THE 24 HOUR RULE: Huskers Have a B1G Boss Fight & The Big 400th Nebraska Dylan Raiola Matt Rhule

It’s been years since the Huskers have been involved in a battle of ranked teams and it doesn’t take a nuclear energy researcher to understand that’s because good ol’ Nebraska U hasn’t been been a part of the polls for the last several. The ‘Skers enter Saturday’s tilt ranked 22nd in both while Illinois checks in at 24th in the AP and just out of the coach’s poll.

But hey, you gotta start somewhere and a barely ranked Illinois feels like a fine Level 1 Boss Fight to kick off Big 10 conference play

Some may ask, “Hey, what about Colorado, dude?” Well, no offense to Colorado, but, much like Oregon in 2016, they were probably more on the level of Glass Joe in NES Punch Out then some spell-tossing wizard spin-circled by butcher knives.

Actually, I take that back. Of course, I mean Colorado as much offense as possible. (Yeah, yeah, it’s personal. We know..we know.)

Anyway, here’s a few fun facts about our lack of ranked battles along with a snarky remark or two in bold:

• The national ranking is Nebraska’s first since 2019. The Huskers were ranked No. 25 in both polls after the 2019 season opener, but lost the following week at Colorado. The Huskers did not return to the rankings until this year’s win over Colorado. Well, it’s not bloody vengeance, but it is nice to use the Chirp-a-loes as a stepping stone back to the polls.

• The last time Nebraska was ranked higher than this week’s No. 22 AP ranking was in 2016, when Nebraska was ranked 17th entering the regular-season finale at Iowa. 2016 – the worst ranked Huskers team ever as Mike Riley made sure the beginning of his end would include some epic beatdowns including this 40-10 debacle. (Google it on your own)

• With Illinois checking in at No. 24 in the AP poll and just outside of the top 25 in the coaches poll, Friday’s game represents the first time Nebraska has played a game involving two ranked teams since Nov. 5, 2016 at Ohio State. It is the first AP ranked vs. ranked game at Memorial Stadium since No. 22 Nebraska hosted 16th-ranked UCLA on Sept. 14, 2013. The last five ranked vs. ranked teams involving Nebraska have been on the road or in a bowl game. 2016 Ohio St – another epic unrewatchable. 2013 UCLA also got out of hand as a 21-10 halftime lead was blown to pieces by 28-point Bruin 3rd quarter.

• Friday’s game will be the first matchup of AP ranked Big Ten teams at Memorial Stadium since 2011 when 13th-ranked Nebraska defeated No. 9 Michigan State 24-3. A legit warhorse day for Rex Burkhead (35-130) and the Blackshirts as they stifled Kirk Cousins to a 11-27-86-1 and 0 TD’s line

• The Huskers’ most recent victory against a ranked team was a 35-32 victory over No. 22 Oregon on Sept. 17, 2016. Yes! The first signature win over ranked team in forever…until Oregon ended up going 4-8.

Speaking of Leveling Up

Thus far, the schedule seems to be built for breaking in a freshman QB.

A weak UTEP squad (now 0-3) to kick things off in front of a crowd. A Colorado team with plenty of hype (their top quality after Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders) and a solid defensive backfield – okay, just Travis Hunter – but little teeth. A tough, but outmatched Northern Iowa team.

Now, Dylan Raiola faces a tough Iliini defense whose strength has been pass defense. However, he gets them in front of his home crowd at night and, let’s face it – Ohio St they are not.

If he can remain the same cool, collected customer who throws accurately on screens and other short tosses and keeps delivering bullets to the medium-depth open receivers in the middle while skillfully eluding the rush when flushed out, then he should be rewarded with weapons and armor upgrades- the chances of the Huskers rising to 4-0 are very high.

I say exactly that will go down Friday night.

Stephen Bruce

400 Consecutive Sellouts

I know some scoff at this record, but to those people, I say scoff this. (Just picture me flicking the old fastball sign at you except using the digit to the left.)

The most common refrain is, “Urrr, it shouldn’t count since business owners have bought up tickets to keep it alive.” To that, I say three things:

1) And probably most important, a sold ticket is a sold ticket. And do you we really want to send stat nerds into the world trying to determine the origin of each ticket sale’s origin? Gawd, no. Sold is sold.
2) If you can still snap your fingers and a booster happily ponies up for the unsold ducats, interest must be pretty high in down times. Also, the misses must be pretty close – unless Warren Buffet or someone of similar deep pocket is making a last stand on a Friday afternoon when they’re coming up 15,000 short.
3) And if it really is that easy, then why aren’t all the blue-bloods breathing down our necks?

Simple – because it isn’t.

Stephen Bruce

The last serious challenge was Notre Dame who let their streak end at 274 in 2019, only 3000 short of selling out the Navy game. Not like the Domers are short of boosters.

I guess what I’m trying to say is this is something pretty special and a nice finger to point when a respectful argument over which team has college’s most dedicated fans goes down at the old watering hole.

And while nothing is 100% assured of being forever, we’ll likely still have that record when people are purchasing an affordable second home on Mars.

And with that, here’s a few fun facts as a salute to the people who have kept it going.

• The sellout streak begin on Nov. 3, 1962, when Nebraska took on Missouri. The Huskers are 324-75 at Memorial Stadium during the sellout streak.
• During the sellout streak, Memorial Stadium has expanded several times and capacity has grown from 31,080 in 1962 to the current capacity of 82,841.
• Nebraska has been victorious in each of the milestone sellout games in the series, defeating Penn State, 42-17, in 1979 in sellout #100, knocking off second-ranked Colorado, 24-7, in 1994 in sellout #200, and shutting out Louisiana-Lafayette, 55-0, in 2009 in the 300th consecutive sellout.
• Nebraska has a record of 324-75 during the sellout streak. Friday’s game against No. 24 Illinois is the 89th matchup against a ranked opponent during the sellout streak, with Nebraska owning a 47-39 mark in those games.

Stephen Bruce

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Illinois Fighting Illini

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