Iowa State vs. Nebraska
102 of their 105 meetings are on file: they first met in 1896, and the earliest on file is 1899; officially, Nebraska leads 86–17–2; as played, 84–16–2 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s Nebraska 7–3. The official count covers every meeting. Share
- Official series
- Nebraska leads 86–17–2
- Iowa State wins on file
- 16
- Nebraska wins on file
- 84
- Ties
- 2
- Earliest on file
- 1899 first met 1896
- Longest streak
- 15 Nebraska
- Current streak
- 1 Nebraska
- Last 10 meetings
- Nebraska 7–3
- Most recent
- 2010
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890s | 1–0 | ||||||||||
| 1900s | 1–5 | ||||||||||
| 1910s | 1–5–1 | ||||||||||
| 1920s | 0–7 | ||||||||||
| 1930s | 1–9 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 3–7 | ||||||||||
| 1950s | 2–8 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 1–9 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 2–7–1 | ||||||||||
| 1980s | 0–10 | ||||||||||
| 1990s | 1–9 | ||||||||||
| 2000s | 3–7 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 0–1 |
- Both ranked
- 3 meetings: Iowa State 1, Nebraska 1
- Average margin
- 19 points; 28 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Iowa State
- 9–36–2 Iowa State’s record at home
- At Nebraska
- 48–7 Nebraska’s record at home
- Shutouts
- 28
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Iowa State’s biggest win1899: Iowa State 33, Nebraska 0by 33 points
- Nebraska’s biggest win1997: Nebraska 77, Iowa State 14by 63 points
- Upset1992: Iowa State 19, Nebraska 10Iowa State had a 15% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset2009: Iowa State 9, Nebraska 7Iowa State had a 21% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset1949: Nebraska 7, Iowa State 0Nebraska had a 25% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Ranked showdown1972: Iowa State 23, Nebraska 23 (tie)No. 3 Nebraska at No. 17 Iowa State
- Ranked showdown1978: Nebraska 23, Iowa State 0No. 10 Nebraska at No. 15 Iowa State
- Ranked showdown2002: Iowa State 36, Nebraska 14No. 20 Nebraska at No. 19 Iowa State
Coach against coach
| Years | Iowa State | Series | Nebraska |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1907–1910 | Clyde Williams | 0–3 | King Cole |
| 1926–1928 | C. Noel Workman | 0–3 | Ernest Bearg |
| 1931–1936 | George Veenker | 0–6 | Dana Bible |
| 1937–1940 | Jim Yeager | 1–3 | Biff Jones |
| 1949–1953 | Abe Stuber | 0–5 | William Glassford |
| 1958–1961 | Clay Stapleton | 2–2 | William Jennings |
| 1962–1967 | Clay Stapleton | 0–6 | Bob Devaney |
| 1968–1972 | Johnny Majors | 0–4–1 | Bob Devaney |
| 1973–1978 | Earle Bruce | 2–4 | Tom Osborne |
| 1979–1982 | Donnie Duncan | 0–4 | Tom Osborne |
| 1983–1986 | Jim Criner | 0–4 | Tom Osborne |
| 1987–1994 | Jim Walden | 1–7 | Tom Osborne |
| 1995–1997 | Dan McCarney | 0–3 | Tom Osborne |
| 1998–2003 | Dan McCarney | 1–5 | Frank Solich |
| 2004–2006 | Dan McCarney | 1–2 | Bill Callahan |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Iowa State’s side (Williams 0–3 against Cole). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Biggest days
| Zac Taylor Nebraska | 36 of 55, 431 yards, 2 TD | 2005 Passing |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on).
From the newspapers
1916 · Western liberal, Lordsburg, N.M., Nov 10, 1916
1919 · Omaha daily bee, Nov 2, 1919
1922 · South Bend news-times, South Bend, Ind., Nov 27, 1922
1929 · Brownsville herald. (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, Texas, Nov 29, 1929
1930 · Brownsville herald. (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, Texas, Oct 19, 1930
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 earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field.