As the sun set on a glorious November day and a great football game, it did not set on a spectacular season. Not yet.

Friday afternoon, the Arkansas Razorbacks suffered their first SEC loss of the 2006 season, but one week from today, the Western Division champions will take on Florida for the overall league title with a trip to the Sugar Bowl at stake.

How the Hogs handle the loss to a talented LSU team will define this season.

If they take Friday’s sadness and dejection with them to Atlanta, they will not play in a Bowl Championship Series game.

With Texas’ loss Friday, a victory over the Tigers would have left the Razorbacks in one of the five super bowls, maybe even the championship game.

Not that there is anything wrong with major bowls such as the Capitol One or Cotton — especially after sitting home the past two seasons — but it is up to the Razorbacks and the coaching staff to put Friday’s heartbreaking loss behind them and move on.

B etween now and next Saturday, the fans will rebound. Friday, they were awesome for more than three hours.

They might ask the question where the heck was Mitch Mustain, who won seven games as a starter and then disappeared faster than dot. com stock.

For the second consecutive week, Casey Dick struggled, and for as many weeks the only other person taking snaps at quarterback was Darren McFadden.

That is not to blame the loss on Dick. You win as a team and you lose as a team, and you recover as a team.

The senior leadership on this band of Razorbacks has been incredible, and the burden they face is familiar territory. The season-opening loss to USC could have been devastating.

What will make this one hard to swallow is it was winnable. LSU is outstanding, but on Oct. 7 when these Hogs beat Auburn at Auburn, they started to develop into an outstanding team.

Despite Dick not completing a pass in eight second-half attempts (he was 3 of 17 for the day ) and his interception in the fourth quarter letting the Tigers take a 24-12 lead with 10: 59 to play, that just kick-started a wild and crazy fourth quarter.

On the f irst play from scrimmage after that touchdown, McFadden went up the middle for 80 breathtaking yards and a touchdown.

He was tallying Heisman votes with every nationally televised step, not that he wouldn’t trade all the honors for a victory.

The bedlam that followed for the 50, 000 Hog callers was short-lived as the ensuing kickoff was returned 92 yards for a touchdown and a 31-19 lead with 10: 14 to play.

Felix Jones almost duplicated that before being tackled at the LSU 37, but he scored on a 5-yard run with 4: 53 to play, setting the stage for a great finale.

Arkansas’ defense, which held the Tigers to 328 yards, the fourth-lowest of the season, bellied up and stopped them after 25 yards, and the offense was in business after a shanked punt at its 27.

Four plays, four deep passes, four incompletions, no touches by McFadden, and suddenly the southeast corner of War Memorial was a roving Mardi Gras.

The LSU faithful who had made this trip celebrated.

The biggest question of the afternoon had nothing to do with why Mustain didn’t play (that was probably No. 2, though ), but how did the most talented team in the SEC lose to Auburn and Florida.

JaMarcus Russell was everything and more that a quarterback is supposed to be, passing for 210 yards and two touchdowns.

The LSU defense was all out to hold McFadden to 182 yards and Jones to 137, but even in the SEC you have to be able to move through the air, and 62 yards (33 on 2 of 2 passes by McFadden ) won’t cut it.

Again, that is not to lay the blame on the sophomore who does not call plays, especially not for a pass on fourth-and-3 on a day when McFadden never was stopped for minus yardage.

Arkansas took the field as a team and left it as a team.

B etween now and next Saturday, the coaches and players have to put the hurt behind them.

The regular season ended Friday, but the postseason begins next Saturday in ATL.