When was the last time Nebraska Cornhuskers achieved bowl eligibility?

In the words of Staind, it's been a while since we last saw the Nebraska Cornhuskers even go to a bowl game. And everything I can't remember, as messed up as it all may seem, it has been truly a decade to forget for Husker Nation ... up until recently. Matt Rhule has his team at 5-1 on the season with their lone loss on the year to a fellow one-loss team in Indiana. Six wins is going to happen, y'all!

While there are no guarantees that UNL will get past Indiana in Bloomington on Saturday, the odds are very much in the Huskers' favor to get to and stay above .500 this season. Although winning in The Horseshoe next week seems quite difficult, there are other wins to be had after the Indiana and Ohio State games. Home vs. UCLA feels like a gimme and USC, Wisconsin and Iowa all seem very winnable.

So as we prepare ourselves to live in a world where Nebraska is comfortably getting to bowl games again, let's take a trip down memory lane and try to remember just how long it has been for the Cornhuskers. This fanbase deserves to see a team worth celebrating, after Rhule's predecessor in former Nebraska quarterback Scott Frost was quite possibly the worst thing to ever happen to them.

We must return to a time where Mike Riley was doing very Bo Pelini things of going 9-4 back in 2016.

How long has it really been since Nebraska last achieved bowl eligibility?

As stated above, Nebraska went 9-4 in the 2016 season. They went an impressive 6-3 in Big Ten play. The Huskers got Big Ten wins over Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota and Maryland that season. However, their three conference losses to Wisconsin, Ohio State and Iowa led to them going 9-3 during the regular season after an impressive 7-0 start. They would then go on to lose their bowl.

While losing to rival Wisconsin for their first defeat of the season was tough, the utter beatdown at the hands of Ohio State felt like the beginning of the end for Riley, as well as starting their current swoon of missing bowl games they are almost out of. Nebraska went 2-4 in its final six games that season, including a tough loss to Tennessee in the Music City Bowl, Nebraska's last bowl game. Since 2016, Nebraska has had three different head coaches, but has never won more than five of its games.

Rhule got to 5-7 last season in year one on the job. Riley was fired after the 2017 season for going 4-8. Frost came in from UCF to try and save the day. He was an unmitigated disaster, going 16-31 over parts of five seasons leading his alma mater. Frost only won five games in a season once. He was fired after three games in the 2022 season by former Nebraska great in athletic director Trev Alberts.

In year two under Rhule, all of his previous college teams have gone on to achieve bowl eligibility.