Welcome to installment No. 1 of ‘The Cob’s Archive Dive’, where each week, I’ll share Associated Press headlines and excerpts from past articles published by 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:
August 22, 1970 – Headline: ‘Highly Touted Backs Boost Cornhuskers’
The Nebraska football team begins pre-season practice sessions Sunday with a highly-charged backfield corps but a lot of question marks in the offensive line and defense. The team will not be hurting for offensive punch with the likes of junior quarterbacks Jerry Tagge and Van Brownson, running backs Jeff Kinney, Joe Oduna, Dan Schneiss, and receivers Guy Ingles and Jeff Hughs. About 82 players, including 29 lettermen, are expected to report for preseason practice. Said Devaney, “We feel we may have an opportunity to have a good football team, but we have a great many problems to solve before we can sleep restfully on Friday nights.”
(Things a coach worries about haven’t changed, what has is the starting date, number of players, and money involved. I’m sure Matt Rhule has the same outlook for his 2026 team.)
August 5, 1980 – Headline: ‘Huskers, Sooners Big 8 Favorites’
The Sooners and Cornhuskers, most of the coaches agree, are the teams to beat once again in 1980. Oklahoma’s Barry Switzer claimed his team, which lost running back Billy Sims and linebacker George Cumby, would not be as good as the 1979 Big Eight championship team, which was 11-1 and whipped Florida State in the Orange Bowl. This of course was the same man who said his 1979 team was not as good as the 78’ squad.
Tom Osborne, low-key to the point of somnambulism, conceded Nebraska would be a pretty good team, despite losing numerous linemen and receivers. “Our running back situation is probably as good as any year I can remember, and that goes back 18 years,” he said of the depth-laden crew headed by Jarvis Redwine.
(Osborne had adopted the I-formation at this point, and Nebraska, which had always had good running backs, was on the verge of becoming ‘I-Back U’.)
August 3, 1990 – Headline: ‘SWC Discusses Big 8 Alliance’
A possible alliance or merger with the Big Eight Conference will be among the items on the agenda when athletic directors from the Southwest Conference meet to discuss options following Arkansas’s departure to the Southeastern Conference. SWC Commissioner Fred Jacoby said no action will be taken but said the informal meeting will give officials a chance to discuss important issues concerning the SWC’s direction now that Texas A&M and Texas might be considering a move to the SEC. “Coaches say we’ve got to be on TV, we’ve got to be seen. That’s become so important that you’ve got to position yourself to be with people that make it attractive,” Houston athletic Director Rudy Davalos said.
(You may not consider this Husker football history, but Arkansas finally becoming fed up with Texas and moving to the SEC was the first step in Nebraska eventually ending up in the Big Ten. But not before Nebraska, Colorado, and Missouri got sick of Texas trying to control the Big XII. Texas A&M ended up in the SEC 22 years after this article. For Texas it was 34 years.)
August 6, 2000 – Headline: Huskers on Top of Preseason Football Poll
Husker football stands atop the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 football poll with a No. 1 ranking. “We’re not going to get very excited about it,” coach Frank Sloich said. “We’ll take the same approach we always have.” Which means playing down the preseason ranking apparently to stave off overconfidence among the players and keep the accompanying hype to a minimum. Nebraska begins the season on top for the sixth time since the AP’s first preseason poll in 1950. The Huskers have captured four AP national championships, but none in the years they started No. 1. Solich said Nebraska’s number one ranking was “probably a tribute to the program as much as anything else.” The Huskers finished strong last season capping a 12-1 season with a 31-21 victory over Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl and finished No.3 in the final AP Poll.
(From 1983 to 2000 Nebraska was consistently ranked in the top ten in the preseason rankings. Solich was right to say the rankings were as much a tribute to the program as anything, especially by 1999 when you could clearly see a drop off in talent. It’s hard to say exactly what that could be attributed to. But perhaps it was an aging coaching staff that was finding it more difficult to relate to the young players and the changing times.)
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.
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