Entering last Friday night’s Illinois at Nebraska football game, I was overly confident Nebraska would win the game.
The last time I was this overconfident, was when Nebraska hosted Texas on October 16, 2010.
Nebraska was unbeaten (5-0) and ranked fifth in the country.
Texas was unranked and had won three games and lost two.
Nebraska went AWOL that day, losing 20-13.
The game wasn’t that close.
Texas led 20-6 with less than four minutes left in the game when the Huskers Eric Hagg returned a punt 95 yards for a touchdown to offer Husker fans a glimmer of hope.
Nebraska simply could not prevail.
To make matters worse, Texas finished the season with only five wins while recording seven losses.
It took me 14 years to regain my overconfidence.
I guess it was a lesson well-learned.
In today’s world of college football, no fan should ever be overconfident.
It was a heartbreaking loss.
NU had so many opportunities that it muffed away.
And the Illinois offense controlled the ground game. Still a staple in Big Ten football.
But I am not a coach, so we will not diagnose the X’s and O’s.
Rather, I am an amateur football historian.
So, let’s look back on other Cornhusker football September heartbreaks.
• September 9, 1972. UCLA 20, Nebraska 17. The Bruins, under the lights of the L.A. Coliseum, ended Nebraska’s 32-game unbeaten streak that dated to early October 1969.
• September 21, 1974. Wisconsin 21, Nebraska 20. The Huskers led 20-14 at Madison, but a 77-yard touchdown pass with 3:21 left in the game sealed the deal for the Badgers.
• September 10, 1977. Washington State 19, Nebraska 10. On a sun-splashed day in Lincoln, the Cougars, coached by former Devaney and Osborne assistant Warren Powers, recovered four Nebraska fumbles and scored on a safety to stun the Big Red and drop NU out of the top 20 polls.
• September 12, 1981. Iowa 10, Nebraska 7. In Iowa City, seventh-ranked Nebraska lost three fumbles and was held to 197 yards in total offense.
• September 25, 1982. Penn State 27, Nebraska 24. Nebraska took the lead with 1:18 left in the game. But the Blackshirts allowed Penn State to drive 65 yards and score a TD with only four seconds left in the game. What may have been the worst officiating call to go against Nebraska in the program’s modern history – a ruled catch by Penn State when the receiver was clearly out of bounds at the four-yard-line – was under shadowed by the fact NU committed three turnovers. Wipe out the turnovers, and it’s a Cornhusker victory.
• September 29, 1984. Syracuse 17, Nebraska 9. The Huskers were unbeaten and ranked number one following a 39-point win at UCLA the prior week. Three NU turnovers and a well-disciplined Orangemen defense meant a loss on the east coast after a dominating west coast victory the previous Saturday.
• September 21, 1996. Arizona State 19, Nebraska 0. The Sun Devils scored six points on three Nebraska safeties and broke Nebraska’s 25-game win streak. Nebraska fumbled six times and lost three.
• September 15, 2007. USC 49, Nebraska 31. Under the lights of Memorial Stadium and in front of a national television audience, this game was to be a measuring stick for how far the Huskers had grown under Bill Callahan. USC led 42-10 at the end of the third quarter. The growing season was over.
• September 19, 2009. Virginia Tech 16, Nebraska 15. In Blacksburg, Nebraska held a last-minute lead of five points. But Virginia Tech scored on an 11-yard pass with 21 seconds left in the game.
• September 8, 2012. UCLA 36, Nebraska 30. UCLA’s offense destroyed Nebraska’s defense by rambling for 653 yards on 94 plays. I sat in the Rose Bowl stands and personally watch this fanny-slapping.
• September 2018. Under first-year head coach Scott Frost, Nebraska lost every game it played in September and had its first contest cancelled by a lightning storm.
• September 7, 2019. Colorado 34, Nebraska 31 (OT). In Boulder, Nebraska blew a 17-point lead. There were more fans dressed in red than black at Folsom Field that day, but it didn’t matter thanks to three NU turnovers.
• September 10, 2022. Georgia Southern 45, Nebraska 42. In Memorial Stadium the unthinkable happened. Nebraska’s Blackshirts gave up 642 yards and allowed Georgia Southern to drive 75 yards in the game’s final three minutes and score with just 36 seconds remaining. It proved to be the end of the Scott Frost era as he was fired the following day.
• September 20, 2024. Illinois 31, Nebraska 24 (OT). Back to the drawing board.