History of Nebraska Cornhuskers football

History of Nebraska Cornhuskers football
First season	1890; 134 years ago
Stadium	Antelope Field Nebraska Field Memorial Stadium
Location	Lincoln, Nebraska
Conference	WIUFA (1892–1897) Big Eight (1907–1995) Big 12 (1996–2010) Big Ten (2011–pres.)
All-time record	922–428–40 (.678)
Bowl record	26–27 (.491)
Claimed national titles	5 (1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997)
Unclaimed national titles	7 (1915, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1993)
Conference titles	46
Division titles	10
Heisman winners	Johnny Rodgers – 1972 Mike Rozier – 1983 Eric Crouch – 2001
Consensus All-Americans	54

The history of Nebraska Cornhuskers football covers the history of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's football program from its inception in 1890 until the present day. Nebraska competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, representing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the Big Ten Conference. Nebraska has played its home games at Memorial Stadium since 1923 and sold out every game at the venue since 1962.

Nebraska is among the most storied programs in college football history and has the eighth-most all-time victories among FBS teams. NU has won forty-six conference championships and five national championships (1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, and 1997), along with seven other national titles the school does not claim. Its 1971 and 1995 title-winning teams are considered among the best ever. Nebraska's three Heisman Trophy winners – Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier, and Eric Crouch – join twenty-four other Cornhuskers in the College Football Hall of Fame.

The program's first extended period of success came just after the turn of the twentieth century. Between 1900 and 1916, Nebraska had five undefeated seasons and completed a stretch of thirty-four games without a loss, still a program record. Despite a span of twenty-one conference championships in thirty-three seasons, the Cornhuskers did not experience major national success until Bob Devaney was hired in 1962. Devaney won two national championships and eight conference titles in eleven seasons as head coach, but perhaps his most lasting achievement was the hiring of Tom Osborne as offensive coordinator in 1969. Osborne was named Devaney's successor in 1973 and over the next twenty-five years established himself as one of the best coaches in college football history with his trademark I-formation offense and revolutionary strength, conditioning, and nutrition programs. Following Osborne's retirement in 1997, Nebraska cycled through five head coaches before hiring Matt Rhule in 2022.

The early years

Program origins (1890–1899)

Nebraska's football history unofficially began in 1889 when a group of civil engineering students chopped down enough trees to create a small field at the corner of 10th and R Streets. A team was formally organized the following year as the "Old Gold Knights" under the direction of Dr. Langdon Frothingham, a newly hired veterinary pathologist from Harvard University. Frothingham was asked to oversee the program primarily because he was familiar with the rules of the game and had brought a football with him from the East Coast. Nebraska's first game was a 10–0 Thanksgiving Day victory over the Omaha YMCA on November 27, 1890. Frothingham broke his leg during a practice prior to the season's only other game, an 18–0 win over Doane that actually took place in February of 1891, and returned to Massachusetts shortly thereafter.

1890 Nebraska Old Gold Knights, the University of Nebraska's first football team

Prior to NU's 1891 matchup with Iowa, the Hawkeyes sent Iowa College coach Theron Lyman to Lincoln to prepare Nebraska – which played the 1891 and 1892 seasons without a coach – for its game against the more experienced Hawkeyes. Nebraska credits Lyman as its head coach for the game, though he likely did not even attend Iowa's 22–0 win in Omaha. In December of 1891, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri formed the Western Interstate University Football Association, one of college football's first conferences. Nebraska – now playing as the "Bugeaters," but also referred to as the "Rattlesnake Boys" and "Red Stockings" – appointed attorney J. S. Williams its temporary coach in the middle of the 1892 season. Williams's only game was a 1–0 forfeit victory over Missouri after the Tigers protested the presence of African-American George Flippin on Nebraska's roster. The forfeiture resulted in Nebraska's first-ever win against a conference opponent. Flippin, who was NU's first black athlete and the fifth black athlete at a predominantly white university, joked later in life that "I was so good I beat the University of Missouri all by myself."

University supporters soon became upset by the "cheap-John plan of amateur coaches" and the school responded by hiring Frank Crawford as its first official head football coach in 1893. Crawford, who was also the first full-time head coach at Michigan, became a vocal critic of Flippin, his star player. Crawford vetoed the election of Flippin as team captain, stating "it takes a man with brains to be a captain; all there is to Flippin is brute force." After an upset victory over Iowa at the end of Crawford's first season, the first documented use of the term "Cornhuskers" appeared in a school newspaper headline ("We Have Met The Cornhuskers And They Are Ours"); in this instance, "Cornhuskers" was used to derogatorily refer to Iowa. Crawford led NU to its first conference championship in 1894.

