Speaking of Missouri, they played us Thanksgiving week 1978, our last game of the regular season.
We'd played Oklahoma the week before, and upset them 17-14, in probably Nebraska's greatest game of the century, putting the so-called "Game of the Century" of 1971 in the shadows.
Up until then, we'd played Oklahoma as the last game of our season (usually though Oklahoma played its little brother Oklahoma State the week after), Thanksgiving week.
But during the mid-1970s, Colorado began whining about Big 8 schedules. The real reason Colorado was whining was because they were always losing to just about everybody. They bawled because in a typical Big 8 season, they had to play Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma three consecutive weekends, and thought it'd be fairer if there were some "easy" games for them in between.
Never mind that other cellar-dwellers such as Iowa State or Kansas State usually had to play the big three other consecutive weekends.
Well, Colorado got its way, which messed up the schedule.
Nebraska-Oklahoma was no longer on Thanksgiving week.
Nebraska-Oklahoma was no longer the season-ending game for Nebraska.
Missouri, our oldest rival, was okay, but Missouri was not Oklahoma.
So, in 1978, Nebraska had beaten Oklahoma, and was on top of the polls, headed towards another national championship.
Missouri in 1978 was having a lousy year, a crummy year.
Missouri pounded us.
It was so bad Missouri never beat us again for 24 years.
