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Frankenstein's Season - piece together the best season you can from the past 13 years


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I just realized I missed my chance to call this the "Frankenschedule" in the OP.   Oh well.

 

 

Here's my last three. Different games, different themes.

 

The Best Home Games

 

1    2014    Florida Atlantic - This was basically a nothing game, a fun game, against a way overmatched opponent in which we trounced them comfortably. We've had far too few of these kinds of games the last two decades.
2    2015    So Alabama - The bounce-back game after the BYU Hail Mary shocker in Riley's first game. NU played four solid quarters of football. Armstrong was solid, Terrell Newby was solid, and NU never trailed and was never threatened.
3    2011    Washington - The third game against Washington in 364 days. NU trounced the Huskies in Seattle the year before, then a badly injured Husker team got buffeted in the Holiday Bowl. The rubber match was high-scoring and fun, with NU leading 37-17 after three quarters, then cruising to the win.
4    2014    Miami, Fla. - After facing Miami in their home stadium for national championships throughout the 80s & 90s, the Hurricanes finally had to come to Lincoln. It was every bit the brawl you'd expect, with the Huskers outslugging the Hurricanes in one of the loudest games in Memorial Stadium history.
5    2014    Illinois - We had a bunch of family from Illinois over for this game. The ridiculous uniforms aside, this was a very fun game, featuring Ameer Abdullah doing Ameer Things, and Randy Gregory killed a guy on a Nate Gerry interception return.
6    2011    Ohio State - THE BEST 20 minutes of Husker football in the Big Ten era. The Bauserman game. Misting rain. The frustration of the first half. LaVonte David doing LaVonte Things. Then Martinez & Burkhead dismantling what had been a stout Buckeye defense. Biggest comeback in school history.
7    2018    Minnesota - PJ Fleck and the Flecktones came to town expecting to pick up a win against Frost's flailing 0-6 Huskers, but what they got was a face full of Husker frustration and one of Devine Ozigbo's greatest games. 
8    2011    Michigan State - 6-1, #6 Michigan State visited Memorial Stadium after beating Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin in consecutive weeks, but the Blackshirts were having none of it, holding Sparty to 3 points and 187 total yards. Rex Burkhead scored three TDs and Nebraska was never threatened in the game.
9    2009    Oklahoma  - One of the most electric atmospheres in stadium history, Nebraska won in a slugfest featuring two potent defenses. The crowd roared all game long, probably loudest when Prince Amukamara picked off a pass, setting up Nebraska's lone touchdown. 
10    2008    Kansas - In 2007 Kansas hung 76 points on the Huskers - still a school record - and humiliated us as much as possible. In 2008 Ndamukong Suh beat Todd Reesing bloody and caught a 4th-quarter TD pass in a very satisfying return to order.
11    2018    Michigan State - It was the kind of cold you never really forget. 2018 had been a hugely disappointing season in so many ways. Two proud programs played classic Big Ten football in the snow, with MSU leading 6-0 in the fourth quarter, when Barrett Pickering's three late field goals saved the day.
12    2008    Colorado - The Kick. The Pick Six. One of the single loudest moments in Memorial Stadium history as Alex Henery looks Bo Pelini in the eye and says, "I can make this." And he did.
13    2010    Oklahoma - This is a bit of a fudge, and it's a loss, so take this with a grain of salt. Nebraska doesn't play home games in Game 13 - but we were the "home" team in the 2010 Big XII Championship. And we played really well, despite a banged-up Taylor Martinez. I suppose I could have left this one off, but it was a hell of a game and the last time we've played Oklahoma.