Assistant Charles Thomas was named head coach when Crawford left for Texas and led the Bugeaters to a 6–3 record and second WIUFA championship. Nebraska faced its first nine-game schedule during this season, which included a long-distance road trip to Butte, Montana. NU was coached by a pair of future College Football Hall of Famers over the next three seasons – though both are better known for their tenures at other universities, Edward N. Robinson and Fielding H. Yost led Nebraska to a combined 19–7–1 record from 1896 to 1898. Alonzo Edwin Branch took over the program in 1899, which was Nebraska's only losing season prior to World War I.

Emergence as a Midwest power (1900–1905)

Walter C. Booth led Nebraska to twenty-four consecutive wins from 1901 to 1904

Though many were used unofficially, the University of Nebraska's football program did not have a nickname during its first decade. The term "Cornhuskers" had appeared previously but wasn't applied to Nebraska until 1899, when Nebraska State Journal (now the Lincoln Journal Star) writer Cy Sherman began using the moniker; the nickname caught on quickly and was officially adopted in 1900. Nebraska hired former Princeton star Walter C. Booth the same year and he quickly turned Nebraska into a Midwest football power. In Booth's debut season as head coach, the Cornhuskers held their first seven opponents scoreless before losing their season finale to Minnesota in the first-ever meeting between the teams.

Booth's third team was the best in Nebraska's young football history. The Cornhuskers went 9–0 without allowing a point, outscoring their opponents 164–0. The Cornhuskers' title hopes were dashed when Fielding Yost's 11–0 Michigan team was voted national champion following its season-ending 23–6 win over Minnesota (Nebraska defeated the Gophers 6–0). Nebraska applied to the Western Conference (now the Big Ten Conference) following the season, believing Michigan's membership elevated its title chances, but the application was denied on account of Lincoln's distance from other schools in the conference. Throughout Booth's tenure the Cornhuskers were led by halfback John Bender, who starred at NU for five seasons and retired as college football's all-time leader in points scored. Bender captained NU to another undefeated season in 1903. Having won twenty-two consecutive games, most of them in dominant fashion, it was written that Booth could "weep with Alexander the Great because there are no more teams to conquer," given Nebraska's difficulty finding competitive and willing opposition in the Midwest.

Nebraska's winning streak ended in 1904 when Colorado defeated the Cornhuskers 6–0; the twenty-four consecutive victories set a program record that stood until 1995. Booth left Nebraska following the 1905 season over a contract dispute (his $2,000 annual salary was higher than any university faculty member) and returned with a newly earned law degree to the East Coast, where he lived the rest of his life away from football.

Nebraska Field and a new landscape (1906–1910)

Months after Booth's departure and still without a head coach, Nebraska faced Doane in an exhibition so the team could familiarize itself with college football's significant offseason rule changes. These changes were mandated by United States President Theodore Roosevelt and included the legalization of the forward pass, the banning of the flying wedge, the creation of a neutral zone, and an increase in yards required to gain a new set of downs from five to ten. NU professor and chairman of the athletic board James T. Lees was a member of the committee that drafted the new rules, which were initially unpopular but eventually proved instrumental in improving safety in college football.

Nebraska hired former Michigan tackle and assistant coach William C. Cole in 1907, the same year it formed the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (later the Big Six, Big Seven, and Big Eight) along with seven other Midwest universities, including the three from the WIUFA. NU's 16–6 win over Kansas in their lone conference game was enough to claim the first MVIAA title.

During the third year of Cole's four-year tenure, the university opened Nebraska Field, its first venue designed to host football games. The driving force behind the new stadium was Earl Eager, one of Nebraska's first graduate managers of athletics (a part-time precursor to the modern athletic director). Eager was a former halfback who played his entire collegiate career at Antelope Field, which had little permanent seating and he described as "either as hard as pavement or a sea of mud." Eager's cause was assisted by the university's expansion, which necessitated the construction of academic buildings on Antelope Field. Eager himself prepared much of the land for the new stadium at the northeast corner of North 10th Street and T Street. Nebraska and Iowa tied 6–6 on October 23, 1909 in the first game at the new field.

Cole resigned when the MVIAA passed legislation in 1910 requiring football coaches to be full-time faculty members, feeling he could not manage his farm in Missoula, Montana while living year-round in Lincoln. NU beat Haskell 119–0 at Nebraska Field in his final game as head coach, still the largest margin of victory in program history.

