Fresh off its overwhelming victory over the University of Illinois, the Iowa Hawkeyes are set to conclude their Big Ten schedule by taking on the hated Nebraska Cornhuskers. While Nebraska found initial success in this rivalry upon joining the conference, the Hawkeyes have gained the edge in their annual Black Friday matchup by winning three straight games by a combined eighty points. A three-game winning streak is hardly unusual in college football, but the landscape of the sport and fortunes of each team have changed dramatically since the Huskers last raised the Heroes Trophy in victory. The last time Nebraska beat Iowa:
· Jake Rudock was starting at quarterback for the Hawkeyes over CJ Beathard
· Senior Jack Hockaday, who is about to play his final game in Kinnick Stadium, was enrolled in Maroa-Forsyth high school
· Mike Riley had yet to be hired, let alone fired, by the Cornhuskers
· Current Husker head coach Scott Frost was the offensive coordinator for the University of Oregon, a school which has had three different head coaches since his departure
· There had not yet been a single officially-sanctioned playoff game played in the FBS
Nebraska fired then-head coach Bo Pelini in the immediate aftermath of the Huskers’ victory over the Hawkeyes in 2014, prompting Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst to comment that he, “had to evaluate where Iowa was,” in determining whether a win over a stagnant Iowa program was sufficient to save Pelini’s job.