1938 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team The 1938 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska in the 1938 college football season . The team was coached by Biff Jones and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln , Nebraska . Before the season . Coach Jones returned for his second season since taking over for the popular and successful Dana X . Bible , and the transition seemed to have been completed without difficulty as he had brought another league title to Lincoln in his first season . However , a large number of starters had graduated or otherwise left after 1937 , and the depth chart established for 1938 was made up mainly of underclassmen , especially sophomores , making for a young and inexperienced team . Game notes . Minnesota . Minnesota was not happy at having their long winning streak over the Cornhuskers broken in 1937 , and was ready to pounce on Nebraska in Minneapolis to open the season . Scoring once in each of the first two quarters , the Golden Gophers were in command 14 - 0 by the half . Undaunted , the young Husker team managed a touchdown to answer in the third quarter to make it a one - possession game , but near the end of the game , and pressed against their own end zone , Nebraska suffered a blocked shovel pass . The Huskers recovered it in the end zone to hand Minnesota two more points , putting the game out of reach . The Gophers had restored what had become the typical order , and moved to 15 - 3 - 2 against Nebraska all time . Iowa State . Both teams held each other scoreless for the first half , but the Cyclones broke away with a touchdown and a safety to move up in the third . Nebraska answered near the end of the game , but still fell short by one point . Iowa State celebrated snapping the longest winning streak the Cornhuskers had ever held over another team at 15 straight , and it was the first 0 - 2 start to a Nebraska season since 1924 . Still , the Cyclones had a long way to go to ever catch Nebraska overall , as they lagged against the Huskers 5 - 27 - 1 . Indiana . Nebraska outplayed Indiana and kept the ball on the visitors ' side of the field for most of the game , and even recovered seven of the nine Indiana fumbles , but was still unable to ever put the ball over the line . The Hoosiers to their credit never gave up , and managed to hold the Cornhuskers to a scoreless game . Nebraska remained undefeated in the series after two previous wins against Indiana to date . Oklahoma . Oklahoma was ranked and on a roll when Nebraska arrived in Norman , and this time the Sooners were not willing to settle for a tie after the 0 - 0 result of last year . Nebraska fought to keep it a one - possession game after an early Sooner score , and held almost until the end , when Oklahoma secured another touchdown and put the outcome out of reach . Nebraska ' s undefeated stretch against the Sooners was snapped after seven games , but they still owned the 12 - 3 - 3 series . Missouri . It seemed that the season was beginning to collapse around the ears of the young Cornhusker squad , and the story was sadly continued in Lincoln . The Tigers , sensing the vulnerability of a Nebraska team with four straight winless games , was still set back when the Huskers scored first , but a touchdown to pull ahead by four by halftime served to encourage Missouri . The Huskers tried to take control with a 96 - yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half , but could not prevent the Tigers from the late game - winning touchdown near the end . Nebraska ' s 10 - game undefeated stretch against Missouri was the latest streak to be broken , and Missouri at last took the Missouri - Nebraska Bell back to Columbia . The Cornhuskers still held a commanding 22 - 7 - 3 edge over the Tigers all time . Kansas . Under the weight of only the second five - winless season start in Cornhusker football history , which had last happened in 1919 , the Nebraska squad took the field against the Jayhawks in Lawrence . The Cornhuskers had won 13 in a row against Kansas , but had the streak of victories broken last year when the teams fought to a tie . This was the last active major successful string without a loss , and the Husker team didn ' t want to lose it , too . Although Nebraska struck first , the teams settled into a scoreless battle afterwards until the fourth quarter . Kansas tied it up and put the pressure on , but a subsequent Nebraska field goal and touchdown kept the undefeated streak against Kansas alive at 15 in a row , while Nebraska improved over Kansas to 33 - 9 - 3 . Pittsburgh . The struggling Cornhuskers had suffered a long string of disappointments at the hands of the Panthers , and Nebraska was glad to have home - field advantage when facing Pitt under the circumstances . The Panthers were held scoreless in the first while the Huskers pulled up within 15 yards of a score before a field goal was blocked . After that , Nebraska could not keep up as the Panthers secured one touchdown in each subsequent quarter to pull away , setting two new undesired Nebraska records against any single team : 6 losses in a row and 12 winless games in a row . Nebraska ' s series frustration against Pitt was extended to 1 - 9 - 3 . Iowa . The sting of yet another loss in the Pittsburgh grudge match was wiped away with a shutout victory over Iowa at Kinnick Stadium . Both Cornhusker scores came as a result of converted turnovers , one a fumble and one an interception . Nebraska ' s 6th straight win over Iowa moved the series record to 18 - 7 - 3 in favor of Nebraska . Kansas State . Nebraska ' s spirits had been lifted somewhat by the shutout delivered to Iowa last week , and so entered the annual Kansas State game intent on closing the season with a win . Making good on that intent , the Cornhuskers advanced to a 14 - 0 lead by halftime . The Wildcats were only able to come up with a single touchdown and therefore dropped to 2 - 19 - 2 in their Nebraska series . After the season . Coach Jones ' second season was without a doubt a surprising disappointment , though the annual university yearbook praised the student body and football fans in particular for standing behind the team through the rough experience . The five losses in a single season were the most since the disastrous 1 - 7 - 1 campaign of 1899 in former head coach A . Edwin Branch ' s first ( and only ) season at Nebraska . Coach Jones saw his two - year overall record at Nebraska slip to 9 - 6 - 3 ( . 583 ) as his conference career total also slipped to 5 - 3 - 2 ( . 600 ) , and the program ' s overall record fell to 279 - 95 - 30 ( . 728 ) while the Big 6 record slipped to 92 - 14 - 11 ( . 833 ) .