The "Stiehm Rollers" (1911–1915)

Ewald O. Stiehm with the "Stiehm Roller" in 1920

Following Cole's departure, Nebraska hired Ewald O. Stiehm from Ripon College as the first full-time head coach in school history. The twenty four-year-old Stiehm – nicknamed "Jumbo" because of his large feet, though he despised the term – was given an annual salary of $2,000 to serve as head football coach and director of athletics, the same as Booth's salary five years earlier but less than the $3,000 his predecessor had earned for a less-demanding role. Stiehm's tenure began with a 117–0 victory over Kearney–Normal, the only game ever played between Nebraska and what is now Nebraska–Kearney. The fiery Stiehm was subject to such frequent outbursts that the school established a women's sitting section at Nebraska Field far from the home sideline.

Nebraska's 1911 season included high-profile meetings with Minnesota (a 21–3 Golden Gophers win) and Michigan (a 6–6 draw). Stiehm was particularly enamored with the Minnesota shift, a precursor to modern pre-snap motion, and had an assistant coach photograph and document the technique during the teams' 1912 meeting. Stiehm implemented the shift the following week, the first game in what would become a school-record thirty-four game unbeaten stretch. This included a 7–0 victory over Minnesota in 1913 which prompted Golden Gophers coach Henry L. Williams to discontinue the annual series between the schools. Stiehm assembled smaller-than-usual rosters with players that relied on quickness and misdirection, a departure from Nebraska's reputation as an "unusually rough" program (it's unclear if this reputation was deserved). His "Stiehm Rollers" lost just twice during his five-year tenure as head coach.

Prior to their 1913 meeting with the Cornhuskers in Lincoln, Kansas State head coach Guy Lowman threatened a boycott due to the presence of lineman Clinton Ross, a black player, on Nebraska's roster. Though KSU had faced NU and Ross each of the previous two seasons without complaint, it joined the MVIAA prior to 1913, and Lowman claimed there was a gentlemen's agreement among schools in the conference that disallowed black athletes. Nebraska denied such an agreement existed and the game was played as scheduled. Ross was NU's last black player until 1952 despite Stiehm and university chancellor Samuel Avery outwardly voicing strong opinions favoring integration in collegiate athletics.

End Guy Chamberlin was named Nebraska's first consensus All-American in 1915

In 1914, Vic Halligan was named the first first-team All-American in Nebraska history; Guy Chamberlin became NU's first consensus All-American a year later. Chamberlin served in the United States Army during World War I and later joined the Canton Bulldogs of the young American Professional Football Association (now the National Football League). He won two NFL championships as a player and four more as a player/coach and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965.

Led by Chamberlin, Nebraska finished the 1915 season undefeated and won its sixth consecutive MVIAA title. Nebraska faced Notre Dame on October 23, the first meeting of what became an annual rivalry; Nebraska won 20–19, Notre Dame's only loss of the 1915 season. The Cornhuskers were invited to play in the 1916 Rose Bowl Game against unofficial Western champion Washington State, just the second college football bowl game ever played. University officials balked at the cost of sending its team to Pasadena and declined the offer. Nebraska was retroactively awarded the 1915 national championship by multiple iterations of the Billingsley Report, an NCAA-designated official selector developed in the 1960s, but NU does not claim the championship.

Stiehm had verbally agreed to remain at Nebraska until at least 1917, but given the successes of NU's entire athletic department (he also coached Nebraska's basketball team to three conference championships), asked the Athletic Board for a raise in 1916. The board refused and even declined an offer from local businesses to help pay the additional salary, and Stiehm agreed to take over Indiana's athletic department at an annual salary of $4,500. He later stated that even after receiving Indiana's lucrative offer, he would've stayed at Nebraska if it had met his initial request of $4,250 (what amounted to approximately a twenty-percent raise). Stiehm's career record at NU was 35–2–3 and his .913 winning percentage is still the highest in school history. He arrived in Bloomington to significant fanfare but his teams never reached the same heights they did at Nebraska. After seven years at Indiana, Stiehm died of stomach cancer at age thirty-seven.

Post-Stiehm years (1916–1922)

Nebraska hired E. J. Stewart from Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) to replace Stiehm as head football and basketball coach. NU traveled to Portland, Oregon to face Stewart's former team during his first season in Lincoln, the furthest west the Cornhuskers had ever traveled for a game. This game was partly a result of Stewart's desire to schedule more difficult opposition across all sports, which he viewed as the best way to "add to Nebraska prestige around the United States." He addressed this in an open letter in the 1917 Cornhusker student yearbook: "the adoption of the policy of playing only the big institutions in football in the future is probably the most important step undertaken by the new athletic administration."

