NEBRASKA vs. IOWA
Nov. 26, 2021 | MEMORIAL STADIUM
LINCOLN, NEB. | 12:30 PM (CT)
BROADCAST INFO TV – BTN RADIO NETWORK – HUSKERS RADIO NETWORK (Greg Sharpe, Matt Davison, Jeremiah Sirles) INTERNET RADIO – Huskers.com APP AUDIO – Official Huskers App
Last Game: Iowa 26-20 (Nov. 27, 2020 in Iowa City)
Win Streak: Iowa, 6 games
The Matchup
Nebraska completes its 2021 season on Friday with its annual Black Friday matchup against Big Ten West rival Iowa at Memorial Stadium. Game time in Lincoln in set for shortly after 12:30 p.m. CT and the game will be televised by BTN and can also be heard on the Huskers Radio Network.
Nebraska will try to capture the Heroes Trophy to close a season full of near misses against nationally ranked teams. The Huskers’ most recent close call came on Saturday at No. 19 Wisconsin when NU fell 35-28 when a drive in the game’s final minute stalled deep in Wisconsin territory. The loss was Nebraska’s eighth this season by nine or fewer points with five of those against ranked teams. In the loss, Nebraska’s offense gained 452 yards against a Badger defense that entered the game allowing a nation-leading 216 yards per game.
The Huskers will look to end a six-game Iowa win streak in the border rivalry, with each of the past three Hawkeye victories coming by six points or less. Before Friday’s game Nebraska will honor members of its senior class who could be playing their final game in Memorial Stadium.
Iowa enters the game with a 9-2 record, including a 6-2 mark in Big Ten play, following a 33-23 victory over Illinois on Saturday in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes are ranked No. 17 in the Associated Press Poll and 12th in the USA Today Coaches poll. Iowa checked in at No. 17 in last week’s College Football Playoff rankings, and was ranked as high as second by the AP earlier this season. An Iowa victory will keep its Big Ten Championship Game hopes alive.
Coach Kirk Ferentz’s team features one of the nation’s most opportunistic defenses. The Hawkeyes have 26 takeaways on the season and enter the regular-season finale at +13 in turnover margin.
Series History: Nebraska vs. Iowa
Nebraska and Iowa meet each year as Big Ten West opponents and compete for the Heroes Trophy, a tradition which began in 2011 when Nebraska joined the Big Ten. Nebraska holds a 29-19-1 all-time edge in the series, as the teams met 41 times prior to the Huskers joining the conference.
• Iowa holds a six-game winning streak in the series entering Friday’s game. Prior to the current six-game win streak, the Hawkeyes longest win streak in the series was three games.
• Overall, Iowa holds a 7-3 advantage in the series since NU joined the conference, including winning each of its past four trips to Memorial Stadium.
• In each of the three matchups with Scott Frost as Nebraska’s head coach, Iowa has won by six or fewer points, including last-second field goals to pull out victories in 2018 and 2019.
• The schools have met on Black Friday each of the 11 seasons Nebraska has been in the Big Ten.
• The 41 meetings with Iowa were the second-most against a Big Ten school prior to joining the Big Ten. Nebraska had only faced Minnesota more times than the Hawkeyes before 2011.
This Week’s Numbers
3 – Nebraska is playing a top-20 opponent for the third straight game. The Huskers are playing three consecutive ranked opponents during the regular season for only the second time in school history and for the first time since 1968.
32 – Nebraska has played on the Friday after Thanksgiving for each of the past 32 seasons. The Huskers have played Iowa each of the last 11 years on Black Friday. Before joining the Big Ten, Nebraska played Colorado 15 times on that day and Oklahoma six times on Black Friday since 1990.
547 – Nebraska tight end Austin Allen has 547 receiving yards this season, including a school tight end record 143 yards on seven catches last week at Wisconsin. Allen needs 14 yards receiving this week to surpass the tight end season record of 560 receiving yards, held by Junior Miller in 1978.
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