Nebraska’s archvillain? How About Those Iowa Hawkeyes?

ESPN selected archvillains for each of its top 25 college football teams. Since the Huskers aren’t in ESPN’s top 25, they aren’t on worldwide leader’s list.

We can’t let the top 25 programs have all the fun. Some ESPN examples: For Ohio State, it’s Michigan coach Sherrone Moore. For Michigan, it’s Ohio State. For Penn State, it’s Ohio State coach Ryan Day. Maybe someday, Huskers coach Matt Rhule will make this provocative list.

ESPN's list got us thinking about who or what Nebraska’s archvillain would be for 2025.

We came up with two. One jumped out immediately. One that deserves such a distinction. One that has built a terrific, if not always satisfying, rivalry with the Huskers.

Iowa.

Nebraska has suffered some brutal losses to Iowa, which is an accelerant to a rivalry. Iowa has won nine of the last 10 meetings. The Hawkeyes have won six consecutive games at Memorial Stadium.

The last seven games have been one-score margins, with Iowa winning six of them. Four of those seven victories were on walk-off field goals.

The one before that streak? Iowa 56, Nebraska 14, in Lincoln in 2017.

A win in last year’s game would have guaranteed Nebraska a long-sought winning record. Iowa prevailed, 13-10. The Huskers led 10-0 at the half and led 10-3 going into the fourth quarter. Iowa’s Drew Stevens kicked a 53-yard field goal as time expired to win the game.

The Huskers got their winning season anyway, but it took a 20-15 win over Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl to secure it.

The Athletic recently selected the top 100 college football rivalries. Nebraska was chosen three times — Oklahoma (the sixth-best rivalry), Colorado (the 33rd-best rivalry) … and Iowa (the 44th-best rivalry).

About the Nebraska-Iowa rivalry, The Athletic wrote: “Of all the series forged in realignment over the last 15 years, this one has emerged as the fiercest. It pits two passionate fan bases from border states that didn’t know they disliked one another until they started playing every year.”

And, here’s a second archvillain for Nebraska

We came up with a second archvillain, not as straightforward but always on the horizon and it’s coming from inside the house. It’s the Huskers’ history. When your background is as rich and storied as Nebraska’s, the recent lack of success has been difficult to watch unfold. Expectations always are high. Realistic expectations, given the program’s status and recent results, always are not.

Every Nebraska fan wants the program to return to the glory days and glorious years, when preseason conversations centered around whether the Huskers could win a national championship, not whether they could squeeze out a winning season and go to a low-level bowl game.

Many have referred to Nebraska football as a “sleeping giant.” They aren’t wrong. Many elements for success are in place in Lincoln — facilities, money, hunger for success, culture, history. Sometimes the road back takes longer than anyone wants, even with all of the advantages of place, purpose and program.

Times have changed, dramatically, in the college football world since Nebraska was dominant. It’s nearly time to see if Nebraska has, too.