Three games after defeating Oregon Agricultural, Nebraska's lengthy unbeaten streak was ended in a 7–3 defeat to Kansas in Lincoln. Two weeks later, they faced new rival Notre Dame and assistant coach Knute Rockne, who served as Notre Dame's head coach for the game, the first of ten he would lead the Irish against the Cornhuskers. Stewart's vision for Nebraska took hold in 1917 as the Cornhuskers faced powerhouses Michigan and Syracuse as well as Notre Dame in their now-annual meeting. As the season progressed the college football landscape was disrupted as the United States entered World War I. Nebraska lost several players to the war throughout 1917 and Stewart himself departed following the season to assist the YMCA, which helped promote morale and provided services to prisoners of war.

With its roster and coaching staff depleted by the war and the Spanish flu pandemic, Nebraska turned to professor William G. Kline to lead the shortened 1918 season at Stewart's suggestion. The university received word near the end of the year that star end Roscoe Rhodes, set to be a team captain in 1918 before he was drafted into the United States Army, was killed in action in France on October 28, 1918. Stewart briefly returned to Lincoln after the war in an administrative capacity. Though no longer head football coach, he ordered heather green jerseys for the team to wear in its upcoming 1919 season. The university attempted to instead order its traditional scarlet and cream jerseys after Stewart left NU permanently, but the uniforms had already been manufactured. The changes were reverted the following year.

Nebraska vs. Notre Dame at Nebraska Field on Nov. 30, 1922, the final game at the stadium

Nebraska played the 1919 and 1920 seasons independent of the MVIAA under head coach Henry Schulte. Schulte was considered an excellent developer of linemen, prompting Rockne to describe him as “the greatest line coach in the game.” He was head coach for only two seasons but remained on staff as an assistant until 1927. Nebraska named the Schulte Field House, which served as the program’s primary practice and locker room facility from its completion in 1949 until 2004, in his honor.

Nebraska rejoined the MVIAA in 1921, the same year it hired Fred Dawson from Columbia as head coach. Dawson’s first season featured a November trip to Pittsburgh to face Pop Warner and Pitt. Nebraska’s 10–0 victory was broadcast on Pittsburgh radio station KDKA, making it the first Nebraska football game, and one of the first football games ever, broadcast live on radio (though Lincoln was out of signal range). Nebraska held its first “Reds” vs. “Blues” spring games to finish spring practice under Dawson.

The Cornhuskers finished 7–1 in Dawson’s first season, falling only to Notre Dame in South Bend. NU repaid the favor the following seasons, beating the Irish in Lincoln in 1922 and 1923, the only two losses across four years for Notre Dame’s famed offensive backfield nicknamed the “Four Horsemen.” Nebraska’s 14–6 victory in 1922 was the final game at Nebraska Field – with an estimated 16,000 fans it was also the highest-attended. The series continued until 1925 when Notre Dame administrators canceled it, citing "antagonistic, anti-Catholic behavior" during their visits to Lincoln.

Postwar transition and struggles

First years at Memorial Stadium (1923–1929)

See also: Memorial Stadium (Lincoln)

The University of Nebraska began exploring the possibility of constructing a larger steel-and-concrete stadium to replace Nebraska Field less than a decade after its completion. Nebraska Field, with wooden bleachers and limited seating, was often filled beyond capacity and the condition of the venue had become "as inadequate as the old one was in 1907." The departure of Jumbo Stiehm and U. S. entry into World War I delayed the project, but fundraising was restarted in earnest when college football exploded in popularity after the war. The Nebraska Memorial Association initially planned a stadium, museum, and gymnasium complex to be dedicated in honor of Roscoe Rhodes – the project was soon scaled back to just a stadium due to fundraising difficulties and local pushback (a gymnasium, the NU Coliseum, was constructed three years later). A groundbreaking ceremony was held on April 23, 1923 when the fundraising target of $450,000 had been met.

The dedication of Memorial Stadium on Oct. 20, 1923

The stadium was designed pro bono by local architects John Latenser Sr. and Ellery Davis. Construction on the 31,000-seat venue was completed in less than six months, in time for the 1923 season. Nebraska defeated Oklahoma 24–0 in the first game at Memorial Stadium on October 13, 1923. Instead of naming the stadium for Rhodes, the dedication was expanded to include all Nebraskans who served in the American Civil War, the Spanish–American War, and World War I (later expanded to include World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War).

