Lots of folks around the country and even Colorado like to make fun of Boulder and its lifestyle. That's okay. It's all in fun. And in many cases it's jealousy. That's okay too. Nobody makes much ado about Fort Collins because, frankly, most people around the country have no idea where the home of Colorado State University is located (other than being in Colorado, that is).
Boulder, however, is a completely different matter. It's the home of the University of Colorado. It's the location of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is here. IBM is in Boulder. Google has offices in Boulder. The home of Mork and Mindy is in Boulder. A Heisman Trophy and an NCAA football championship trophy also have a place in Boulder. CU has the greatest live mascot in all of college athletics. And the magic little town below the Flatirons also has the most highly educated population level in the United States.
It's easy to see why those up in Fort Collins might be a little jealous. It also makes sense why more Ram-leaning folks go the CSU game against Colorado than to any other game. I mean, really, where else can they see a real live buffalo leading a team onto the gridiron? It's a lot more impressive than a sheep with horns.
In any case, we digress. The subject at hand was delusions. An article published earlier today in the Coloradoan talked about the three keys for CSU to beat Colorado in the Rocky Mountain Showdown in Denver tomorrow. The first thing the article mentioned was running the ball and doing it well. Good advice nearly always.
The delusional part came next. The writer made the claim that "top to bottom, CSU has more talent at running back than it did last season." Really? Last year, the Rams had Kapri Bibbs, who set a CSU record by rushing for 1,741 yards and became only the 3rd player in D-1 history to rush for 30 touchdowns in a season. Bibbs now plays for the Denver Broncos. Unless the Rams plan to change their offensive philosophy to running the wishbone (thus having 3 backs behind the quarterback), there is no chance "top to bottom" or even sideways that they will have more talent on the field at the running back position than they had last year.
The next "key" was to keep Colorado under 300 yards passing. Sad to say, the Buff having under 300 yards passing will most likely be due to them rushing for more than 250 yards and eating up the clock while they do it. What the CSU faithful need to hope for is that the revamped Colorado line does not dominate the clock and wear down their defense. If Colorado has big passing numbers and small rushing numbers, it means that offensive line of Colorado is not doing its job.
The Buffs passed for 400 yards last year but took 46 passes to do it. Take away the 157 yards on two Paul Richardson TD catches and Colorado only had 243 yards on 44 passes, which works out to 5.5 yards per pass. Those numbers are good enough to beat the likes of CSU, but they will not hold up against the rigors of Pac-12 play.
The last "key" listed in the Coloradan was the play of CSU wide receivers. They will have their hands full since the Colorado defensive backfield finally has some depth as well as talent, and should be better than it has been since Gary Barnett was coaching. That's saying a lot, since the 2011 NFL draft took Colorado cornerbacks in the first and fourth rounds.
The real key to CSU beating Colorado is if the Buff team and its fans get stuck in construction traffic on highway 36 and don't make it to the game on time. Don't count on it, though. The best advice would be for CSU fans to stay in Denver for the weekend and take in a show or go to the zoo. That way the trip down won't be a total bust. Colorado wins this one in a more impressive fashion than last year, and won't need Paul Richardson to do it.
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