Another game, another Nebraska football moral victory with a one-score loss. Close losses were the theme of the Scott Frost era, but they've also plagued Matt Rhule's team. This one felt different, though. Ohio State is a national championship contender coming off a bye week after a close loss to Oregon. A big win versus the Huskers would show the nation that it belongs right next to the unbeaten teams in the Big Ten despite its loss. However, Ohio State couldn't do that, and the Huskers looked like they deserved to stand next to them. However, a loss is still a loss. And a one-score loss further pads a Nebraska football record they would rather not have.
Scott Frost, in 2021, famously set the record with eight one-score losses in a single season, going down as the greatest 3-9 team of all time. That season, I wrote that the Huskers were close to setting records for the number of one-score losses over several multi-year spans. This loss to Ohio State added another record to their Huskers belt—tying New Mexico from 1986-1998 for the most one-score losses in a 13-year span at 46.
Between 2021 and 2024, Nebraska football tied or set the record for most one-score losses every year, spanning from 1 to 14 seasons. Barney Cotton only served as the Huskers' head coach for a single game, but he was able to become one of the seven men to lead the Huskers to a one-score loss in this tragic fourteen-year record.
The record for more extended periods is within reach for Nebraska football in 2024. The Huskers from 2009-2023 were just one game short of the 15-year record set by the New Mexico Lobos from 1986-2000, which future Alabama and Texas A&M head coach Dennis Franchione primarily coached. If the Huskers lose two more close games this season, they can tie the Lobos at 52 one-score losses in a fifteen-year span. If Nebraska football manages to lose all its remaining games by one possession, it will claim at least a share of the record for all years between 1 and 21.
Nebraska football close games through the ages
Looking at active streaks only, Nebraska has the record for the 4–17-year time spans. Like the unfortunate historical records, the Huskers could expand to even more years as they are within four games of North Carolina football for each of the 18-24 season active streaks. However, if the Huskers manage to lose their last four games, a bigger conversation will be happening than a strange record.
No team in college football has more one-score losses over the 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 years than the #Huskers
— Arbitrary Analytics (@arbitanalytics) October 26, 2024
Does this all mean much? For the most part, no. It is an arbitrary data point that has become the identity of Nebraska football in recent years. With New Mexico's four-point loss in the season opener to FCS Montana State, it tied its record (set in each of the 2021, 2022, and 2023 seasons) for most losses in a 52-year span! Aided by an atrocious stretch mainly in the 1990s, New Mexico has the record for every year span between 15 and 52 seasons. The Lobos have only won 10+ games in a season once, so their decades-long stretch of mediocrity will go unnoticed.
At a storied program like the Cornhuskers have, many national pundits will remind the nation of the Husker's record in close games every time another loss happens. The only cure for Nebraska football is winning more games and rewriting the narrative.