By now, most Nebraska football fans have come to grips with the fact that not a single Cornhuskers was selected in the 2019 NFL draft. In large part, they've come to grips with that fact because while players like Devine Ozigbo, Stanley Morgan and Luke Gifford have all managed to sign undrafted free-agent deals with various NFL teams. Husker fans were also well prepared for the possibility that the weekend might not see a player get taken.
It's been a couple of lean years when it comes to players getting selected. Tanner Lee and Nate Gerry managed to keep a streak going that lasted over 50 years, but both of those players were taken in the final couple of rounds. It's been an even longer time since Nebraska has seen a high round draft choice. The same cannot be said for the Iowa Hawkeyes.
In the days following the 2019 NFL Draft, Iowa fans wanted to make sure they were especially relishing the fact that Nebraska had its consecutive draft streak broken.
Nebraska football and the big 'nope'
It wasn't long after the draft ended that Iowa Hawkeye fan and Twitter user Jeffrey the Greek took to the social media site to make sure Nebraska fans know how hilarious he found the weekend's developments.
He issued a tweet that was captioned "did a Nebraska player get drafted this year?" The tweet featured a picture of a Huskers football helmet with the word "nope" emblazoned across it.
The Hawkeyes, on the other hand, had four players drafted and two of them were taken in the first round. While it was clear what the Iowa fan was going for, the conversation shortly after turned into a conversation about which program has been more successful over the long haul and the best way to measure that metric.
One Nebraska fan pointed out that while Iowa might have had enough talent to get four players drafted, the team, in general, had a pretty average season. That season included almost being defeated, at home, by a Cornhusker team that finished the year 4-8.
Iowa and Nebraska rivalry heating up
Anyone who believes that the Hawkeyes and the Huskers are not a real rivalry, these days, is not paying much attention to social media. There is no love lost between the two fanbases and when something positive happens to one of the teams, the other fanbase is quick to poo-poo it away. When something negative happens to a program, the opposite fanbase is quick to point and laugh.
In some regards, this speaks well for the Nebraska football team. If the Huskers were as irrelevant as Iowa football fans wish they were, the fans simply wouldn't be paying any attention to the goings-on in Lincoln at all. How 2019 unfolds could go a long way in determining just how big the rivalry can become.