Buff Nation Football

Buff Nation - The Buffs failed to cash in their Golden ticket and instead made it exponentially harder to reach the College Football Playoffs. The Big 12 has a four-way tie entering the final week of the season. Now, in addition to the Buffs taking care of business...

Winning is an art form which is a byproduct of being competitive. While the latter doesn’t guarantee the former, it’s the former that is the ultimate measure of success in college football.  This past Saturday, CU was once again competitive against a ranked opponent but failed to win, losing by three in the last seconds (34-31).  The loss was the third in a row where one could argue CU should have won rather than deserved to lose. 

In 1952, the Academy Award-winning movie High Noon, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, made its debut. A story about the difficulty of standing one’s ground, especially when all have abandoned you, has been claimed to be the favorite movie of multiple US Presidents, including Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Bill Clinton (who reportedly showed the movie 17 times during his tenure in the white house). In a movie that plays out in real-time (think Jack Bauer -24), the clock is literally ticking while a noon train filled with a gang of gunslingers brings trouble. In a life-and-death circumstance, the cast of characters vet through their options and ultimately make their final answer.

With two-thirds of this inaugural Coach Prime football season in the bag, our Colorado Buffaloes sport a 4-4 record. Three more wins than all of last season and two games shy of bowl eligibility with four games still to be played, the 2023 Buffaloes have exceeded the expectations of the college football pundits and most of Buff Nation. Yet, losing three of the last four, including the inexcusable loss to Stanford, along with the perception that CU is getting worse rather than better, Buff Nation is on edge.

In his best Bud Fox (Wall Street) impersonation, CU Athletic Director Rick George indeed bagged the elephant with the hiring of Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders as our next Colorado Football head coach. In a literal split second, the CU Football program, which was the laughingstock of the NCAA and left for dead, went from an afterthought as a desired destination to top of mind for nearly every football recruit.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
-Robert Frost – The Road Not Taken

Like the traveler in Robert Frost’s poem, CU stands at a crossroads.  Soon after this email hits your inbox, the University of Colorado will be announcing the hiring of its next football head coach.  It is an understatement to say CU has struggled over the past two decades (rounding up), and that this past season has been the worst in the program’s 133-year storied history.

In a Colorado High School football game, if a team is winning by 40 or more points at any point in the game, the “mercy rule” goes into effect, and the “continuous game clock” begins to run, and it doesn’t stop until there is no time left.  This expedites the end of the game for the safety and mental health of all involved.  In college football there isn’t a mercy rule for a game or for a season.  There are nine days left for Buff Nation to endure what has been the hardest season in decades. Nine days.  This season was over the day CU came out without a clue against TCU seventy-eight days ago.

Buff Nation - The Buffs finish out their 2021 season tomorrow, in a rare Friday appearance.  While many will be taking advantage of Black Friday shopping sales, the Buffs will be facing a strong, consistent, and proud Utah team that...

Buff Nation – In a span of three hours last Saturday night, Buff Nation lived through a Charles Dickens novel. Playing on the road against a heavily favored UCLA Bruins squad, the Buff came out guns blazing and took a commanding 20-7 lead just before half-time. CU was...

Buff Nation – In the late 19th Century, the political philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche came upon the scene promoting the idea, that life is what we make of it, and our reality is shaped by our actions, and a failure to act will lead us to the “abyss” and become a...

Buff Nation -  Happy Holidays! Week Six Review CU 21, Utah 38 (12/12) In 2001 Boulder resident (and cul-de-sac neighbor (is that a thing?)) Jim Collins published the best-selling book Good to Great, essentially stating good companies fail to become great...

Buff Nation -  Week Five Review  CU 24, Arizona 13 As expected, the winless Wildcats came out swinging last Saturday vs the Buffs.  A victory over the upstart, undefeated Buffaloes would have been the perfect cure to an otherwise ailing Arizona...

Buff Nation – Week Four Review CU 20, SDSU 10  When the University of Spoiled Children canceled their game against the Buffs due to covid, Colorado suddenly found itself preparing instead for San Diego St.  With only one practice to prepare, the Buffs...

Buff Nation -  Happy Holidays! Season Wrap-Up The hardest part of real estate investing is securing that first asset which improves the status quo. The second hardest part of real estate investing is managing that asset through TLC to the point where it becomes...

Buff Nation - Happy Friday!  I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. Week Thirteen Review CU 20, Washington 14 Boom! Don’t change your socks, don’t change your shirt, don’t shave.  Whatever winning streak superstition you hold on to out of belief or...

Buff Nation - Happy Friday! Week Twelve Review CU had its second and final bye of the season. It was hopefully a chance for Laviska Shenault and others to heal up for the final two games of the season. Week Thirteen Preview CU (4-6) vs Washington (6-4) - Saturday...

Buff Nation – Events over the last three days calls for a Saturday night special Buff Nation Football update.  Below are three top 5 lists which may be of interest. I.        Five reasons why hiring Mel Tucker as CU’s next...

Buff Nation -  2018 Season Review Buff Nation – for better or for worse, the 2018 Buff Season is officially over.  After a fantastic 5-0 start which saw the Buffs destroy their in-state rival CSU Rams and an amazing come from behind victory at Lincoln (NEVER...

Buff Nation -  Week Twelve Review – This past Saturday, CU laid an egg as it’s final tribute to Coach MacIntyre.  With the coach’s job hanging in the balance, CU came out energized against the #19 Utah Utes, but were in effective in generating any offense...

Buff Nation -  When CU and Utah joined the Pac-12 in 2011, there was a bit of apprehension on the part of the CU fan base (and probably Utah), about the forced relationship.  The rest of the Pac-12 schools already had someone they could point to as their...

Buff Nation -  Last week, in CU's hour of need, no one was home.  CU was up 10 on ASU in the fourth quarter. One could argue CU should have been up 17 if not 24.  Still, up by two scores with the ball in the final quarter of the game with bowl...

Buff Nation –  What a day!  What a game!  Every once in awhile it all comes together for those who are in attendance.  This past Saturday the CU Offense, the CU Defense and the Colorado weather all combined to create the most...

Buff Nation, Were you there?  Man, I hope you were there.  That was AWESOME!   For the first time in twenty (TWENTY) years, CU was ranked in the top ten heading into a November game.  This is nuts.  CU is back and dominating.  ...

Buff Nation - For the first time in 14 years the Buffs are ranked in the Top Ten Nationally.  That’s probably worth repeating.  For the first time in 14 years the Buffs are ranked in the Top Ten Nationally.  No one, and I mean no one, saw this coming...