Nebraska hosted defending Big Ten co-champion Illinois and star Red Grange at Memorial Stadium to open the 1924 season – the Cornhuskers effectively contained Grange but the favored Illini won 9–6. Dawson, who had taken a leave of absence for health reasons the previous winter, retired as head coach following the 1924 season. Ernest Bearg, the top assistant to Illinois head coach Robert Zuppke, was named Dawson's successor; NU's athletic board believed Bearg's experience as a backfield coach with Grange meant he would work well with Henry Schulte, who was still on staff as a highly regarded line coach. Nebraska defeated Illinois and Zuppke 14–0 in Champaign in Bearg's head coaching debut, the first home game of Grange's career in which he did not score. Tackle Ed Weir was the star of this defensive display and after the season he became the first Cornhusker to twice be named a first-team All-American. Weir, who Knute Rockne called "the greatest tackle I ever saw," was a charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

Representatives from the ten MVIAA universities met in Lincoln in 1928 and agreed to a splintering of the conference – Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma retained the MVIAA name (though it became more commonly referred to as the Big Six) and Drake, Grinnell, Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State), and Washington University formed the Missouri Valley Conference. Nebraska won the inaugural Big Six title in dominating fashion, defeating its five conference opponents by a combined score of 108–6. However, Bearg was criticized by supporters for "not using deception and strategy" after disappointing late-season results against Pittsburgh (a 0–0 draw) and Army (a 13–3 loss), and tendered his resignation following the season.

Dana Bible and Biff Jones (1929–1941)

Dana X. Bible in 1935

Nebraska tried to hire Rockne away from Notre Dame, but ultimately settled on another future Hall of Fame head coach, Dana X. Bible. Bible followed eleven highly successful years at Texas A&M with six Big Six titles in eight years at Nebraska. His 1936 team was ranked No. 15 in the first AP Poll, and finished the year ninth. Bible coached four All-Americans at Nebraska and nearly won the program's first national title (though it would have been a retroactive selection) in 1933. Bible accepted a lucrative offer to coach Texas after the 1936 season, but assisted Nebraska in the search for his replacement, Biff Jones (1937–41, 28–14–4). Running back Sam Francis became Nebraska's first No. 1 overall selection in the NFL Draft in 1937.

Jones served in World War I and coached at Army for four years, before stints at LSU and Oklahoma. He took NU to the program's first bowl game, a 21–13 loss to Stanford in the 1941 Rose Bowl. The following year, Nebraska lost five consecutive games for the first time ever, and Jones was recalled to serve in World War II just days after the last game of the season. Though Nebraska maintained Jones' position would still be available to him after the war, he remained at West Point for years after and never coached college football again. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954.

Nebraska's 25–9 victory over Kansas State in 1939 was broadcast locally in certain parts of the Manhattan area, making it the second televised college football game.

Slide into obscurity (1942–1961)

Bobby Reynolds in 1951

The landscape of college football changed drastically during World War II, as most able-bodied men were drawn into the war effort in some way. While Nebraska was still able to field a team, something many other major programs could not do, the Cornhuskers had four straight losing seasons after only three in the program's first fifty-one years. The situation become so dire that athletic director George Clark (1945, 1948, 6–13–0), a veteran of both wars with an extensive coaching pedigree, had to step in to coach the 1948 season after retiring in 1945. During these years, center Tom Novak became Nebraska's first four-time all-conference selection, and later was the first player in program history to have his number retired.

In 1950, Nebraska and new head coach Bill Glassford (1949–55, 50–40–4) played the school's first "spring game", a 13–13 draw between the varsity team and an alumni team. Led by twenty-two touchdowns from All-American Bobby Reynolds, NU had its first winning season since 1940 and finished the season ranked seventeenth. Glassford led the Cornhuskers during their first night game, a 19–7 loss to Miami in 1951, and college football's first "NCAA-regulated" telecast, a 20–12 loss to Oregon in 1953. The hard-nosed coach, who at one point had to overrule a player petition calling for his firing, took Nebraska to its second bowl game, a 34–7 loss to Duke in the 1955 Orange Bowl. Glassford resigned in 1955, but survived until 2014, when he died at 102 as the oldest-living professional football player.

After a 4–6–1 1956 season under Pete Elliott, Nebraska hired twenty-nine year-old Bill Jennings (1957–61, 15–34–1) to lead the program. Jennings had no winning seasons in five years as head coach, but was responsible for Nebraska's upset victory over Oklahoma in 1959, which ended OU's seventy-four game conference winning streak. He frequently found himself at odds with program supporters, at one point stating, "There is an intense desire to do something good in this state, like elect a president or gain prominence in politics. But we can't feed the ego of the state of Nebraska with the football team." Jennings' last season in 1961 would be Nebraska's last losing season until 2004.

Devaney and Osborne dynasty

Bob Devaney era (1962–1972)

Bob Devaney

New athletic director Tippy Dye did not renew Jennings' contract in 1962, and attempted to hire Michigan State head coach Duffy Daugherty. Daugherty instead suggested former assistant Bob Devaney, and after a lengthy contract dispute with Wyoming, Nebraska hired Devaney (1962–72, 101–20–2).

