1956 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team The 1956 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska and member of the Big 7 Conference in the 1956 college football season . The team was coached by Pete Elliott and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln , Nebraska . Before the season . Nebraska ' s quest to return to its dominating winning ways was rather far off the track , the last three bright spots on the record books increasingly far into the past . The last season resulting in a convincing win record was 1950 , where Nebraska finished 6 - 2 - 1 . Prior to that , you had to look to the 8 - 2 - 0 finish in 1940 . Under this ongoing low period in program history , seven - year coach Bill Glassford had stepped down and was replaced by first - time head coach Pete Elliott , previously the Backfield Coach at Oklahoma , and a former college quarterback who helped lead the 1948 Michigan Wolverines football team to a national championship . With four new assistants on the staff , Elliott set to the task of proving he could run a football team and succeed . Game notes . South Dakota . Coach Elliott ' s first game as a head coach went down as a victory as the Cornhuskers had little trouble with South Dakota in Lincoln . It was the seventh straight loss by the Coyotes to Nebraska , and the 14th straight in the series without a South Dakota Victory since their one and only win against the Cornhuskers from 1899 . Ohio State . In front of one of the larger crowds to watch a Nebraska football game , the Cornhuskers stumbled out of the gate in Columbus and found themselves behind 0 - 27 by the end of the first half . Nebraska avoided the shutout only by blocking a punt and falling on the ball in the end zone to secure a single touchdown . It was only the second time these teams had met , and the Buckeyes held both victories . Ohio State would go on to finish the season 6 - 3 - 0 and ranked # 15 by the AP Poll . Iowa State . Nebraska ' s Big 7 season opened with the Cyclones arriving in Lincoln and bringing with them a real battle . As the game was drawing to a close , the Cornhuskers still trailed 6 - 7 when Nebraska PK George Harshman booted a 24 - yard field goal in the final seconds to extract the win . The victory extended Nebraska ' s winning streak over Iowa State to 11 in a row , as the record now stood at 41 - 8 - 1 . Kansas State . Kansas State arrived in Lincoln as the underdog , and perhaps few expected the Wildcats to put up much of a fight , as the stadium was relatively empty . As expected , just five minutes into the game , Nebraska scored to set the tone of a game that seemed decided before it started . However , if the outcome was foretold , someone failed to tell the Wildcat team , as Kansas State then put up a solid defensive effort to hold off any further Nebraska scores while punching in one of their own . In a turn of fortunes from the previous week , it was a field goal that made the difference and this time handed Nebraska a defeat . Kansas State had far to go to catch up in the series , however , as this win moved them only to 7 - 31 - 2 against Nebraska all time . Indiana . Nebraska looked to be in form to bounce back from the upset loss to Kansas State the week prior , and made a statement suggesting as much when they jumped out to a 14 - 0 lead over the Hoosiers . Following that second touchdown , however , the game was all Indiana as the undaunted visitors rolled off an unanswered 19 straight points to hand the Cornhuskers a third loss for the season , leaving them winless in their previous nine attempts against Indiana as they fell to 3 - 8 - 3 in the series . Colorado . The Cornhuskers were handed their first shutout loss of 1956 by Colorado , whose two touchdowns and safety provided the points to break their two - game losing streak to Nebraska . The win moved the Buffaloes to 6 - 9 - 0 over the Cornhuskers all - time , and left Nebraska nursing three straight losses , with just a 1 - 2 record in conference play so far for the season . Missouri . Underdog Nebraska managed to create an exciting finish for the homecoming crowd at Memorial Stadium by staying within a score as time marched on . With Missouri holding onto the lead 14 - 9 and less than two minutes remaining , the Cornhuskers threw for a touchdown to go up by one point and snatch the victory from the Tigers . Nebraska ' s series lead remained comfortable at 28 - 18 - 3 . This victory was the 350th all - time win for the Nebraska football team . Kansas . Turning their attention to the homecoming event in Lawrence , Nebraska once again faced an opponent they were not expected to defeat . BY the end of the contest as the Jayhawks filed disappointed from the field on the wrong end of a 20 - 26 defeat , it may have seemed that coach Elliott had begun to figure out how to manage his football team , and that the season , now 4 - 4 and 3 - 2 in the Big 7 , might be salvageable . Nebraska ' s win was the fifth straight in the series , and they improved to 46 - 13 - 3 over Kansas overall . Baylor . Nebraska fought a fairly even battle against the Bears until into the third quarter , when the line began to falter and allow Baylor to march down the field . The momentum of the game finally turned completely when Baylor returned a punt 91 yards for a score , and the Bears eventually pulled away by 19 points . It was the first time these teams had met since their first matchup in 1939 , and the series was now tied at 1 - 1 - 0 . Baylor went on to finish the season 8 - 2 - 0 and ranked # 11 by the AP Poll . Oklahoma . The vaunted Oklahoma football powerhouse was Nebraska ' s final challenge of the year , and the Cornhuskers brought everything they had to bear against the Sooners . Despite their best efforts , Nebraska was fortunate to escape Norman without having suffered a shutout loss thanks to a single touchdown on a five - yard pass . Oklahoma moved to 17 - 16 - 3 against Nebraska to date , taking the lead in the series for the first time in the history of the games between these programs dating back to 1912 . Oklahoma went on to finish the season undefeated at 10 - 0 - 0 , Big 7 champions , and AP national champions . After the season . Coach Elliott ' s first season did not bring any significant change to the fortunes of the program , finishing with a losing season to extend by another year the stretch of relatively unsuccessful campaigns waged by the Cornhuskers since the dawn of the 1940s . At the conclusion of the season , Elliott announced that he had accepted the head coaching position at California , making his first Nebraska season also his last . His California tenure lasted only three years as he compiled a disappointing 10 - 21 record , and his last two head coaching jobs at Illinois and Miami produced only four winning seasons over nine years . Nebraska ' s conference record under Elliott slipped to 146 - 58 - 12 ( . 704 ) while the overall program record fell to 351 - 189 - 34 ( . 641 ) . Backfield Coach Bill Jennings was subsequently named as Elliott ' s successor and assumed control over the struggling Cornhusker football program .