Nebraska will conclude the 2023 regular season this Friday when the Huskers host the Iowa Hawkeyes at Memorial Stadium. This will be the 54th meeting between these two teams and the 13th time they’ll play for the Heroes Trophy.
Nebraska leads the all-time series with a record of 30-20-3. While Iowa leads the Heroes Trophy record with a mark of 8-4. While meeting with the media on Monday, head coach Matt Rhule told the press that he understands the importance of this rivalry to fans.
“I don’t get outside the building very much but that’s definitely something I’ve felt since I’ve gotten here. I know how much it means to our players. Obviously last year I took the job here before the game or the morning of the game. I can’t remember how exactly it played. Probably the night before. Then watched the game and saw that. I think it has a tremendous impact on the community and the team and all those things. For me the game is about these seniors. The game is about our team. I love them. I care deeply about them. Grateful for them. I want to see them win.”
He even talked about the role last year’s victory over the Hawkeyes played in having him accept the job as head coach.
“The job had been open for awhile and kind of like all the jobs that were open, you were kind of watching them each week when they were on TV, some teams weren’t always on TV but Nebraska’s always on TV so we watched it every week. I just remember that game just how free and loose they looked, how explosive they looked. You look at this defense, Trey Palmer hitting a deep ball, they don’t give those up very often so obviously he’s a great player but I just remember seeing the guys play and I remember watching the video afterwards, seeing Garrett Nelson crying as he exited the field and how much that meant to those guys personally.”
The Heroes Game between Nebraska and Iowa will take place this Friday at 11:00 a.m. and can be seen on CBS. You can find a photo gallery of Nebraska’s victory over Iowa last year below.