RENO, Nev. — Luke Lippincott and a handful of his Nevada football teammates did one last thing before heading out for their first practice of 2008 this week.

They went to relive the painful memory of more than seven months ago when Nevada lost to New Mexico 23-0 in the New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 22.

"A lot of us went upstairs today and looked at the scoreboard of that game on film," the Wolf Pack's senior running back said. "It's a big motivational factor."

The time between the end of one season and the start of another is usually referred to as the offseason. Not so this year, Lippincott said.

"I wouldn't call it an offseason," the 2007 Western Athletic Conference rushing leader and first-team all-conference pick said.

"After that game, we all kind of took a week or two off and then went back to the weight room and started hitting it. ... We brought that up all through summer, and people are still thinking about that, how it ended," he told the Reno-Gazette Journal.

To some Wolf Pack players, that game will be a regular reminder for this entire season. It wasn't just a loss. It was a shutout that ended the nation's longest streak of avoiding shutouts (329 straight games dating back to 1980). Nevada, which joined the Division I-A ranks in 1992, had never been shut out at that level. And it pushed Nevada, 6-6 entering that game, to the wrong side of the .500 mark.

"It was probably the longest offseason I've ever had," said sophomore quarterback Colin Kaepernick, the reigning WAC Freshman of the Year. "Thinking about that game, it stays with you everyday you're in the weight room and everyday you're on the field. You're always thinking about that."

"Any loss I take as motivation," senior safety Uche Anyanwu said. "Especially losing like that — the last game of the season, the deciding factor in either a winning season or a losing season. I look back and watch film of myself. What could I have done different to help us win? You've just got to learn from it and move on."

Anyanwu said he didn't know about the streak until after the game.

"We don't play for records. We play to win. We play to be champions," he said. "Losing that streak, I've never been part of a team that didn't score a point, so it definitely sucked to end our season like that."

Some players, though, don't need the extra motivation.

"It is a motivational factor for some people because we got shut out," senior defensive tackle Mundrae Clifton said.

"No one likes to lose like that. But you've got to look forward and keep pushing. To some guys it's a motivational factor to get blown out like that. It's real embarrassing. It's one of those things that shouldn't happen, especially to a program like we've developed. But we've got a clean slate. It's zero-and-zero. That's a motivational factor right there."

Ironically, the Pack's defense had struggled for much of the year, but after giving up a couple big touchdown plays in the first quarter, the defense settled down and allowed just three field goals in the final three quarters. The Pack's offense, one of the best in the WAC, couldn't get anything going against the Lobos' aggressive and attacking 3-5-3 defense.

"For me, that was the first time that I've ever been shut out in my life," Kaepernick said. "Something like that is really going to stick with you."

In the moments after the game, Nevada coach Chris Ault said, "The last thing I'm thinking about is any kind of streak of shutouts."

On Tuesday, he admitted that it was a tough record to lose.

"That was 30 years of tradition," said Ault, who was the coach in 1980, when the streak began. "It meant a lot that night. You're talking to a guy who was here when it started.

"All good things must come to an end, and it's a shame it happened. We weren't representative of what we should be. But, again, you take that as motivation for this year."

Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, http://www.rgj.com