With over five minutes remaining in last Saturday’s CU football game, ASU failed to convert on a fourth down pass. CU took over possession and proceeded to run the ball on eight consecutive plays culminating in a touchdown and a 40-16 final score. It was a fitting end to the game. Throughout the night CU had imposed their will on ASU. They had accumulated nearly 600 yards total offense (compared to ASU’s 199). Not only did CU impose their will, they also dictated the tempo of the game the entire night. ASU was constantly out of sync on both offense and defense. This is the new era for CU football. That final touchdown with 40 seconds remaining in the game was a message to the rest of the Pac-12 that CU was back. In 2014 CU improved from being a terrible team to being a decent team. In 2015 CU improved from being a decent team to being a competitive team. In 2016 the question was can CU improve from being a competitive team to a team that knows how to win. Clearly we have our answer. CU can and does impose their will on their opponents, especially those who come into Folsom Field. It’s suddenly a tough place for visitors.
We are over half-way through the season and CU finds itself tied with Utah for the lead in the Pac-12 South. While the first seven games (CU is now 5-2) have been a joy to be a part of, it’s the remaining five games of the season which will really determine the magnitude of how special the 2016 season will be viewed. Right now, no one wants to play the Buffs. They are one of the deepest and most balanced football teams in the Pac-12. They are playing with a chip on their shoulder, and their opponents (e.g. ASU, OR) have not truly come to terms with the new normal of CU Football.
For the remainder of the season, CU will find itself in a dog-fight with USC and Utah for the Pac-12 South title. CU has the more favorable schedule (three of last four games at home), USC probably has the most talented team and hold the tie-breaker with CU, and Utah is the highest ranked of the three. CU controls its own destiny, but fans we will want to root for USC and Utah to lose a few games along the way to create some cushion. CU is ranked #26 in the nation. A win at Stanford will propel them into the top twenty. In college football it is often said “the games to remember are played in November.” That is certainly true for CU this year. The Buffs have put themselves in the enviable situation where are their remaining games are meaningful. Rankings aside, what CU wants will be won or lost on Folsom Field in November. See below for a preview.
Remaining schedule
October 22 @ Stanford. Stanford just beat Notre Dame this past weekend. This game will be a battle of two outstanding football teams. This is a Pac-12 Network dream come true. If CU can get out of this one with a win, they will run the table on the rest of the schedule finishing the season at 10-2 and looking at a new year’s day bowl game (the Holy Grail of college football).
November 3 (Thursday night) vs UCLA under the lights at Folsom Field. This game will be on national TV. The game will be a black out (fans wearing black) and it will be CU’s true national coming out party where they will soundly beat UCLA. The win will make CU bowl eligible for the first time since 2007. The fans will rush the field (similar to what transpired after the ASU game), but more importantly, the nationally televised win will be seen by high school recruits around the country (especially in CA) and it will dawn on them that CU is the place they want to play.
November 12 @ Arizona. CU should be bowl eligible by now and will be playing loose and with a reckless abandon. They will have the Pac-12 South title squarely in view and AZ will be the next team standing in its way. Expect a double digit win by CU on the road against this Pac-12 opponent. AZ has been ravaged by injuries and is the surprise bottom dweller of the conference this eyear.
November 19 vs. Washington State at Folsom Field. Both teams will be ranked in the top 25 and this is possible a preview of the Pac-12 championship match-up. The game will be sold out. CU will win in a hard fought slug-fest.
November 26 vs. Utah at Folsom Field. This one will be for the Pac-12 South Championship. Everyone will be in a thanksgiving state of mind for the wonder of the 2016 season. The game will be sold out for the second week in a row. Both teams will be ranked in the top 25 for the second game in a row at Folsom. CU will win in convincing fashion.
These coming weeks are going to be special. The Rise is real and it is happening in front of our eyes. Years from now it will be nice to say we were there. We were there when CU imposed their will on any team that stepped foot on Folsom Field grass. We were there when CU become bowl eligible for the first time in over a decade. We were there when CU won the Pac-12 South shocking the college world. These are the days. Winter is coming and ski season will soon be upon us. This special CU season will soon be a fond but distant memory. We’ll be pleased with the behavior we displayed as fans. We will be pleased that we knew that the Fall of 2016 was was special and we fully leaned into it. Let’s enjoy these days for all they are worth. Who has it better than us? No one.
