From Worst to First: Ranking Every Nebraska Football Team of the 21st Century

Twenty-five years of the 21st Century reside squarely in Husker history books.

The time is now to evaluate which iteration of the Huskers was the best of the new era, and of course, which were the absolute worst.

The list is ordered from First to Worst because, while theres little drama for who belongs on top, theres plenty of room for debate on who occupies the basement.

The criteria: Win-loss record obviously, with strength of schedule factored in.

Offensive and defensive performance being elite on one side of the ball can save you.

Talent on the roster who would beat whom on a neutral field.

The eye test because sometimes you just know.

Where to even begin here? Probably in Ireland with a loss to Northwestern.

Not that bad of a loss at the time, but then it became Northwesterns only win of the year (sigh).

Frosts last team was a Frankensteins monster stitched together with transfers and JUCO guys.

The offensive line was the worst since two-platoon football was legalized.

And that defense woof! They got bullied by (checks notes) Georgia Southern.

Defensive coordinator Eric Chinander was fired after Oklahoma fire-bombed them 49-14.

Sure, the 2007 and 2017 defenses were statistically worse.

But they faced schedules ranked in the Top 15.

The 2022 team faced the nations 55th best.

And it was lucky to squeeze out four wins.

The lone bright spot? Iowas one loss to Nebraska in the last ten years was to its worst team.

In hindsight, I wonder if the players would have still pushed to play this season knowing how it would play out.

Theyre responsible for perhaps the worst loss in modern history, to a Minnesota team playing without a third of its roster.

Thats if you dont consider that Illinois loss the worst.

Just watch the fake punt in that game if you want to see the Frost era captured in a single play.

On offense, Adrian Martinez and Luke McCaffrey traded starts while virtuosic receiver WanDale Robinson was wasted running up the middle he didnt even have a touchdown until the very last game.

If you want to know how bad expectations were, note that Husker fans were feeling optimistic after a 52-17 loss to Ohio State in the delayed opener.

The defense improved towards the end of the year as the competition eased up but still allowed 29 points per game.

Then they didnt even want to play in a bowl game.

No heart, no cohesion.

I wont fight you if you think this was the nadir.

There was no reasonable reason the defense shouldve been this bad, but the strain lasted all year under Defensive Coordinator Bob Diaco, anointed by Shawn Eichorst as the best coach on campus.

I shudder to think of who the worst was.

They lost four games by 21+ points, the worst of which was a 54-21 decision against a bad Minnesota team that ripped off 400+ rushing yards behind a one-dimensional QB who ran for 18.3 yards a carry.

The 2007 defense was marginally worse, but that team had talent and an offense that could punch back.

This one lost to Northern Illinois thanks to Tanner Lees pick six penchant.

Give the fans credit they didnt boo, they just left at halftime.

This team was just plain ugly.

Nebraska looked ungainly migrating from an I-form option scheme to the West Coast offense under newly hired head man, Bill Callahan.

His incumbent triggerman, Joe Dailey, led the nation in picks and made the forehead-slapping mistake of running out of bounds on fourth down...

against Southern Miss...

at home.

The defense regressed badly despite returning what some considered the best secondary in the country, plus NFL talents in Adam Carriker, Stewart Bradley, and Barrett Ruud.

Callahan hung that defense out to dry in a 60-point loss to Texas Tech, still the worst loss in school history.

It didnt have to be this bad.

But it was.

Thanks, Bill.

The worst defense, statistically, in modern Nebraska history and, given the talent on it, unforgivably so.

This was the death knell of Kevin Cosgroves career.

He couldnt handle spread teams, who blitzkrieged his defenses to the tune of 476 yards and 37.9 points a game, giving up 60 touchdowns in total, all worst in NU history.

They also mustered a paltry 13 sacks after leading the nation two years prior.

But the offense had a pulse, with check-down connoisseur Sam Keller making Marlon Lucky the season record holder for receptions.