Nebraska beat Miami for its first bowl win in 1962, the first of forty consecutive winning seasons for the Cornhuskers. NU's November 3 loss to Missouri marked the beginning of Memorial Stadium's lengthy sellout streak. In his second season, Devaney ended Nebraska's thirty-two year conference title drought and won the school's first Orange Bowl. Despite similar success over the following years, including a loss in the 1966 Orange Bowl that would have won Nebraska the national championship, a pair of 6–4 seasons in 1967 and 1968 caused some to call for change within the program. Devaney responded by promoting thirty-one year-old assistant Tom Osborne to offensive coordinator. Osborne's later teams would become famous for their prolific use of the run-heavy I-form option, but his first offenses relied on a balanced attack out of the I formation; Dave Humm's 2,259 passing yards in 1972 were a program record until 2004.

Bob Devaney and quarterback Frank Patrick in 1967

Nebraska started the 1969 season 2–2, but did not suffer another loss until 1972. The program won its first national title in 1970, when bowl losses by Texas and Ohio State vaulted the Huskers to the top of the AP Poll. NU again won the national title in 1971, becoming the first and only champion to beat the teams that finished No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 in the AP Poll. This included a 35–31 Thanksgiving Day defeat of No. 2 Oklahoma that caused Dan Jenkins of Sports Illustrated to suggest "it was the greatest collegiate football battle ever". It was Nebraska's only game decided by fewer than twenty-four points, including a 38–6 win over Alabama the Orange Bowl.

Devaney planned to retire following the season, but was convinced to return for 1972 in the hopes of winning an unprecedented third consecutive national title. Wingback Johnny Rodgers won the school's first Heisman Trophy and Nebraska beat Notre Dame to win the Orange Bowl for the third straight year, but a pair of losses effectively ended NU's title hope. Devaney retired after the season and became Nebraska's athletic director, a position he would fill until 1993, and Osborne became head coach.

Devaney ended his coaching career with eight Big Eight championships and an 136–30–7 overall record, good for the 11th-highest winning percentage in major college football history. His program produced eighteen All-Americans in his eleven years, including Rodgers, 1971 Outland Trophy winner Larry Jacobson, and 1972 Outland and Lombardi Award winner Rich Glover. The Bob Devaney Sports Center, completed in 1976, was named in his honor, and he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982. The school added a statue of Devaney outside the remodeled East Stadium at Memorial Stadium in 2013. Devaney died of a heart attack in 1997 at age eighty-two.

Tom Osborne era (1973–1997)

Tom Osborne in 1965

Tom Osborne (1973–97, 255–49–3) took over for Devaney in 1973. Over the next twenty-five years, Osborne never lost more than three games in a season, secured thirteen conference titles, and only coached three games where the Cornhuskers were not in the AP Poll Top 25.

The first decade of Osborne's tenure was consistent, if not spectacular. NU lost either two or three games and finished ranked between seventh and twelfth every year from 1973 to 1981. After a disappointing 1976 season in which Nebraska started No. 1 but finished the regular season just 8–3–1, it was rumored Osborne may lose his job if he lost the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl. However, these rumors were never confirmed, and Nebraska defeated Texas Tech 27–24. Two years later, Osborne beat rival Oklahoma for the first time, but Nebraska lost a rematch to the Sooners in the 1979 Orange Bowl after an upset loss to Missouri cost NU a chance at the national title. Following the season, Osborne interviewed for Colorado's head coaching position, but ultimately declined the offer.

1982 was Osborne's tenth season as head coach, and the first in which Nebraska lost just a single game. The Cornhuskers' only loss of the season came at Penn State in week three. On Penn State's game-winning drive, wide receiver Mike McCloskey was ruled in-bounds to convert a fourth down, despite replay clearly showing he was out-of-bounds; with no replay review to overturn the call, Penn State won the game and went on to claim the national title. Nebraska started the following season ranked No. 1, and won a rematch with Penn State 44–6 in the first Kickoff Classic. The Cornhuskers finished the regular season undefeated and set a Division I record for points in a season. The offense – led by option quarterback Turner Gill, Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier, and future No. 1 NFL Draft pick Irving Fryar – was termed "The Scoring Explosion". In the Orange Bowl, Nebraska immediately fell behind Miami, trailing 17–0 at the end of the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, Osborne called for the fumblerooski, a trick play which had Gill "fumble" the snap by intentionally setting the ball on the ground, where it was picked up by All-American guard Dean Steinkuhler, who ran nineteen yards for a touchdown. Nebraska mounted a furious comeback, scoring a touchdown to get within one point with just seconds remaining. However, Osborne elected to go for two and the win outright, despite a tie likely winning the national title for Nebraska, and the conversion pass fell incomplete.

