Dana X. Bible and Biff Jones guided Nebraska to eight conference championships through the 1920s and 1930s, and Jones took the program to its first bowl game before being recalled to serve in World War II. Seven head coaches had little success in the postwar years until Bob Devaney was hired in 1962. Devaney turned Nebraska into a national power by the end of the decade, winning national championships in 1970 and 1971. Offensive coordinator Tom Osborne succeeded Devaney in 1973, beginning a twenty-five-year tenure that established him as one of college football's greatest coaches. Despite remarkable consistency – Osborne's teams never won fewer than nine games and were nationally ranked for 304 of his 307 games – he did not break through and win a major-poll national championship until 1994. Osborne retired in 1997 after two more titles and turned the program over to longtime assistant Frank Solich.

Solich took Nebraska to the 2002 BCS National Championship Game, but dropped to 7–7 the next year and was fired in 2003. After a lengthy coaching search, Nebraska settled on Bill Callahan, who overhauled the program in four turbulent years before being fired in 2007 and replaced by Bo Pelini. Pelini won at least nine games in each of his seven seasons, but frequent clashes with school administration (and some with program supporters) led to his firing. Nebraska suffered its worst eight-year stretch in over sixty years under Mike Riley and Scott Frost before hiring Matt Rhule in 2023.

Championships National championships

Nebraska claims five national championships, each awarded by the AP poll or the Coaches poll.

1970 and 1971 Nebraska's first titles came less than a decade into Bob Devaney's tenure. Devaney used a quarterback rotation between Jerry Tagge and Van Brownson throughout 1970, and the two led NU to nine consecutive wins after a tie at USC. On New Year's Day, bowl losses by No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Ohio State allowed No. 3 Nebraska to claim the national title with an Orange Bowl win over LSU. Trailing 12–10 in the fourth quarter, Tagge led a sixty-seven-yard drive to give NU a lead it would not relinquish. Nebraska was the presumptive title favorite over one-loss Notre Dame, but Devaney still campaigned after the game: "even the Pope would have to vote us number one." The next day Nebraska was elected national champion, its first from a major selector.

With Tagge as the unquestioned starter, Nebraska spent most of 1971 as the country's number-one team, winning each of its first eleven games by at least twenty-four points to set up a Thanksgiving Day meeting with No. 2 Oklahoma. The headline matchup of "The Game of the Century" was Nebraska's defense (allowing 6.4 points per game) against Oklahoma's wishbone offense (scoring 44.6 points per game). Nebraska's 35–31 victory was viewed by fifty-five million people in the United States, the largest college football audience ever. NU beat Alabama 38–6 in the Orange Bowl to defend its national title, becoming the first champion to defeat the No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 finishers in the AP poll. NU's 1971 team is considered among the best in college football history.

1994, 1995, and 1997 After twenty years of close calls and a last-second title game loss in 1993, Tom Osborne entered the 1994 season still seeking his first consensus national championship as a head coach. Star quarterback Tommie Frazier was ruled out indefinitely in September and backup Brook Berringer led Nebraska through most of an undefeated regular season, including a 24–7 win over No. 2 Colorado. Frazier returned to start the 1995 Orange Bowl against Miami; a pair of fourth-quarter Cory Schlesinger touchdowns against a worn-down Hurricanes defensive front gave Osborne his first consensus title. Frazier and freshman I-back Ahman Green led NU through a turbulent 1995 season, defeating three top-ten opponents in a four-week stretch by an average of 28.3 points. Nebraska intercepted Danny Wuerffel three times in a 62–24 domination of Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. Frazier rushed for 199 of NU's 629 yards and was named most valuable player of a third consecutive national championship game. Nebraska's 1995 team, considered among the best ever, set a college football record with 53.2 points per game and is the only national champion to win every game by at least fourteen points.

Nebraska opened 1997 outside the national top five, but quarterback Scott Frost weathered early-season struggles to lead NU to a win at second-ranked Washington. The Cornhuskers were not tested until a November trip to Columbia – No. 1 Nebraska beat Missouri in overtime after a game-tying touchdown that was deflected in the end zone (the "Flea Kicker"), but dropped in the AP and Coaches polls. A month later Nebraska beat Texas A&M 54–15 for its first Big 12 title. NU still trailed Michigan in both polls, but its Orange Bowl matchup with Tennessee was the designated Bowl Alliance national championship game. The Cornhuskers controlled the first half and put the game away with three long third-quarter touchdown drives, after which Frost gave an emotional speech lobbying for Nebraska to be voted number one. Nebraska narrowly passed Michigan in the Coaches poll to claim its third national title in four years.

