Nebraska-Virginia Tech History Brief but Growing

Nebraska and Virginia Tech have only met once on the field and once more in a face-off in the polls (1999), but the potential exists for the kind of rivalry that Nebraska enjoyed with Miami or Florida State. Maybe not an every year affair, but a high stakes game between two proud programs – one a traditional power the other a “new money� modern power.

The 1996 Huskers were defensively on par with the great teams of their mid-1990's championship run. Only a horrendous offensive outing against Arizona State and an attack of the flu along with the ballsy “Roll Left� call against Texas kept that team from playing in a fourth straight national championship game. The Huskers were sixth ranked and the Hokies were ranked tenth with a high-powered offense that featured big quarterback Jim Druckenmiller and running back Ken Oxendine when the teams met in the Orange Bowl.

Druckenmiller passed the Virginia Tech to a 7-0 first quarter lead before Nebraska scored 17 straight points including a 31-yard Jason Peter fumble return. The Hokies pulled to 17-14 at the half and the teams traded 33-yard touchdowns to make it 24-21 before the Huskers piled on another 17 points to make it a 41-21 final. Damon Benning was named the MVP filling in for DeAngelo Evans and Scott Frost had a pair of touchdowns as well.

The two teams never met in 1999 but there was plenty of debate about which was truly worthy to face Florida State that year for the national championship. The Huskers went 11-1 with wins over four ranked teams and the loss to a Texas team (one of those teams) that they avenged in the Big 12 championship game. Virginia didn't play a single team that year that finished ranked in the top 25 in compiling an 11-0 record. One funny sidenote was that during the 1999 season the official Virginia Tech web page in describing the 1996 season (their program's high point up to that time) said it ran into “almighty� Nebraska. As an NU fan I was especially pleased to see that, but of course they removed that verbiage after that season. Virginia Tech played a good game but ultimately was overpowered by Florida State in the national championship game. Meanwhile, Nebraska pounded defending national champion and sixth-ranked Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl.

These next two home and home games will help define the Virginia Tech/Nebraska dynamic. Then, only the Gator Bowls or a BCS bowl would put the two teams on the field against each other. If the Huskers return to their perennial top ten ranking and Virginia Tech maintains their success, we could see a lot of high stakes games between the two programs in the years to come.

And it all starts a week from Saturday, when these programs write another chapter in their short history together.