Nebraska: The Spoiled, not the Spoiler

[SaturnDrew]

Undefeated and 7th ranked Missouri is coming to town to take on our 14th ranked Huskers. The opportunity to knock off a Top 10 team comes around once or twice a season, but how often is it that Nebraska plays the role of spoiler in that a Husker team ranked below 10th has defeated an opponent ranked 10th or higher? I did a little research, and think I found the answer.

 

Bo Pelini hasn't done it yet. Last week's victory over then #14 Oklahoma State was the highest ranked opponent he has defeated since becoming head coach.

 

Bill Callahan? Yeah, definitely didn't happen.

 

Frank Solich? Surely he had some spoilers. Nope. Nebraska was usually ranked higher than 10th at the prime of his coaching career in 1999-2001, but after that, no victories against 10th ranked teams or better.

 

So yes, the last time a Nebraska team ranked lower than 10th defeated a team ranked higher than 10th was during the Osborne era. So it had to have happened during our decade of dominance in the 1990's, yes? No. Nebraska was seldom ranked below 10th during the 1990's. And in the seldom times they weren't ranked that high, they would get dominated by either an Oklahoma team or in a bowl game. The 80's? Nope.

 

The last time this phenomenon occurred was October 22, 1977 against 7th ranked Colorado. The #18 Husker team licking its wounds from an Iowa State upset the week prior took down the Buffalos 33-15.

 

Blame many things for this long streak continuing. The fact Nebraska was in the Top 10 for many weeks of this streak doesn't help, but there are also many weeks Nebraska was not in the Top 10 and had a chance to break the streak. The most recent opportunity was last year's game against Texas. Who, by the way, have done this to the Huskers four times since the Big 12 started. Since the 1977 win versus Colorado, a sub-10th ranked Nebraska team has had 12 chances to end this streak. The streak has seen some good games and others that were just lousy. Yes, the Huskers played tough against those high-ranked Longhorns last year. The Texas Tech game in 2008 went into OT. The 2006 Texas game was also victory within our grasp. And in 1998, Nebraska was a blind referee missing Eric Crouch getting his head twisted 270 degrees by Kansas State from possibly ending the streak.

 

 

 

 

It is time Nebraska ended this streak. They can do that with a victory over Missouri--in my opinion, a very winnable Missouri team.

[corncraze]

Undefeated and 7th ranked Missouri is coming to town to take on our 14th ranked Huskers. The opportunity to knock off a Top 10 team comes around once or twice a season, but how often is it that Nebraska plays the role of spoiler in that a Husker team ranked below 10th has defeated an opponent ranked 10th or higher? I did a little research, and think I found the answer.

 

Bo Pelini hasn't done it yet. Last week's victory over then #14 Oklahoma State was the highest ranked opponent he has defeated since becoming head coach.

 

Bill Callahan? Yeah, definitely didn't happen.

 

Frank Solich? Surely he had some spoilers. Nope. Nebraska was usually ranked higher than 10th at the prime of his coaching career in 1999-2001, but after that, no victories against 10th ranked teams or better.

So yes, the last time a Nebraska team ranked lower than 10th defeated a team ranked higher than 10th was during the Osborne era. So it had to have happened during our decade of dominance in the 1990's, yes? No. Nebraska was seldom ranked below 10th during the 1990's. And in the seldom times they weren't ranked that high, they would get dominated by either an Oklahoma team or in a bowl game. The 80's? Nope.

 

The last time this phenomenon occurred was October 22, 1977 against 7th ranked Colorado. The #18 Husker team licking its wounds from an Iowa State upset the week prior took down the Buffalos 33-15.

 

Blame many things for this long streak continuing. The fact Nebraska was in the Top 10 for many weeks of this streak doesn't help, but there are also many weeks Nebraska was not in the Top 10 and had a chance to break the streak. The most recent opportunity was last year's game against Texas. Who, by the way, have done this to the Huskers four times since the Big 12 started. Since the 1977 win versus Colorado, a sub-10th ranked Nebraska team has had 12 chances to end this streak. The streak has seen some good games and others that were just lousy. Yes, the Huskers played tough against those high-ranked Longhorns last year. The Texas Tech game in 2008 went into OT. The 2006 Texas game was also victory within our grasp. And in 1998, Nebraska was a blind referee missing Eric Crouch getting his head twisted 270 degrees by Kansas State from possibly ending the streak.

 

 

 

 

It is time Nebraska ended this streak. They can do that with a victory over Missouri--in my opinion, a very winnable Missouri team.

Missouri is overrated though, they were fortunate enough to play aweek schedule and an overrated #1 Oklahoma.

[BigRedPowerWagon]

News flash though man. We were kinda overrated also.

[Manhattan]

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground,

Try this trick and spin it:

Tigers will relapse

And there's nothing in 'em,

And you'll ask yourself:

 

Where is the Big Ten?

[VA Husker Fan]

 

Blame many things for this long streak continuing. The fact Nebraska was in the Top 10 for many weeks of this streak doesn't help, but there are also many weeks Nebraska was not in the Top 10 and had a chance to break the streak.

 

How many? And this is beyond the scope of what you looked at, but how often do Top 10 teams get beat, even just by teams 11-25?

[epocSoN]

Did you write this?

[SaturnDrew]

 

Blame many things for this long streak continuing. The fact Nebraska was in the Top 10 for many weeks of this streak doesn't help, but there are also many weeks Nebraska was not in the Top 10 and had a chance to break the streak.

 

How many? And this is beyond the scope of what you looked at, but how often do Top 10 teams get beat, even just by teams 11-25?

 

Since the 1977 win versus Colorado, a sub-10th ranked Nebraska team has had 12 chances to end this streak.

 

 

While I don't have statistics to back it up, I usually notice 1 or 2 teams every week in the Top 10 get beat by an 11 or lower.

 

Edit: I was curious so I looked it up for this season.

 

 

Week 8: 1

Week 7: 3

Week 6: 2

Week 5: 0

Week 4: 1

Week 3: 1

Week 2: 0

Week 1: 0

 

So on average, about once a week.

[SaturnDrew]

Did you write this?

 

If you liked it, I did. If not, it was written by Beano Cook. :-)

[irafreak]

The real question I want answered is how many opportunities has nebraska had ranked lower than 10th to beat a top 10 team since your 1977 game?

[VA Husker Fan]

 

Since the 1977 win versus Colorado, a sub-10th ranked Nebraska team has had 12 chances to end this streak.

 

 

While I don't have statistics to back it up, I usually notice 1 or 2 teams every week in the Top 10 get beat by an 11 or lower.

 

Edit: I was curious so I looked it up for this season.

 

 

Week 8: 1

Week 7: 3

Week 6: 2

Week 5: 0

Week 4: 1

Week 3: 1

Week 2: 0

Week 1: 0

 

So on average, about once a week.

 

Thanks. Me no read all words so good sometimes.

 

So we're 1 out of the last 13. I'll guess on average that 8 of the top 10 teams played someone 11 or lower, so 1 out of 8 teams out of the top 10 beat a top 10 team. 1 out of 13 vs 1 out of 8 isn't terrible. And if we beat Mizzou, it becomes 2 our of 14, or better than this average.

 

It probably is a bit worse because some of those 7 out of 8 teams that lost were FCS schools or real bottom feeders, which we haven't been. But it still kind of falls in that statistical aberration category.

 

On the other hand, I'll bet a lot of our losses were to FSU and Miami teams that were in the top 2 or 3.

 

btw, you wrote this. It's much better than something Beano Cook would come up with.

[Danny Bateman]

When I first saw this thread title, I was sure it was an article by that ridiculous biased Mizzou beat writer that hates us. Same guy that somehow got an AP poll vote and always votes us much lower than we actually should be.

 

But I agree with you buddy. We spank Mizzou next week.

[SaturnDrew]

It's really been my perception as a Husker fan that while we produce some excellent quality teams on the field, we don't often win games that we shouldn't, especially against caliber squads. I would much rather have a consistent team than one that spanks a top 10 team and then folds to a team like Iowa State the following week. (I won't mention any names!) But I would still love to see Nebraska just pull off a huge upset, even though next week it won't necessarily be that extreme of an upset.

 

And by the way, many of the 12 losses were from Florida State and Miami squads in the Orange Bowl. A few also from Texas, Washington, USC, and Oklahoma.

 

 

Since the 1977 win versus Colorado, a sub-10th ranked Nebraska team has had 12 chances to end this streak.

 

 

While I don't have statistics to back it up, I usually notice 1 or 2 teams every week in the Top 10 get beat by an 11 or lower.

 

Edit: I was curious so I looked it up for this season.

 

 

Week 8: 1

Week 7: 3

Week 6: 2

Week 5: 0

Week 4: 1

Week 3: 1

Week 2: 0

Week 1: 0

 

So on average, about once a week.

 

Thanks. Me no read all words so good sometimes.

 

So we're 1 out of the last 13. I'll guess on average that 8 of the top 10 teams played someone 11 or lower, so 1 out of 8 teams out of the top 10 beat a top 10 team. 1 out of 13 vs 1 out of 8 isn't terrible. And if we beat Mizzou, it becomes 2 our of 14, or better than this average.

 

It probably is a bit worse because some of those 7 out of 8 teams that lost were FCS schools or real bottom feeders, which we haven't been. But it still kind of falls in that statistical aberration category.

 

On the other hand, I'll bet a lot of our losses were to FSU and Miami teams that were in the top 2 or 3.

 

btw, you wrote this. It's much better than something Beano Cook would come up with.

[WYHusk]

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground,

Try this trick and spin it:

Tigers will relapse

And there's nothing in 'em,

And you'll ask yourself:

 

Where is the Big Ten?

 

As befitting a Pixies reference, I don't quite get this post ... but I kinda like it anyhow.

 

And, if this is the level of commenting we can expect from our new Big Ten brothers, that's one more reason to believe we made the right move.

[GBRsal]

So if you're the higher ranked team 90% of the time, you get upset more than you do the upsetting. This is a second-grade math problem.

[huskered17]

It's really been my perception as a Husker fan that while we produce some excellent quality teams on the field, we don't often win games that we shouldn't, especially against caliber squads. I would much rather have a consistent team than one that spanks a top 10 team and then folds to a team like Iowa State the following week. (I won't mention any names!) But I would still love to see Nebraska just pull off a huge upset, even though next week it won't necessarily be that extreme of an upset.

 

[And by the way, many of the 12 losses were from Florida State and Miami squads in the Orange Bowl. A few also from Texas, Washington, USC, and Oklahoma.]

 

 

And I got to watch them all.....

 

GBR!!!