Cornhuskers are bowl-eligible for the first time in seven years

Over a span of 35 years, the University of Nebraska football team set an NCAA record for appearing in consecutive bowl games — from 1969 to 2003 — winning 18 conference championships, five national crowns and producing three Heisman Trophy winners. 

Then came hard times.

The Cornhuskers entered this season with the nation’s longest bowl-less streak among 134 schools that play major college football — seven years.

But on Saturday, in the last home game of the season, 84,000 fans watched the Huskers pound rival Wisconsin 44-25 — a team they hadn’t beaten in the past 10 meetings — to finally notch their sixth win of the season and become bowl-eligible.

The victory was cathartic. Fans stormed the field afterwards to embrace the players and celebrate the type of win that used to be taken for granted.

“The post-game scene was an interesting mix of relief and euphoria — a memorable day in Lincoln,” said Steve Sipple, who covers Nebraska football for On3, in an email to the Nebraska Independent.

To those unfamiliar with what football means to Nebraskans, it is important to realize that the state has just 1.9 million people, no professional sports team and no other schools that play major college football. Nebraskans take collective ownership of the team.

For decades, it was just assumed Nebraska would end each football season with a bowl — which is an extra game to reward teams for successful regular seasons.

Nebraska’s ascent to football prominence began with Coach Bob Devaney, who handed the reins to his hand-picked successor, Tom Osborne, who later handed things off to one of his long-time assistants, Frank Solich.

Combined, they won more than 80% of their games, playing in nine national championship bowl games and winning five.

It was so common for Nebraska to go bowling that major brewers such as Anheuser-Bush and Miller distributed posters at the beginning of football season to bars across the state, listing the Cornhuskers’ schedule — with a line at the bottom saying “Bowl Game,” where the opponent and score could be written in later.

Nebraska’s last bowl game was in 2016 — a 38-24 loss to Tennessee in the Music City Bowl. Their seven years in a row without a bowl set a record among all college teams

The slide started in 2003, when Athletic Director Steve Pederson fired  Solich despite the coach having just posted a 9-3 season.

”I refuse to let the program gravitate into mediocrity,” Pederson said at the time. Pederson was then fired himself three years later after Nebraska  suffered a 45-14 loss to Oklahoma State, the worst home loss in nearly a half-century.

Since 2007, Nebraska football has had seven coaches (two were interim hires following dismissal of the head coach), who cumulatively have won barely more than half their games.

And through it all, Nebraska fans have remained faithful. And hopeful.

Every game at Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium has been sold out since John F. Kennedy was in the White House — 403 consecutive games, an ongoing NCAA record.

So when current head coach Matt Rhule was hired last year, he pledged to build Nebraska back.

Nebraska battled to a 5-3 record last season and needed just one win in the last four games to become bowl eligible. 

They lost them all, by a touchdown or less, and Nebraska stayed home during bowl season. Again.

This year, Nebraska reached five wins on Oct. 5, defeating Rutgers 14-7.

They lost the next four and had just two games to secure that elusive sixth win needed for bowl eligibility. 

And they finally did it on Saturday.

“For Nebraska, the win was a conversation changer — a much-needed conversation changer,” Sipple said. “There’s a level of embarrassment attached to failing to reach bowl eligibility for seven straight seasons. Now, that conversation can be placed in the past.

“Nebraska fans are an immensely proud group. Nebraska is a proud and tradition-rich football program,” Sipple said. “The bowl-less streak made no sense, all things considered.”

Dennis Crawford, a retired lawyer and unofficial Husker football historian, said in an email to the Nebraska Independent that the win was a “well deserved reward for the Huskers’ long-suffering fans.

“Husker fans have been very loyal during one of the darkest periods in Nebraska history,” Crawford observed.