1931 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team The 1931 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska in the 1931 college football season . The team was coached by Dana X . Bible and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln , Nebraska . Before the season . Coach Bible was coming off his second season with the bitter taste of a humbling 4 - 3 - 2 record from 1930 , Nebraska ' s worst in over a decade . Although his first season had brought home a league title , it now wasn ' t clear if that was a one - off success or if he could reproduce the feat . In addition , the coaching staff was reduced to five from the seven on staff in 1930 . Game notes . South Dakota . It had been nine years since Nebraska had faced the Coyotes in a 66 - 0 trouncing , and the 1931 season was opened with a similar performance . South Dakota managed a single touchdown in the third quarter on a passing play , but the day was otherwise owned by the Cornhuskers , tuning up with 44 points of their own to advance the series to 8 - 1 - 2 . Northwestern . Another dormant series was revived when Nebraska traveled to Evanston for the first time ever to face Northwestern after a 29 - year hiatus . The Nebraska defense successfully shut down the Wildcats after the first quarter , keeping them scoreless for the rest of the game , but the 7 points put up by the Cornhuskers on the day was not enough to overcome the 19 Northwestern points scored before being shut down by Nebraska . The series was now evened out at 1 - 1 - 0 . Oklahoma . The wet conditions at Lincoln prevented either team from accomplishing much throughout most of the game , but finally in the fourth quarter Nebraska found the end zone . A short time later the Cornhuskers snagged an interception and quickly converted it into another touchdown to secure the outcome of the game and advance their lead in the series to 7 - 2 - 2 . Kansas . Reigning conference champion Kansas brought the Cornhuskers to Lawrence with sights to avenge their only conference loss of the previous season , but Nebraska extended the futility of the Jayhawks , to sixteen straight winless games against the Cornhuskers . The game was mostly a ground affair with minimal passing , and despite the low score Nebraska held the edge for most of the day , getting fifteen first downs on the day compared to the three obtained by the Jayhawks . Nebraska now had an 18 - game lead in the series , the longest of all records with other ongoing opponents , at 27 - 9 - 2 . Missouri . Missouri had dropped their previous two games before hosting Nebraska , and came out with a vengeance , perhaps motivated by their failure to recapture the Nebraska - Missouri Bell after numerous attempts . The Cornhuskers had to fight to scratch up their 10 - point halftime lead , and were unable to score again after the break . As the game waned , the Tigers put up seven points and eventually got the ball back again . Promptly moving up to Nebraska ' s 1 - yard line , the first Missouri attempt to score was repelled by the Cornhuskers . On 2nd and goal , the Tigers lined up for another attempt but were denied the chance as time expired before the snap . Missouri ' s heartbreaking loss put them farther back in the series to 6 - 16 - 3 . Iowa . The Cornhuskers piled up three times as many first downs as Iowa , but both teams struggled to put points on the scoreboard . Nebraska ' s third quarter touchdown ultimately decided the game and pushed the Cornhusker series lead to 13 - 7 - 3 . Kansas State . Heavy rains grounded this battle in Manhattan , as Kansas State completed the only pass of the entire game , all other efforts and gains made on the ground . The Cornhuskers amassed twice as many first downs and offensive yards as the newly - renamed Kansas State Wildcats , but still found themselves behind 0 - 3 going into the final quarter . At last , when the outcome was looking bleak , Nebraska received yet another punt and successfully returned it all the way for the winning touchdown . Nebraska ' s commanding series lead was extended to 14 - 1 - 1 . Iowa State . Iowa State arrived in Lincoln with three conference wins to their credit , but were shut entirely down by the smothering Cornhusker defense , unable to find the scoreboard even once on the day . The win clinched coach Bible ' s second league title in three years , and increased Nebraska ' s series lead over the Cyclones to 21 - 4 - 1 . Pittsburgh . Nebraska ' s trip to Pittsburgh ended up a historic defeat against a team that both coach Bible and former Cornhusker star Ed Weir praised as the best they had ever faced or seen before . Nebraska ' s only serious scoring threat came in the third quarter when they drew up to the Pittsburgh 5 - yard line , but the Panthers held the shutout by intercepting a Cornhusker pass to prevent the score . The 0 - 40 loss was the most points ever scored against Nebraska , and the program ' s worst margin of defeat , in the entire 39 - year history of Cornhusker football . The previous worst Cornhusker margin of defeat had been a 0 - 35 loss to Minnesota in 1905 , and the previous highest points scored against them came in a 5 - 38 loss to Chicago in 1906 . The brutal domination dealt them by Pittsburgh left the Cornhuskers 1 - 3 - 2 against the Panthers all time . Pittsburgh went on to finish the season 8 - 1 - 0 and ranked # 9 nationwide by the Dickinson System . Colorado A & M . Nine years had passed since Nebraska faced Colorado A & M , and for the first and only time in the series , the Cornhuskers traveled to Denver for this postseason charity contest scheduled between the programs . It took three quarters for the visiting Cornhuskers to turn their efforts into scores , but Nebraska finally found success and ran off 20 fourth quarter points to seal the win and remain perfect against the Aggies in three attempts . After the season . Coach Bible proved that the disappointing 1930 season was perhaps just a fluke of bad luck , by once again bringing home a conference championship , his 2nd in three years at Nebraska . The only serious blemish on the season being the defeat by Northwestern early on , as few could fault the Cornhuskers for the honorable defeat dealt by Pittsburgh , who finished 9th in the nation in the Dickinson ranking . Coach Bible ' s career record improved to 16 - 6 - 5 ( . 685 ) , and his third squad improved the program ' s overall record to 236 - 80 - 25 ( . 729 ) while the perfect 1931 Big 6 slate improved Nebraska ' s overall conference record to 64 - 10 - 8 ( . 829 ) .