Buffaloes lose heartbreaker to end season

Dan Hawkins had no opening statement following Colorado's 40-31 loss at Nebraska. The Buffaloes ended their season just as quietly, missing out on postseason play for the second time in three years.

The CU coach hopes the displeasing experience will be enough to spark the program to bigger and better days in the future. After all, he noted, Kansas went to a BCS bowl in 2007 after missing out altogether a season earlier. Past Colorado teams have had similar experiences.

"It's not fatal by any means," Hawkins said. "I think to some degree you can use it as a little fuel in the offseason."

Early on, it didn't look like the Buffaloes would have to worry about how to spend December. They rolled up 148 yards on their first four plays from scrimmage - with the first being for no gain - and turned the production into a 14-0 advantage.

Colorado would earn 143 offensive yards the rest of the game.

On the second play of the game's opening drive, CU quarterback Cody Hawkins roped a pass down the middle of the field to wideout Riar Greer for a 68-yard touchdown. Following a Nebraska punt, Hawkins completed a 44-yard bomb to wideout Josh Smith. Running back Demetrius Sumler then found the end zone from 36 yards out on the next play.

"We were definitely moving the ball," Sumler said. "Coaches had them dialed in, and we were executing."

Hawkins the coach said one of the team's goals was to start quickly, particularly being on the road.

Mission accomplished. Unfortunately for CU, it couldn't keep up the early momentum.

Despite struggling to move the ball for the rest of the half, the Buffs went into halftime tied 24-24 after cornerback Jimmy Smith grabbed a fake field goal pitch from Nebraska holder Jake Wesch and sprinted 58 yards for the score.

Smith said the play - which coaches prepared him for in practice - would have been the turning point had Colorado won. Instead, he said, that honor had to go to Alex Henery and his school-record 57-yard field goal that put NU ahead in the final minutes.

"It's sad we didn't really play well," Smith said. "The seniors were crying - obviously it was their last game. For most of them it was their last snap of football."

A lot of the emotion was a spillover from the last two weeks, Hawkins the quarterback said. Though the Buffaloes didn't make much noise publicly about playing Nebraska, he said the team was plenty excited about the rivalry matchup and getting to the postseason.

Instead, all he saw after the game was "a lot of upset dudes."

One silver lining for the Buffs was they put up the most points since laying 31 on Eastern Washington in early September. Their 24 points at halftime were the most since collecting the same total against Nebraska in a win last season.

If nothing else, it was enough for Hawkins the coach to say he's never been prouder of any of his teams in three years at Colorado.

"It's going to be hard to sit there and watch (the bowl season)," Sumler said. "But it's going to give us some motivation just to come out here and work harder and make sure that don't ever happen again."

evanbland@dailynebraskan.com