No clue how old you are, but perhaps you don’t know about or remember how long it too T.O. to get over the hump against Oklahoma. Were they not Nebraska’s main rival, even while they were beating us every year???
Well first, they were
already well established as our rival because for the decade+ before T.O. we had great back and forth battles usually when both teams were in the top 10.
Then, yes, Osborne didn't beat them his first five times. Then lost another two after he got his first. But it's still not that close to the same.
'73 - #10 NU v #3 OU - 0-27
'74 - #6 NU v #1 OU - 14-28
'75 - #2 NU v #7 OU - 10-35
'76 - #10 NU v #8 OU - 17-20
'77 - #11 NU v #3 OU - 7-38
'78 - #4 NU v #1 OU - 17-14
'78 - #6 NU v #4 OU - 24-31
'79 - #3 NU v #8 OU - 14-17
'80 - #4 NU v #9 OU - 17-21
'11 - #8 NU v #7 Wisc - 17-48
'12 - #22 NU v NR Wisc - 30-27
'12 - #14 NU v NR Wisc - 31-70
'14 - #11 NU v #22 Wisc - 24-59
'15 - NR NU v NR Wisc - 21-23
'16 - #7 NU v #11 Wisc - 17-23
'17 - NR NU v #9 Wisc - 17-38
'18 - NR NU v #16 Wisc - 24-41
Now. A few things I'll say. Osborne got a lot of
deserved heat for not being able to take care of OU. He did a bad job with that and he got rightfully criticized and had some job jeopardy because of it. I'd also bet a decent amount of money if you asked OU fans during that stretch if Nebraska was their main rival, or on equal par, a much higher percentage would have said no than would have before or after. On top of that, those OU teams were much better than most all the Wisconsin teams we've faced. Our NU teams were also better than they've been since 2011. And the margins of victory were better. Osborne's worst were 31, 27 and 25 point losses. The modern Wisconsin worst are 39, 35, and 31.