• You do not need to register if you are not going to pay the yearly fee to post. If you register please click here or log in go to "settings" then "my account" then "User Upgrades" and you can renew.

HuskerMax readers can save 50% on  Omaha Steaks .

A Sobering Stat

treeplanter

treeplanter

Recruit
10 Year Member
As much as I hate to give such satisfaction to a program and it's "fans" that I detest even more than Texas, what Husker aficionado will disagree that the events of Black Friday, 2001 didn't mark the beginning of the end for Nebraska football as we had known it for the better part of four decades?

What happened that day in Boulder was truly unprecedented...

Never before in the modern era of Nebraska football {read: Devaney/Osborne/Solich} had our Huskers suffered such an indignity as a 62-36 setback to an overall, traditionally mediocre program and middling team as the 2001 Buffs!

Of course, the term "blowout" is a subjective one.
I, personally, define a blowout as a three touchdown differential - twenty / twenty one points, in my book, constitutes a blowout.

Per my own definition of a loss by 20 or more points qualifying as a blowout - we can see that Nebraska endured a grand total of just 12 blowout losses between the start of Bob Devaney's inaugural season of 1962 and the 12th game of the 2001 season under Solich.

Over a period of 40 years, the Cornhuskers had been blown out just 12 times and, even then, only by the very best competition!

Oklahoma beat us by 20 or more points 7 times
Miami did it twice
Alabama, Florida St, and Georgia Tech - each once

Each of these opponents were/are college football blue bloods, modern era superpowers, and/or {as in the case of 1990 Georgia Tech} national champions!


However, since that BLACKEST of post Thanksgiving Fridays in 2001, we have endured a SHOCKING 33 additional blowout losses!

It's made all the more sickening to acknowledge that many of these humiliations have been at the hands of programs and teams that NEVER, EVER have any business scoring blowout wins over Nebraska!

Programs and teams the likes of:
Colorado, Iowa St, Kansas St, Texas Tech, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma St, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, UCLA, Iowa, and Minnesota.

Seems to me that something was lost that day in Boulder - something invaluable that has yet to be recovered...

Call it confidence or swagger or air of invincibility or aura or intimidation factor or mojo...
Call it whatever you will - we need it back!!

What think you?
 

Actually it began in 1998 two weeks apart. When Texas came into Memorial Stadium and showed there was nothing to be afraid of with the one-two punch of Williams and Applewhite. Then two weeks later we were finally beaten in Manhattan, Kansas. Two games that showed teams were no longer afraid of us.
 
The last time we won a national title was the same year Princess Diana died and JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter novel.
 
Prairie Sage said:
Actually it began in 1998 two weeks apart. When Texas came into Memorial Stadium and showed there was nothing to be afraid of with the one-two punch of Williams and Applewhite. Then two weeks later we were finally beaten in Manhattan, Kansas. Two games that showed teams were no longer afraid of us.
Click to expand...
Hmmm...I disagree

Texas handed us our 1st home loss in a long, long time, but I would hardly say that the 1998 Longhorns came into Lincoln with a 100% confidence that they would be walking out with a win

Besides...I'm talking about OUR confidence - a confidence that seems to have been lost in Boulder, 2001
 



treeplanter said:
Hmmm...I disagree

Texas handed us our 1st home loss in a long, long time, but I would hardly say that the 1998 Longhorns came into Lincoln with a 100% confidence that they would be walking out with a win

Besides...I'm talking about OUR confidence - a confidence that seems to have been lost in Boulder, 2001
Click to expand...
But Texas showed they weren't intimidated. They weren't afraid of the Big Red or our swagger. They stood toe-to-toe and punched us back.
 
It's been so long since Nebraska was a really good football team, I'm not sure the exact genesis of that overall slide is really important anymore.

The sobering stats to me are:

  1. No Conference titles since 1999
  2. No 11 win seasons since 2001
  3. No Division titles since 2012
  4. No 10 win seasons since 2012
  5. No winning seasons since 2016
  6. No bowls since 2016
  7. No ranked seasons since 2013
  8. No individual trophy winners since 2009
  9. No All Americans since 2011
Nebraska just hasn't been good for around a decade now. Hasn't been 'Really good' for twenty years.

It's been long enough.

Time to start a new string of positive stats.
 
Prairie Sage said:
But Texas showed they weren't intimidated. They weren't afraid of the Big Red or our swagger. They stood toe-to-toe and punched us back.
Click to expand...
Perhaps

Consider though that Texas is a blue blood program

Maybe they hadn't played up to the standards of a blue blood program coming into the 1998 season, but Texas is, like Nebraska, one of just 9 blue blood programs

I'm not so concerned with a blue blood program expecting to compete with the Huskers as I am with a traditionally piece of crap program suddenly believing that they are an equal!!
 




treeplanter said:
As much as I hate to give such satisfaction to a program and it's "fans" that I detest even more than Texas, what Husker aficionado will disagree that the events of Black Friday, 2001 didn't mark the beginning of the end for Nebraska football as we had known it for the better part of four decades?

What happened that day in Boulder was truly unprecedented...

Never before in the modern era of Nebraska football {read: Devaney/Osborne/Solich} had our Huskers suffered such an indignity as a 62-36 setback to an overall, traditionally mediocre program and middling team as the 2001 Buffs!

