LINCOLN -- The last walk off the Memorial Stadium turf for Nebraska's most veteran players took longer. Blessedly longer.
No somber trudge to the locker room this time as the sun set Saturday on a breakthrough win that was weeks -- no, years -- in the making. Isaac Gifford wrapped former teammate Luke Reimer in a hug and high-fived throngs of students who had streamed onto the field. Ty Robinson and his mother ran at each other for an embrace. John Bullock looked at a Freedom Trophy that had hadn't taken up residence in Lincoln since he was in fifth grade.
Even offensive lineman Bryce Benhart -- stoic during his career now featuring 52 starts, one off the Nebraska all-time high -- cracked a small smile as fans slapped his shoulder pads.
The Huskers might as well have been chasing Midwest weather during their college careers instead of two elusive program milestones. Oh-fer against Wisconsin as part of a 10-game overall losing skid. A seven-year bowl drought that included an 0-8 record with postseason eligibility on the line in two seasons under the current coaching staff.
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Over. Finally. Emphatically, as the "44-25" flashing on the scoreboard could attest.
"It was way better than I was envisioning in my head," said Robinson, a sixth-year defensive lineman. "Just to be out there being ransacked by the fans and the students, it was awesome to feel that energy and that love from those guys. I understand it's been hard around here for a while but it's awesome to show that things are getting better and things will be better."
"It's everything," Gifford said. "We've got one more game but, man, I'm going to really enjoy tonight."
The seniors haven't felt the entirety of Nebraska's struggles against Wisconsin and making bowl games but many have felt the majority. Big Red had been 5-24 in November before Saturday. Only Massachusetts (11 years) and Louisiana-Monroe (10) had longer postseason droughts among FBS teams.
As sweet as scrapping all those narratives was the seniors playing a central role in it happening. Consider:
>> Robinson forced a fumble in the final seconds of the first half that set up a field goal and 24-10 lead at intermission. He helped as a blocker on Dante Dowdell's final leaping touchdown in the fourth quarter, then skipped off the field while playing to fans.
>> Gifford and safety DeShon Singleton led NU with six tackles apiece. Singleton corralled the final clinching interception on a ball off the hands of Badgers receiver Bryson Green.
>> Bullock stuffed Wisconsin rusher Tawee Walker on fourth and 2 from the Nebraska 25 in the third quarter to force a turnover on downs with the Huskers up 17. The sequence came one play after Robinson kept an arm on another UW ballcarrier to prevent a first down.
>> Sixth-year linebacker Javin Wright made a diving pass breakup on the sideline on third and five in the first quarter of a tie game. The defender who has battled blood clots all season and injuries during his career finished with five tackles.
>> The offensive line including seniors in center Ben Scott and Benhart at right tackle helped NU rush for 180 yards, the most against a power-conference foe this season. No hole was bigger than one they opened up the middle for Dowdell, who ran into the end zone virtually untouched from 12 yards out early in the second quarter. Micah Mazzccua also saw rotational action.
>> Jahmal Banks, a Wake Forest transfer playing his final college season, enjoyed one of his best games as a Husker with four catches for 52 yards and a touchdown. He got a foot down in the back of the end zone for a 5-yard score seconds before halftime.
>> Punter Brian Buschini flipped the field time and again as a likely NFL career draws near. His 49-yard angling kick -- a "banana ball," he said for its quirky rotation -- in the second quarter rolled out of bounds at the Badger 3-yard line.
About time for this kind of win, Buschini said afterward inside the Hawks Center. He glanced at the wall on the facility's northeast corner where a banner reading "53 BOWL APPERANCES" has hung since he arrived in 2022.
"They better replace that tarp, I expect, sometime soon," Buschini said. "I've been counting on it. It's got, like, dust all over it."
Younger players and coach Matt Rhule all said Saturday was for the seniors even more than themselves. Junior quarterback Heinrich Haarberg said he was thinking of them and former teammates when he bulled through multiple defenders for an early touchdown run out of the Wildcat formation.
"Being able to send them out the right way means a lot to me," Haarberg said. "Having a little piece of that...hopefully this is something they'll remember for 60 years."
Banks, who has been to bowl games before, said he "cherished" the breakthrough with fellow Huskers and fans. Robinson said NU proved that bowl eligibility and a Badger beating aren't "big, scary things" but byproducts of playing good football.
"It was very emotional because we know what we've been through here, all the ups and downs," Bullock said. "And just to look them in the eye and to know that we did something special is awesome."
The prevailing emotion, they agreed, is joy. Iowa next Friday, then a month of bowl practices before an extra game that proved too elusive until now. Now -- at last and against a foe unsolvable for so long -- Nebraska is on to something bigger and better.
"It's the guys that stuck here and went through hell," Gifford said. "We finally got that monkey off the back."
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