 

 

The Best Away Games

 

1                  Nebraska rarely plays away games in Week 1, and the past 13 years have been no exception. 
2    2019    Colorado - So, no game 1, and we start off with a loss for game 2. But despite the loss, and the ugliness of the 4th quarter, this was a fantastic game by Nebraska through about three quarters of the game. And then the wheels fell off, the Huskers got gassed, and Colorado scored all 34 of their points in about 17 minutes of game time. So it goes.
3    2009    Virginia Tech - The defense was marvelous in this game, containing Tyrod Taylor for 58 minutes, putting Nebraska in position to escape Blacksburg with a win. Then the unthinkable happened, a receiver got behind the defense and Suh & Crick didn't attack Taylor. A long completion later and Nebraska was doomed. But it was a hell of a game.
4    2019    Illinois - Back to wins! Hooray!  2019 wasn't memorable for much, but this game was one of the hardest-hitting, toughest games on the schedule. Wandale Robinson shined. Illinois' DBs hit like a ton of bricks. And Adrian Martinez engineered a thrilling comeback, 42-38.
5    2017    Illinois - Mike Riley's last good win. Arguably Tanner Lee's lone good win. Touchdowns by Demornay Pierson-El and Stanley Morgan Jr. Not flashy, but for Game 5, a solid win.
6    2016    Indiana - This one's kinda weak. Indiana wasn't much of an opponent in 2016, but our only other road win in Week 6 was against a 2013 Purdue team that finished 1-11. Nebraska was comfortably ahead of Indiana in the teams' first meeting as Big Ten opponents when the Hoosiers scored 15 unanswered points on a Safety, two field goals and a touchdown. Then Stanley Morgan ripped off 75-yard TD to secure the win.
7    2010    Oklahoma State - The Cowboys' lone entry on my lists. This was a high-scoring game, the one with the Niles Paul kickoff return for a TD where Eric Martin was later suspended for his huge hit. Taylor Martinez was supposed to be a running threat, but instead connected on 23/35 passes for 323 yards and five touchdowns for a thrilling 51-41 win over undefeated Okie State.
8    2009    Baylor  - Jared Crick's five sacks wowed the largely Husker crowd in Waco as Cody Green picked up his first win as a starter, 20-10.
9    2012    Michigan State - Another thriller with Sparty. Tied 14-14 at halftime, Michigan State pulled ahead early in the fourth quarter 24-14. A big Martinez run cut the lead to three, then a late fade to Jamal Turner sealed the win. And NU did not commit pass interference. NU wins 28-24.
10    2009    Kansas  - Kansas led in the 4th quarter 17-16 until Roy Helu Jr. popped off two late TDs.  
11    2008    Kansas State - The Wildcats scored one TD per quarter, but Joey Freakin' Ganz was wheelin' and dealin' and had the Huskers rolling, racking up 600+ yards on their way to a 56-28 victory.
12    2014    Iowa - Yet more late-game heroics as the Huskers tied the game up at the buzzer on a Josh Brown field goal. Iowa settled for a FG in overtime, paving the way for Tommy Armstrong Jr. to find Kenny Bell alone in the front of the end zone for the win.
13    2013    Georgia Bulldogs - A lot of folks figured the Bulldogs were going to run over Nebraska in this one. In a soggy mess of a game, the Huskers went toe-to-toe with their SEC foe, and Quincy Enunwa hauled in a 99-yard pass from Armstrong for the game-winning score. 

 

Scariest Games

 

This one's full of nail-biters. 

 

1    2013    Wyoming - This one was supposed to be relatively easy, but the Cowboys had the ball in their hand with a chance to win thanks to a late-game poor decision by Taylor Martinez, who threw a ball into traffic and got it picked off. QB Brett Smith's 475 yards of offense wasn't enough, and Smith's last-gasp pass as time wound down fell incomplete.
2    2014    McNeese State - You all know this game. In what, again, should have been a rout, the Huskers found themselves in a tussle late in the game. Then Ameer caught a simple short pass, ran through the entire McNeese State defense, and saved NU's collective a$$.
3    2016    Oregon - Mike Riley had a horrid record against Oregon, and lots of folks thought this would be another loss. The game went back and forth, but an injured Tommy Armstrong split the defense and scampered 34 yards for the game-winner with under three minutes to play.
4    2010    South Dakota State - This was an ugly, ugly game. The week after trouncing Washington in Seattle, Nebraska comes home and lays an egg against the Jackrabbits. While Nebraska won 17-3, the crowd was unsettled by the ineptitude on display.

