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1978


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A fascinating, if ultimately disappointing year in Husker history. Most probably know that this is when Osborne got his first win against Oklahoma, and then we gacked it up the next week by losing to Missouri and then having to play in an Orange Bowl against..... Oklahoma.

 

One thing that always stands out to me is the fact that we played Oklahoma first, before Missouri. This is a Big 8 scheduling quirk that, as far as I can tell, never occurred any other time over a roughly 25-30 year period. Does anyone know if that was the way the schedule came out, or if the date of it was changed? As far as I can tell that's the earliest in the season we ever played OU during the Osborne-Devaney era prior to the Big 12 forming.

It almost makes you wonder if Nebraska was simply doomed in those days to lose the last game of the season regardless of the opponent.

It also makes me wonder how it plays out if Nebraska plays Missouri first, and THEN Oklahoma at the end, like they more or less always did then.

And it also makes me wonder about what happens if the results are the same... does Nebraska get caught looking ahead and lose to Missouri anyway, and THEN beats Oklahoma, perhaps with less pressure and less hype, but more emotion and "spoiler"?

A lot of musings on a rainy afternoon in Australia during a lockdown.

I'm too young to remember... I would have been doting on my baby sister who was literally days old when these games happened.

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I was at that Missouri Game in 1978. If we won the game, our Orange Bowl berth would be the National Championship Game against Penn State IIRC. Totally hungover from the night before, that whole day was just cold and punishing. Husker's had a letdown for sure, but Missouri had a great quarterback in Bradley (who went on to a successful MLB career) and a good game-plan — a lot like the 1997 scenario. I think they announced the Oklahoma rematch that night. No Husker fan thought Nebraska was going to win that Orange Bowl. 

 

I was alive and I was way into Husker football, and Missouri had always been scheduled for last game of the 1978 season, and we all wondered how and why that happened, but I don't remember anyone offering an explanation. Don't know how it would play out in an alternate universe where we played Missouri first, but while the Huskers gave Oklahoma a good game, the Sooners really fumbled that one away. That wishbone always fumbled a lot, but in that first game Oklahoma fumbled NINE TIMES and lost six. They only fumbled once in the Orange Bowl. 

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On 9/25/2020 at 12:17 AM, CheeseHusker said:

One thing that always stands out to me is the fact that we played Oklahoma first, before Missouri. This is a Big 8 scheduling quirk that, as far as I can tell, never occurred any other time over a roughly 25-30 year period. Does anyone know if that was the way the schedule came out, or if the date of it was changed? As far as I can tell that's the earliest in the season we ever played OU during the Osborne-Devaney era prior to the Big 12 forming.

 

This is a really good question. 1978 was the only year that we played Missouri to end the season. Haven't found out why yet.

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1 hour ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

I was at that Missouri Game in 1978. If we won the game, our Orange Bowl berth would be the National Championship Game against Penn State IIRC. Totally hungover from the night before, that whole day was just cold and punishing. Husker's had a letdown for sure, but Missouri had a great quarterback in Bradley (who went on to a successful MLB career) and a good game-plan — a lot like the 1997 scenario. I think they announced the Oklahoma rematch that night. No Husker fan thought Nebraska was going to win that Orange Bowl. 

 

I was alive and I was way into Husker football, and Missouri had always been scheduled for last game of the 1978 season, and we all wondered how and why that happened, but I don't remember anyone offering an explanation. Don't know how it would play out in an alternate universe where we played Missouri first, but while the Huskers gave Oklahoma a good game, the Sooners really fumbled that one away. That wishbone always fumbled a lot, but in that first game Oklahoma fumbled NINE TIMES and lost six. They only fumbled once in the Orange Bowl. 

I was also at that game and it was one of the more physical games we've ever played, which I believe contributed to our loss the following week at Missouri.

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I was at this game I was all of 12 at the time.  

 

It was very much a let down and probably hard to get back up to play again after the emotional drain of playing so well against OU the week before. 

 

Missouri was decent that year. I think they ended up 8-3 or 7-4.  They had a three headed monster on offense. Phil Bradley at QB, James Wilder at RB, he played quite a few years in the NFL and a guy by the Name of Kellen Winslow at TE. It was basically a game of who scored last won the game. 

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