My earliest memories of Nebraska football start in the late 1980s, early 1990s. It’s a little bit of a blur, given that I was 7 at the turn of the decade. I vaguely recall hearing something about Tom Osborne interviewing at Colorado at some point along this journey through Husker fandom. But truth be told, it’s not something Common Fans of a certain age know a lot about. This week, on the Common Fan Podcast, we launched Episode 2 of our series focused on Osborne’s coaching career. This episode, The Head Man, looks at TO’s early days as a head ...

by T.J. Birkel “I think Cornhusker fans are pretty smart about what the program has done over the last 60 years and Tom Osborne is a huge part of it. Taking over for Bob Devaney; I had the good fortune of playing two years for both of them. They are as good a coaches as there have been in college football.” Most Husker fans wouldn’t disagree with those words from Husker legend and all conference linebacker Tom Ruud. But when Tom Osborne took over for Bob Devaney in 1973, and for the remainder of the 1970s, it was very much ...

It’s funny. Growing up in Lincoln during the 1980s and 1990s, I saw plenty of successful Nebraska football teams, including, obviously, the three national championship teams of the ‘90s. Even with all of that success, I remember a distinct image of Tom Osborne being stoic, and his teams having a reputation for being…dare I say…boring.  They ran the ball with ruthless efficiency, racked up yards and points, and played excellent defense. But in the era when things like Florida’s Fun ‘n Gun offense and Houston’s Run and Shoot were making headlines, Nebraska’s way of doing things was considered by some ...

If you wanted to make the case that God’s a Cornhusker, there might not be a better place to start than here: Tom Osborne arrived on Nebraska’s campus as a young graduate student in pursuit of a PhD within a month of Bob Devaney taking over as the Huskers’ head football coach. Call it luck, call it fate, call it divine intervention: the partnership of Devaney and Osborne would transform Nebraska football forever.  This week, on the Common Fan Podcast, we launched a series of episodes focused on Osborne’s coaching career. The first episode, The Fateful Promotion, focuses on Osborne’s ...

The Athletic’s Mitch Sherman recently joined the Common Fan Podcast for a wide ranging discussion focused on the Nebraska football team’s spring practices, as well as the upcoming season. Part of the conversation centered around two major questions for the Huskers that won’t really be answered until the season begins in August: if Nebraska’s defense can avoid a dropoff under new defensive coordinator John Butler, and whether fans can expect special teams to improve enough to stop costing the Huskers games.  If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the episode yet, we’d encourage you to do so. But ...

Spring practice is coming to a close for the Nebraska football team. The Big Red will go into the 2025 season with different offensive, defensive, and special teams coordinators than the ones who were in place a year ago at this time, in addition to having dozens of new players on the roster. Even amidst all the change, optimism is high heading into year three for Head Coach Matt Rhule.  So far during our spring spotlight series, we’ve highlighted two offensive players: Emmett Johnson and Dane Key. Both are expected to be major contributors in Dana Holgorsen’s revamped offense. But ...