When you are a sports fan, and pour your heart into an athletic team, there are going to be emotional peaks and valleys.
Such is the case with University of Nebraska Cornhusker Football.
Last Friday’s loss to Iowa in Lincoln completed my 55th year of following the Big Red gridiron boys.
There have been incredible highs. Five-time national champions and playing for the national title in 1981, 1983 and 1993 – only to come up a combined total of 10 points short.
There have been too many disappointing losses to mention.
However, the top two for me was a last-minute loss at home to Oklahoma in 1976 and a last second loss to Texas in the Big 12 championship game in 2009.
However, disappointing seasons?
Oh, yeah.
Allow me to offer the ten seasons that left me dumbfounded.
1972: Nebraska entered the season rated number one and was seeking its third consecutive national title. Which they should have won. However, the Huskers lost to UCLA and Oklahoma by a combined six points and tied Iowa State. In those three games, the Huskers committed 19 turnovers.
1975: The Huskers won their first ten games and climbed to number two in the polls. However, NU lost its final two games at Oklahoma and at Arizona State in the Fiesta Bowl.
1976: Once again, Nebraska began the season as the nation’s top-ranked team. The lofty rating didn’t last long as the Big Red’s opening game at LSU ended in a 6-6 tie. Losses at home against Missouri and Oklahoma and a road loss at Iowa State resulted in the Huskers playing in the now defunct Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl. NU beat Texas Tech, 27-24 and finished the season rated number nine.
1979: A repeat of the 1975 season. NU won its first ten games and climbed to number three in the polls only to then lose at Oklahoma and to Houston in the Cotton Bowl.
1984: Nebraska had one of the best defenses, if not the best, in college football. However, breakdowns by the offense in losses at Syracuse and at home vs. Oklahoma in which the Big Red scored only nine and seven points respectively, resulted in a 10-2 season and a number three national ranking. Nebraska was rated number one when they lost at Syracuse in the fourth game of the season and had fought their way back to the top ranking when they met Oklahoma in Lincoln. A national championship slipped through their fingers on November 17, 1984, on the Memorial Stadium turf. Oklahoma led NU, 10-7, with 5:32 left in the game and NU had the ball just inches from the OU goal line. The Sooner defense stopped Husker running back Jeff Smith on a fourth down run.
1996: NU began the season rated number one and showed it deserved the ranking with a 55-14 home victory over Michigan State. However, two weeks later in the Arizona desert, Nebraska played its worst offensive football losing to Arizona State, 19-0. To add to the humiliation, ASU scored six points on three safeties. The Huskers worked their way back to number three in the polls by ripping off nine consecutive wins, only to lose to Texas in the Big 12 championship game to Texas, 37-27. A possible third consecutive national championship slipped through their fingers in St. Louis, MO.
2001: Nebraska won the first 11 games of the season and then fell apart in Boulder, Colorado, on the blackest of Fridays.
The Buffaloes won, 62-36. NU then lost to Miami in the Rose Bowl in unimpressive fashion. 37-14.
2009: Nebraska lost games to Virginia Tech by one point; Iowa State by two points (where NU committed eight turnovers); and Texas by one point. A complete meltdown against Texas Tech resulted in a 21-point loss. This was a team that should have won 12 games, including the Big 12 Championship.
2018: Nebraska’s statewide hero, Scott Frost, was back where he belonged. The coach that would return us to the promised land. Or so we thought. Frost’s first name was cancelled due to lighting. It served as an omen. Nebraska would lose its first six games and Frost would be fired four years later after compiling a record of 16 wins and 31 losses. In games decided by eight points or less, Frost’s Huskers won five and lost 22. Now that’s disappointment.
2023: While first-year head coach Matt Rhule never promised that NU would snap its streak of six consecutive losing seasons, there was justified optimism. However, Nebraska lost three football games by identical scores of 13-10 to Minnesota, Maryland and Iowa and ALL on walk-off field goals. When November began, it appeared NU would be bowl bound as they sported a record of five wins and three losses. One additional win and the Huskers would be spending part of December in a warmer climate. However, Nebraska finished oh-for-November suffering four straight losses.
After 55 years of cheers, there certainly have been tears.
But never jeers.