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BOULDER, Colo. - Herbie Husker and Lil' Red stood behind the goal post on the south side of Folsom Field, snowballs raining down on them from the bleachers.
The Cornhuskers' offense was stumbling, the defense was getting shredded and time was running out on Bill Callahan's four-year reign as Nebraska's head coach.
So it only seemed fitting that just as Colorado was taking control of Friday's game in the third quarter, even Nebraska's mascots were being harassed.
Colorado went on a 34-0 run in the second half, and NU junior wide receiver Nate Swift said the Huskers' problems "snowballed."
For Herbie Husker and Lil' Red, that meaning was literal.
For Nebraska, the second-half meltdown ended a 5-7 season, a season in which the Huskers finished 2-6 in the Big 12 Conference only one year after winning the league's North Division.
"This season we just had games where the defense was playing good and the offense wasn't or the offense was playing good and the defense wasn't," Swift said. "It just seems like we never really had those games where everything was clicking."
Friday's game offered the Huskers a chance to make it to a bowl game, but Colorado ruined those hopes. Instead, the Buffaloes were the ones celebrating bowl eligibility one year after going 2-10.
It marked the second time in Callahan's four years that the Huskers finished with a losing record and missed out on a bowl bid. Before Callahan's arrival, they had qualified for postseason play an NCAA-record 36 straight times.
Friday's 65-51 loss ended a season in which Nebraska went 1-6 in its final seven contests and lost six games by two touchdowns or more.
That doesn't mean Husker players are glad the 2007 season is now history.
"If I was going to lose a game, I'd rather lose it in the bowl game," NU sophomore defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said. "I came here to play in big games and go to bowl games every single year, so there's no relief that the season is over now."
No bowl game means the Huskers don't get the benefit of extra practice time awarded to teams playing in the postseason.
Still, Suh and NU sophomore cornerback Larry Asante said returning players should have plenty of motivation going into the offseason.
"We're not losing seven games next season," Asante said. "This is not Nebraska football. It all starts with working hard off the field. We need to just put this behind us and get ready for next season."
But for the Huskers' 29 seniors there is no next season, except for the few who will go on to play professionally.
They will be left to ponder how a team that returned most key players from a 2006 squad that won nine games struggled mightily in 2007. They'll think about how a team that fell three points short of upsetting a top-10 Auburn squad in last year's Cotton Bowl didn't come close to meeting expectations this season.
And they'll wonder how, when bowl eligibility was at stake, this year's Nebraska team collapsed against Colorado.
"I just can't put my finger on it," NU senior cornerback Cortney Grixby said. "You think about it, but there's no answers. It's football."
BENGOULDSMITH@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM
