Miami and Nebraska have a long history and last night the Cornhuskers beat the Canes 41-31 in a wild game played in Lincoln.
Nebraska entered Saturday an even 5-5 against the Miami Hurricanes all-time. The winner of four of the last five meetings won the national championship and the history of the programs is well known: 5 Heisman Trophies, 10 national champions, and more than 1,400 wins.
Last night on ESPN primetime in front of 91,585 fans showed up — a new Memorial Stadium record for attendance — Nebraska put Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya in a brutal environment for the entire night.
The Cornhuskers take great pride that no true freshman quarterback had ever won in Memorial Stadium and that wasn’t about to change Saturday with Kaaya.
Miami was driving down the field, down by three points, when senior Josh Mitchell recovered a fumble for a 57-yard scoop-and-score that put Nebraska up by 10. It was a huge turning point for the Blackshirt defense.
After giving up a touchdown on their opponent’s opening drive for the third time in four games this season, Nebraska responded with an opening scoring drive of their own for the third time in four games. On the Huskers opening drive, Tommy Armstrong found Kenny Bell on a 40-yard scoring strike that moved Bell into a tie for third place on Nebraska’s career touchdown receptions list.
Offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s offense came into Saturday averaging 594.3 yards of offense (fifth-most in the nation) – the most they’ve averaged through week three in more than fourteen years. They finished with 459 total yards Saturday — impressive considering the Canes had held teams to 259.7 yards a game in the first three weeks (eighth-best total defense in the country).
Armstrong’s night wasn’t blemish-free, though, as the sophomore quarterback threw an interception and lost a fumble. He telegraphed a few passes, which had head coach Bo Pelini visibly upset on the sideline.
Nebraska moved to a 4-0 start for the first time since 2011 and sent the Hurricanes to a 2-2 start for the first time since 2011.
