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The Nebraska Cornhuskers represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in college football. The program has established itself as a traditional powerhouse, and has the fourth-most all-time victories of any NCAA Division I-A team. The Cornhuskers are currently in their 119th season and hold an all-time record of 932–121–23. Nebraska is one of only 7 football programs in NCAA Division I-A history to win 800 games. The Cornhskuers have the best winning statistics of the college football program over the last 50 years, both by winning percentage and number of wins. The Cornhuskers' three national championships in Division I collegiate football over the past 25 years are the second most of any university. They have five all time.
[edit] HistoryHusker football began play in 1890, with a 10–0 victory over the Omaha YMCA on Thanksgiving Day, November 27.[3] During the early years of the program, the team had a number of nicknames: "Bugeaters", "Tree Planters", "Nebraskans", "The Rattlesnake Boys", "Antelopes", "Old Gold Knights" and "Cornhuskers". The name Cornhuskers first appeared in the school newspaper as "We Have Met The Cornhuskers And They Are Ours" referring to a 20–18 upset victory over Iowa in 1893. The name would be used again, this time to refer to Nebraska by Charles "Cy" Sherman in The Nebraska State Journal during the 1899 season and would replace all other names by 1900.[2][4] Nebraska has claimed 46 conference championships and part or all of five national championships: 1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, and 1997. The titles in the 1990s marked the first time since Notre Dame in 1946–49 when a team won three national championships in four seasons. The 1994 and 1995 seasons still stand as the only consensus back-to-back national titles by any Division 1-A school since Oklahoma in 1956-57. Nebraska posted a 60–3–0 record between the 1993-97 seasons. ESPN.com has named the 1971 Nebraska Cornhusker team the greatest team of all time.[5] The Nebraska Cornhuskers also have five undefeated seasons that they were not the national champions; 1902, 1903, 1913, 1914, and 1915. Between 1912 and 1916, a 34 game win streak was recorded by then head coach Ewald O. Stiehm.[6] Famous former Huskers include Heisman Trophy winners Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier, and Eric Crouch. Rodgers was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and for the new millennium he was voted the team's "Player of the Century"; his Cornhusker jersey (No. 20) was retired. Rozier was likewise inducted into the hall in 2006. Other Husker players and coaches who are members of the College Football Hall of Fame include: Forrest Behm, Bob Brown, Guy Chamberlin, Sam Francis, Rich Glover, Wayne Meylan, Bobby Reynolds, Dave Rimington, George Sauer, Clarence Swanson, Ed Weir, and coaches Gomer Jones, Pete Elliott, Francis(Close the Gates of Mercy) Schmidt,Dana X. Bible, Bob Devaney, Biff Jones, Tom Osborne, Eddie "Robbie" Robinson, and Fielding Yost.[7] The most notable rivals of the Cornhuskers are the Oklahoma Sooners[8]. Nebraska and Oklahoma regularly battled for the Big Eight Conference title until 1996 when the conference became the Big 12. Out of the Big Eight's 89 year history, Nebraska or Oklahoma won or shared the conference championship 71 times.[9] The Cornhuskers and Sooners also played several games during the 1970s and 1980s that decided the national championship.[10] Nebraska and Kansas, though not considered a big rivalry, play in the nation's longest uninterrupted series. They have played each other every year since 1906.  The Husker 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.[11] 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.[11] Since the 1994 season, Nebraska's home games have always opened with the Tunnel Walk. Before the team enters, the HuskerVision screens light up with a burst of computer animation, and "Sirius" (an instrumental by The Alan Parsons Project) blares from the speakers. Accompanied by cheers from the crowd, the Huskers take 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, which celebrated its 301st sellout on October 17th, 2009 when the Huskers played host to the Texas Tech Red Raiders. 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; 56,501 fans were in attendance. [edit] Logos and uniformsNebraska has worn traditional uniforms through out its history. The first helmet was red, with a white stripe. This was later changed to a plain white helmet with a black number on the side. During 1967-1969, a red, offset "NU" was placed on each side of the helmet. From 1970, the "NU" was changed to the simple, familiar "N" that remains today, although it is thought a few "NU" helmets remained in use as late as 1972. The helmet design has remained essentially unchanged since 1970, with the exception of the face mask, as it was changed from grey to red prior to the 1982 Orange Bowl game against Clemson. The jerseys have only been altered a few times, with the addition of shoulder stripes and numbers. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Huskers wore full shoulder stripes reminiscient of those worn by the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts of the NFL. These were gradually phased out when mesh and tearaway jerseys became popular. From 1980-1983, Nebraska's jerseys featured just a simple block "N" on the sleeves. In 1984, two sleeve stripes and sleeve numbers were added back to the uniform, where they essentially remain today, although the stripes and numbers have decreased in size as jersey sleeves have shortened over the years. Shoulder patches were added to the jerseys beginning in 1989, with a patch that commemorated the 100th season of Nebraska football. The following season, a patch with "Nebraska Football: A Winning Tradition" embroidered on it was added above the left breast of the jersey. In 1999 a new version of this patch debuted and it has remained there to date. Names began appearing on the backs of the jerseys for bowl games beginning in the 1970s. Around 1980, the players' names began appearing on the road jerseys. The home jerseys remained nameless except for when worn during bowl games, with one exception. A brief tradition was established for the last home game of each season, where seniors (playing their final game in Memorial Stadium) were allowed to wear names on their jerseys; underclassmen, however, did not. This explains why footage of many Oklahoma-Nebraska games played in Lincoln during this era feature some Nebraska players with names on their jerseys and some without. From approximately 1988 onwards, names were permanently affixed to the home jersey, where they remain. The team traditionally wears white pants at home and red on the road, although there have been exceptions. Nebraska donned red pants with red jerseys for the first (and to date, only) time in school history for its 1986 contest against Oklahoma. Nebraska led this game for 58 1/2 minutes before losing a 20-17 heartbreaker due to some late OU heroics, and the combination was deemed to be unlucky. Nebraska began periodically donning all-white, beginning with the 1991 Citrus Bowl game against Georgia Tech (a game in which they were blown out, 45-21). They next tried the combo during the 1992 season, wearing all-white for the first three road games of that year. They lost two of the three, including an embarrassing 19-10 decision to an unranked Iowa State squad. The combination was not tried again until the ill-fated 2002 uniform (see next paragraph) and was also worn during Bill Callahan's last game as head coach (another embarrassing loss, this time 65-51 to Colorado). As a result, Husker fans typically associate the all-white look with losing and tend to prefer the red road pants. From 1968 to 1994, the pants had two stripes down each side. Originally they were thin stripes, but became thicker sometime in the mid-1970s.These were removed prior to the 1995 season, and the pants remained stripeless until 2001. For the 2002 season, Nebraska experimented with side panels on the jersey and pants, and went to all white permanenantly on the road. The look was overwhelmingly disliked by most fans, presumably because the Huskers went 7-7, which was at the time their worst season in 40 years. In 2003, Nebraska returned to a look similar to the one they wore from 1995-2001. In 2004, the two pant stripes returned to the uniform, where they have remained since. Adidas is the official supplier of Husker uniforms, shoes and gear. On September 26, 2009, for the first time in school history, the Cornhuskers wore "throwback" uniforms from 1962 in honor of Nebraska's 300th consecutive sell out.  [edit] Coaching
 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-led teams won at least 9 games every season and 5 times managed to win 12 or more.[12] By the time he was finished the Nebraska coach had compiled a winning percentage of 83.6%, a higher rate than those held by Bobby Bowden, Paul "Bear" Bryant, and Joe Paterno.[13] [edit] Frank SolichOsborne's handpicked successor was Frank Solich, a Nebraska assistant coach and former player. Solich had coached freshmen from 1979–1983 and running backs from 1983–1997.[14] This was following in a tradition because Osborne had been a long-time Cornhusker assistant before Devaney chose him as his successor. Like Osborne, Solich also had big shoes to fill. In his first season, the team got off to a 5–0 start before falling to Texas A&M 21–28. The team went on to a 9–4 record ending up with the most losses since the 1968 season.[15] Over the next three seasons Solich produced better results: 12–1 in 1999 and 10–2 in 2000. The 2001 season looked to be a special one with Heisman candidate Eric Crouch at quarterback. Going into the regular season finale with Colorado, the Cornhuskers were ranked first in the BCS standings and seemed headed to the national championship game.[16] The Colorado Buffaloes proceeded to beat Nebraska 62–36. The 62 points were the most ever allowed by Nebraska up until that point.[16] Solich's team still managed to get into the BCS championship game but it was soundly beaten by the Miami Hurricanes 37–14.[15] The next year the team went to a 7–7 record as many speculated about a hangover from those two losses. Several streaks ended in 2002: 21 years ranked in the top 25, and 44 years since finishing with 3 straight losses.[17] Solich fired several staff members and hired Bo Pelini as his new defensive coordinator and Barney Cotton as offensive coordinator. The next year the team improved to a 9–3 regular season record but that wasn't enough to save Solich's job. Steve Pederson, the university's recently hired athletic director, fired the coach shortly after a come-from-behind victory at Colorado. "I refuse to let this program gravitate to a level of mediocrity," Pederson said of his reasoning.[18] Despite this "mediocrity", Solich's 58 wins during his first six seasons as Nebraska's head coach exceeded that of his two College Football Hall of Fame predecessors: Bob Devaney (53 wins) and Tom Osborne (55 wins) [19]. Following Solich's dismissal, Pederson named Pelini the interim coach for the Alamo Bowl, improving Solich's team to 10–3 with a 17–3 win against Michigan State; finishing the season ranked #18. In the four years that followed under the Pederson/Callahan leadership, the Huskers finished one season ranked #24, and all others unranked. [edit] Bill Callahan A 40-day coaching search ensued after the firing. Pederson conducted the search by himself but rumors of candidates spread through messageboards and traditional media.