Every year at this time, Buff fans ready themselves for another season of college football at the University of Colorado. They count the days and the hours until that opening kickoff. Hope springs eternal like a guiding light, and fans hope that light shines on a better tomorrow. Here before the first game, all teams are undefeated and looking forward to a winning season that is rewarded by a trip to a bowl game.
The last time the CU Buffs went bowling was way back to the 2007 season, in the one year in five that Dan Hawkins coached the team to six wins. His predecessor, Gary Barnett, had handed over a team that had won its division of the Big 12 four times in the previous five years. Barnett was the last coach to lead the Buffs to a bowl game victory following the 2004 season.
Historically, the Buffs have only performed marginally during bowl games, with a record of 12 wins and 16 defeats. That may seem like a poor record but the competition at the bowl level is certainly higher than the regular season.
The legendary Bill McCartney led the Buffs to the most bowl games, with nine appearances. After a rough first three years as head coach at CU, those nine bowl games came in the last ten years of his tenure. Only three of Mac's seasons ended with a bowl victory, but one of them was for the National Championship. It was the 2nd straight year that the Buffs had gone bowling as the #1 team in the country.
Gary Barnett and Eddie Crowder each led the Buffs to five bowl games. Crowder's Buffs won three times, and Barnett led them to two victories. The best record in bowl games for the Buffs goes to Rick Neuheisel, whose teams won all three of their bowl games in his four years in Boulder. All three of his bowl teams finished in the AP Top 10.
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Getting ready for the 2014 season, Buff fans are very hopeful that the team might win six games. The Buffs won four games last year under new head coach Mike MacIntyre, which was four times as many as they won the year before under Jon Embree, when they finished 1-11. And those familiar with the struggles of the Buffs over the last seven years know that the one win in 2012 was an absolute fluke, when Washington State imploded and lost a 20 point lead in the last 8 minutes of the game.
When MacIntyre was hired, Colorado was arguably the worst team in the FBS. Players brought in by prior coaching staffs were washing out of school at an alarming rate, and those who stuck it out played for coaches who did little to develop them as either football players or students.
That's all changed under MacIntyre. Due to proper training techniques, games lost to injury dropped drastically in 2013. Players are held accountable as students first, and only then can they play on the gridiron. Those who stray outside the lines when it comes to legal matters are dealt with severely and correctly. (This is NOT Nebraska, which seems to welcome felons with open arms as long as they can help the team.)
Due to attrition, Mac and staff last year had one of the youngest teams in the country. This year they are THE youngest. It will be an uphill struggle to compete on a week to week basis in the Pac-12.
Most top teams in the country have a system in which new recruits come in and redshirt for a year, and then serve as backups for a couple years before becoming starters as upperclassmen. Those 3 years of learning the system, training and developing their bodies allows them to be as strong as they can be before taking the field of battle.
Because of their youth and lack of depth, the Buffs have had to play many true freshman and sophomores over the last several years. It showed as they were manhandled by stronger men, especially in the trenches.
For the first time in way too long, the Buffs finally have some depth on the offensive line. In the past several years, it has been hard for the Buffs to even split the team into two squads for scrimmages because there were not enough offensive linemen to man two squads. Now their numbers are way up and there are enough men to create competition at every position.
There is an old saying, "May the best man win!" When someone has no competition, they win their position just by the virtue of being there. Finally, this year, there are talented and numerous men fighting for the jobs manning the trenches. This alone could be the difference between a winning season and another losing one.
Unfortunately, even if the Buffs make a great improvement, it may not be reflected on the win totals. As fans, we may need to look at the scores and the stats to see the improvement. A loss by 7 points may be heartbreaking, but it is a massive improvement over the days when Colorado lost by 30, 40, or even 50 points.
The biggest "wins" this year may very well be losses in which we are still in the game in the 4th quarter. A big win this year is if we are not giving up touchdowns on defense at the same rate we are making first downs on offense. The Buffs have a tough road ahead, and must work the process put together by the coaches.
They may not go bowling this year... but they should be light years ahead of 2012 and significantly stronger and better than 2013.
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