Nebraska football: Ranking the 5 toughest games on the 2021 schedule
By Ethan Lee
No. 5: Nebraska football at Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Golden Gophers are headed into their fifth season of the P.J. Fleck era of Minnesota football and last season was pretty rough. After winning 11 games in 2019, Minnesota took a huge step back in 2020, managing to win just three of their seven games.
Unfortunately for Scott Frost and the Huskers, one of those three games Minnesota won last season was against Nebraska in Lincoln. Minnesota was able to come out on top of that game, winning 24-17.
In 2019, the last time the Huskers hit the road to go to Minneapolis, the Golden Gophers were able to win that game as well. Two seasons ago, Minnesota beat Nebraska 34-7, completely shutting the Huskers’ offense down and steamrolling them in the process.
Nebraska happened to win the 2018 match up with Minnesota, but the Golden Gophers absolutely destroyed the Huskers in 2017, which was also in Minneapolis.
If you’re keeping score, Minnesota has won three of the last five meetings with Nebraska, which isn’t ideal for Frost and the Huskers.
The timing of this game also isn’t ideal for the Nebraska football team.
Nebraska will head on to face Minnesota just one week after hosting a Michigan Wolverines team that has a lot to prove this season. And while Michigan may not be all that great, the Wolverines are still a talented bunch who could cause problems for the Huskers. So we’ll see if that has any impact on Nebraska in this game.