Nebraska Football: Cornhuskers' 5 Most Anticipated Upcoming Games

It's the middle of February. More than likely, Nebraska fans are sitting someplace with snow on the ground, pining for September to arrive and for it to bring back another season of football glories.

So how do Nebraska fans keep warm in the meantime? One tried-and-true method is to look at future schedules and imagine how much fun those games will be. 

In the spirit of helpfulness, I've boiled down the five games that Nebraska fans should be most looking forward to over the next few years. So hunker down, take a sip of your Big Red Hot Chocolate (be thankful you're not a K-State fan—purple hot cocoa? Ew!) and think about these five upcoming Nebraska contests.

At UCLA (Sept. 8, 2012)

Now, I grant you that in 2012, UCLA, under a first-year head coach, might not be the sternest of challenges for Nebraska. But it’s still a trip to California for NU, a fertile recruiting ground that may become even more important as Nebraska adjusts to the recruiting challenges of the B1G.

Even more importantly, it’s a trip to the Rose Bowl. Although the game is in September, not January, Nebraska fans are starting to realize how special the Pasadena landmark is for their new conference home.

At Ohio State (Oct. 6, 2012)

The 2011 sesaon gave Nebraska a lot of firsts in its new conference environs. But another landmark will be set in 2012, when Nebraska makes its first trip to Columbus since 1956, and its first game against the Buckeyes in the Horseshoe as conference opponents.

Oh, and it will be Nebraska’s first time to be across the field against this Urban Meyer guy—perhaps you’ve heard of him. 

At Iowa (Nov. 23, 2012)

I hear you. Rivalries are born, not made. You can’t wave a magic wand, churn out a bland trophy and come up with an anodyne title born from a PR hack’s grad study paper.

But Iowa fans were pretty quick to pick up the mantle of rival (or at least hated opponent) when Nebraska was announced as the newest B1G member. Nebraska fans are starting to get on board with the cross-border loathing. And at the inaugural Heroes Game last November, Iowa fans injected a remarkable amount of energy and passion into Memorial Stadium—at least, until the game started.

But in 2012, we will have the first Heroes Game in Kinnick Stadium, and a game day in Iowa City is a remarkable event. Nebraska fans making the trip east might find themselves in for a surprise when they meet the black and gold faithful waiting for them.

I still maintain that the rivalry won’t start in earnest until Iowa beats Nebraska in football. But the atmosphere of Heroes Game 2012 might be one of the best road game environments NU faces in the decade of the 2010’s.

Miami (Sept. 20, 2014)

The Hurricanes have fallen on some hard times lately. But the Children of the Corn have images of Nebraska facing off against the orange and green on warm Miami nights burned into their collective consciousness. Some of those images are wonderful, some are heartbreaking and some are just plain ugly. But all of those contribute to Miami’s presence as an antagonist for so many of Nebraska’s dramas under Tom Osborne.

In all those games, Nebraska fans fumed about having to play Miami in Miami. Just once, those fans thought, it would be nice to see how the Hurricanes did if they had to come north and face Nebraska in Memorial Stadium.

Finally, in 2014, Nebraska fans get to see that question answered.

At Tennessee (Sept. 9, 2017)

Yes, it will be fun to see an SEC team play in Lincoln the year before. But Neyland Stadium in Knoxville is an amazing facility, holding over 102,000 screaming Volunteer fans every home Saturday in autumn. (Insert jokes about hunting parties or road construction crews here.)

The SEC is the unquestioned king of college football conferences, and the 2017 showdown will be Nebraska’s first trip to an SEC foe since its 1982 clash with Auburn. Although Tennessee isn’t back to where Volunteer fans expect the program to be at the moment, it is still one of the great traditional powers in college football. Seeing Nebraska walk onto the orange and white checkerboard end zones in a true SEC atmosphere will be a sight worth waiting for.

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