On Saturday, Sept. 7, the Nebraska Cornhuskers will host the Colorado Buffaloes in the second game of a home-and-home series that began last season in Boulder, Colo.
The Buffaloes won the 2023 contest, 36-14, in Coach Prime’s first season at the helm. It was also Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule’s first season in Lincoln.
TALE OF THE TAPE
Series History: Nebraska leads the series 49-21-2
Series Began: 1898 in Boulder, Colo., but didn’t become a yearly matchup until 1948. The game was played every year between 1948 and 2010. There have been 14 ranked meetings between the two schools.
Recent History: The teams have split the last six meetings, each with a three game win streak.
Winningest Coach in the Series: Tom Osborne had 21 wins from 1973-1997.
Current Win Streak: Colorado has won the last three meetings, which is the longest win streak in the series for Colorado, and only the second time having won three in a row since 1956 through 1958.
Largest Victory: Nebraska holds the largest victory, a 59-0 whooping in 1981 in Lincoln.
Rivalry Trophy: None. But for a brief period from 1951 to 1962, the winning team was awarded a stuffed buffalo head, nicknamed Mr. Chip, but he was lost by the University of Colorado and no new trophy was created in its absence.
BIG HUSKER-LITTLE BUFFALO
The Nebraska-Colorado rivalry is one of the classic “big brother-little brother” matchups in college football. One program holds the other as a top rival, while the other seemingly has had all the success, awards, rankings, and wins and hardly even notices that the game is a big deal because it’s usually a win.
Colorado, of course, is the team that has held the Cornhuskers as their biggest rival and a measuring stick of sorts to see just how good their team is. Nebraska, on the other hand, considered Oklahoma its biggest rival because it was much more competitive and because OU was simply just a bigger fish to fry.
The rivalry is defined by big Nebraska winning streaks, broken up by special moments when Colorado would pull the upset, like in 1986.
OCTOBER 25, 1986
The 1986 edition of the Colorado-Nebraska game saw the teams come in on different ends of the record spectrum. The Cornhuskers entered the game 6-0 and ranked No. 3, having beaten their opponents by an average of 41-16. Colorado, on the other hand, entered the game on a two-game winning streak, but with a 2-4 record overall.
If facing the No. 3 team in the nation wasn’t daunting enough, Colorado also had history against them as they hadn’t defeated the Cornhuskers at home in 26 years and hadn’t beaten Nebraska at all in 19 seasons. It was safe to say the money was all on the Cornhuskers.
Despite the challenge ahead, the Buffaloes rewarded the home crowd with an astonishing victory thanks to two big plays on offense. The first was a reverse handoff to Jeff Campbell, who took the pitch from quarterback Mark Hatcher, as he was being tackled by two Nebraska defenders, for a 39-yard touchdown run.
The second big play came in the fourth quarter with the Buffaloes up 10-7 when running back OC Oliver took a pitch and threw a touchdown to tight end Lance Carl. The toss would end up being the final CU touchdown on their way to a 20-10 upset win over the vaunted Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Colorado would end up finishing second in the conference at 6-1, but even at 6-6 overall. Meanwhile, the Cornhuskers finished 10-2 with a win against LSU in the Sugar Bowl.
2024 MATCHUP
Both coaches have tried to compliment the other on how they run their teams, in an effort to throw water on the rivalry fire, but you can tell that they know how important this game is for both teams and fanbases. It’s sure to be a lot of fun with two highly touted quarterbacks throwing the ball around a loud Memorial Stadium after dark!
Date: Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024
Site: Memorial Stadium – Lincoln, NE
Time: 7:30pm ET
TV: NBC
Streaming: Peacock
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