We are a nearly half-way through the season, and thanks to CU’s dominate play, they sit atop the Pac-12 South Standings at 4-1 and ranked #21 nationally. This is more than anyone outside of the CU locker room expected. Yet, there are still skeptics. While ranked, CU has yet to play the main contenders of the Pac-12. CU will have that shot over the next four weeks when they play USC (today at 2PM), ASU at Folsom, on the road at Stanford and then home again vs. UCLA. As a CU fan you have to be excited for the rest of the season. Here are three scenarios as we head into USC:
1) Best case: CU destroys USC. CU is that good, and NOW everyone really does know it. CU continues to run the table and beats Washington in the Pac-12 championship. Due to strength of schedule and key losses by higher ranked teams, CU makes the NCCA playoffs. They play Alabama for the national championship and somehow, someway, CU wins and we are national champs. From basement dweller to national champions. An overnight sensation (which took tens years). One of the greatest turnaround stories of all time in any sport. Just saying.
2) Worst case: CU loses to USC. They proceed to lose to ASU, Stanford, UCLA and AZ. They split wins against Wa St and Utah and finish the season at 5-7. They fail to earn a bowl bid and Coach MacIntyre winds up getting fire.
3) Most probable case: CU plays it’s remainder of the season tough – just like they have all season. They win 6 or 7 games, make it to a bowl game and all is seemingly right with the world.
We’ll let scenario one bake for a few more weeks before going public.
We don’t want scenario 2. That would be the end of the world as we know it. CU can squash scenario 2 today by going into USC and beating the Trojans and this is where it gets interesting. Similar to CU, no one knows how good USC really is. They sit at 2-3 but all three losses come at the hands of ranked opponents (Alabama #1, Stanford #15 and Utah #24). and last week they dismantled ASU (who CU would love to beat next week). It was just a few years ago that USC barely missed winning the national championship for the third year in a row. So while USC has stumbled a bit this year, they are a storied team steeped in winning football tradition. They are also backed into a corner and desperate to salvage their season. There is no way they are interested in lowly Colorado (no matter how much the world seems to think they have improved) ending their season prematurely by handing them their fourth loss for the season.
My predication is a CU win. I love the way CU plays. They have amazing Cornerback and Recievers. They can stop the run they have speed and intelligence at linebacker and they have proven leadership at QB. On Offense opponents (including #4 Michigan) have had trouble stopping the Buffs. All the pressure for this game is on the Trojans. The Buffs are playing with House money. The pressure is going to be too much and the Buffs are too good. CU wins in a close hard fought battle.
When CU played Iowa State in 2005, my oldest brother was visiting me in Monterey, CA. It was Saturday, November 12, and we were excited to catch the CU Buffaloes vs. Iowa State game on TV. My brother was a walk-on CU football player twenty years earlier and CU had been a part of our lifeblood ever since. CU was ranked #22nd in the nation and had been a powerhouse program on and off for the past decade. Back then, it seemed like they were always playing on national TV, contending for the national title (winning in 1990) and always putting out a first-round draft pick. We loved every minute of it but took the whole thing for granted.
Against Iowa St 2005, CU was leading in the 4th quarter, but gave up two late touchdowns and eventually lost the game. My brother and I were bummed. But we had no idea that CU would not be ranked again for nearly eleven years. Not until yesterday would CU find themselves again in the national polls.
As the last seconds ticked away on CU’s total domination of OR St this past Saturday, I couldn’t help but bask in the glow of Colorado finally cracking the top 25. For many years it just seemed impossible. CU sucked too much, and other teams were so much better. Joining the PAC-12 powerhouse didn’t help. The speed of the teams (e.g. OR, Stanford, USC, ASU) was too much. It felt like watching a high school team play against a college team.
I remember watching prime time college football at home after having attended a CU blow out. Regardless who was playing, both teams looked SO MUCH better than CU. I was so jealous of those fans .It was impossible to fathom CU ever getting that good again.
And now they are. Buff Nation can once again bask in the glow of being nationally ranked and being on the other end of those beat downs. Serendipitously while CU is on the upswing, the PAC-12 South seems to be on the down swing. Teams such as UCLA, USC, ASU ,AZ and Utah suddenly seem vulnerable. Maybe, just maybe this is CU’s year.
This Saturday CU travels to LA Coliseum to play the USC Trojans. CU is a six-point underdog and has not beat USC for the past ten meetings. CU’s newly minted national ranking, while very exciting for Buff Nation, can also be a determent. We know we have a good team. Now the college nation knows it as well. This is going to make it more difficult to sneak up on teams. I give CU a 50/50 chance to win @ USC. If we win, we’ll be ranked in the Top 15. If we lose, we’ll drop out of the Top 25. Either way a strong showing against USC will be further evidence that CU is legit.
By the way, CU’s next home game is Saturday, October 15th, against Arizona State. CU has a hard time beating ASU, so this too will be a challenge. The game has been moved to 6pm, to be televised on the Pac-12 network. If CU beats USC, you will see north of 50,000 fans attending the ASU game. Assuming the Fall weather holds up, it stands to be a top ten day of the year (at least for me).
Hard to believe we are less than half-way through the season. It only gets better from here.
