After years of downplaying the significance of its game against Colorado, Nebraska is finally treating the Buffaloes like a rival. Offensive lineman Matt Slauson talked about his "extreme distaste" for the Buffs. Quarterback Joe Ganz spoke of paying back Colorado for keeping Nebraska out of a bowl last year. Defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh brought up "bad blood" that, as far as he knows, has existed for many years. Former Colorado coach Bill McCartney, wherever he is, would be smiling if he had been within earshot. Back in the 1980s, when McCartney was starting out at CU, he manufactured a rivalry with neighboring Nebraska to give the Buffs something to rally around. At the time, Nebraska was one of the elite teams in the country, dominating the Big Eight with Oklahoma, its biggest rival. Colorado was just another team in the conference. Nebraska mostly ignored the hot air that blew in from the west year after year. McCartney, Rick Neuheisel and Gary Barnett have all come and gone, and current coach Dan Hawkins has done nothing to provoke the Huskers. But Nebraska players seemed agitated Tuesday, to the chagrin of first-year coach Bo Pelini. Ganz said the Huskers (7-4) would take great pleasure Friday in denying the Buffs (5-6) a bowl game. Colorado is in the same position as Nebraska a year ago, needing one win to earn a postseason bid. The Buffaloes won 65-51 in Boulder last year and went to the Independence Bowl. "Absolutely that's one thing on our minds, to see how they like it sitting at home watching everybody else play," Ganz said. "We're going to have to come out and play our best football because we want to do everything we can to keep them out of a bowl game like they did to us last year." Told of Ganz's comment, Pelini cringed. "I wish Joe would just worry about Joe," he said. Slauson, who lived in Colorado Springs for two years before arriving at Nebraska in 2005, said he has never liked the Buffs or what they stood for when they were trying to recruit him. "As a somewhat native of Colorado," he said, "I have an extreme distaste for them. They recruit guys there for one reason, and that's to beat Nebraska. If you take that away from them, they have nothing." Barnett was Colorado's coach when Slauson was deciding between the Buffs and Nebraska. Slauson said Colorado's players and coaches rubbed him the wrong way because they were disrespectful toward Nebraska during the recruiting process. "I went on a visit there when the last coach was there, Barnett, and they had Nebraska in big red letters, and it was, 'All we're here to do is beat Nebraska.' They would be happy if they lost every game and still beat Nebraska. I don't know why, but they said that when I went there." Ultimately, Slauson said, he wanted to play for what he considered a bona fide Big 12 power. "When you think Big 12 schools, you think Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas," he said. What about Colorado? "They just seem irrelevant to me," Slauson said, pausing. "Boy, that's billboard material." Suh, the Huskers' All-Big 12 candidate at nose tackle, couldn't put his finger on exactly why he doesn't like Colorado. He said it might have something to do with the 2005 game in Boulder, a 30-3 Nebraska win. At the end of pregame warmups, the Buffs taunted Nebraska players near midfield and the teams had to be separated. Debris came out of the stands on several occasions. Two different fans ran onto the field during breaks. Students had to be cleared from two sections in the fourth quarter. But that was three years ago. In 2006 Nebraska beat Colorado 37-14 to wrap up the Big 12 North title, and last year was the ugly end to Nebraska's 5-7 season and the Bill Callahan era. The series has been relatively quiet since 2001, when then-No. 14 CU hammered No. 2 Nebraska 62-36, but the Huskers still went to the national championship game against Miami at the Rose Bowl. "I don't know what the pinpoint thing was to start it, but it's always been that way," Suh said. "It's always a team we want to beat. Not saying we don't want to beat all the other teams, but it's a little bit more because there's a little bit of bad blood between us. It's always been that way and always will be that way." Pelini dismisses such talk. "Everybody is going to be motivated by different things. Different things make people tick," he said. "You can want something as much as you want, but your deeds and how you go about things better equate to accomplishing that goal. Ultimately that game is going to be decided between the lines and who blocks and who tackles."