Callahan, knowing he was a dead man walking, emptied the playbook in shootouts against Kansas State and Colorado, and the team ended the season with more yards (468.2) and first downs per game (24.3) than any other team of the 2000s, a strange side note to an otherwise feckless team.

The hardest team to evaluate.

They had the worst record of the era but were fundamentally stronger than many of the teams on this list, the defense especially.

They ended with a positive point differential, unlike several others on this list, and faced a murderous schedule of eight teams that won nine games or more.

They famously lost all nine of their games by single digits.

But the score also lied in losses to Illinois and Minnesota, where they were soundly beaten.

They were close to pulling off program-changing wins over Michigan, Oklahoma, and Michigan State.

But almost doesnt count.

Winners win.

They didnt.

The most disappointing team on this list.

They went from being the Big Ten West preseason favorite to finishing near last.

How? For starters, the offense was clunky and never as in sync as it was to end 2018 it was apparent from the opening drive of the season versus South Alabama.

Then they gave up a 17-point lead to a bad Colorado team that wrenched their quarterbacks knee the year prior.

They still, by some misfortune, got GameDay in town for the Ohio State tilt and were promptly humiliated on Primetime television, going down 48-0 before netting a score.

Then they lost four of five down the stretch to miss a bowl game for the third straight year.

Whether it was mishandling the Maurice Washington case, ripping into the team after the Indiana loss, or calling a shovel pass at the goal line at Purdue, this squad was mismanaged at every turn.

Yeah, they started off a program-worst 0-6 and maybe belong further down this list.

But the latter half of the season featured the one team under Frost that clicked, at least on offense.

The defense remained a work-in-progress, barely improving over the 2017 outfit, which makes it one of the very worst of any era.

They went 4-2 down the stretch with close losses to Iowa and Ohio State.

Devine Ozigbo developed into peak form, earning Lifter of the Year honors and becoming a rare 1,000-yard rusher despite not even starting until the Purdue game.

Meanwhile, Stanley Morgan Jr.

broke the programs receiving records.

Both would be greatly missed Frost never replaced either of them.

Fans still wonder what would have happened had the Akron game not been rained out.

Ah, those halcyon days when blowouts were fresh and new and mind-bogglingly frustrating.

This squad embodied the programs slow bleed: a thinning talent pool paired with an offensive scheme stuck in another era.

New starter Jammal Lord, replacing a Heisman winner, was a dangerous runner but also loose with the football.

He was picked off 12 times, never more painfully than when he threw a pick on the last play of an upset bid against Texas.

The Special Teams were maybe the best NU has ever had with senior Kris Brown kicking, Kyle Larson punting, Big XII career yardage leader Josh Davis returning kickoffs, and DeJuan Groce earning All-American status as punt returner.

Sadly, the defense couldnt say the same.

Senior rush end Chris Kelsay was injured most of the year after wreaking havoc against a plucky ASU squad.

The Huskers walked into nightmares in Happy Valley and Ames before watching Bill Snyder run up the score in Manhattan.

By seasons end, opponents were calling the defense the Blackskirts.

They still showed heart in the loss to Texas and the comeback victory over A&M.

But imagine someone telling you in 2002 that there would be eight teams worse than this one by 2025.

A historically bad offense meant a Top 15 defense was wasted.

Nebraska averaged 312 yards of offense and 18 points a game, worst since 1968, to finish 117th nationally.

They lost their top two quarterbacks to injury, two of their top running backs, and saw most of their wide receiving corps decimated by injury Marcus Washington, Billy Kemp, Isaiah Garcia-Castenada or departure Zavier Betts.

Heinrich Haarberg heroically sacrificed his body to eke out yards, hoping to drag Nebraska to a bowl game, but it was for naught.

The Huskers couldnt catch a break, losing their last four bowl-clinching games by one score.

Rhule should have kept Casey Thompson around instead of opting for Jeff Sims, the most turnover-prone player in program history.