Tommie Frazier in 1993

Nebraska ended the 1980s with more wins than any other program, but failed to win a national championship from a major selector (though NU has five unclaimed titles from the decade). Barry Switzer's departure from Oklahoma in 1988 left the program mired in sanctions and gave Nebraska a clearer path to conference success, but did not help the Cornhuskers on the national stage; from 1987 to 1993, NU lost seven straight bowl games to ACC opponents. The last of these was the controversial 1993 national championship game, in which a blown call at the goal line and a missed field goal cost Nebraska the title. Osborne was so upset by this loss that he had the scoreboard at Memorial Stadium display the 18–16 final score for the entire offseason.

Nebraska's 1993 team was led by star quarterback Tommie Frazier. Frazier was the biggest recruit in Osborne's 1992 class, which has since been listed among the greatest recruiting classes in college football history. Frazier, a Florida native, also represented a philosophical shift in recruiting for Osborne, who had historically been successful largely with Midwestern players and an unusually high number of walk-ons. In the middle of the 1994 season, however, a leg injury to Frazier meant pro-style backup Brook Berringer had to step in and run Osborne's option-based offense; Berringer's kind demeanor and heroics over the rest of the regular season endeared him to fans. While Frazier returned to start the national championship game, Berringer replaced him in the second quarter, and behind two Cory Schlesinger touchdowns, NU won Osborne his first outright national title as a head coach.

Statue of Tom Osborne and Brook Berringer outside the Osborne Athletic Complex at Memorial Stadium

Nebraska's 1995 team is often listed as the greatest in college football history. Behind Frazier, who finished second in Heisman Trophy voting, and I-back Lawrence Phillips, the Cornhuskers won every game by at least fourteen points and set a college football record by scoring 53.2 points per game. Nebraska beat four teams that finished in the top ten, including a 62–24 Fiesta Bowl blowout victory over Florida and head coach Steve Spurrier to win the national championship. Osborne's title teams in 1994 and 1995 join Devaney's 1970 and 1971 teams as the only undefeated back-to-back national champions since 1956. Berringer was killed in a plane crash two days before the 1996 NFL draft, where he was projected to be a mid-round selection. Over four thousand people attended his funeral service, and in 2006 a statue of Osborne and Berringer was erected at Memorial Stadium.

In 1996, the Big Eight merged with the Southwest to create the Big 12 Conference. Despite its similarity in name, the Big 12 was an entirely new conference and did not retain any of the Big Eight's history or records. After a shutout loss at Arizona State in week two, Nebraska won ten straight games to make the first Big 12 Championship Game. However, the Cornhuskers missed out on a fourth straight national championship appearance when they were upset by Texas.

Nebraska started the 1997 season outside the top five, but a win at second-ranked Washington quickly vaulted the Cornhuskers up to No. 1. A 45–38 overtime victory at Missouri in week nine kept the Huskers' title hopes alive, though it dropped NU to No. 3 in both polls. The comeback win was highlighted by the Flea Kicker, a last-second, game-tying touchdown that bounced off the foot of intended receiver Shevin Wiggins and directly into the hands of Matt Davison. Nebraska returned to the conference championship game and beat Texas A&M 54–15 for its first Big 12 title. Nebraska entered bowl season trailing Michigan in both polls, but a 42–17 victory over Peyton Manning and Tennessee in the Orange Bowl narrowly boosted NU to the top of the Coaches Poll.

On December 10, 1997, Osborne announced he would retire following the Orange Bowl, and longtime assistant Frank Solich would take over. NU's subsequent victory made him the only coach to retire following a national championship. Nebraska posted a 60–3 record in the final five years of Osborne's tenure. His career record of 255–49–3 gives him the fourth-highest winning percentage in major college football history.

Osborne was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999, and has been recognized as one of the greatest coaches in college football history. After his retirement from coaching, Osborne was elected to Congress and represented Nebraska's third district from 2001 to 2007. He returned to the University of Nebraska as athletic director in 2007, retiring in 2013. The university finished construction on the Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex in 2006 and dedicated the field at Memorial Stadium in his honor.

The post-Osborne era

Program in transition (1998–2010)

Bo Pelini in 2008

Upon Osborne's retirement, the program was handed over to running backs coach Frank Solich (1998–2003, 58–18), who had played at Nebraska under Devaney. In his six seasons, Solich won the 1999 Big 12 title and took the Cornhuskers to the 2001 national championship game, a season in which quarterback Eric Crouch won the Heisman Trophy.

