There was once a time when Nebraska was consistently rated among the top teams in the country and had little trouble beating unranked opponents.
These days, the shoes are on the other foot and the Huskers are having a hard time walking in them -- Nebraska takes an 18-game losing streak against opponents ranked higher than 20th into Saturday's road matchup at Texas Tech and is looking to break what is becoming a very difficult losing streak.
The streak got an ugly start in 2001 when the Huskers, ranked No. 2 at the time, walked into Boulder and got waxed by then-No. 14 Colorado 62-36. At the time, it was the most points a team had scored on Nebraska in its long and storied history, but it started a streak that continued Saturday when No. 4 Missouri beat Nebraska 52-17.
In fact, Nebraska has just one win against a ranked team since that time, a 32-28 win over 20th ranked Michigan in the 2005 Alamo Bowl. Nebraska's struggles against ranked opponents since the Nov. 23, 2001 at Colorado is as follows (team rankings in parenthesis):
Nov. 23, 2001 -- (14) Colorado 62, (2) Nebraska 36
*-Jan. 3, 2002 -- (1) Miami 37, (4) Nebraska 14
Sept. 28, 2002 -- (19) Iowa State 36, (20) Nebraska 14
Nov. 2, 2002 -- (7) Texas 27, Nebraska 24
Nov. 16, 2002 -- (11) Kansas State 49, Nebraska 13
Nov. 29, 2002 -- (13) Colorado 28, Nebraska 13
Nov. 1, 2003 -- (16) Texas 31, (12) Nebraska 7
Nov. 13, 2004 -- (2) Oklahoma 30, Nebraska 3
Oct. 8, 2005 -- (15) Texas Tech 34, Nebraska 31
Sept. 16, 2006 -- (4) USC 28, (19) Nebraska 10
Oct. 21, 2006 -- (5) Texas 22, (17) Nebraska 20
**-Dec. 2, 2006 -- (8) Oklahoma 21, (19) Nebraska 7
#-Jan. 1, 2007 -- (10) Auburn 17, (22) Nebraska 14
Sept. 15, 2007 -- (1) USC 49, (14) Nebraska 31
Oct. 6, 2007 -- (17) Missouri 41, (25) Nebraska 6
Oct. 27, 2007 -- (17) Texas 28, Nebraska 25
Nov. 3, 2007 -- (8) Kansas 76, Nebraska 39
Oct. 4, 2008 -- (4) Missouri 52, Nebraska 17
*--2002 BCS championship at Rose Bowl
**--2006 Big 12 championship game at Kansas City
#--2007 Cotton Bowl at Dallas
Nebraska has at least three games remaining against teams that should be ranked in the top 20 when Nebraska faces them -- Saturday at No. 7 Texas Tech, Nov. 1 at top-ranked Oklahoma and the following week at home against 16th-ranked Kansas.
