2001 Nebraska Cornhuskers Football Team
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The 2001 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team represented the
University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...
in the
2001 NCAA Division I-A football season The 2001 NCAA Division I-A football season was the first college football season of the 21st century. It ended with the University of Miami winning the national title for the fifth time. The Hurricanes were led by Larry Coker, who was in his f ...
. The team was coached by
Frank Solich Frank Thomas Solich (born September 8, 1944) is a former American football coach and former player. He is the former head coach at Ohio University, a position he held from 2005 until 2021. From 1998 to 2003, Solich served as the head coach at th ...
and played their home games in Memorial Stadium in
Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...
.


Schedule


Roster and coaching staff


Depth chart


Game summaries


TCU


Troy State


Notre Dame


Rice

Rice at Nebraska, on September 20, 2001 was the first NCAA College Football game following the infamous Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.


Missouri


Iowa State


Baylor


Texas Tech


Oklahoma


Kansas


Kansas State


Colorado


Miami (FL)


Rankings


After the season

Nebraska finished in a tie for 1st place in the Big 12 North Division and also tied for 1st conference-wide, with a final record of 11–2 (7–1). The events which took place at the end of the season put a strain on the system of college rankings and polls. The Cornhuskers lost their final regular season game to
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
36–62, leaving both tied for 1st place in the Big 12 North Division. As Colorado won the head-to-head contest, Colorado then participated in the Big 12 Championship and defeated
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
39–37. Despite Colorado's accomplishments, Nebraska's strength-of-schedule component in the
Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including ...
selection system resulted in the Cornhuskers being selected to play in the 2002 Rose Bowl for the
BCS National Championship Game The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college fo ...
against
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, despite the fact that Nebraska had not played in its own conference championship game and technically had not even won its own division. Nebraska then fell to Miami 14–37 in the Rose Bowl, but the controversy of these events led to more modifications to the BCS formula, which followed a pattern of seasonal tweaks dating back nearly to when the BCS system was implemented. Senior Cornhusker quarterback
Eric Crouch Eric Eugene Crouch (born November 16, 1978) is a former American football quarterback. He also is a TV sports analyst and recreational equipment vendor. Crouch played college football for the University of Nebraska. In 2001 Crouch won the Heisma ...
was the 2001 recipient of the
Walter Camp Award The Walter Camp Player of the Year Award is given annually to the collegiate American football player of the year, as decided by a group of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I FBS head coaches and sports information directo ...
, the
Davey O'Brien Award The Davey O'Brien Award, officially the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award, named after Davey O'Brien, is presented annually to the collegiate American football player judged by the Davey O'Brien Foundation to be the best of all National Co ...
, and the
Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...
. Coach Solich was also selected Big 12 Football Coach of the Year.


Awards



NFL and pro players

The following Nebraska players who participated in the 2001 season later moved on to the next level and joined a professional or semi-pro team as draftees or free agents.


References

{{Nebraska Cornhuskers football navbox
Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
Nebraska Cornhuskers football seasons
Nebraska Cornhuskers football The Nebraska Cornhuskers football team competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, representing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the West Division of the Big Ten. Nebraska plays its home games at Memorial Stadium ...