With the Cyclones’ current seven-game losing streak and two straight shutouts, many fans feel there’s nothing to salvage from this football season. But ISU head coach Dan McCarney insists there is still plenty for which to play.

“We’ve had our opportunities and chances, but we didn’t do it so now our goal is to finish as strong as we can,” McCarney said Monday of his 2-7 (0-5 Big 12) team. “We’re going to do everything we can to win this year.”

Though many of the Cyclone starters are very young with promising futures, McCarney said his seniors have done too much for his program to abandon them.

“We are playing a lot of young guys,” McCarney said. “We’ve had as many as eight freshmen starting, and four true freshmen are starting right now, so we have a good blend of some young guys, but there are still some really fine upperclassmen.”

“This class of seniors really means an awful lot to me and to Iowa State. Even though this year we didn’t take the program to places it hadn’t been before, they still had a lot to do with that in past seasons, so we’re sure not going to talk about getting ready for 2004 yet. We’re trying to put kids in position to win games this year and finish on a positive note.”

Now that the Cyclones have been mathematically eliminated from any type of postseason play with last weekend’s 45-0 throttling by Kansas State, many would think Iowa State would want to play the role of spoiler — but not McCarney.

His Cyclones would be just that if they were to knock off the Colorado Buffaloes this Saturday. A loss to Iowa State would eliminate the 4-6 (2-4 Big 12) Buffaloes from bowl contention.

“I don’t like that role of spoiler,” McCarney said. “We’ve been involved in postseason play the last three years, and after Saturday that’s not possible for us, but there’s still great character in this organization and a good foundation in place.

“Though some of our goals are gone, we’re still playing for an awful lot.”

Led by coach Gary Barnett, Colorado will be the first team with a losing record that the Cyclones have faced in their brutal schedule, but McCarney said the Buffaloes will still be a great challenge for his team.

“They’re the two-time defending Big 12 North champs and they’re really improving with a tremendous victory over an outstanding Missouri team this week,” McCarney said. “They’ve had a great road record over the years under Gary’s leadership. They still have a lot of players left from those teams of the last couple years so we’ll have our hands full, no doubt about it.”

As for the quarterback situation, McCarney said he will stick with Waye Terry as the starter, even though he was replaced by Austin Flynn early in the second half of the Kansas State game.

“We’ll continue to evaluate on the practice field, but coming out of Saturday’s game, we’re really leaning heavily toward starting [Terry] again,” McCarney said.

Terry was 7-of-20 for 80 yards and two interceptions in the loss to Kansas State.

McCarney also said wide receiver Lance Young, who didn’t play after halftime in the last game, will be back in action against Colorado.

“He’ll be fine,” McCarney said. “He did get hurt when he landed wrong in coming down for a ball, but he’s fine today and he’ll practice all week and he’ll be ready to go.”

Kickoff for the Colorado game — Iowa State’s home finale — is 1 p.m. Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium.