Nebraska football ranked in top 25 by both AP, coaches poll

The Huskers came in at No. 23 in the Associated Press poll released Sunday afternoon and No. 24 in the coaches poll following Saturday’s 28-10 win over Colorado on NBC. NU is ranked for the first time since the opening weeks of the 2019 season while the No. 23 number is the school’s best since late in the 2016 campaign.

Nebraska — which hosts FCS-foe Northern Iowa next Saturday at 6:30 p.m. — is 2-0 for the first time in eight years. It hadn’t won its first two games with a power-conference team as an opponent since 2007.

“Ever since I’ve been here, it’s always been starting off crappy every year,” sixth-year senior linebacker John Bullock said Saturday. “So just to be able to get a good start to the season and get some momentum going into these next games will really help us as a team.”

Nebraska’s last appearance in the top 25 came early in 2019. The Huskers had come off a 4-8 showing but generated national optimism ahead of coach Scott Frost’s second year with quarterback Adrian Martinez considered a dark-horse Heisman Trophy candidate. NU opened at No. 24, dropped to No. 25 with a win over South Alabama and fell out of the rankings following an overtime loss at Colorado on the way to a 5-7 finish.

Nebraska previously had been ranked during at least parts of every season between 2009 and 2014. It also stayed for most of 2016, reaching as high as No. 7 that year as it started 7-0 before losing four of the last six games.

Energy was back in Memorial Stadium against Colorado this weekend, with swaths of students storming the field afterward. A new beginning, perhaps, for a new generation of fans.

“I think, probably a lot of people thought this was going to be a close game,” Rhule said. “I’ll be honest with you, we expected this score. We expected this to be like this. We have a good team and we felt like we were going to play really well.”

Nebraska was the equivalent of 34th and 30th in the AP poll the previous two weeks. Tumult in the bottom of last week’s top 25 created room after losses from No. 19 Kansas, No. 21 Iowa, No. 23 Georgia Tech and No. 24 NC State knocked them from the ranks.

Current Nebraska opponents still in the poll are No. 3 Ohio State and No. 11 USC.