1970 11–0–1 Orange W 17–12 vs. LSU No. 1 No. 3 1971 13–0 Orange W 38–6 vs. Alabama No. 1 No. 1 1994 13–0 Orange (BC NCG) W 24–17 vs. Miami (FL) No. 1 No. 1 1995 12–0 Fiesta (BA NCG) W 62–24 vs. Florida No. 1 No. 1 1997 13–0 Orange (BA NCG) W 42–17 vs. Tennessee No. 2 No. 1

Unclaimed national championships Nebraska has been awarded seven other national championships from NCAA-designated major selectors the school does not claim.

1915 8–0 None N/A BR 1980 10–2 Sun W 31–17 vs. Mississippi State No. 7 No. 7 FACT 1981 9–3 Orange L 22–15 vs. Clemson No. 11 No. 9 NCF 1982 12–1 Orange W 21–20 vs. LSU No. 3 No. 3 B(QPRS) 1983 12–1 Orange L 31–30 vs. Miami (FL) No. 2 No. 2 B(QPRS), DeS, FACT, L, MGR, PS, SR 1984 10–2 Sugar W 28–10 vs. LSU No. 4 No. 3 L 1993 11–1 Orange (BC NCG) L 18–16 vs. Florida State No. 3 No. 3 NCF

Conference championships Nebraska has won forty-six conference championships, second-most of any FBS school. The earliest came in the short-lived Western Interstate University Football Association, one of college football's first conferences, which NU participated in for six seasons with Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. The conference dissolved in 1897 and NU spent the next decade as an independent until the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association was founded in 1907. Nebraska dominated the MVIAA in its early years, winning twenty-one titles before 1940 despite playing several seasons as an independent. After Biff Jones departed the school to serve in World War II, the program went twenty-two seasons without a conference championship.

Devaney was hired in 1962 and quickly ended Nebraska's drought, winning eight titles in eleven years as head coach. Osborne succeeded him in 1973 and won thirteen conference championships; the Thanksgiving-weekend meeting between Nebraska and Oklahoma often became a de facto Big Eight championship game, as the two schools won at least a share of the conference thirty-three times in its final thirty-six years. Nebraska won the second Big 12 Championship Game in 1997, Osborne's final season, and again two years later.

1894† Frank Crawford 6–2 2–1 1895† Charles Thomas 6–3 2–1 1897 Edward N. Robinson 5–1 3–0 1907† William C. Cole 8–2 1–0 1910 7–1 2–0 1911† Ewald O. Stiehm 5–1–2 2–0–1 1912† 7–1 2–0 1913† 8–0 3–0 1914 7–0–1 3–0 1915 8–0 4–0 1916 E. J. Stewart 6–2 3–1 1917 5–2 2–0 1921 Fred Dawson 7–1 3–0 1922 7–1 5–0 1923 4–2–2 3–0–2 1928 Ernest Bearg 7–1–1 4–0 1929 Dana X. Bible 4–1–3 3–0–2 1931 8–2 5–0 1932 7–1–1 5–0 1933 8–1 5–0 1935 6–2–1 4–0–1 1936 7–2 5–0 1937 Biff Jones 6–1–2 3–0–2 1940 8–2 5–0 1963 Bob Devaney 10–1 7–0 1964 9–2 6–1 1965 10–1 7–0 1966 9–2 6–1 1969† 9–2 6–1 1970 11–0–1 7–0 1971 13–0 7–0 1972 9–2–1 5–1–1 1975† Tom Osborne 10–2 6–1 1978† 9–3 6–1 1981 9–3 7–0 1982 12–1 7–0 1983 12–1 7–0 1984† 10–2 6–1 1988 11–2 7–0 1991† 9–2–1 6–0–1 1992 9–3 6–1 1993 11–1 7–0 1994 13–0 7–0 1995 12–0 7–0 1997 Tom Osborne 13–0 8–0 1999 Frank Solich 12–1 7–1

† Co-champion

Division championships Nebraska won ten division championships. Nine were in the Big 12's North Division, which NU played in from the Big 12's inception in 1996 until departing for the Big Ten in 2011 (the Big Eight never used divisions). Nebraska won one division title across thirteen seasons in the Big Ten's Leaders Division and West Division; the conference disbanded its division system in 2024.