Following conquered favorites and other wounded notables through the stages of grief.

Depression. Twice now Arkansas has taken on its old coach, the controversial Mr. Houston Nutt, and twice now they've failed in achieving their revenge on the villain for ... well, whatever it was he supposedly did to disgrace the Razorback name while sustaining a competitive program in Fayetteville. Given the recent animosity between Rebs and Hogs, Saturday's two-touchdown spanking in Oxford -- sparked by a career day from Ole Miss' jack-of-all-trades, Dexter McCluster -- proved to be a little more than KevinHog of the blog Arkansas Expats was prepared to handle:

An alternative title to this one is "McClustererd!" or if you want to put it another way, "McCluster [expletive]!" Whatever I title the post, it isn't going to fully capture just how down and in the dumps I am today about the Hogs losing to Ole Miss and Houston Nutt for the second year in a row. It feels like salt in the wound coming after last week's loss to Florida. A good thrashing of Eastern Michigan next week will help the healing process, but it is going to take some wins against SEC competition to possibly get us back to that first quarter feeling of the Georgia game when it looked like this Hog program had taken on a new identity ...

At Razorbloggers.net, the despression turns into outright self-loathing for one particularly guilt-ridden Hog fan:

I am no fan of [Houston Nutt] but in this world what goes around comes around. We had this coming to us for all abuse we have been heaping on him and Ole Miss. At some point devine justice steps in and says enough is enough. I am pointing my finger at myself first.

Does it still qualify as Stockholm Syndrome if the guy you're sympathizing with isn't actually keeping you captive anymore?

Anger. Two weeks ago, Texas Tech beat Kansas State by 52 points. One week ago, that same K-State team turned around and beat Texas A&M by 48. So while the prospect of the Red Raiders beating the Aggies by an even hundred was somewhat far-fetched, it was at least grounded in some kind of recognizable logic.

And it's also the reason you'll have to forgive some of the readers over at Double T Nation for being more than a little upset about the actual outcome, which involved the Aggie offense unloading on the Raiders in a 52-30 laugher. The targets of their ire range from quarterback Taylor Potts to coach Mike Leach to defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill to all of the above to a grab bag of factors including the defense, poor radio reception, and a shortage of beer. It was a stunning beating that only be appropriately summed up in one way -- with a stray reference to Anchorman in the middle of the first half:

It was a great night all the way around for Ron Burgundy quotes in Lubbock, particularly the one about scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch, in their bellies.

Bargaining. How much money would someone have to shell out for you to willingly subject yourself to the sight of your team catching a 45-point jackhammering from a conference opponent? A thousand bucks? Ten thousand? In his quest to salvage something positive from Boise State's 54-9 demolition of Hawaii, Honolulu Advertiser columnist Ferd Lewis ponders the question and decides a cool half-million sounds about right:

The unbeaten Broncos came into the game fourth in the Bowl Championship Series rankings and, after two less-than-stellar performances against UC Davis and Tulsa, needed a convincing win to enhance their standing if not keep No. 8 Texas Christian from leapfrogging them with a marquee win at Brigham Young.

You could almost hear the sigh of relief around the rest of the WAC as the UH turnovers -- and Broncos' points -- mounted last night. That's because if Boise State makes it to a BCS bowl each of the other eight WAC schools, including UH, stand to rake in a $500,000 windfall.

Hawaii -- now sitting at 2-5 and winless in WAC play -- might not feel so grateful, particularly after being forced to start its third-string quarterback, only to lose him to a concussion before the end of the first quarter. But half-a-million should bankroll as many recruiting trips as it takes to find a new one. (Like Mr. Lewis, we're just looking for the silver lining here, Warriors.)

Acceptance. First the good news, Nebraska fans: Those defensive woes that so embarrassed your program during the disastrous Bill Callahan years have clearly been solved. The 'Huskers held Iowa State to a single touchdowns and 239 yards total offense on Saturday. The bad news is you still lost anyway after gift-wrapping eight turnovers for the Cyclones, and according to the Omaha World-Herald's Dirk Chatelain, the home crowd in Lincoln didn't even bother to stick around for the last of them: Fourth quarter. 1:53 left. Nebraska trails Iowa State 9-7.

A light rain falls as the Huskers take over at their 18-yard line. They need three points. They need 50 yards maximum to enter Alex Henery field-goal range. No miracle necessary, just a few completions, a few first downs against the nation's 88th-ranked defense.

Yet look around Memorial Stadium, a place the Cyclones haven't won in 32 years. Behold a startling view: Empty seats. Open rows. Everywhere.

More than 85,000 people showed up for kickoff. Some 5,000 had filed out before Zac Lee took the first snap of the final drive. That image illustrates Husker football seven games into Bo Pelini's second season.

Two points behind, two minutes left, and the Cornhusker "faithful" (if that's the right word) are already conceding a loss? That's terrible, but if the alternative is sticking around for that eighth and final giveaway and thus being driven to a series of "Sesame Street" clips paying tribute to The Number 8, well, maybe they were better off getting out while the getting was good.