The USC-Nebraska football series is, as we mentioned earlier this week, a football clash which could have been so much more than it actually was. The two teams met in 1969 and 1970, in the midst of hugely prosperous times at both schools. Yet, Nebraska wasn’t a juggernaut in 1969, and USC wasn’t elite in 1970. The Trojans, in 1970, began a two-year lull before they revived themselves and roared back to the top of the sport in 1972.
USC failed to win the Pacific-8 Conference in both 1970 and 1971. Stanford went to the Rose Bowl in those two years before USC woke up and made four of the next five Rose Bowls and six of the next eight. Yet, in the midst of a difficult 1970 campaign in which the Trojans lost four games, they saved their best for two titans of college football: Notre Dame and Nebraska.
USC handed the Irish a stinging defeat which made it highly likely that Notre Dame would not win the 1970 national title. Notre Dame did not control its national championship destiny entering the 1971 Cotton Bowl against Texas.
Interestingly enough, that win over Notre Dame helped the team USC tied in 1970: Nebraska.
USC fought the Huskers to a 21-21 draw, marking the only game Nebraska failed to win in an 11-0-1 season under coach Bob Devaney.
Nebraska won the national title. Notre Dame finished No. 2 in the AP polls. The difference: Nebraska did not lose to the Trojans, but the Irish did. USC lost four times in 1970 but went unbeaten against the top two teams in the country. Go figure.
[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=696092289]