1923 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team The 1923 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska in the 1923 college football season . The team was coached by Fred Dawson and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln , Nebraska . Before the season . Coach Dawson returned for his third season with two conference championships to his credit and a new home playing field following the completion of Memorial Stadium , but it was a hard start to the season . The most prounounced change was the absence of Jack Best , the team ' s trainer of the previous 32 seasons dating to the beginning of the program , who had died shortly after the end of the 1922 season . The first team on the schedule was not the typical tune - up patsy scrimmage of most seasons past , as coach Dawson had arranged an opening battle on the road against Illinois in order to infuse his team with a heavy dose of experience early in the year . Making things additionally rough to start the year , only nine starters from last season ' s title team were returning to play for the Cornhuskers . Game notes . Illinois . Nebraska had not faced Illinois since 1905 , but had racked up victories in every contest against the Fighting Illini to date . This time , however , the game was to be played in Champaign instead of Lincoln , and the Cornhuskers had only two weeks of practice to prepare for this opening contest . The game was held close , and the outcome was in doubt until the fourth quarter , when Illinois finally overpowered Nebraska and pulled away for the win . The Cornhuskers went home with an opening loss , but held the series advantage at 4 - 1 . Oklahoma . The Cornhuskers hosted Oklahoma for the first game played at the new Memorial Stadium in Lincoln . The lopsided score does not tell the tale of the game , which was a bitter contest of near equals except for the breaks that fell in favor of the Cornhuskers . The Sooners repeatedly threatened to score and were thwarted by untimely errors , and the final Nebraska score came on another near - touchdown by Oklahoma that was turned over and returned 90 yards . Oklahoma remained winless in the series , trailing Nebraska 0 - 4 - 1 . Kansas . Although this was not the first game to be played at the new Memorial Stadium , this was the game associated with the official dedication of the facility , scheduled to coincide with homecoming . According to the Nebraska yearbook , there was apparently a streak of home field losses for area teams dedicating new stadiums at about this time , and although Nebraska did not drop this game , they also failed to get a win against visiting Kansas . Where Nebraska had the offense to move the ball , Kansas produced some stingy goal line stands to keep the Cornhuskers off the board for all four quarters , leaving both teams scoreless at the final whistle . Nebraska ' s overall lead in the series thus remained unchanged , at 19 - 9 - 2 . Missouri . For the second game in a row , Nebraska came out looking solid and played strong football , only to be met by an equally strong team opposing them . It was not a game filled with errors and mishaps , but rather two well - coached teams that matched up equally . As a result , the game ended in a 7 - 7 tie , the second consecutive tie game for Nebraska . The only other time Nebraska had tied two games in a row was in 1919 , and it never happened again . Missouri still had a long way to go if they hoped to catch up the series , as they still lagged behind 3 - 13 - 1 . Notre Dame . Nebraska ' s season began rather weakly as the Cornhuskers managed to scrape up to a 1 - 1 - 2 record to date . Unsurprisingly , things looked grim for the home team as the undefeated Notre Dame team returned to Lincoln with a 6 - 0 record , having prevented all opponents from scoring more than a single touchdown in each game . The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame were looking to exact revenge for the defeat handed them by Nebraska the previous year . The game opened with Notre Dame shocked at their struggle to gain the upper hand . Nebraska scored once , and then again , going up 14 - 0 by halftime , stunning the crowd entirely - both those rooting for Notre Dame and for Nebraska . Knute Rockne finally managed to coach his team to a single fourth quarter touchdown , but the day belonged to the Cornhuskers . For the second time in a row , Nebraska handed the Four Horsemen a loss , which was also only the second time they had lost to any team . Notre Dame went on to win the next three games , finishing their season with just the one loss in Lincoln , again not allowing any of those other opponents more than 7 points per game . The Nebraska win caught them up with the Fighting Irish , to 4 - 4 - 1 all time . Iowa State . Nebraska ran right out to a 26 - 0 lead , never seriously being challenged by Iowa State for most of the game despite a hard - fought and physical battle on the field . In the fourth quarter , however , injuries and substitutions disrupted the rhythm of the Cornhuskers , which allowed Iowa State to come to life and put in a late 14 points . Iowa State ' s record against Nebraska fell to 4 - 15 - 1 . Syracuse . Nebraska had some players still out from injury , while many who stayed in were slowed by various problems still carried since the Iowa State game . In another battle against a strong eastern team , both squads fought to a standstill for most of the game . Near the end , however , as in the previous week , the Cornhuskers began to bend and then finally allowed Syracuse a single touchdown , which was enough for to Syracuse to be the first visiting team to win in Nebraska ' s new stadium . Nebraska ' s frustration against the Orangemen was extended as they fell to 1 - 3 against Syracuse all time . Kansas State . Nebraska found success in the final game of the season by controlling the time of the possession , with a punishing ground game that prevented Kansas State from opportunities to touch the ball . Although the final score implied a convincing win , the Kansas State squad threatened to score throughout the entire game when they were able to get the ball , and the outcome was not decided until late in the day . The Nebraska win extended the futility of the Kansas State squad in the series , as they remained winless in all eight games played to date . After the season . After two very successful seasons , coach Dawson ' s third year experienced a setback in the program ' s record , but still came away with several successes . Although Nebraska tied two conference games , they were also unbeaten in conference play and had one less tie game than Kansas , which handed Dawson his third consecutive league title . Bigger than that was the defeat of Notre Dame in Lincoln . Notre Dame was now undefeated for two seasons in a row - except for the two losses handed down to them by the Cornhuskers . Coach Dawson ' s career record suffered from the relatively weak showing on the year , falling to 18 - 4 - 2 ( . 792 ) as the program ' s overall record slipped to 192 - 64 - 17 ( . 734 ) . Nebraska ' s conference record also fell slightly , despite taking home the title again , to 35 - 3 - 4 ( . 881 ) .