Some claimed the 2015 Huskers were sandbagging in protest of Bo Pelinis firing.

True or not, they were wildly inconsistent losing to a historically bad Purdue one week, then toppling a playoff-bound Michigan State the next for the best win of the era.

Theyd lose to Iowa to end the season and then beat up a talented UCLA team in the Foster Farms Bowl.

Dont forget the last-second losses to BYU and Illinois.

What a season.

The run defense, bulwarked by Maliek Collins and Vincent Valentine, was rock solid, but the pass defense was a sieve, surrendering a program-worst 290 yards per game.

Tommy Armstrongs YOLO throws often sabotaged drives, but in Connellys SP+ formula, they actually ranked 36th a full 10 spots higher than their 2016 successor hinting at just how much they could have accomplished if theyd ever put it all together.

Like most teams of the first 25 years, this one left wins on the table.

True freshman Dylan Raiola started the year hot.

Hed end up completing two-thirds of his passes for 2,800 yards, leading all true freshmen nationally.

But the Illinois game showed NUs receivers couldnt separate from press-man coverage and gave opponents a blueprint that led to a late-season swoon.

That was aided in part by a defense that took a step back from its 2023 form, particularly in the secondary, giving up 56 points to upstart Indiana.

They completely shut down Ohio State and Iowas run game, but still lost both, partly because of awful Special Teams that saw ten thats right, ten kicks blocked.

But unlike most teams on this list, they beat Wisconsin.

They also went to the programs first bowl game since Mike Riley paced the sideline.

Time will tell if this was the squad that turned the corner for the program.

A mirage of a record to be sure, they still won and did so with a strong tackling defense and a positive turnover margin, the Huskers finishing plus-five on the year.

The offense strangely regressed despite returning loads of experience, never more painfully than when they failed to put Wisconsin away in Madison.

Still, they humbled Josh Allen and Wyoming, tore the roof off Memorial Stadium in a thrilling win versus Oregon, and put away Maryland with Tommy Armstong on the sideline.

But they also lost 62-3 to Ohio State, 40-10 to Iowa, and 38-24 to Tennessee, Armstrongs loss to injury gravely felt in all three (he left OSU early with a concussion).

This was the rare Husker team that both played to its level of talent and got a little bit of luck, too.

A ferocious pass rush led the country with 50 sacks, best of the 2000s for the Blackshirts.

They boasted a stalwart defensive line that helped a linebacker corps decimated by injury, while the secondary, even without Fabian Washington and Josh Bullocks, still improved thanks to Zack Bowman and Joshs brother, Daniel.

Zac Taylor arrived from JUCO to upgrade the passing attack after a trying first year in the West Coast Offense.

The offensive line, still a patchwork of position transfers and JUCOs after the previous staffs recruiting misses, produced the worst rushing offense since the stat was tracked at NU.

They figured it out by the time they visited Folsom, pantsing the Buffaloes 30-3 and handing venomous coach Gary Barnett his walking papers.

That ranked second on the feel-good scale, only to beat a Michigan team eager to settle the shared 97 title on the field.

Still waiting on Chad Henne to mail Nebraska their Waterford Crystal trophy.

Callahans best team posted a workmanlike nine wins against five losses.

The defensive line, anchored by Adam Carriker and Jay Moore, allowed just 116 yards rushing per game.

But a less proficient pass rush meant that the corners were picked on early and often, and they gave up 244 yards a game through the air.

They were close to breaking through - a lost fumble against Texas away from a top-five win, and a flat performance against Oklahoma in the conference championship, kept them from that elusive, narrative-changing victory.

Senior captain Zac Taylor earned Big XII Offensive Player of the Year honors, highlighted by a perfectly placed lob to Maurice Purify to seal the win over Texas A&M.

But a listless Cotton Bowl loss to Auburn left them unranked, and fans unsure whether to feel encouraged or concerned.

