As the scoreboard clock ticked off the final seconds of the Nebraska game, chants of “Go Big Red” echoed at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, bringing with it an eerie reality that K-State will not go to a postseason bowl game again.
“It’s real disheartening, especially how the season went,” linebacker Reggie Walker said. “How our goals and everything of how we wanted to be didn’t happen like that; it’s just not a good feeling.”
For the second straight year, the Huskers found themselves in a quick 7-0 hole against the Wildcats, after quarterback Joe Ganz threw a pick that was returned for six points by safety Courtney Herndon, but once again, were able to storm back and put a stranglehold on the rest of the game.
The Cornhuskers (7-4, 4-3 Big 12 Conference) took a page out of the playbook of Nebraska teams of old under former coach Tom Osbourne, as their offense rumbled for 340 yards on the ground and six touchdowns.
“At some point in every game you’re going to face some adversity, and it happened for us early today,” Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. “Our kids came back, and our offense responded quickly, which helped us.”
Nebraska’s offense responded early and often after falling behind, en route to a gaudy 610 yards of offense with a balance attack of 340 yards rushing and 270 yards through the air. Ganz accounted for four total touchdowns, including a crushing 14-yard touchdown run early in the fourth that stretched the lead back to three scores, in response to a Brandon Banks 97-yard kickoff return.
K-State (4-7, 1-6 Big 12) had no answers for the relentless pressure put on quarterback Josh Freeman all night, as Freeman left the game in the third quarter after completing only seven passed for 114 yards and a touchdown. The Wildcats offensive numbers were dwarfed by that of Nebraska, as 247 yards was all the home team could muster against the re-visited Blackshirt defense.
“We played against a very physical team today as we knew we would,” said lame-duck coach Ron Prince. “We were pretty certain we would have to do a real good job of spreading them out and distributing the ball to be able to neutralize that size and strength.
“That didn’t happen in the first half,” he said.
Banks is a part of a team he hasn’t been associated with that long, but he said he feels bad for the seniors on this team because of how the season has gone, and defined the season in a simple phrase.
“Like a rollercoaster,” Banks said.
The ups and downs that pose as the 2008 K-State football season completes its final chapter Saturday, as they face the reeling Iowa State Cyclones with only one achievable goal left – get a win for the seniors playing their last game as Wildcats.