Nebraska's 8-year drought is the longest in the Power 4: ups, downs and close calls

LINCOLN, Neb. – Nebraska last won a football game with bowl eligibility on the line on Oct. 15, 2016.

Observers of the Huskers' 27-22 win at No. 10 Indiana didn't pay attention to the fact that Nebraska had qualified for the postseason. After all, it would be the ninth bowl appearance in a row and the 46th in 48 seasons.

Nebraska finished 2016 with nine wins for coach Mike Riley and lost 38-24 to Tennessee in the Music City Bowl. For the Volunteers, Joshua Dobbs rushed for 409 yards and four touchdowns.

Dobbs is now 29 and playing for his eighth NFL franchise. Nebraska's starting quarterback in this bowl game, Ryker Fyfe, is 30.

Nebraska's eight-year absence from the college football postseason is the longest among Power 4 teams and the second-longest among programs that have played at the FBS level since 2016. (Notably, up to that point, Colorado had not achieved bowl eligibility since 2016, but the Buffaloes elected to play in a bowl game in Nebraska's pandemic-shortened 2020 season.)

Alabama has appeared in the College Football Playoff six times since Nebraska's last bowl game.

Only UMass and Louisiana-Monroe, which have been missing from the postseason since 2012, are suffering from longer droughts. And watch out, because the Warhawks are 5-2 heading into a game against Marshall (4-3) this week.

Nebraska is 5-3 while two-win UCLA visits Memorial Stadium on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT. The most recent of 13 games between the Huskers and Bruins also marks Nebraska's last bowl win – 37-29 in the 2015 Foster Farms Bowl.

Since 2017, the Huskers are 0-7 in games that could have earned them a sixth win and a bowl bid. In fact, they are 0-6 under second-year coach Matt Rhule, including losses in the last two weeks at Ohio State and Indiana.

Nebraska's players are aware that another win would mark a milestone.

“That would mean a lot,” freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola said.

But Rhule isn't talking to his team this week about the chance to qualify for the bowl. He said he believes the Huskers were “chasing something” last year in November, when they lost four straight games by a total of 16 points.

It increased the pressure. A similar attitude contributed to their lack of aggression two weeks ago in the stunning 56-7 loss at Indiana. But against Ohio State last week, when Rhule lost 21-17, he saw a change. The Huskers played “to play,” he said.

He expects the same thing against UCLA.

“We need to clear our name,” Rhule said. “We have to play with pride and heart and character. You saw that (at Ohio State). I won’t talk about anything else this week.”

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Here is a list of the five highest and five lowest moments for Nebraska since it last played in a bowl game.

The highlights

1. The settings of Scott Frost and Matt Rhule. Athletic director Bill Moos revealed the news about Frost on Dec. 2, 2017, eight days after Riley's last game, a 56-14 loss at Iowa. There was a lot of hype the previous month when Frost gained national prominence at UCF in 2017. The return of its former championship-winning QB to Nebraska was a joyful moment for Husker Nation.

Nebraska publicly introduced Rhule on November 28, 2022, two days after the school announced his hiring during ESPN's “College GameDay” over Thanksgiving weekend. The event to welcome Rhule, an eloquent speaker this Monday, was held on the practice field at the Hawks Championship Center. It gave hope to the long-suffering fans.

2. The 2022 win in Iowa. Bowl eligibility wasn't at stake, but victory felt even sweeter for Nebraska as it beat Iowa 24-17, denying the Hawkeyes the Big Ten West title and dropping seven games in the series. Casey Thompson and Trey Palmer teamed up to tackle the Iowa secondary, and Nebraska fended off a furious comeback attempt as interim coach Mickey Joseph, the former Nebraska quarterback who replaced Frost, finished on a celebratory note.

3. The 2024 win against Colorado. Despite high hopes earlier this season, Nebraska exceeded expectations and defeated the rival Buffs for the first time since 2010. A feeling of pent-up anger filled all of Lincoln before kickoff. The 28-10 victory turned Memorial Stadium into a party venue as Tommi Hill intercepted Shedeur Sanders and went into the end zone for a pick six as Nebraska built a four-touchdown lead in the first half.

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4. The 2018 kickoff that never happened. A climax until the rain and thunder didn't stop. Nebraska was scheduled to host Akron on Sept. 1, Frost's highly anticipated debut as the Huskers' head coach. The electric atmosphere was comparable to the atmosphere at Memorial Stadium before Nebraska played Miami in 2014. But after the opening kick, both teams left the field and never returned. The game was canceled. The evening began with such excitement, but ended with unprecedented disappointment, a harbinger of the Frost era.

5. The 2020 win over Penn State. This was Frost's best win. It was better than losses to Maryland and Northwestern. He finished 0-9 against Colorado, Wisconsin and Iowa. So yes, that 30-23 victory in the eerie, pandemic-induced silence at Memorial Stadium was a highlight. The Nittany Lions entered the game without a win and lacked precision. Nebraska built a 27-6 lead in Luke McCaffrey's best moment in Lincoln and fended off a comeback attempt led by QB Will Levis.

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The deep moments

1. The 2022 Georgia Southern debacle. Visions of Kyle Vantrease manhandling the Nebraska defense will forever live on in the minds of fans who were there for that September mayhem. That is, the fans who stopped chanting “Fire Frost” long enough to watch the GSU quarterback throw for 409 yards. The Eagles rushed for five touchdowns and amassed 642 yards, a record against Nebraska, in winning 45-42. Before the night ended, athletic director Trev Alberts gathered financial support to fire Frost. The coaching change was officially announced a day later and cost Nebraska about $7 million more than if Alberts had waited 20 days. But after this performance there was no more waiting.

2. The 2017 Northern Illinois loss. This doomed Riley in just the third game of his third season. And it followed a nine-win season in 2016. After Nebraska lost at Oregon in Week 2, success came and Tanner Lee hit two pick sixes in the first quarter. The Huskers rebounded to win three Big Ten games. But Riley, hired by former AD Shawn Eichorst, couldn't recover from Nebraska's first loss since 2004 to a non-power conference program or major independent. Moos dropped the hammer when the season ended in November.

3. Colorado's losses in 2018 and 2019. They burned for different reasons. First, the Buffs were in no shape to beat a decent team in either year. In Frost's 2018 debut after Akron's cancellation, Nebraska led late but lost relevance in the 33-28 loss when freshman QB Adrian Martinez was injured. A year later, the Buffs won 34-31 in overtime in Boulder after the Huskers had built a 17-0 halftime lead. Of Frost's 22 defeats in 27 games that were decided by eight points or less, these one-point defeats stood out as particularly painful.

4. The onside kick. Under pressure from Alberts, Frost abandoned his offensive style of play before the 2022 season. The coach was unhappy about this. And in the opener against Northwestern at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, he called for an onside kick after the Huskers took a 28-17 lead in the third quarter. His attempt to bury the Wildcats failed. Northwestern, winless after the opener, took advantage of the short field to score a touchdown. It was a 31:28 win. The glaring mistake in Week 0 at international level further eroded confidence in Frost. Two weeks later he lost his job.

5. The 2024 Indiana Collapse. This is fresh. Rhule and the Huskers took momentum from a bye week after their 5-1 start. Nebraska had a chance to end its 25-game losing streak against AP-ranked opponents. Instead, it lost by 49 points, the third-largest margin in school history. First-year IU coach Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers repeatedly outsmarted Nebraska in an embarrassing loss to a team that hadn't won more than eight games since 1967. However, these Hoosiers are 8-0 as they play at Michigan State on Saturday.

(Photo: Dylan Widger / Imagn Images)