Welcome to installment No. 6 of ‘The Cob’s Archive Dive’, where each week, I’ll share Associated Press headlines and excerpts from past articles printed in the Falls City Journal. Whether you are 20 years old or 80, hopefully you’ll find a piece of Husker football history that takes you back to the sights and sounds of gameday years ago.
On this day in Cornhusker Football History:
September 22, 1970 – Headline: ‘Devaney Says Huskers Are as Good as USC’
Nebraska football coach Bob Devaney said at Monday’s downtown football luncheon that Southern California deserved the national football rating it held last Saturday night. “Southern California is as good of football team as we thought they were, and as good of football team as the sports writers around the nation and the poll people rated them.” After receiving a standing ovation from the businessman crowd Davaney cracked, “You’d think we won the damn thing.” Devany said statistics reveal how equally matched Nebraska and Southern California were. Total offensive yardage went to the Trojans by just one yard, 366 to 365. Devaney praised both his team’s offensive and defensive performances but said Nebraska’s punting game “was horrible.” Something is about to be done about the punting, he promised.
(The close ones always come back to special teams.)
September 22, 1980 – Headline: ‘Redwine Leads Husker Rout’
Nebraska I-Back Jarvis Redwine says the Cornhuskers did nothing special in their 57-0 rout of Iowa on Saturday. “We just ran at them, no special plays,” said Redwine who ran for 153 yards in only 12 carries and scored a touchdown. “Just running at people is our game.” Redwine scored his touchdown on a 69-yard burst up the middle on the third play of the game and his first carry. Roger Craig also had a good day, gaining 78 yards on 12 carries. He saw extensive action as Redwine’s backup. For Iowa, the loss was the Hawkeyes worst since 1950. “We played extremely poor, we coached extremely poor, we prepared extremely poor,” said Iowa head coach Hayden Fry.
(Husker fans need to remember their dominance over Iowa before joining the Big Ten, it’s part of the reason Iowa gloats about their wins over Nebraska today. But the Hawkeyes shouldn’t get too comfortable.)
September 5, 1990 – Headline: Osborne’s Analysis
Osborne told reporters at his weekly news conference Tuesday that Baylor made good use of the play clock. The end result was ball control – Baylor had a possession advantage of 33:03 to 26:57 over Nebraska. “From a defensive standpoint we obviously had a great game,” Osborne said of his first season opening shutout. It was Nebraska’s first opening-game shutout since a Bob Deveney coached team blanked South Dakota 56-0 in 1964. “The thing that was disconcerting was we let Baylor run on us some,” Osborne said. Baylor had 198 yards rushing before you look at all the losses (62 yards). The Cornhuskers opened the season ranked seventh and blanked Baylor but slipped to 10 in this week’s Associated Press poll. “People must have not liked what they saw of us. Apparently, they didn’t think Baylor was much good,” Osborne said.
(Had anyone known how the 1990 season would end they could have used this game as a gauge for how good the 1990 team was. 1990 would prove to be a turning point for Osborne and the Huskers as he would make big changes after the season.)
September 7, 2000 – Headline: Tackling the Issue Head On
No. 1-ranked Nebraska travels to Nos. 23 and 25-ranked Notre Dame for a 1:30 p.m. Saturday game that will be carried nationally on NBC. NU middle linebacker Carlos Polk said he will do everything in his power to prevent a repeat of Nebraska’s defensive show in the first quarter of its season opening game. “We didn’t play the Blackshirt defense. I know Notre Dame is looking forward to us playing that type of defense. They won’t see that.” San Jose State rolled up 346 yards of offense, including 147 yards rushing against the Huskers. The defense couldn’t have played worse than it did.
The Husker-Irish have a lot of history, but this is the first regular season game between them since 1948. “There’s a big aura of tradition there (South Bend), but we’re going to bring out own aura of tradition,” wingback Booby Newcombe said. Nebraska-Notre Dame was a rivalry from its first game in 1915, and the Huskers are the only team to beat the Irish from 1922-24, when the famed “Four Horseman” led Notre Dame to a 27-2-1 record. Now stop and imagine Eric Crouch in Notre Dame blue and gold and Arnez Battle in Nebraska scarlet and cream. It’s not a stretch. The Irish recruited Couch, and Nebraska tried to lure Battle. While similar, the pair of aces found comfort in opposite decisions and now must stay focused on the task ahead of them.
(Before this game Notre Dame led the all-time series 7-6-1. Nebraska’s biggest win, 40-6 in the 1972 Orange Bowl. Notre Dame’s biggest win, 44-13 in 1948.)
Be sure to look for next week’s edition as the ‘Cob’ dives into each week’s headlines of the season as they once appeared in the Falls City Journal.
GO BIG RED!! SIMPLE, FAST VIOLENT!!
All headlines and excerpts were gathered from Associated Press articles, and most but not all were published in the Falls City Journal. Home – Falls City Journal – Falls City, NE
Photographs were gathered from multiple sources.
Stay on top of Husker football at CarrikerChronicles.com