Losing is supposed to burn.

A loss, by definition, should prompt players to hang their heads; it should put a lump in a coach’s throat; and it should send fans home angry, second-guessing plays and questioning whether the right people were on the field.

I guess two out of three isn’t bad.

Iowa State’s 13th loss in a row to Iowa on Saturday disheartened the Cyclone players.

“We lost,” senior safety Matt Straight said in a disappointed tone after the game, “so I’m sure the coaches will be hard on us in practice.”

Cyclone coaches were also miffed.

“We came to win the game, not to play hard and look good losing,” Head Coach Dan McCarney said.

And the fans? The fans were a little more forgiving — too forgiving.

“Don’t hang your heads guys,” one cardinal and gold-decked man told ISU players as they left Jack Trice Field again in defeat. “You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”

By comparison, the man may have been right. The Cyclones have looked a lot worse in past years against Iowa. Bottom line, though: ISU lost by 17 points.

Yes, there was a “glimmer of hope.” Yes, Troy Davis had another impressive outing. Yes, despite all that, Cyclone players and coaches went home losers. And even if caught up in the new Cyclone football attitude, ISU fans migrated Saturday from Jack Trice Field losers as well.

If Jim Walden were on the sidelines, would fans have called the game a success just because ISU led 7-6 in the first quarter? No.

According to Webster’s, to lose is to fail to win; to be defeated in. Last Saturday, like 12 times before, ISU did just that.

The vocabulary bible says nothing about “playing great” or looking respectable, probably because there is little to no respectability in losing a football game. ISU lost. It’s not a crime, and it’s certainly not the end of the world, but it happened.

For fans to tell players that, in defeat, they’ve got “nothing to be ashamed of,” doesn’t do anyone any good.

I’m glad the players and coaches were upset. They should have been.

Unfortunately, Saturday showed me that ISU isn’t as far along in its turnaround efforts as I had hoped. In a successful program, losing burns the fans as much as those on the field.

And as a fan, I learned that the hard way this past weekend.

* Friday — Being the supportive alumnus that I am, I decided to jog back home to Marshalltown for the evening to take in what promised to be one the most competitive high school football games of the young season: Newton at Marshalltown.

Marshalltown was ranked higher and playing on its home turf. A sure win, I figured. Figured wrong: Newton 23, Marshalltown 16. Better luck next week Bobcats.

* Saturday afternoon — Iowa-Iowa State. ‘Nuff said.

* Saturday evening — A phone call from my brother, a West Point cadet, is always welcomed news, except when he’s got nothing good to say. It was one of those phone calls. Army apparently lost a last-second decision: Duke 23, good guys 21. Is there no respect for the armed forces anymore?

*Sunday — The Detroit Lions, God’s gift to professional football, have fallen on some hard times as of late. Getting beat by a Buddy Ryan team is pretty hard: Arizona 20, Lions 17.

It wasn’t a good weekend for the Chris Miller lineup.

But unlike many a Cyclone fan on Saturday, I wasn’t willing to send off warm fuzzies to my teams for losing with dignity. A loss is a loss is a loss.

A very wise man once told me: “Winning is good. Losing is bad.”

By logic, then, Saturday we lost. Saturday was bad.

Call me cruel; call me cold hearted, but above all else, call me a loser, because even as an Iowa State Cyclone football fan, I take no pride in losing.

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Chris Miller is a junior in journalism from Marshalltown. He is the head news editor of the Daily.