Huskers crack AP Top 25 for first time since 2019, earn best ranking in 8 years

Nebraska football had not defeated Colorado in nearly a decade and a half.

The Huskers had last beaten the Buffs since a 45-17 victory on Nov. 26, 2010 in Lincoln. After that, it was three consecutive losses: Back-to-back heartbreakers (33-28 in 2018 and 34-31 in OT the following season) and last year’s 36-14 turnover-fest in Boulder.

That skid is now done, and the Huskers did it with a bang, brutally punishing the Buffs physically and wearing them down mentally in building a 28-0 halftime lead. From there, the Huskers went into cruise control mode while their defense continued to pound Colorado into Memorial Stadium’s turf.

It feels like a brand-new era of Nebraska football truly has arrived, and Saturday night provided the most recognizable example of that.

Sunday afternoon, however, provided the next example.

The Huskers opened the season by popping off for 33 unanswered points en route to a 40-7 blowout win over UTEP in Week 1. Then, they got the monkey (or, buffalo) off their back and blitzed through the Buffs to earn a 28-10 victory.

Now, they have earned some respect at the national level, and people are starting to take what is happening in Lincoln very seriously.

The Huskers earned their way into the latest AP Top 25 poll on Sunday, netting their first such ranking in five years.

Nebraska is one of six Big Ten teams to crack the Week 3 AP Top 25 poll while three more were in the “others receiving votes” category.

The last time the Huskers were included in the AP Top 25 (excluding the “others receiving votes” category) came on Sept. 3, 2019. After entering the 2019 season ranked No. 24 to begin Scott Frost’s second year as head coach, the Huskers barely got past South Alabama in a 35-21 season-opening win. Then, they dropped one spot to No. 25 and four days later lost in OT to Colorado before dropping out of the poll the very next day.

Perhaps it’s a positive twist of irony, then, that it was a beatdown of the Buffs that led to Nebraska earning its way back into the AP Top 25 poll as the No. 23-ranked team in the country.

That billing at No. 23 is the Huskers’ highest ranking in the AP Top 25 in eight years. That came on Nov. 27, 2016 when they also came in at No. 23. The Huskers’ highest ranking that season came in at No. 7 following a 7-0 start, but they dropped to No. 9 and No. 21 following back-to-back road losses, respectively, at then-No. 11 Wisconsin (23-17 in OT) and at then-No. 6 Ohio State (62-3). They won their next two games over Minnesota (24-17) and Maryland (28-7) to rise to No. 17 in the country. But they then fell to No. 23 and, eventually, No. 24 following a blowout loss at Iowa (40-10) to end the regular season.

Nebraska dropped out of the AP Top 25 altogether following a 38-24 loss to Tennessee in the Music City Bowl to end the 2016-17 season.

In 2014, the Huskers entered bowl season ranked No. 25 in the AP Top 25. However, they lost to USC, 45-42, in the Holiday Bowl to drop out of the season’s final poll.

Nebraska was last ranked in the final AP Top 25 (following bowl season) at the end of the 2012-13 season. That year, they rose all the way to No. 14 before ending the year with a 10-4 record after back-to-back losses to Wisconsin (70-31) in the Big Ten Championship Game and Georgia (45-31) in the Capital One Bowl. The Huskers finished at No. 25 in that final AP Top 25 poll.

It is very early in the season yet. But with a favorable schedule ahead – one in which the Huskers will likely be favored in their next five games (Northern Iowa, Illinois, at Purdue, Rutgers, at Indiana) before traveling to Ohio State – the road is there for some 12-year history to be wiped away.

A new era, indeed.