The offense picked up where it left off in 2012 behind Ameer Abdullah, whod win 3rd Team All-America honors.

Sadly, the defense did too.

A young team playing several freshmen gave up 602 yards to Wyoming in the opener, forfeited an 18-point lead to UCLA at home, and then yielded nearly 10 yards a carry to FCS back, Zach Zenner.

The defense continued its frustrating downward trend under Pelini, allowing 10 yards more per game than the 2012 squad that was often porous.

Senior Taylor Martinez was lost for the year after a lingering injury, giving way to precocious freshman Tommy Armstrong.

In true Pelini fashion, they outplayed Big Ten champion Michigan State but lost soundly due to five turnovers in their own territory theyd finish 120th nationally in turnover margin.

Also in Pelini fashion, they closed in tight games, as they did in wins against Penn State, Michigan, and, most famously, Northwestern.

The Michigan win snapped a 19-game win streak in the Big House for Big Blue, and the Huskers snuck into the final Coaches poll after beating Georgia in a rain-soaked Gator Bowl.

It was the last time they finished a season ranked.

In his final season, Solich had little offensive firepower at his disposal.

No matter.

In the offseason, he hired a fiery young defensive savant named Bo Pelini.

He fielded a re-energized defense that led the Big XII in pass efficiency, produced turnovers in bunches, and held opponents to 7.8 points per game in their 10 wins.

However, they also allowed 36.7 in their three losses to K-State, Texas, and Mizzou.

Jammal Lord was a less productive runner the offense basically lived and died with his play-action passing but he managed to mostly not lose games for the defense.

Special Teams shined, with opponents hitting only half their field goals and punter Kyle Larson setting the school record with 45.1 yards a punt.

They finished 18th in the Coaches poll and Nebraska hasnt lost fewer than three games since.

The special teams, taken over by Bo after a dreadful 2013, were leagues better, finishing the season ranked number one in efficiency.

But the defense was statistically the worst of Pelinis tenure, allowing 383 yards a game.

Never was that more apparent than the 408 yards given up to Melvin Gordon, briefly giving him the NCAA record for rushing yards in a game.

The offense was stacked, with senior Ameer Abdullah turning in a stellar season and Tommy Armstrong rocketing passes to Kenny Bell, Jordan Westerkamp, and spritely freshman DeMornay Pierson-El.

By years end, they had produced the second-highest scoring average of any Husker team in the last 25 years.

No one will soon forget the emphatic victory over Miami in Lincoln.

But Pelini was fired after the season, and fans were left pondering why he could never get them over the hump.

They were picked to win the conference in their inaugural year on the back of three defensive stars Alfonzo Dennard, Lavonte David, and Jared Crick and returning wunderkind, Taylor Martinez.

But Dennard and Crick were hurt for much of the year, leaving David to roam sideline-to-sideline as a lone wolf.

He was up to the task, single-handedly changing games against Penn State, OSU, and Iowa.

Martinez was not his confident 2010 self, and it showed.

His throwing mechanics were widely lampooned, and his speed never reached 2010 levels.

The Huskers went back to getting blown out again, as they did in Madison and Ann Arbor.

The loss to Northwestern was a typical Pelini head-scratcher.

This team showed that Bo had reached a plateau it was apparent from the get-go he couldnt match the talent of his 2009-10 squads.

After the bowl loss to South Carolina, assistant Corey Raymond pointed to it himself: Look at them, look at us .

Its pretty obvious, They were cardiac kids, winning several close games before getting their doors blown off by Wisconsin in what was supposed to be a lay-up title game.

The offense was good, pacing the Big Ten with 460 yards per game, more than even the 2000 and 2001 outfits.

That was because it featured the best offensive line since Fonoti left the building.

They scored 30 or 31 points in all four of their losses, including against a Georgia team that nearly played for (and assuredly would have won) the BCS title.

But in their four losses, the defense gave up an average of 53.5 points and 595 yards.