[20] Houston Nutt, the University of Arkansas' football coach, was rumored to have been offered the job but this was denied by Nebraska officials.[20] In the end, Pederson decided to hire the former coach of the Oakland Raiders, Bill Callahan. Callahan represented a break from tradition in many ways. First, Callahan was the first head coach in recent history not to be hand-picked by his predecessor. Second, Callahan implemented the West Coast Offense at Nebraska. For years the Huskers had been known for their power-running, option-I offense. The new system relied heavily on a balance between the run and the pass. Interest in Callahan's new system increased amongst Nebraska fans when Nebraska cruised to 56–17 win over the Western Illinois Leathernecks, a Division I-AA team they were heavily favored to beat. However, the excitement quickly faded 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.[21] In Callahan's first season as head coach in 2004, the team recorded 5 wins and 6 losses. This was the first losing season in over 40 years.[15] 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. Since then, the team improved to records of 8–4 in 2005 and 9–5 in 2006. The Nebraska faithful became increasingly alienated from Pederson. Pederson started off on the wrong foot by firing Solich without consulting Osborne. While he reached out to former Huskers who were currently in the NFL, he did not show the same consideration to other ex-Huskers. He would not allow former Huskers on the sideline—not even Rodgers, named the team's "Player of the Century". Rodgers did, however, have seats for himself and a guest in Nebraska's press box. At least Rodgers could get tickets; another member of the Nebraska All-Century team, Jason Peter, reported that when he was living in California, he called to try to get tickets for USC's visit to Lincoln in 2006 and was turned down. In an equally symbolic move, Pederson had pictures of Cornhusker All-Americans and Hall of Famers that lined the walls surrounding the coaching offices removed and replaced with pictures of current players. Many boosters were angry enough to threaten to stop donating to the athletic department. Perhaps most astonishingly, Tom Osborne, long the face of the Huskers program, stopped attending games, and even began serving as a consultant to the athletic program at Creighton University, a school located in Omaha.[22] Due to conflicts created within the athletic department, and with the community due to his management style, Steve Pederson was fired[23] on October 15, 2007. The next day, former coach Tom Osborne was hired to replace Pederson on an interim basis.[24] The day after he was hired, Osborne began mending fences with former Huskers, sending an email to notify them that a limited number of sideline passes would be issued again and that all would be entitled to free game tickets. Later that day, he had the pictures of former players removed by Pederson taken out of storage and hung on a vacant wall in the team offices, and then attended the Huskers practice, inviting several former players to join him.[22] After the Huskers slipped to a 5–7 season in 2007, with the once-mighty Huskers defense torched for 76 points by longtime Big 8/Big 12 doormat Kansas and 65 by Colorado, Osborne fired Callahan.[25] In October 2006, Nebraska became one of only four Division 1 football teams to have 800 lifetime wins, with a win over Kansas State. Michigan, Notre Dame and Texas also have 800 wins. Nebraska also has the longest continuing series in college football, having played Kansas every year uninterrupted since 1906. The rivalry with Kansas also includes the second longest streak by one team over another.[26] Nebraska ranks 7th in the list of College football's ten most victorious programs, whether judged by total number of wins or by winning percentage. In 2008, Nebraska earned bowl eligibility for the 38th time in the past 40 years. [edit] Current coaching staff
[edit] Bowl results
[edit] National championship seasons
* Texas retained a #1 ranking in the UPI Poll despite a 24-11 loss to Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl, since the UPI at that time released its final rankings prior to bowl games. Nebraska was #1 in the final AP Poll, conducted after the bowl games. [edit] Individual award winners[edit] Players [edit] Coaches
[edit] Nebraska All-Century Football TeamAll team members were selected through an on-line poll at www.huskerwebcast.com during the 1999 football season and through the spring game in April. Top Vote Getter (Votes): Offense - Zach Wiegert (7,951); Defense - Grant Wistrom (6,990); Special Teams - Kris Brown (7,938); Overall - Johnny Rodgers (14,467) - (7,109 - Returns and 7,358 - WR)[3]
[edit] Nebraska's All-Time TeamAs selected by Athlon Sports in 2002. [4]
[edit] Permanently retired jerseysNebraska has retired only two numbers, choosing to retire the jersey rather than the number for other players.[29]  [edit] Current NFL Players
[edit] Future schedules[edit] 2010 schedule[edit] 2011 tentative scheduleSome open dates remain unfilled.[33][34]
[edit] 2012 tentative scheduleSome open dates remain unfilled.[35][36]
[edit] 2013 tentative scheduleSome open dates remain unfilled.[37][38]
[edit] 2014 tentative scheduleSome open dates remain unfilled.[39][40]
[edit] 2015 tentative scheduleSome open dates remain unfilled.[41][42]
[edit] 2016 tentative scheduleAll league and some open dates remain unfilled.[43][44]
[edit] 2017 tentative scheduleAll league and some open dates remain unfilled.[45][46]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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