Kansas at Nebraska

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  Omaha daily bee, Omaha [Neb.], November 20, 1916, page 3

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  DEFEAT MAY MAKE NEBRASKA ELEVEN Waloping Administered by Kansas May Prove Tonic for Cornhuskers. WHO GETS CHAMPIONSHIP? L HClS 10 hiliS ouSpiSioh lhdt the defeat of the Cornhuskers at the hand OF the hated Jayhawk at Lincoln Saturday, may have been a good thing. ... Defeat has been the making of many foot ball team, perhaps it will prove the tonic that the 1916 Ne braska eleven has been needing all year. Not since the fall of 1912 had Ne braska tasted defeat. That year Minnesota licked Stiehm’s men. In 1918, 1914 and 1915 the Cornhuskers bowled over such worthy opponents as Minnesota, Michiga Aggies, Notre Dame, Iowa and all the Missouri Val ley schools. Not since 1909 had Ne braska lost Missouri Valley cham pionship and not since 1909 had Kan sas so much as scored a touchdown against the Cornhuskers, let alone a victory. Nebraska went into the game Saturday with a brilliant record behind it. Kansas followers were predicting a victory for their hopefuls, but they warent risking any even money, they were demanding heavy, very heavy odds and not betting much at that. To Nebraska supporters hostile victory seemed remote. 1t probably occurred to the team itself the same way. And it is at times like these that defeat is good thing. Punch Is Lacking. Nebraska had been playing all fall a brand of foot ball that failed to bring results. The Cornhuskers won over the Kansas Aggies, ID to 0. They won over Ames, by the narrow margin Of 3 to 0. In both games they gained a great many more yards than their opponents. They did that against Kansas too. But it was when the ball was in the middle of the field, many yards away from the goal line, that Nebraska earned its yards. 1t played great game then. But when ever the pigskin was in striking dis lance of the enemy’s goal, the punch Immediately disappeared. That showed there was too much confidence on the part of the players, not that quiet confidence in the abil ity of the team to win, which is al ways valuable asset, but an individual confidence, which means the men weren’t playing together. Each man was playing for himself and such playing seldom wins foot ball games. Show Real Fight. -Four times Saturday the Cornhuskers fought like wildcats. Those four times Kansas had the ball within ten yards of the Cornhusker goal. Those four times the Huskers realized how desperate the situation was and they pulled themselves together and played real foot ball. The Huskers have the foot ball in them, but they haven’t been playing it. 1t is not surprising, however, that the Huskers have been overcome dent. The student body, iH fact, the entire state, has been overconfdent. A bare handful of loyal rooters from Kansas Saturday made more noise and showed more spirit than the hundreds of Nebraska rooters. Too much prosperity has ruined many man, and it looks very much as if it put the blink on the Nebraska foot ball team last Saturday. Iowa Becomes Favorite. As a result of the defeat at the hands of Kansas, Nebraska will go to Iowa City to battle the Hawkeyes next Saturday with the odds on the Jones’ crew. Iowa has a fair scoring machine this year, it proved that by running up nineteen points on Ames and scoring on Northwestern. Ne tbraska couldn’t score on Ames, it didn’t even come close. So the dope reads that Iowa will score on Ne braska, while Nebraska won’t be able to score on iowa, unless it should be by one of Captain Tim Corey’s place kicks. But that Kansas defeat, we reiterate, may be the making of the Huskers and they may upset the dope by exhibiting powerful scoring ma chine at Iowa City. Stewart may be able to teach his proteges to show the same fight when they approach the enemy’s goal line that they show when the enemy approaches their goal line. The defeat may make it possible for him to drill that fight into them and if it does, as it has with many other teams, Nebraska should win from Iowa and give Notre Dame stiff tussle. But if the defeat has the other effect, tendency to dis courage, good night. The result Saturday makes the Missouri, Valley championship a beautiful affair. Nebraska was defeated by Kansas. Kansas was defeated by Ames., Ames was defeated by Ne braska. Missouri was defeated by the Kansas Aggies and the Kansas Aggies were defeated by Nebraska. If the Missouri Valley must award championship this year, we’ll give it to Drake, it lost every game.

Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The text is the machine reading of the page, mistakes and all.

Officially, Nebraska leads 91–⁠23–⁠3; as played, 88–⁠18–⁠3 in the 109 games on file; the official count covers all 117 meetings, counting the 94 since this game.