Buff Nation –
September 17, 2022 | CU (0-2) vs Minnesota (2-0)
In his 2005 best-selling book, The World is Flat, author Thomas Friedman put forth the idea that the convergence of technology has allowed the explosion of wealth in the middle class, effectively “flattening” the playing field between the haves and have nots, in turn putting pressure on the haves to run faster, just to stay in the same place. While Friedman was talking about the burgeoning middle classes of China and India and how their emergence puts pressure on the United States to remain a global power, he might as well have been talking about the College Football landscape.
Last Saturday afternoon, around the same time our Colorado Buffaloes coach was trying to explain away why the Buffs remain winless on the season and how they explicitly lost by 31 to Air Force, a coach on the other side of the country, was explaining how his team effectively harnessed the use of technology to close the performance gap between his team and their opponent. The Marshall Thundering Herd (cool name) despite being a 21-point underdog, had just beaten #8 Notre Dame, a team literally not even in the thier same class (FCS vs FBS).
“When we hit the transfer portal this offseason, we were getting some guys that played considerable snaps in places,” Huff said. “We weren’t just getting a guy that went to some SEC school and never played. We were getting and recruiting guys that were either rotational guys or starters and had lost their jobs or whatever it was. “We put the roster together, and you’re like, ‘Guys, we’ve got a Power 5 roster if we just count the starters.'” Marshal effectively used the transfer portal to close the gap between them and their opponents.
As I sat rained soaked watching CU lose ground to Air Force (pictures attached), I pondered in part how can we be so below average for so long, while other schools seemingly have figured it out? A few hours later, as I read about Marshall win over Notre Dame, it became obvious, it’s not our coach (in total), it’s not the QB play (in total), it’s the Transfer Portal stupid. CU needs to do a better job of getting talent. Players that can play at a high enough level to beat top ten programs on any given Saturday should be coming to CU, not Marshall (no disrespect). Power 5 conference, Boulder setting, attractive schedule, Folsom field. This should be enough to bring and keep the talent. The CU coaching staff, and the CU administration need to do a better job of selling the CU story and make player transfer accommodations. No one likes to sit in the rain and watch their team lose by 31. Players make plays. Players win games. Right now, we don’t really have either.
Go Buffs!
Doug
