As frostonthegrass pointed out NU beat some good Oklahoma St teams that had a lot of talent Mizzou had some good teams in the early 80’s and Colorado came on at the end of the 80’s..
Nebraska from 1981- 1989 either played Miami, Florida St or LSU in bowl games majority of the time in their own backyard, not too many teams were beating Miami and Florida St during this time..
So Nebraska either lost to the National Champ or they finished 2nd in the country or Nebraka won the bowl games except for the 1986 Fiesta Bowl..
Point is the Clarkeyes don’t always beat the bad teams and they seldom beat top 5 teams and they seldom play a top 10 team in a bowl game.