Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

Back in the day, Nebraska used to thrive on challenges like they will be facing Thursday night at Missouri.

The white road uniforms were no big deal back then for the Cornhuskers, who cut through opponents with a swagger that was inspiring to behold. Those were the days the Cornhuskers’ “Blackshirts” defense was known for a tough, intimidating brand of football that left opponents cowering in their wake.

That feeling has been gone during this decade as Nebraska has shuffled through three coaches in the past seven seasons trying to recapture past glory.

Tonight, the Cornhuskers will attempt to stake their claim as the top program in the North Division with an emerging defense like the kind that Tom Osborne used to have. The Cornhuskers lead the nation in scoring defense and are developing the kind of attitude that marked some of those earlier teams.

“I think tradition is not allowing teams to run the ball on you, pass the ball on you and if they do, at some point get a chance to break it out, a Blackshirt defense is definitely going to take those yards back off that board,” Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said. “By getting tackles for loss, getting sacks and getting interceptions and getting the ball back to our offense.”

If the Cornhuskers are going to start playing up to that past legacy, they need to start playing better on the road. Nebraska has lost six straight road games against Top 25 opponents since winning at Texas A&M in 2006. Even more telling, the Cornhuskers have lost 14 of 15 true road games against ranked foes since a 2000 loss at Oklahoma. That game marks a clear point of delineation as it was the last time the Cornhuskers have been ranked No. 1 in the nation.

In order to turn that trend around, they’ll need to do so in hostile territory against the team that has usurped them as the power team in the North in recent seasons. To start getting that national respect back, the No. 21 Cornhuskers need to start winning challenges like they will face tonight in Columbia against the No. 24 Tigers.

Missouri will be going for its third straight victory over the Cornhuskers for the first time since 1969. In the last two games of the series, Chase Daniel and the Tigers humiliated them as they won the two games by a combined margin of 93-23.

If the last few years have showed us anything, it’s that Missouri has claimed the title of the Big 12 North’s best program. Consecutive championship game appearances have shown that Gary Pinkel’s team is the conference’s most consistent winner and the North Division’s most explosive offense.

“I don’t know year in, year out, how good Missouri was back in the day, but they’re playing good football now,” Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. “They’ve played some good football in the past but maybe not as consistently as since Coach [Pinkel] got there.”

Pinkel has helped the Tigers claim four of the last six games against the Cornhuskers -- a remarkable turnaround considering their previous 24-game losing streak to Nebraska.

And while it hasn’t springboard to a Big 12 title yet, the Tigers appear to have many of the pieces that would enable them to challenge again behind talented sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert and Butkus Award nominee Sean Weatherspoon.

Despite that success, many observers thought the Tigers would slide after the loss of six players who were picked in the NFL draft after last season.

“We’ve used it as a chip on our shoulder,” Weatherspoon said. “People don’t think we deserve to be picked among the favorites for whatever reason. It’s been a unifying thing for us as we’ve gotten ready for the season.”

The Tigers have been one of the biggest surprises in college football with a 4-0 start that started with a 38-9 trouncing of Illinois to start the season.

But they still feel they aren’t getting enough respect heading into Thursday’s game.

We’re going in as the underdog,” tailback Derrick Washington told the Columbia Tribune. “A lot of people didn’t think we would be 4-0 going into this game.

“Those guys are still ranked. Everybody’s doubting us. I’m hearing people on the news say we don’t have a chance … So we just want to come in and prove people wrong.”

History shows that only twice since the Big 12 was formed in 1996 that a North Division champion has claimed the divisional title without the benefit of winning their first conference game. That makes tonight’s battle even more important.

For his part, Pelini is using tonight’s game as a measuring stick for the growth of his program since his arrival before last season.

"I like to think we’re further ahead. I didn’t think we were a very good football team at that time last year in a lot of different ways," Pelini said. "We were trying to find ourselves offensively and defensively. We just weren’t playing very well. We had a long way to go. I think we’re further along now, and we’ll find out Thursday night how far we’ve come.”