1952 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team The 1952 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska and member of the Big 7 Conference in the 1952 college football season . The team was coached by Bill Glassford and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln , Nebraska . Before the season . Coach Glassford ' s fourth year at the helm of the Nebraska football program began with a great deal of uncertainty about the future . Lauded after his first two seasons showed dramatic improvement over the string of losing seasons prior to his arrival , the 1951 campaign was a story of a slide backwards , with only one on - field victory recorded during the entire season . A new offense was installed midseason in 1951 , styled after the spread offensive look that TCU utilized to great success to defeat Nebraska in the season opener . The offseason provided a chance for the Cornhuskers to refine the new scheme , and 1952 opened with hopes that the previous season would be soon forgotten . Game notes . South Dakota . South Dakota was the first team to see Nebraska since the spread had been formally and completely installed , and the Coyotes were bowled over by a scoring explosion and defensive stand that wrapped up the day with a commanding 46 - 0 shutout to start the Cornhusker season on the right foot . The Coyotes managed only 4 first downs for the night , compared with 29 for the Nebraska squad , and were dominated in passing yardage 118 - 0 . The score would have been much more damaging if not for the 120 penalty yards accumulated by the Cornhuskers , fully twice as many as assessed against South Dakota . The Coyotes had now failed to get a win against Nebraska in their previous thirteen attempts , their only past success being the first meeting of the teams back in 1899 . Oregon . Nebraska made the long journey to Eugene to face off against the Oregon Ducks for the first time , in a rare night time game . Oregon was favored , and had a daunting aerial attack plan that put the Cornhusker defense to the test by rolling up 134 yards to Nebraska ' s 32 by air . However , faced with a Nebraska rushing onslaught of 280 yards that dwarfed the 75 managed by the Ducks , Oregon was unable to step the string of points rolled off by the Cornhusker machine . Memories of 1951 were fading fast , as Nebraska was quickly off to a good 2 - 0 start . Iowa State . The Cornhuskers recorded their second shutout of the season in three games against Iowa State despite an uninspired outing that brought in only 16 points for the day . Much like the Ducks , Iowa State attempted to get yards by air , throwing for 124 yards and easily out - passing Nebraska ' s 39 , but the ground game ruled the day again as the Cornhusker rushing yardage steamrolled the Cyclone total by 351 - 85 . The second shutout of the season marked the best Nebraska batch of shutouts since 1933 opened with three straight blankings . Iowa State fell to 8 - 37 - 1 against the Cornhuskers all - time . Kansas State . Another display of Nebraska ' s ground domination in the face of aerial attacks was on display in Lincoln as the Kansas State team sought to end their nine - year stretch of futility against the Cornhuskers . The Wildcats outgained Nebraska in the air by 204 - 74 , but could not come up with the points to match the statistics as the Cornhuskers outrushed Kansas State 251 - 73 and produced nearly twice as many points . It was a hard - fought game that resulted in numerous injuries to Nebraska players , including star HB Bobby Reynolds , who came out with a separated shoulder . The Cornhuskers improved to 30 - 4 - 2 over the Wildcats to date . Penn State . Statistically , the Penn State contest looked like most of the others of 1952 , as Nebraska outgained the Nittany Lions by ground 210 - 129 . The first half ended scoreless thanks to a stiff defensive Cornhusker effort that turned Penn State away empty - handed from inside the 20 yard line on three drives . Penn State was the first to find success against Nebraska by air , actually producing points instead of simply winning the passing battle , as their 102 - 45 air advantage helped them finally punch in a touchdown in the third quarter before sealing the outcome with a late field goal . It was the first Cornhusker loss of the season as the year now stood at 4 - 1 , which was nonetheless the best beginning os a Nebraska football season since the 6 - 0 start in 1933 . With the loss handed down , the Cornhuskers slipped to 1 - 4 versus the Nittany Lions all - time . Colorado . Upstart Colorado was not to be overlooked , as they had fought reigning Big 7 champion Oklahoma to a tied outcome earlier in the year . Every way to score points in a football game was recorded in this contest across both teams , as Nebraska fought back from 0 - 7 to make a game of it . The final score of 16 - 16 was settled upon when injured Nebraska HB Bobby Reynolds attempted a field goal that was blocked with , fittingly , 16 seconds remaining to play . Colorado ' s two - game winning streak against Nebraska was cut short as the Cornhuskers improved over the Buffaloes to 7 - 4 in the series . Missouri . Nebraska scored early on in the contest but struggled to put a scoring distance in the pull away . The score held at 6 - 0 through the half time break , until an ill - timed Cornhusker fumbled was scooped up by the Tigers and returned for a touchdown . The Missouri extra point made it 6 - 7 , and though the Cornhuskers advance repeatedly into Tiger territory over the course of the game , Missouri successfully turned them away from inside the 25 - yard line on four occasions . A late Tiger field goal put the game away , handing down the season ' s second defeat upon Nebraska . Missouri narrowed the series to 17 - 25 - 3 and kept the Victory bell in Columbia for another year . Kansas . Facing Kansas in Lawrence , the Cornhuskers struggled to make headway against the Jayhawks for much of the game , basically giving up on the air attack with only seven net passing yards on the day . Trailing by six points with only five minutes remaining , the Cornhuskers finally found a way around the Jayhawks line and into the end zone , the point after finally giving Nebraska the lead and the win . Nebraska ' s win padded the series to 42 - 13 - 3 . Minnesota . Nebraska secured 16 first downs compared to the 13 recorded by Minnesota , and outrushed the Golden Gophers 313 - 157 in front of the Lincoln homecoming crowd , but Minnesota brought dazzling plays of their own and entirely shut out Nebraska ' s attempts to throw , leading to a dismal Nebraska passing attempts record of 0 - 8 and no air yards for the day . The Golden Gophers did not have the same troubles by air , and rolled up 166 passing yards on their way to a relatively narrow 6 - point win to hand over Nebraska ' s third loss of the season , improving over the Cornhuskers to 27 - 5 - 2 . Oklahoma . Oklahoma ' s winning ways in the Big 7 continued without pause as Nebraska surrendered for a record 10th - straight game to the Sooners , in front of a large homecoming crowd of 41 , 000 in Norman . The game was never really in doubt after Oklahoma punched in a quick succession of scores in the first quarter to jump to a 20 - 0 lead . Finally , the Cornhuskers came to life and played Oklahoma 13 - 14 for the remaining duration , but the Sooners were far too strong to be overcome . Nebraska ' s lead in the series dwindled to 16 - 13 - 3 . After the season . The season opened strong with four wins a row , the best commencement of a football season in Nebraska in nearly twenty years . Injuries began to take their toll , however , and the new spread offense was less foreign to opposing teams who began to figure out how to defend against it , particularly since Nebraska remained predominantly a ground - based rushing team . As a result , the bright start to the season faded as the Cornhuskers closed out 1952 at 1 - 4 - 1 . Coach Glassford ' s 1952 campaign total still helped push his conference record to a barely winning percentage of 12 - 11 - 1 ( . 521 ) but his overall record was still on the wrong side , at 17 - 19 - 2 ( . 474 ) . The Nebraska football program ' s conference and overall records both slipped slightly , as the 3 - 2 - 1 Big 7 results brought the league record to 132 - 48 - 12 ( . 719 ) and the program ' s all - time percentage now stood at 333 - 167 - 33 ( . 656 ) .