Remembering Nebraska football’s 70-31 Big Ten title game loss from 2012

Based on the state of the program, 10 years probably feels like a long time ago for many Nebraska football fans. The 2012 football season marks the most recent occasion in which the Huskers reached double-digit wins in a season and the last time that they reached a conference title game.

By season’s end, it would also be the final time that Nebraska finished the year ranked in the AP Top 25 — the Huskers lost their final two games and ended up with the No. 25 ranking.

It wasn’t exactly a season that Nebraska football fans will want to commemorate, though. The Huskers’ 10-4 finish under fifth-year head coach Bo Pelini was marred by a 70-31 shellacking by Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game — only the second year that the league had hosted a title game following the regular season’s conclusion.

The Huskers would end the 2012 season with a 45-31 loss to No. 6 Georgia in the Capital One Bowl.

Nebraska football, despite achieving a 10-2 regular-season mark, ended 2012 in a forgettable way with a 70-31 loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game.

Pelini had fielded respectable results with the Huskers before 2012, compiling a 38-16 record through his four years in charge in Lincoln. Under his tenure, the team had spent time in the AP poll’s Top 10 during two different seasons. The Huskers also switched conferences in 2011, moving from the allegedly Texas-dominated Big 12 to the Big Ten.

What’s also remarkable about the Huskers’ 2012 season is some of the defining wins that the team achieved under Pelini. During the regular season, Nebraska reached the 10-win mark by defeating Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Since then, the Huskers’ have struggled mightily against these current Big Ten West teams. At the time, the league was split into the often-derided “Legends” and “Leaders” divisions. The Huskers have lost seven in a row to the Hawkeyes, four out of five to the Golden Gophers, and eight in a row to the Badgers dating to the title game loss.

Nebraska actually finished the 2012 regular season with six consecutive wins, including a triumph against No. 20 Michigan and wins against well-regarded Big Ten foes like Michigan State and Penn State.

Quarterback Taylor Martinez carried the Huskers often, ending the year with 2,871 passing yards and 23 touchdowns in addition to rushing for 1,019 yards and 10 more touchdowns. Running back Ameer Abdullah (now with the Las Vegas Raiders) averaged 5.0 yards per carry en route to 1,137 rushing yards, while backup Rex Burkhead (still playing for the NFL’s Houston Texans) rushed for 675 yards.

The Huskers then entered the Big Ten Championship Game in only their second year in the league after a 7-1 conference record and the best record in the “Legends” division. Both Ohio State and Penn State had finished with better records than Wisconsin in the “Leaders” division but were ineligible for the postseason due to NCAA sanctions.

The Huskers were then set up to face Wisconsin, which they had already beaten earlier in the year. The Badgers entered the title game with a 7-5 (4-4) record after only going .500 in league play.

Big Ten Championship Game: Wisconsin 70, Nebraska 31

The outcome of the game was sealed before halftime. The Badgers ran all over the Huskers from the outset and finished with three different players topping 100 rushing yards. Wisconsin ripped off four unanswered touchdowns after an early 14-10 lead to enter halftime with a 42-10 advantage.

Nebraska’s Taylor Martinez was sacked three times, lost a fumble, and threw a pick-six all before intermission.

Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon III had nine carries for 216 yards and a touchdown, while his teammate Monte Ball finished with 21 carries for 202 and three touchdowns. Not to be outdone, third-stringer James White added 109 yards and four touchdowns. It was the first time in school history that two Badgers had rushed for more than 200 yards each in a single game.

With the victory, Wisconsin became the first team ever with five losses to play in the Rose Bowl. They also became the first Big Ten since the 1970s to reach three consecutive Rose Bowls.

Here are some highlights from the game recently posted by @CFB_History:

Did this conference title game loss send the Huskers into their current decade-long tailspin?

Maybe not exactly, but it certainly damaged the psyche of Nebraska players and fans, and it’s not the best memory to look back on during a previously unfathomable stretch of five consecutive losing seasons.

After the 2012 season, Nebraska reached nine wins in three of the following four years. The worst stretch of futility began in Mike Riley’s final year, in 2017 when the Huskers fell to 4-8. The team has still failed to achieve a winning record since former Nebraska star Scott Frost was hired as head coach for 2018.

What makes this game from a decade ago so interesting is that Nebraska hasn’t been nearly this good since then. The Huskers have been zero threat to challenge for a Big Ten title in the last five years, even though they play in the moderately less challenging Big Ten West (no Michigan or Ohio State).

This game also perhaps exposes a psychological flaw in a hyped Nebraska football team that did actually reach a big stage. This was a 10-2 team in only its second year in the Big Ten facing a less regarded foe at a neutral site — the Huskers were ranked No. 14 in the country and the Badgers were unranked — and it resulted in a blowout of epic proportions.

It remains the highest point total (70 points) for a team in the Big Ten title game, as only one other team has even topped 45 points in the annual contest.

If Nebraska does indeed achieve a renaissance under Frost this season or later on, it would have to start with winning the Big Ten’s West Division and returning to the league title game. And it will be awfully hard to shake the memories of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis from 2012 from the surprising Wisconsin romp of Nebraska.