<table> </table> MANHATTAN, Kan. | They were dressed in their sport coats and suits, hard-to-miss name tags attached to their lapels. Representatives from the Sun and Independence bowls witnessed Saturday&#8217;s carnage at Bill Snyder Family Stadium from the safety of the press box.</p><p>Any distraction during Nebraska&#8217;s 56-28 laugher against Kansas State was a welcome distraction.</p><p>So, imagine how Ron Prince feels, especially after the Wildcats dropped their fifth consecutive game. He never defeated Kansas, Missouri or Nebraska, and the only carrot left for the lame-duck coach to dangle in front of his players&#8217; noses &#8212; becoming bowl eligible &#8212; vanished Saturday. With one game left in his abbreviated K-State career, the only remaining motivation is to perhaps match last season&#8217;s win total or send the seniors out on a winning note.</p><p>But that, even at home against lowly Iowa State, is far from a given.</p><p>&#8220;I thought we played one of our best games,&#8221; said junior wide receiver Deon Murphy, whose fumble of a second-quarter punt was identified by Prince as the game&#8217;s &#8220;big play.&#8221;</p><p>Nothing was easy for the Wildcats, 4-7 and 1-6 in the Big 12, who had 202 yards through three quarters. Josh Freeman left the game in the second half but wasn&#8217;t quite benched &#8212; some of his teammates suggested Freeman suffered a concussion. All Prince would allow was that Freeman &#8220;wasn&#8217;t his normal self&#8221; and sat him approximately nine minutes into the third quarter &#8212; with K-State trailing 35-14.</p><p>Carson Coffman came in and guided the Wildcats to an immediate touchdown, slashing the lead to 14 points with a little less than three minutes left in the third quarter. He finished five of eight passing for 74 yards and rushed for a score.</p><p>All that did, though, was place K-State&#8217;s defense back on the field, and that hasn&#8217;t been a positive all season. The numbers aren&#8217;t even shocking any more &#8212; the Wildcats surrendered 610 yards, allowing the Cornhuskers, 7-4 and 4-3, to retain the ball for 36:35.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very disappointing,&#8221; Prince said.</p><p>Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz was spectacular, completing 16 of his 25 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns while also running 11 times for 95 yards and a couple of more touchdowns.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s pretty clear we couldn&#8217;t tackle their quarterback,&#8221; Prince said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a really good player. &#8230; We just bounced off him. You can&#8217;t beat a physical team like that.&#8221;</p><p>The Cornhuskers carried 53 times for 340 yards, a ridiculous 6.4 yards-per-carry average. Four different backs scored, including a pair by Roy Helu Jr. (13 carries for 72 yards).</p><p>&#8220;We played well and did some good things, but we still have not reached our potential and we have a long way to go,&#8221; Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said.</p><p>If that&#8217;s the case, how far will the trek be for the Wildcats?</p><p>Finding answers proved almost impossible and certainly inconclusive.</p><p>Afterward, Prince lamented the end of an extraordinary K-State streak &#8212; the Wildcats had been 16-0 in games in which they scored a touchdown via defense and special teams. Courtney Herndon opened scoring for K-State with a 57-yard interception return for a touchdown less than four minutes into the game, and Brandon Banks returned a kickoff 98 yards for a fourth-quarter score.</p><p>&#8220;We knew we had a chance if we didn&#8217;t turn the ball over,&#8221; he said.</p><p>But the Wildcats had only one turnover &#8212; Nebraska had two.</p><p>As the day wore on, shadows stretched over the entire field, darkening an afternoon that began drenched in sunlight &#8212; an apt description of how the season has unwound for the Wildcats.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been up and down,&#8221; Banks said. &#8220;There&#8217;s been a lot of adversity.&#8221;</p><p>But at its end, everything was illuminated.</p><p>Nebraska is simply jockeying for bowl position, possibly out of reach for the Independence Bowl reps who traveled Saturday to Manhattan but not for the gentlemen from the Sun Bowl.</p><p>And K-State, for the second consecutive season, will skip the postseason, its main incentive in the last week of the season being recording a victory for its departing seniors, its lame-duck coach and possibly, its starting quarterback.</p><p>Things couldn&#8217;t be much clearer.