By Tom Wheatley

LINCOLN, Neb. - It was fun while it lasted. For the 22nd consecutive year against Nebraska, Mizzou's fun did not last quite as long as the football game.

Coach Larry Smith's outmanned youngsters gave it the old college try. They forgot to be spooked here Saturday night by the top-ranked Cornhuskers and a crowd that has filled Memorial Stadium continuously for 38 years.

At the risk of sounding like an outake from another schmaltzy NBC Olympic feature, the bottom line on this game was this:

The Tigers didn't know how to win, but they didn't know how to quit, either.

With two weeks to cram for this test, they razzled and they dazzled with their no-huddle offense. They tried clumping three tight ends. They tried stacking three running backs. They tried using two quarterbacks at once. In the play of the night, they had a running back hand the ball to a receiver who threw to the quarterback to set up a touchdown.

The Tigers scored first. They had more yards from scrimmage. They had more rushing yards than the 'Huskers steamroller until late in the game.

The Tigers gave up a cheap touchdown on a 94-yard punt return that should have been a second-quarter killer. They gave up a touchdown on a 28-yard fumble return that should have been a third-quarter killer.

In rat-a-tat fashion in the second half, they lost quarterback Kirk Farmer with a broken collarbone, senior receiver John Dausman with a knee injury and defensive signal-caller Sean Doyle left with a hamstring injury.

For all of that, the Tigers trailed by just 11 points with 20 minutes to play.

Their defense, which allowed 5 of 7 third-down conversions in the first half, held the 'Huskers offense to seven points after the break. And that touchdown came with 5 1/2 minutes to play. And only then after back-to-back, 15-yard penalties on Mizzou for pass interference and Smith's relentless protest of that call.

If graded solely on improvement so far this year, Smith & Co. would be smiling. Instead, the officials insisted on keeping score.

The bad news was 42-24, a margin that suggests a blowout. It was hardly that.

Whenever the Tigers fell behind by two touchdowns - which happened three times - they would quiet the almost unanimously pro-Husker crowd of 77,744 fans.

This was Mizzou's third loss in three tries against a ranked team.

But this was not the Clemson game, when Mizzou trailed 14-9 late in the first half, blew a crucial fourth-down tackle and gave up the next 48 points.

This was not the Michigan State game, when Mizzou scored the first 10 points, shriveled up for the next 50 minutes and then saw its coach give up on the offense by punting rather than go for two yards with time dwindling.

This was Mizzou football the way it was from 1958 to 1978, when the Tigers were 12-9 against the Huskers.

If Farmer had not been KO'd a little more than halfway through the game of his life, who knows if Mizzou could have regrouped?

Now, who knows if they can regroup without him for the next four to six weeks?

Freshman Darius Outlaw, a third-stringer when camp opened, is the new quarterback. He was as cool as a veteran in running Bill Kubit's complicated offense.

The question now is whether Outlaw and the Tigers can win the winnable games against Oklahoma State, Kansas, Iowa State, Colorado and Baylor.

No matter what happens against Texas and Kansas State, the last two ranked teams on the schedule, the Tigers would have the six victories needed for a bowl bid.

That would also end the speculation about Smith's job.

The rumor mill continues to spit out the name of Dennis Franchione of Texas Christian University, this year's hot coaching prospect. He spent five years at New Mexico while Mike Alden was apprenticing to become Mizzou athletic director.

Somehow, Smith needs to keep his team improving. Because in his business, the bosses seldom grade solely on improvement.