The Cornuskers slipped to 7–7 in 2002, the first non-winning season for Nebraska in forty years. That season also saw the Huskers fall out of the AP Poll altogether after being ranked every week since October 11, 1981. The run of 348 consecutive weeks in the AP Poll is still the longest in college football history. Following the season, Solich made aggressive changes to his coaching staff. The approach appeared successful, as the Cornhuskers improved to 9–3 in 2003, but second-year athletic director Steve Pederson fired Solich after the season, justifying the move with the now-infamous claim that he would not "let Nebraska gravitate into mediocrity" or "surrender the Big 12 to Oklahoma and Texas". First-year defensive coordinator Bo Pelini was appointed interim head coach and led the Cornhuskers to a 17–3 win over Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl. Solich was so upset with his alma mater and longtime employer that he did not return to Lincoln for over fifteen years.

Although Pelini interviewed for the position as permanent replacement, former Oakland Raiders coach Bill Callahan (2004–07, 27–22) was named Solich's successor following a forty-day, one-man coaching search conducted by Pederson. Callahan's mandate to prevent Nebraska's decline was not immediately successful, as his NFL-style West Coast offense was criticized harshly by fans for its departure from Osborne's run-dominant option. Criticism did not die down when Nebraska went 5–6 in Callahan's first year, NU's first losing season since 1961. Following moderate success in 2005 and 2006, 2007 saw the Huskers lose five consecutive games for the first time since 1958, including a record-setting 76–39 loss to Kansas. Pederson was fired as athletic director in the middle of the five-game slide. Osborne, who had retired from Congress earlier in the year to make an unsuccessful bid for governor, was named interim athletic director. Callahan later met the same fate as Pederson, as he was fired by Osborne immediately after a season-ending 65–51 loss to Colorado.

Osborne was named full-time athletic director in December and hired Pelini (2008–14, 67–27) to return to Nebraska as the program's thirty-second head coach. Pelini's first team tied for the Big 12 North division title with a 9–4 record, the best record among first-year FBS coaches. In 2009, Heisman finalist Ndamukong Suh helped Nebraska lead the country in scoring defense at 10.4 points per game, just two years after ranking among the nation's worst. NU finished 10–4 and Pelini was given a raise and contract extension. Following the 2010–11 academic year, the University of Nebraska announced it was ending its association with the Big 12 and joining the Big Ten Conference.

Move to the Big Ten (2011–present)

See also: 2010–14 Big Ten Conference realignment

Scott Frost

Pelini's four seasons coaching in the new conference resulted in only one conference title game appearance, a 70–31 loss to unranked Wisconsin in 2012. In 2014, following another season in which Nebraska performed poorly against high-quality opposition, athletic director Shawn Eichorst fired Pelini. At the time of the firing, the university still owed Pelini $7.65 million. Pelini left the program with a 67–27 record, winning either nine or ten games each season; NU lost three games under Pelini in his final season, the only year he did not lose exactly four games. School officials cited Pelini's lackluster record in important games and a pattern of "unprofessional behavior" toward fans, players, and school employees as contributing factors to his dismissal.

Shortly after, Eichorst hired Mike Riley to lead the program, a move that was harshly criticized given Riley's lack of recent success at Oregon State. The Cornhuskers ended 2014 under interim coach Barney Cotton, losing to USC in the Holiday Bowl and finishing 9–4, Nebraska's seventh consecutive four-loss season.

In 2016, Riley (2015–17, 19–19) took Nebraska into the national top five for the first time since 2010, but a 4–8 2017 season was the program's worst in fifty-six years. Following a home loss to Northern Illinois, University of Nebraska chancellor Ronnie D. Green fired Eichorst and appointed former Husker Dave Rimington interim athletic director. Bill Moos was hired as Eichorst's replacement in October and terminated Riley the day after the season ended. On December 2, 2017, Moos hired alumnus Scott Frost from UCF, after Frost led the Knights to a 13–0 2017 season. Frost began his Nebraska head coaching career just 9–15 through two seasons.

In 2019, Nebraska announced construction of a 350,000-square foot, $155 million athletic complex adjacent to Memorial Stadium's northeast corner. The following March, in the midst of a nationwide push to allow further student-athlete compensation, NU partnered with Opendorse to "help student-athletes build their individual brands", the first university to do so. Nebraska finished 3–5 in 2020, a season shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the following year finished just 3–9. Frost was fired following a 1–2 start to the 2022 season, his fifth as Nebraska's head coach. At the time of Frost's departure, Nebraska's previous thirteen losses had come by nine points or fewer. Wide receivers coach Mickey Joseph was named Frost's interim replacement, making Joseph NU's first black head coach in any sport. Following the 2022 season, Nebraska announced the hiring of Matt Rhule to be the next head coach, after having served stints at Temple, Baylor and with the NFL's Carolina Panthers.