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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 have the fourth-most all-time victories of any NCAA Division I-A team. The Cornhuskers are currently in their 117th season and hold an all-time record of 803–334–40. On October 14, 2006, with a 21-3 win over the Kansas State Wildcats, Nebraska became only the 4th program in NCAA Division I-A history to win 800 games.

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.

History

Husker football began play in 1890, with a 10-0 victory over the Omaha YMCA on Thanksgiving Day, November 27. During the early years of the program, the team had a number of nicknames: "Bugeaters", "Tree Planters", "Nebraskans", "The Rattlesnake Boys", "Antelopes" and "Old Gold Knights"; "Cornhuskers" became the sole nickname used around 1900.

Nebraska has claimed 46 conference championships and part or all of five national championships: 1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, and 1997. This marked the first time since Notre Dame in 1946-49 when a team won three national championships in four seasons. 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, Dave Noble, and coaches Dana X. Bible, Bob Devaney, Biff Jones, Tom Osborne, Eddie "Robbie" Robinson, and Fielding Yost.

The most notable rivals of the Cornhuskers are the Oklahoma Sooners and the Colorado Buffaloes. Nebraska and Oklahoma regularly battled for the Big Eight Conference title until 1995 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. The Cornhuskers and Sooners also played several games during the 1970s and 1980s that decided the national championship.

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. 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.

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 285th occasion when they competed against the Ball State Cardinals on September 22 2007. 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.

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. 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. After retiring from the Cornhuskers, Osborne was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska's Third Congressional District in 2000.

Osborne's handpicked successor was Frank Solich, a Nebraska assistant coach and former player. Solich had coached freshman from 1979-1983 and running backs from 1983-1997. 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. 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. The Colorado Buffaloes proceeded to beat Nebraska 62-36. The 62 points were the most ever allowed by Nebraska up until that point. Solich's team still managed to get into the BCS championship game but it was soundly beaten by the University of Miami Hurricanes 14-37. 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: 40 years of winning seasons, 21 years ranked in the top 25, and 44 years since finishing with 3 straight losses. 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 win at Colorado. "I refuse to let this program gravitate to a level of mediocrity," Pederson said of his reasoning. The athletic director named Pelini the interim coach for the Alamo Bowl. The Pelini-led team beat Michigan State 17-3.

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A six-week coaching search ensued after the firing. Pederson conducted the search privately but rumors of candidates spread through messageboards and traditional media. Houston Nutt, the University of Arkansas' football coach, was rumored to have been offered the job but this was denied by Nebraska officials. 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 run-oriented triple-option offense. The new system relied heavily on a balance between the run and the pass. Excitement over Callahan's new system was bubbling amongst Husker Nation 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. 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. 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, who in their opinion showed little regard for Nebraska's tradition. To them, 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". 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 that has no football program but is a rival to Nebraska in many other sports.

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Due to conflicts created within the athletic department, and with the community due to his management style, Steve Pederson was fired on October 15 2007. The next day, former coach Tom Osborne was hired to replace Pederson on an interim basis. 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. 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 rival Colorado, Osborne fired Callahan.

In October of 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. 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.

Bowl results

Italics denote a tie game.
* - Denotes BCS National Championship Game

Season results

National championship seasons

1. Shared with Texas*
2. Shared with Michigan

• 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.

Individual award winners

Players

Coaches

• Paul "Bear" Bryant Award

Bob Devaney - 1971

• The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award

Tom Osborne - 1999 (Recognized as coach of the decade)

• Paul "Bear" Bryant Award - Lifetime Achievement Award

Tom Osborne - 2007

Nebraska All-Century Football Team

All 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)

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Nebraska's All-Time Team

As selected by Athlon Sports in 2002.

Permanently retired jerseys

Nebraska has retired only two numbers, choosing to retire the jersey rather than the number for other players.

• Tom Novak, #60
• Bob Brown, #64

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See also

• NCAA Division I-A national football champions
• List of Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaches

References

1. Husker Football History http://www.huskersnside.com//pdf5/40179.pdf?ATCLID=2722&SPSID=8&SPID=22&DB_OEM_ID=100
2. Husker Football History http://www.huskersnside.com//pdf5/40179.pdf?ATCLID=2722&SPSID=8&SPID=22&DB_OEM_ID=100
3. Notable Players http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=188&SPID=22&DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=2803
4. http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/mojo443/48530/
5. http://espn.go.com/page2/s/rivalries/osumich_colneb.html
6. NCAA Record Book http://www.ncaa.org/library/records/football/football_records_book/2006/2006_d1_football_records_book.pdf
7. Nebraska Series Information http://www.huskersnside.com//pdf4/41191.pdf?SPSID=7&SPID=22&DB_OEM_ID=100
8. Blackshirt Tradition http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=440&SPID=22&DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=4435
9. Blackshirt Tradition http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=440&SPID=22&DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=4435
10. Osborne Coaching Record http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/coaching/alltime_coach_year_by_year.php?coachid=1796
11. Coaching Records http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/coaching/coach_records.php
12. "Profile: Frank Solich". Ohio University Athletics.
13. Cornhusker Yearly Totals http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/big12/nebraska/yearly_totals.php
14. Colorado Game http://web.archive.org/web/20011125183934/http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_div=3&u_hdg=1&u_sid=248110
15. Colorado Game http://web.archive.org/web/20011125183934/http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_div=3&u_hdg=1&u_sid=248110
16. Cornhusker Yearly Totals http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/big12/nebraska/yearly_totals.php
17. 2002 Wrap http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=38&u_sid=606864
18. Solich Firing http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?PRINTABLE_PAGE=YES&ATCLID=29957&DB_OEM_ID=100
19. Rumors http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=38&u_sid=964251
20. Rumors http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=38&u_sid=964251
21. Tech Loss http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=38&u_sid=1226526
22. Cornhusker Yearly Totals http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/big12/nebraska/yearly_totals.php
23. ^ King, Jason (2007-10-19). "Osborne again? Legend faces fractured Huskers". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved 2007-10-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
24. http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10159021
25. "Osborne named interim athletic director". Lincoln Journal Star. 2007-10-16. Retrieved 2007-10-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
26. "Interim Nebraska AD Osborne fires Callahan". ESPN.com. 2007-11-24. Retrieved 2007-11-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
27. "Streaks and Rivalries" (PDF). Official 2007 NCAA Division I Football Records Book. NCAA. 2007. p. 112. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
28. (nd) Nebraska's Retired Jerseys. University of Nebraska. Retrieved 6/21/07.

External links

• Nebraska Cornhuskers Football - University of Nebraska Athletic Department

• Nebraska Cornhuskers football