The 1955 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska and member of the Big 7 Conference in the 1955 college football season. The team was coached by Bill Glassford and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Before the season
Coach Glassford returned for a seventh season, having survived pressure to step down at the end of the 1953 season by guiding the Cornhuskers through their first-ever 11-game season and to their first Orange Bowl appearance, though that had as much to do with the Big 7's no-repeat rule that prevented Big 7 champion Oklahoma from representing the league for consecutive years, as anything Glassford had accomplished with his own squad. Two new faces appeared on the coaching staff, one of them a former Cornhusker quarterback. The seasons under Coach Glassford had alternated between winning and losing records, and with last year's 6-5 result, history suggested that the Cornhuskers might be up for another down campaign, unless Glassford could break the pattern.
Schedule
Roster
Starters
Coaching staff
Game summaries
Hawaii
At the conclusion of the previous season, Nebraska traveled to Hawaii and dealt the Rainbows a severe 50-0 defeat. While Nebraska went on to play in the postseason at the 1955 Orange Bowl, Hawaii's season ended on the sour note, leaving the Rainbow squad to stew over the summer. The return visit in the home-and-home series was arranged as the first contest of the year for both teams, and so it was that Hawaii's arrival in Lincoln to open the 1955 slate was their second straight contest with the Cornhuskers. Whether Nebraska overlooked the Rainbows or the Hawaii team was bent on payback, the end result was a lackluster Nebraska showing as Hawaii fought off all Cornhusker scoring attempts for the day. Nebraska never got closer than the Rainbow 13-yard line, yet Hawaii snuck through the Nebraska defenses to secure a single touchdown. Nebraska thus suffered a demoralizing shutout loss to start the season, the first opening blank since 1947.
Ohio State
Stung by the humiliating loss to Hawaii, the Nebraska team put up a much more convincing effort against the reigning Big 10 and Rose Bowl champion Ohio State Buckeyes, who had also finished 1954 at #1 atop the AP Poll. The Cornhuskers even managed to briefly hold the lead in Columbus during the second quarter, but the Buckeyes held on to pull away by eight points. Ohio State notched the first win in the series between the squads, and went on to finish 1955 with a 7-2 record and ranked #5 by the AP.
Kansas State
The Nebraska football players traveled to Manhattan with a chip on their shoulder, having dropped the first two games of the year and wanting to break the pattern that seemed to doom them to a losing season. Kansas State was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the Wildcats were swept aside when the Cornhusker machine finally came to life in the third quarter to start the scoring. By the final whistle, Nebraska had a shutout victory of their own to hold onto, had snapped their two-game skid to the Wildcats, and improved to 31-6-2 over Kansas State all-time.
Texas A&M
Nebraska welcomed Texas A&M back to Lincoln for the second time, having not met the Aggies on the field since their initial meeting, a 13-0 win in 1930. Apparently Texas A&M remembered the shutout, as they returned the favor 25 years later, finding the end zone three times in the second quarter to stun the Cornhuskers into submission, shutting them out 0-27 on the day, and knocking Nebraska down to a 1-3 start on the season.
Pittsburgh
Down on their luck so early in the season, a weary Cornhusker team made their way to Pittsburgh to face the rival Panthers who held a commanding series lead of 13-3-3, seeming to always have Nebraska's number. Today was more of the same as Pitt overcame an initial Cornhusker lead to roll off 21 unanswered points to send Nebraska home with yet another defeat by the Panthers on the books.
Missouri
Missouri could have made a game of this contest and likely would have been victorious save for a lost fumble converted into a touchdown, an interception returned for a touchdown, and a punt returned for a touchdown. Missouri punched in two of their own touchdowns, which was not enough to extract a win in Columbus. The Cornhusker victory moved Nebraska to 27-18-3 in the series and kept the Victory Bell in Lincoln for another year.