Wisconsin averaged 10.7 yards per play, Georgia 8.3.

It was the last time Nebraska won double-digit games.

Pelinis first season was spent teaching the defense to walk again.

Luckily, he inherited loads of talent.

Suh was coming off an ACL tear but finding his footing as the season progressed.

So was the rest of the defense they got shellacked by Missouri in Lincoln and then gave up 35 points to Oklahoma in Norman.

But the team won their last four, capped by a win over a Clemson squad loaded with NFL talent.

It was only made possible by a lights-out offense Joe Ganz threw to an underrated receiving corps of Nate Swift, Todd Peterson, and Tight End Mike McNeil.

As USA Today scribe Paul Myerberg said, If Nebraska could have combined its 2008 offense with [2009s] defense, well, it would have played for the national championship.

Still, gimme Ganz, Swift, Suh, and Amukamara over anything weve seen post-2010.

One word, three letters: Suh.

He and his defensive cohorts led the country in pass defense and points allowed.

They flummoxed future NFL quarterbacks Tyrod Taylor, Colt McCoy, and Nick Foles, forcing all three into career-worst days.

Bottom line: this was one of the best if not the best defenses in NU history.

The offense held it back from championship form, though.

After a disappointing loss to Va Tech, Pelini shut the offense down and operated mostly out of 22 personnel.

Zac Lee lobbing jump balls to Niles Paul was the total sum of the passing game, while Roy Helu and Rex Burkhead ran tough behind an oft-injured line.

Going into a shell worked to some degree this was one of the few teams that had a positive turnover margin.

But ranking 99th in total yardage limited their championship bona fides.

Despite the shortcomings, this was Nebraska flirting with elite status again.

They finished 14th in the AP poll, still their best showing since 2001.

According to Bill Connellys SP+ formula, this was the best team of the post-Solich era.

Sure, they struggled under pressure to finally beat Texas, losing in Lincoln to a team that wouldnt even play in a bowl.

Then Martinez was hobbled in losses to Oklahoma and Washington.

The Texas A&M officiating fiasco was a cheap parting shot from the Big XII Nebraska unsurprisingly finished with a program record 109 penalties.

But they also finished 5th nationally in pass defense in the offensive-minded Big XII, 9th nationally in points allowed.

Lavonte David set the NU record for tackles in a season with 152.

They had ample talent, with seven players getting drafted the following spring, and were good enough to go 12-1, but repeatedly shot themselves in the foot.

Their victories against Washington, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State say what the stats cannot this team was damn good.

The defense struggled in Bohls first year in charge, allowing more points per game 19 than theyd allowed since the 50s.

The Blackshirts struggled to get inside pressure from the D-Line, didn't match well with slot receivers, and sacked the quarterback only 25 times, the lowest on record at the time.

Quicksilver QB Eric Crouch was also hamstrung with a bad elbow for much of the year, which hurt his passing numbers.

But who cares? They still put up 2000s-era bests for rushing yards (349) and points per game (41.5).

Then they ended the year by toying with Big Ten co-champion Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl and finishing 8th in the final AP poll.

When they put it all together, this was the best team of the 2000s.

Sadly, it was also the first.

Nebraskas last ride of the championship era and the only team of the 21st century to win 11 games, this was a less talented squad than their 2000 forebears that had guys like Dominic Raiola, Randy Stella, and Carlos Polk.

However, the defense got better in the second year of Defensive Coordinator Craig Bohls run, and the O-Line more than held their own behind the massive Toniu Fonoti.

Case in point: they produced an NCAA-record four players who rushed for 100+ yards in their conference clash with Baylor.

Crouch recovered from a banged-up 2000 season to go on a Heisman-winning campaign, completing 7% more passes than he did in 2000 and lighting the highlight reels on fire with his electric play.

The two losses were horrendous, sure, but a good Colorado team ran roughshod on the defense in 2000, too.

And even the Huskers best teams would have struggled to subdue that Miami squad.

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