The Big 12 Conference has two teams predicted to be in the hunt for the national championship. Nebraska is not one of them.

In the ‘USA Today’/ESPN coaches preseason poll, there were four Big 12 teams in the top 10. The Cornhuskers were the fourth.

Defending Big 12 champion Colorado has been selected as the preseason favorite in the Big 12 North. In the league’s six-year history, it’s the first time Nebraska has not been chosen to win the North.

Clearly, the Huskers’ 11-0 start has been lost in the wreckage of their never-in-it losses to Colorado (62-36) and Miami (37-14).

“You can win 11 games in a row,” Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. “Then if you lose the last two, that’s not what anybody wants. The players recognize that we were a pretty good team last year. We got quite a bit done. But we didn’t get done what we wanted to.

“Our fans are unforgiving. Sometimes 11 wins are not enough. Other places, 11 wins are fine. Here, they want 13.”

Nebraska’s offense must replace quarterback Eric Crouch, last year’s Heisman Trophy winner. The offensive line is missing three starters. The defense lost six starters from a unit that allowed 1,054 yards in offense in the Huskers’ last two games. The whispers are growing louder – Nebraska football has slipped.

“Everybody forgets that we won our first 11 games,” Nebraska senior cornerback DeJuan Groce said. “They only remember the last two. I mean, we had a good season. We won 11 games right off the bat. It’s kind of hard. Nobody talks about that too much. It’s the losses. That’s it.

“We were supposed to be dead last year and in 2000. Nebraska’s always going to be around. We’ve been around 30 years.”

The last time Nebraska lost consecutive games was 1990, when the Huskers closed out the season by allowing a total of 90 points to Oklahoma and Georgia Tech. The Huskers were in the midst of a seven-game bowl losing streak that saw them defeated by the average score of 29-14.

Six of those losses were to Florida State (four times) and Miami (twice). Out of that wreckage, Nebraska changed its defensive philosophy, scrapping a five-man front for a more conventional alignment. Linebackers became defensive ends, defensive backs became linebackers as the Huskers sought speed. The result: since 1994, a 91-11 record and three national titles.

Now, Nebraska fans are wondering if the scheme and the personnel are as important as the coaching. Defensive coordinator Craig Bohl, in his third season after replacing long-time defensive guru Charlie McBride, received most of the heat for last season’s melt down. There have been rumors that Bohl could be replaced by Bob Davie, the former Notre Dame coach and Texas A&M defensive coordinator.

Bohl, who said the last two games of 2002 represents the low point of his 16-year coaching career, believes that blending some young talent with experienced players will improve Nebraska’s defense.

“(Our defensive front will be) as strong as we’ve had here in the last three or four years,” Bohl said. “This is a strong, physical bunch that can be very explosive.”

Nebraska fans would take effective over explosive. The lasting image from the end of last season was that the Huskers’ Black Shirts couldn’t stop aflag football team.