Of course, the term "blowout" is a subjective one.
I, personally, define a blowout as a three touchdown differential - twenty / twenty one points, in my book, constitutes a blowout.

Per my own definition of a loss by 20 or more points qualifying as a blowout - we can see that Nebraska endured a grand total of just 12 blowout losses between the start of Bob Devaney's inaugural season of 1962 and the 12th game of the 2001 season under Solich.

Over a period of 40 years, the Cornhuskers had been blown out just 12 times and, even then, only by the very best competition!

Oklahoma beat us by 20 or more points 7 times
Miami did it twice
Alabama, Florida St, and Georgia Tech - each once

Each of these opponents were/are college football blue bloods, modern era superpowers, and/or {as in the case of 1990 Georgia Tech} national champions!


However, since that BLACKEST of post Thanksgiving Fridays in 2001, we have endured a SHOCKING 33 additional blowout losses!

It's made all the more sickening to acknowledge that many of these humiliations have been at the hands of programs and teams that NEVER, EVER have any business scoring blowout wins over Nebraska!

Programs and teams the likes of:
Colorado, Iowa St, Kansas St, Texas Tech, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma St, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, UCLA, Iowa, and Minnesota.

Seems to me that something was lost that day in Boulder - something invaluable that has yet to be recovered...

Call it confidence or swagger or air of invincibility or aura or intimidation factor or mojo...
Call it whatever you will - we need it back!!

What think you?
Click to expand...
I tend to agree. The program has never been the same since that Black Friday debacle in 2001. Between that and the subsequent Rose Bowl beatdown in our next game, it was the beginning of the end for Solich and his staff. It all seemed impossible at the time... get blown out twice to end one season, and then fall to 7-7 the next season. Quite a change from 30+ years with never more than 3 losses.

2 horrible ADs who hired 2 horrible coaches have set things back at least a decade. A blueblood program with resources like Nebraska should never be down for this long (approaching 20 years).
 
treeplanter said:
Perhaps

Consider though that Texas is a blue blood program

Maybe they hadn't played up to the standards of a blue blood program coming into the 1998 season, but Texas is, like Nebraska, one of just 9 blue blood programs

I'm not so concerned with a blue blood program expecting to compete with the Huskers as I am with a traditionally piece of crap program suddenly believing that they are an equal!!
Click to expand...
Like K-State two week later?
 
CrabHusker said:
It's been so long since Nebraska was a really good football team, I'm not sure the exact genesis of that overall slide is really important anymore.

The sobering stats to me are:

  1. No Conference titles since 1999
  2. No 11 win seasons since 2001
  3. No Division titles since 2012
  4. No 10 win seasons since 2012
  5. No winning seasons since 2016
  6. No bowls since 2016
  7. No ranked seasons since 2013
  8. No individual trophy winners since 2009
  9. No All Americans since 2011
Nebraska just hasn't been good for around a decade now. Hasn't been 'Really good' for twenty years.

It's been long enough.

Time to start a new string of positive stats.
Click to expand...
You're right

It's been a very long time since we have had any kind of measurable success

Way too long!

That said, is it to Nebraska's benefit or detriment that the fan base continues to expect success?
 
treeplanter said:
You're right

It's been a very long time since we have had any kind of measurable success

Way too long!

That said, is it to Nebraska's benefit or detriment that the fan base continues to expect success?
Click to expand...

It's to Nebraska's benefit.

If fans didn't care or have high expectations, what keeps the program at it's current level of importance? NU fans just let whatever happens happen and you'll see continued 'Wyoming' level program success.

What benefit could possibly come from the fan base no longer caring? With caring comes financial investment in the programs success.
 



Prairie Sage said:
Like K-State two week later?
Click to expand...
Yeah, K-State beat us in '98

Are you actually suggesting, though, that us having lost earlier to Texas imparted to the Wildcats a supreme confidence that they would be able to beat NU for the 1st time in 30 years?

Doesn't make sense to me!

What makes far more sense is that KSU would look at Colorado beating us in '01 and saying to themselves: "if a POS program like CU can do this to the Huskers - then there is no reason why we can't do the same!"
 
Beareye said:
I tend to agree. The program has never been the same since that Black Friday debacle in 2001. Between that and the subsequent Rose Bowl beatdown in our next game, it was the beginning of the end for Solich and his staff. It all seemed impossible at the time... get blown out twice to end one season, and then fall to 7-7 the next season. Quite a change from 30+ years with never more than 3 losses.

2 horrible ADs who hired 2 horrible coaches have set things back at least a decade. A blueblood program with resources like Nebraska should never be down for this long (approaching 20 years).
Click to expand...
Amen, Beareye!
 

treeplanter said:
Yeah, K-State beat us in '98

Are you actually suggesting, though, that us having lost earlier to Texas imparted to the Wildcats a supreme confidence that they would be able to beat NU for the 1st time in 30 years?

Doesn't make sense to me!

What makes far more sense is that KSU would look at Colorado beating us in '01 and saying to themselves: "if a POS program like CU can do this to the Huskers - then there is no reason why we can't do the same!"
Click to expand...
I'm just saying Texas showed everyone we weren't the same. The fear of playing Nebraska was never the same after that. As you said earlier, some teams had never had that fear, Oklahoma, Miami, FSU, but most of the Big Eight did. The Colorado loss just cemented it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

GET TICKETS


Get 50% off on Omaha Steaks

Back
Top