On the field, the Jayhawks were soundly and thoroughly beaten down by Nebraska 31-17 in their fifth straight loss. The defeat left KU at an (un)even 5-5, and with an unwanted spot at the very bottom of an extremely weak Big 12 North division.
Off the field, the players lamented the "suck" that's permeated the latter half of the 2009 season after an offseason filled with high hopes and great expectations.
"It's got to suck to be a senior," junior receiver Dezmon Briscoe said, "Losing on your seniors day, your last game to play at home.
"We had such high expectations media wise or whatever. As a team we had such great leaders and a bunch of veteran guys that came back and, I mean, it just sucks. We're 5-5 now."
Quarterback Todd Reesing, one of those seniors stuck in the suck, lamented the fact that the last home game for a couple of handfuls of last-year players went the way it did.
"It hasn't hit me fully, but to think that I'll never get to run out there, sprint into that stadium again with all our fans singing our songs and hearing our chants and just having fun with all these guys ... man, that sucks," senior Todd Reesing said. "It really does."
Obviously, the Jayhawks are not yet bowl eligible, and the road to get there in the final two games is the furthest thing from a cakewalk. This coming weekend, KU travels to Austin to take on No. 3 Texas. Then, to close out the regular season, they will square off with 6-4 Missouri in Kansas City.
A sixth straight loss is a near certainty; a seventh straight would send the Jayhawks home sans a bowl bid and will commence an offseason that will likely include many a story consisting of the same theme -- what is Mark Mangino's future in Kansas?
What about their battle with the basketball team, didn't they lose that too?