5    2012    Wisconsin - Featuring the worst alternate uniform combination in the history of everything, the Huskers were once again down big, but Taylor Martinez led another comeback and took the lead, 30-27. Alonzo Whaley made the play of his career, stripping Montee Ball with under two minutes to play.
6    2019    Northwestern - Northwestern has, arguably, been our closest rival since joining the Big Ten. Nearly every game is a nail-biter. In a season that featured everyone in the stadium taking a turn at place kicker, Walk-On Lane McCallum booted the game-winning field goal as time expired to give the Huskers the win.
7    2012    Northwestern - Stop me if you've heard this before in these recaps, but the Huskers were down big, late. The game was in Evanston, and the stadium was packed with red, but that didn't stop the Wildcats from taking a 28-16 lead into the fourth quarter. Taylor Martinez engineered two late TD drives to eke out a 29-28 win.
8    2013    Northwestern - A Husker team in search of a quarterback finally turned to Ronald Kellogg III, who got the Huskers in position to attempt one final throw at the end of the game. Kellogg avoided the rush, slid to his right, and threw the ball as far as he could. It pinballed off a number of hands in the scrum at the goal line and bounced backward - into the sure hands of Jordan Westerkamp. And a legend was born.
9    2010    Iowa State - The final game between these two as conference rivals went down to the last play. The Cyclones used a furious fourth-quarter comeback to tie the game at the end of regulation, but the Huskers scored first in OT. Trailing 24-31, the Clones punched it into the end zone again and lined up for the extra point - but it was a fake! The holder rolls left where an eligible receiver stands alone in the end zone. The pass is on its way...... and a streaking Eric Hagg comes out of nowhere to intercept the ball and seal the win.
10    2016    Minnesota - 7-2 Minnesota met 7-2 Nebraska at Memorial stadium with the Bits of Broken Chair on the line. Nebraska needed two second-half touchdowns to come back for the 24-17 win.
11    2013    Penn State - Nebraska scored 16 of its 23 points, including Pat Smith's game-winning field in overtime - on Special Teams on a snowy, cold day in College Station.
12    2012    Iowa - This one was all defense. The return of Superman (Rex Burkhead) was a welcome sign on a frigid day in Iowa City, but Burkhead was noticeably gimpy and had to gut out every yard he earned. Alonzo Whaley and Eric Martin led a ferocious Blackshirts defense that held Iowa to seven points and 200 total yards of offense.
13    2009    Texas  - The Big XII Championship game was scary for one thing, and one thing only - Ndamukong Suh straight up murdered Colt McCoy on live national television. Yeah, the game didn't turn out the way we wanted, but the one second was the right call, and it was an absolute gem of a performance by the Blackshirts, and especially Mr. Suh. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

That was the very first game that came to mind. Not only was Nebraska back, we were the most exciting team in football and looking at four years of Taylor Martinez, who had just destroyed a good K-State team in every way imaginable. 

 

Individual games may have been equally fun and others were more dramatic, but that was the best I've felt about Nebraska football in the last 15 years. 

Yeah that game was really special. It just felt like Martinez was the next big thing and we were going to be a contender for the duration of his time here. Just an incredible game.

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14 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

I'm seeing some pretty crappy Game 4s, and some uninspired choices from 2014.

 

I think Branno's the only one to list Nebraska vs. Miami, Game 4, 2014, when Miami came in like the arrogant s#!t-talkers of old and Nebraska gave them a satisfying beat down at Memorial Stadium to go 4-0.  

 

How does thrashing Idaho compete with that? 

 

 

I included Idaho in my 'dominance' list and Miami in my 'entertaining' list.

 

Also, let me take the time to pimp myself:

 

 

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15 hours ago, Landlord said:

 

 

I included Idaho in my 'dominance' list and Miami in my 'entertaining' list.

 

Also, let me take the time to pimp myself:

 

 

I wasn't at all the 90s games but this game in 2014 was both the most fun and the loudest game I've been to.  Pure anger at another team from 80k.

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