CU’s Coach is fond of saying, “No conflict, No story.” It’s our conflicts that make our stories. This morning the Buffs have a story. A signature program win that will mark, for years to come, when the CU Football program made it’s turn. It is a sweet moment. Last night I felt like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” This morning the air was crisper, runners were (even) more friendly, and the atmosphere smacked of wonder and possibility.
It’s a Wonderful Life
It’s been a long time. It’s been a series of conflicts. I distinctly remember sitting with my dad at Folsom Field in the waning seconds of the CU / OR game on October 21, 2011. Final score was 45 to 2, but it wasn’t even that close. It never was. OR played their second and third stringers the entire second half. It was embarrassing. CU’s starting secondary consisted of 3 freshman, 1 red-shirt freshman and 1 sophomore. Those guys weren’t even that good as seniors. All the fans were either gone, leaving, or didn’t even bother to show. My brother – who was an All-American football player at Navy – left at half. He can’t stand to watch poorly played football. On one play alone, the Buffs had two personal penalties. They had no clue. It was a waste of time for all there. In spite of it all, it was a significant moment. A singular moment in time to acknowledge where we were, where we are now, and where we want to go. I turned to my dad and told him we should stay. We should stay until the very end of the game, because some day, when we are awesome once again, we can say we were there… when it sucked. It took a lot longer than I thought it would (1,799 days to be exact). Today is that day. The program has turned.
But the win last night is not good enough. 1,799 days is too long to wait for an awesome win. Now that we have that win, we want more. We want to be great. Being great means winning often, over a long period of time.
Watching last week’s Michigan game on recording, I LOVED how the Michigan players came out of the tunnel, jumping to touch their “Go Blue” banner stretched across the field. I loved how 110,000 fans packed the stadium to see a victory. I love how Michigan is always a great team. That’s what we want in Boulder. We want teams to dread coming to play at altitude. We want teams to dread coming to Boulder, because they know they are going to lose. I want teams to dread coming to Boulder, because they know the stadium is going to be packed with fans who are passionate about the Buffs, but respectful of the tradition of great college football. We’ve waited so long for that signature program win, but now that we have it, we want more.
CU is good. They are really good. This season could be something special. Going into the game against OR, we had several questions that remained unanswered. This morning there is only one: How good can this team really be? I’m excited for the answer.
In football it’s about winning, and winning over an extended period of time. Starting this Saturday at Folsom Field at 12:30 PM, CU will begin to (re)establish that tradition of greatness for CU fans, and dread for their opponents. There will be a critical mass of those on this thread who will be at the game, doing our part. CU football will show and do theirs. Folsom field better be sold out. If not, there is still work for us to do to raise the awareness of “The Rise.” Come sundown Saturday, CU will be 4-1, and sitting two games away from becoming bowl eligible. It is a wonderful life.
The link below if for us. It is for next week’s game. It’s for this season. It’s for next season. It’s for the game 1,799 days from now. Welcome to the fight!
Last Saturday around 2:30 PM MT, on a beautiful Fall Boulder day at Pleasant View Soccer Fields, the tectonic plates of my life were about to snap into place. I was literally running between two soccer games of my kids while listening to the Buffs / Michigan game on the radio. Both my kids were doing well in their games (proud dad), I was living in Boulder (no place better) and the Buffs were all over Michigan (OMG). I couldn’t believe it. We were going to beat #4 Michigan. The Buffs had arrived. We were going to be nationally ranked and Boulder was going to get the collegiate football respect it deserved. Justice was going to be served. My life was complete.
Well, we all know the outcome. Special teams failed us. Our QB got hurt, and a couple other key injuries opened the door for MI to take control. We had it. It was right there. Marlon Brando was right. We could of been somebody. We could of been a contender.
Now, after a week of pondering what could of been, CU travels to OR. Ouch. CU will have either QB2 playing or damaged goods on QB1.. CU lost their kicker for the season, as well as their number one defensive end. Not the news one wants when one is looking to make a leap in the program.
OR is fast, and they will be looking to exploit CU’s defense by getting around the edge (they know Michigan did) If CU can stop that from happening they have a chance. If CU can’t stop OR from getting around the corner, it will be a long day.
Last week at MI, questions were answer. When CU is healthy, they can play with anyone in the Pac-12. They are vastly improved. Questions were also left unanswered. Does CU have the ability to win the big game? Can they win a game they are supposed to lose? And, unfortunately, new questions have been raised. How long before Sefo is 100% healthy again? What is CU going to do about a kicker as well as their special teams? Is CU still the same defense without Derek McCartney locking down one side of the line of scrimmage? Many of these questions will be answered tomorrow. Another week and another opportunity to have this program turn the corner. Maybe, just maybe, we really are somebody (and not just bums).
