November 26 will be a date marked down for Cornhuskers fans as one of the biggest matchups of the year. Since 2014, Nebraska has not been able to solve their Iowa problem. Two coaching regimes have been unable to get in the win column against the Hawkeyes.
It is a very symbolic loss for a program that has struggled in recent years to get over the middle tier hump in the Big Ten.
Recently, in Pete Fiutak’s breakdown of the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ 2022 season for College Football News, he listed the regular season closer in Iowa City as the key game.
You want to see the cliché of Lucy pulling the football in action? That’s what Iowa has done to Nebraska over the last four years in the Scott Frost era, and it’s been even worse than that.
There have been late heroics, a few meltdowns, blowouts, and overall, lots of pain over a seven-game losing streak. If nothing else, winning in Iowa City for the first time since 2014 would be very, very cathartic.
The schedule is light enough that Nebraska really and truly should have bowl eligibility locked up before the finishing kick of the season – at least, it had better. Now it has to finally get past this Iowa problem. – Fiutak, College Football News.
Fiutak has a good amount of optimism for a team that hasn’t made it over .500 since 2016 in what will surely be a prove-it year for Nebraska head football coach Scott Frost and the entire program. Last year, Nebraska came so close to breaking the streak, amassing a 21-6 lead, but eventually allowed 22 unanswered points to yet again fall to the Hawkeyes.
Nebraska’s 3-9 record last year wasn’t pretty, but if a few plays went differently they could’ve finished with a respectable record. Their biggest margin of defeat came against Ohio State.
The Cornhuskers took both Michigan and Michigan State to the brink of upset, both contests against the two Great Lake State teams within three points. Fans hope that Texas transfer quarterback Casey Thompson can elevate Frost’s squad in a way that new Kansas State Wildcat Adrian Martinez wasn’t able to.
It could wind up as a very important game for the Iowa Hawkeyes, too. Depending on how the three weeks prior play out, there’s the realistic possibility it could be for a return berth into the Big Ten championship game. Iowa travels to Purdue on Nov. 5, hosts Wisconsin on Nov. 12 and travels to Minnesota on Nov. 19 before its closing date in Iowa City against the Huskers.
Hawkeye fans will be hoping that seven-game winning streak against the Huskers is a harbinger of more good things to come against Nebraska.
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