Almost half a century ago, Nebraska’s football series with Indiana gave the Huskers a stage for one of the program’s most memorable walk-ons. It also gave Lee Corso, then a coach and later a broadcaster, a chance to laugh at his own expense. Beyond that, the matchup has rarely meant much in Lincoln.
That changes today.
Nebraska and Indiana are set to meet for the first time with both teams undefeated, and the stakes around Memorial Stadium are a lot heavier than they’ve ever been in this series. Indiana comes in with 11 wins, nine losses and three ties in the all-time matchup, a record built largely during Nebraska’s worst stretch from 1941 through the 1950s. There was also a tie in 1950, the season Grand Island star Bobby Reynolds ran wild.
The Huskers have had their moments against the Hoosiers, too. In 1976, Nebraska rolled to a 45-13 win in Bloomington.
A year later in Lincoln, sophomore walk-on Isaiah Moses Hipp set Nebraska’s single-game rushing record with 254 yards in a 31-13 victory. Tom Osborne always called him Isaiah, but everyone else knew him as I.M.
Hipp, and Corso spent years joking with Nebraska media about how badly Osborne’s teams had handled his.
That history feels distant now. Indiana arrives with a 21-game winning streak and the label of defending national champion, while Nebraska has gone a decade without beating a rated team.
Today’s game is FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff feature, which gives the matchup a level of attention the Huskers have not handled well before. The last two times Nebraska has played under that kind of spotlight, the result was ugly.
When ESPN College GameDay came to Lincoln on Sept. 28, 2019, Nebraska was carrying a lot of misplaced optimism.
Scott Frost’s first season had started with six straight losses before the Huskers won four of their final six, and early in 2019 there was a sense that the program might finally be turning. Even an overtime loss in Boulder did not dull the buzz around the chance to host GameDay.
That day, one question was put to 100 Nebraska fans gathered near Memorial Stadium to watch Gabrielle Union throw the bones and talk Husker football with Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit and Corso: “When will ESPN GameDay return to Lincoln?”
Most of them believed it would happen again quickly. A majority said within two years, and nearly three-quarters expected it within three.
That night, Nebraska got buried. Ohio State ripped through Frost’s team in a 48-7 rout.
It was the first GameDay visit to Lincoln since 2007, when Southern Cal came to town and Nebraska was beaten by Bill Callahan’s team in a game that was nowhere near as close as the 49-31 final suggested.
Now Big Noon has arrived, ending a seven-year stretch without that kind of Saturday morning spotlight for the Huskers. The question hanging over Memorial Stadium is simple: are they ready for it this time?
This is the most important football game played in Memorial Stadium in quite a while.
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Nebraska's New-Look Roster Already Faces A Big Ten Readiness Test
Nebraskas revamped mens basketball roster got its first real look in an exhibition against St. Louis, and the night offered a useful reminder of how much the Cornhuskers still have to figure out before Big Ten play arrives. With eight newcomers joining seven returnees, the mix was still taking shape, even as freshman Jacob Lanier led Nebraska with 15 points in a 79-74 loss that gave Fred Hoiberg an early baseline for where his team stands.
The stat sheet was close enough to suggest the Huskers can compete, with both teams grabbing 41 rebounds, but Hoiberg said afterward that Nebraska was out-toughed. That kind of edge is exactly what exhibition games are supposed to expose, and for a roster built almost from scratch, the challenge now is turning individual promise into the kind of physical, connected play that travels in conference games. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska Let Another Big Opportunity Slip Away Under Matt Rhule
Nebraska had another chance to turn a promising moment into something bigger Saturday, and again the chance slipped away. The Cornhuskers fell to No. 7 Indiana, 20-17, in a game that fit too neatly into a familiar pattern for a program still trying to climb back into the national conversation. The loss extended Nebraskas losing streak against top-25 opponents to 31 games, a run that underscores how hard it has been for the Huskers to cash in when the opponent is at its best.
For Matt Rhule, the frustration is starting to take on a historical edge. Nebraska has not beaten a top-seven team since 2015, and Rhule is still searching for his first win over a ranked opponent since arriving in Lincoln. The broader story around this team remains the same: competitive enough to stay in the fight, but not yet able to land the kind of signature victory that changes how the season is viewed. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska Let Another Winnable Game Slip Away Under Matt Rhule
Nebraska had a real chance to leave Indiana with a result that would have felt like a statement, but the Cornhuskers let a winnable game slip away in a tight contest decided by a handful of fourth-quarter plays. The loss also snapped Indianas 22-game winning streak, a reminder that this was not some throwaway opponent or empty Saturday, but the kind of game Nebraska has to be able to finish if it wants to keep building under Matt Rhule.
Instead, the late moments belonged to Indiana, and Nebraska again found itself on the wrong side of a one-score game. It is the sort of defeat that lingers because the opportunity was there, the margin was thin, and the details in the final period made all the difference, leaving the Cornhuskers with another frustrating lesson about how small the gap is between progress and disappointment. [Read more 🡒]