The Curse of Black Friday (11/23/01)

Scratchtown

Scratchtown

All-Conference
The Curse of Black Friday was brought up in another thread and prompted me to go back all the way to 2001 after that awful, pitiful, and miserable game. Since that day.....

Nebraska is....

26-68 

....against POWER 5 schools that have finished with a 57% (7-5) win percentage or better in a given year. Probably worth noting that there are a handful of games Nebraska has won vs teams that finished 7-6 but when push comes to shove, there's not enough of them to change that awful record by much. It's easy to know that it shouldn't be good considering how underwhelming Nebraska has been for a long long time but I like putting stats to things.

Notable Wins (9 wins) (vs teams that finished 9 wins or better) INCLUDED in the win column listed above

2006 - Texas AM (9-4) 28-27

2007 - Wake Forest (9-4) 20-17

2010 - Oklahoma State (11-2) 51-41

2010 - Missouri (10-3) 31-17

2011 - Michigan St (11-3) 24-3

2011 - Penn State (9-4) 17-14

2012 - Northwestern (10-3) 29-28

2015 - Michigan State (12-2) 39-38

2016 - Minnesota (9-4) 24-17

Notable Losses (19 losses) (vs teams that were less than or equal to 56% win percentage or a non power 5 team) NOT INCLUDED IN THE LOSS COLUMN ABOVE

2002 - Iowa State (7-7) 36-14

2004 - Southern Miss (7-5) 21-17

2004 - Kansas St (4-7) 45-21

2007 - Oklahoma St (7-6) 45-14

2007 - Texas AM (7-6) 36-14

2007 - Colorado (6-7) 65-51

2009 - Iowa State (7-6) 9-7

2010 - Texas (5-7) 20-13 *Red out against the world* sigh

2010 - Washington (7-6) 19-7

2011 - Northwestern (6-7) 28-25

2015 - BYU (9-4) 33-28

2015 - Illinois (5-7) 14-13

2015 - Purdue (2-10) 55-45

2017 - Oregon (7-6) 42-35

2017 - No Illinois (8-5) 21-17

2017 - Minnesota (5-7) 54-21

2018 - Colorado (5-7) 33-28

2018 - Troy (10-3) 24-19

2018 - Purdue (6-7) 42-28

These are your sobering facts for the night. 

The Curse is real. We are the Chicago Cubs of College Football

 
FWIW

Nick Saban has 29 wins over schools that finished with 10 wins or more as the Alabama head coach. 

Nebraska has only 26 wins over schools that finish with a much lower win percentage and we also had a 6 year head start....

 
The Curse of Black Friday looms heavy over Memorial Stadium, jeering while luring us in with a modicum of hope...and then gleefully smashing it with literally 1 second left.

Withholding meaningful victory and glory from a program and fanbase that has starved for it for so long. It seems only a conference title will vanquish this insidious curse, and who but the football gods knows if or when that will happen? 

 
CheeseHusker said:
I refuse to believe in it. I don't want them to have the satisfaction of thinking they ruined us.
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Yeah, that is one tough pill to swallow. It may be some consolation to know that they've had somewhat a of a curse, as well, maybe since we smashed them, 30-3 back in '05, so we've returned the favor, in a way...

 
I don’t disagree that we’ve been worse since then, because we certainly have. I’m not even arguing against a “curse”. But arbitrary stats aren’t the best way to back it up. Anyone can pick out arbitrary stats to backup their hypothesis.

I think a winning record would be better. After all, you said 7-6 teams didn’t change it that much.

carry on.

 
broganreynik said:
I don’t disagree that we’ve been worse since then, because we certainly have. I’m not even arguing against a “curse”. But arbitrary stats aren’t the best way to back it up. Anyone can pick out arbitrary stats to backup their hypothesis.

I think a winning record would be better. After all, you said 7-6 teams didn’t change it that much.

carry on.
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Yea except based on where the program is thought it SHOULD be...Should we really beg (my word) for 7-6 to be included just so we can add 15-20 more wins or so to an awful statistic? 

If we do....then that's more telling of where the program is than the stat alone.

 
Scratchtown said:
Yea except based on where the program is thought it SHOULD be...Should we really beg (my word) for 7-6 to be included just so we can add 15-20 more wins or so to an awful statistic? 

If we do....then that's more telling of where the program is than the stat alone.
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Beg? I have zero interest in how many wins, losses, or hotdogs shot into the upper deck.

I could say “Nebraska is 26-0 when playing a team with birds as their mascot” or whatever. Just pointing out winning record isn’t quite as arbitrary.

Don’t let your perceptions project onto others’ posts.

 
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How's this for arbitrary stats. 18 years before/including Black Friday (and the ensuing cruel joke of playing in the BCS National Championship that year for some reason), compared to 18 years since Black Friday :

15 top 10 finishes

11 Conference Championships

3 National Championships

17 Major Bowl Appearances

8 Major Bowl Wins

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

0 Top 10 finishes

0 Conference Championships

0 National Championships

0 Major Bowl Appearances

0 Major Bowl Wins

 
OH HSKR FAN said:
Black Friday was the result of things that were not being done from 98-2001.
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Maybe, but I don't know. 98, admittedly, was tough, but good for today's standards. In 99, we were one fumble, missed tackle, or one missed PI call away from playing for the title. If they had the Playoff back then, we definitely would've been included.  2000 was, while somewhat disappointing, a pretty good year. We actually destroyed Northwestern in the bowl, something we haven't done currently since then.

We knew cu would be a tough game, but it was completely and utterly unexpected that we would get pushed around like that after beating #17 Notre Dame, #2 Oklahoma, and rolling over everyone else. When does the #2 team in the nation ever give up 62 points in the last regular season game against a rival? 

This game is The Curse, and started The Curse. Nearly every meaningful game since has been a loss.

 
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Landlord said:
How's this for arbitrary stats. 18 years before/including Black Friday (and the ensuing cruel joke of playing in the BCS National Championship that year for some reason), compared to 18 years since Black Friday :

15 top 10 finishes

11 Conference Championships

3 National Championships

17 Major Bowl Appearances

8 Major Bowl Wins

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

0 Top 10 finishes

0 Conference Championships

0 National Championships

0 Major Bowl Appearances

0 Major Bowl Wins
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me no likey.

 
I thought the Solich firing curse was the big evil curse. I guess the Black Friday curse preceded it  - to what do we blame that on??

 
TGHusker said:
I thought the Solich firing curse was the big evil curse. I guess the Black Friday curse preceded it  - to what do we blame that on??
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That's the worst thing about it - it's hard to say why it started. The Flea Kicker may have convinced the Football Gods that Nebraska needed to go through 20 years of misery starting in '01, just to restore balance to the college football universe.

It does seem to me that The Curse of Black Friday will end when Nebraska players and coaches are holding a B1G Championship Trophy. 

 
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