Nebraska football legend blasts Huskers' pregame antics vs Iowa

Before the Nebraska football game vs. Iowa began, the bad blood of a Big Ten rivalry boiled over several times. First was the Hawkeyes sending out armed police to make sure the Huskers didn’t hold their team prayer on the 50-yard line.

That apparently set of a string of bad behavior that carried over to the pre-game coin toss. It was during the start of the game where NU players were seen refusing to shake Iowa captain’s hands. Keep in mind, these are Nebraska game captains. Leaders. Showing the least amount of sportsmanship possible.

Not only did they behave poorly before the game, but they lost. Which makes things that much worse. But it was the refusal of shaking hands that had one former Nebraska football star putting the program on blast. 

Nebraska football embarrasses itself before and during game

Retweeting a video capturing the Huskers refusing the handshake, former offensive lineman Rob Zatechka as short, sweet and to the point. “This isn’t my program.”

According to Iowa players, that wasn’t the only antics the Huskers got up to in the leadup to the Black Friday game. 

"Our guys are warming up during our pregame,” Hawkeyes defender Jay Higgins said after the game.  “And their head coach walked through the warmup, so we immediately knew what type of game this was. “So, after the game, since they didn't want to shake our hands before the game, I went up to their head coach and shook his hand. Told him good game."

While the Hawkeyes are not really in a position to lecture another team about sportsmanship, since they routinely behave poorly after big wins over NU, it’s disheartening to hear the Cornhuskers program was behaving this way going into a game.

It’s the kind of behavior that Nebraska football fans would be blasting if another team did it. The Huskers didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory on Friday night.