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 back, and we were keeping our dream of bowl eligibility alive. It was the best of times.
Unfortunately, football is made up of two separate halves, and the winner is not declared until the end of the second half. While not new information for most, it may have been enlightening to the Buff coaching staff. UCLA made all the necessary adjustments, while the Buffs made none. UCLA scored thirty-seven straight points, yup thirty-seven, and throttled the Buffs 44-20. It was the worst of times.
So, with that debacle in our rear-view mirror, we turn our sights to tomorrow, the Buffs final home game of the season. One final time to honor CU greats Nate Landman and Mustafa Johnson who played their hearts out for Buff Nation for so many years. One final chance for CU to give their fans a W (certainly not going to happen next week on the road at Utah), and one final reason to have Great Expectations for 2021 (can you say J.T. Shrout?).
So, here is to beating the Washington Huskies, who have had an equally disastrous season (they fired their head coach earlier this week) and finish out this season strong. While a victory wouldn’t necessarily be field rushing worthy, a victory would be a blessed way to end another season at Folsom field, and a fine start to the holiday season.
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 part of nothing.
Saturday evening under the lights of Folsom, Buff QB Brendan Lewis (BL) found himself staring into the abyss (I know I was on his behalf). Facing a 3rd and 15 from the Oregon State 16, down by four, with under three minutes to go in the game, it was do or die. Be someone or be nothing. At that moment I wanted to give BL a pep talk like the one Bud Fox received in Wall Street. It was BL’s moment of truth. Seconds later, a TD strike to Montana Lemonious-Craig (could there be a longer name) with only inches to spare, gave the Buffs the lead, and ultimately the victory.
Big time players make big time plays in big time games, and perhaps this was BL’s coming of age Red Dawn moment. Only time will tell (possibly as soon as tomorrow night when the Buffs take on UCLA on the road at the Rose Bowl), but that throw, on that night, may be the inflection point where BL becomes a top-tier Pac-12 QB, and the abyss which has silently and patiently been lurching in the shadows of this season will need to find another program to wait on, because as Nietzsche is so fond of saying, that which does not kill you, makes you stronger.
Tomorrow, under the lights of Folsom Field at 5PM, our CU Buffs take on the Oregon State Beavers. With the good, comes the bad, and if there was ever a game from CU’s past which has accelerated this program down a path of heartache and tears, it is the tragic loss to the Beavers the last time OSU came to Boulder.
On that fateful day on October 27, 2018, CU hit rock bottom and found a way to lose a game in which they were dominating 31-3 in the second half, eventually losing 41-34 in OT. Football is a game of inches and a literal inch on multiple occasions would have changed the outcome. Win, and CU gains bowl eligibility. Instead, coaches got fired, coaches got hired, coaches turned trench coat, and replacement coaches were ushered in right under the Covid wire, all adding fuel to the dumpster fire which is the current condition of the CU Football program.
The team and staff that takes the field tomorrow, continue to carry the burden of that loss. They better because Buff Nation certainly does. A win against the heavily favored Beavers tomorrow would go a long way to dosing those flames of pain and suffering and provide some much-needed oxygen into this proud CU program.
It is time for CU to win a game they are not supposed to win, just like they lost a game they were not supposed to lose last time OSU was in town.
With over two billion copies sold, no author has sold more books than Agatha Christie. In my favorite novel of hers, And Then There Were None, the seemingly impossible happens when ten dinner guests methodically die one by one, yet there does not seem to be any clues or motive. As the body count climbs, the remaining guests are left to struggle to find answers.
This CU Buff season seems to be like an Agatha Christie novel. While the losses continue to pile up, Buff Nation is left to seek answers, and no one has a clue how to stop the body count. Like Lt. Daniel Kaffee cross-examining Col. Jessup demanding answers, Buff Nation is in pursuit of the truth (even if we can’t handle it).
Coming on the heels of an embarrassing loss on the road against a terrible Cal Berkeley team last week, CU now goes on the road against an excellent #7 Oregon squad. No one believes CU will win this game, and everyone is right. The chasm between how these two programs operate and how they view themselves is too great to pull off an upset.
One of the reasons Agatha Christie novels are so good is because no matter the level of complexity, the reader knows that the author will reveal the truth before the novel concludes, and justice will be served. So, here is to CU solving this mystery before the season is over and enabling Buff Nation to turn toward next season (too soon?) with excitement and confidence.
Every year, immediately following the NCAA Men’s Basketball championship game, just as the credits begin to roll, a montage of tournament highlights are played to the snappy tune of One Shining Moment. Instantly the viewer can see why college basketball is so fun, and why these players have dedicated so much time to their craft.
On a perfect Fall day in a sold-out Folsom field, somewhere mid-way through the third quarter the Buffs hit on their own shining moment. Desperately hanging on to a 6-0 lead over the oh so lowly Arizona Wildcats, the Buffs exploded for three straight touchdowns (on Special teams, defense and offense). For that one shining moment the buffs looked legit. They looked happy. They made Buff Nation happy.
So, where do we go from here? Well, according to the Boss (and we know the Boss is always right), you can’t start a fire without a spark. Here is to CU parlaying their dominating win and their shining moment, into a spark that leads to beating a beatable California Bears team on the road tomorrow, and creating a fire we can all warm up to. If that does not happen, well, perhaps it is another season of dancing in the dark.
