Brand new to the Colorado vs. Nebraska rivalry a year ago, Jimmy Horn Jr. admitted he didn’t have any natural hate towards the Cornhuskers, but he knew he wasn’t supposed to like them.

“Nah, but I hate ‘em,” the CU receiver said with a smile last year. “When it’s rivalry week, it’s rivalry week.”

It is once again rivalry week, as the Buffaloes will visit Lincoln, Neb., on Saturday night to take on the hated Huskers in what is currently the last scheduled matchup between the two.

Having gone through it once, Horn said this week it felt more like a rivalry than last year, and the Buffs are becoming more familiar with the history of matchup.

“I can’t speak for generations, my man, I’m just happy and thankful that we are here right now,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said when asked if he realizes what the game means to longtime Buffs fans. “We’re going to dominate the day as best that we can. But it’s been things passed along and passed down from older generations to now that the Governor (long snapper Camden Dempsey, not the governor of Colorado, Jared Polis) got up in the meeting today, and he took the floor, and he allowed us to know some things about this rivalry and some things that should impact us just passionately about this rivalry.

“I’m pretty sure you’re not going to see anybody on the team wearing red anywhere this week, because he politely allowed us to know that’s a no-no. So I love it. I think that’s what college football is all about, whether we’re in the same conferences or not; but this is a tremendous rivalry, and I look forward to it.”The rivalry dates back to 1898, and it has been mostly dominated by Nebraska, which has won 49 of the 72 matchups. For years, the Buffs and Huskers were rivals in the Big Seven/Big Eight/Big 12 conference, but that changed after the 2010 season.

In the summer of 2011, CU left the Big 12 for the Pac-12 and Nebraska bolted for the Big Ten. They’ve met three times as nonconference foes — in 2018, 2019 and 2023 — with CU winning all three matchups, including 36-14 last year.

While they don’t play annually anymore, the passion of the rivalry is still very much alive.

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule told a story this week of being on a ski trip to Beaver Creek last winter with his wife. A young woman walked up to him and asked if he was the Nebraska head coach and he confirmed he was.

“She said something to me that I can’t repeat out loud,” he said with a laugh. “Her boyfriend was like, ‘Ah, sorry coach.’ I was like, ‘Nah, hey, this is what’s great about college football.’ We love rivalries, we love all of that. This is a long-established rivalry. I think it’s great for the game, I think it’s great for us, it’s great for our university. People all across the country will tune in this week and see this football game.

“They’ll see two great teams compete.”

While it is a rivalry and there is no love lost between the fans of both teams, it’s a big game for both squads, regardless of who is on the other side. Both are tradition-rich teams that haven’t felt much winning in recent years.

Nebraska has gone through seven consecutive losing seasons. CU has had just one winning season in the past seven years, but that came in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.

Coach Prime and Rhule are both in their second seasons leading their teams. Both won their season opener last week, and a 2-0 start would be huge for the winning team.

“It’s a bigger game because it’s rivalry week, but you want to attack every game like it’s rivalry week,” CU guard Justin Mayers said. “Nebraska I hear is going to be sold out and all these things, but that still doesn’t faze us. We practice hard. We have the crowd noise going. So I think Coach Prime’s getting prepared for a great game this upcoming Saturday.”