With just 70 days remaining until the kickoff of Nebraska’s 2024 season and no current Husker donning the No. 70 jersey, Cornhuskers Wire looks back at the 1970 Nebraska Cornhuskers team that brought home the first of two straight national championships to Lincoln.
In 1970, the Huskers were in their ninth season under head coach Bob Devaney, who was winding down his career with the program. He would eventually retire in 1972 with a career record of 136-30-7, a pair of national championships, and eight Big Eight conference titles.
That season, the Huskers also had future head coach Tom Osborne as the program’s offensive coordinator in his second season and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, also in his second season.
To open their season, the Huskers defeated Wake Forest in Lincoln, cruising to a 36-12 victory. The only “blemish” on their record that season came one week later. In a top-10 showdown at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Huskers tied the then-No. 3 ranked USC Trojans 21-21.
After that tie, the Huskers never looked back, dominating the rest of their schedule. In the regular season following the tie to USC, they would pick up wins over Army, Minnesota, No. 16 Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Colorado, Iowa State, No. 20 Kansas State, and Oklahoma.
Of those nine wins, eight were double-digit victories, with their smallest margin of victory coming in their regular-season finale against Oklahoma, a 28-21 win.
After finishing the regular season with a 10-0-1 record, the Huskers would draw No. 5 LSU in the 1971 Orange Bowl. Entering the Orange Bowl on January 1, 1971, the LSU Tigers owned a 9-2 record and sat at No. 5 in the AP Poll.
The Huskers in the game would open up the scoring with a 26-year field goal by Paul Rogers to take a 3-0, and they added a touchdown from Joe Orduna less than a minute later to extend their lead to 10-0.
After facing an early double-digit deficit, LSU scored the next 13 points in the game over the second and third quarters to take a 12-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Huskers got back on the board with a Jerry Tagge one-yard touchdown, which put the Huskers back on top 17-12, which would go on to be the game’s final score.
Following the bowl games, the Huskers were ranked No. 1 in the nation, ranked No. 1 over Notre Dame (10-1) and Texas (10-1) to claim the national championship. The Huskers had 39 first-place votes to Notre Dame’s eight and Texas’s 3. Arizona State was the only other program to receive first-place votes, with two following a perfect 11-0 season.
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