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The kicker was different, but the outcome was the same.

One week after Kansas University senior Johnny Beck missed two field goals in a three-point loss at Northwestern, his replacement -- red-shirt freshman Scott Webb -- missed two fourth-quarter field goals Saturday in a 31-30 loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 Conference opener at Memorial Stadium.

Webb made a 22-yard field goal in the second quarter while the Jayhawks were building a 30-5 lead, but he missed from 45 and 43 yards late in the game as Tech rallied for the biggest comeback victory ever against KU.

One of these days, the old adage will hold true, and defense really WILL win Kansas University a football game.

Heaven knows the Jayhawk defense is doing what it takes -- and then some -- to let KU compete against programs that once were too much of a fight.

Another solid outing was spoiled Saturday when Nebraska slipped away with consecutive victory No. 36 over Kansas, 14-8, at Memorial Stadium.

John Randle cried.

Lew Perkins lit up a fat cigar.

And an electrified student body looking for any excuse to go crazy found it Saturday.

When the sold-out crowd finally filed out of Memorial Stadium, after most took time to charge the field and high-five Kansas University football players, one memory from the game remained, in large block print on the towering video board behind the south end zone.

It read what Jayhawk fans had been waiting more than a decade to read: Kansas 31, Kansas State 28.

If Kansas University's football team wanted any shot whatsoever at sucker-punching No. 2 Oklahoma on Saturday, it would have needed a complete game with efficient execution and even stronger discipline.

Neither happened.

Not by a long shot.

The Jayhawks sputtered more often than not, and too many penalties kept pushing an already-weak attack back even farther, helping OU roll to a 41-10 victory over Kansas at Owen Field.

It was desperation in its most desperate form.

With Kansas University's quarterbacks showing minimal effectiveness throwing the football Saturday, the most important make-or-break pass of the game -- and maybe the season -- was hurled by none other than running back Clark Green with 6:56 left in the contest.

It was intercepted.

So goes the tale of one of the most demoralizing losses in the Mark Mangino era, a 13-7 setback to lowly Iowa State in half-empty Jack Trice Stadium.

It just figures, doesn't it?

As soon as Kansas University's football offense shows some signs of life -- for the first time in nearly a month -- against Colorado, the quarterback succumbs to injury, misses the rest of the game and causes the rejuvenated offense to derail almost instantly.

That's what this football season has come to for KU -- no breaks, no boom, and, with Saturday's 30-21 loss to the Buffaloes at Memorial Stadium, no chance of going to a bowl game in 2004.

With everything stacked against Kansas University's football team Saturday against No. 6 Texas, Jayhawk coach Mark Mangino wasn't in the mood to see officiating as another obstacle.

After Saturday's 27-23 loss to Texas at Memorial Stadium, Mangino lashed out.

KU's third-year coach wasn't shy in criticizing officiating after Saturday's game, saying a late offensive-pass-interference call on Charles Gordon was wrong and implying that Texas' Bowl Championship Series implications -- and the subsequent payout to the Big 12 Conference if UT qualifies -- might have had something to do with it.

The teams already were gone, and the bleachers were well on their way to being empty. But the northwest corner of Faurot Field on Saturday was a party that made all the frustrations of an agonizing season seem light years away.

There, about a thousand Kansas University football fans cheered. They waved the wheat. They chanted, "Scoreboard," and, "Just like last year," and, "This is our house," to the few Missouri fans who dared to stick around and see the Border War football game end the way it did.

For Kansas, a 31-14 victory over MU on Saturday had few implications outside of pride, but, nonetheless, a 4-7 season never could be any sweeter for Jayhawk fans -- simply because both Kansas State and Missouri left the field with the Rock Chalk Chant swirling around the venue, a sure sign that KU got the better of them that day.