Mike MacIntyre and the Colorado Buffaloes were served up a triple scoop of psychological warfare by UCLA. The Buffs' angry and emotional response almost allowed the reeling Bruins to pull off an upset big enough to propel them toward a bowl game at the end of the season. Almost.
Bruins head coach Jim Mora is no dummy. And he is a hell of a recruiter. Last signing day the Bruins signed FOURTEEN 4-star recruits, including NINE of the ESPN Top 300. In the last four years, Mora's Bruins signed a total of 46 four-star players. That number is enough to have Buffs fans frothing at the mouth.
UCLA obviously came in with a specific game plan to mess with the heads of the Colorado Buffaloes, and the Buffs took it hook, line, and sinker. And it almost cost them the game on national television. Almost.
Jim Mora knows that UCLA and USC are the big fish when it comes to feeding on the recruiting grounds of California. Teams like Colorado have to settle for the leftovers and the under-the-radar players that Mike MacIntyre is so adept at identifying and signing.
The Buffaloes have nearly 40 players from the state of California on their roster. So it's safe to say that a LOT of the players from these two teams knew and/or played against each other in high school. And the fact of the matter is that the kids playing for UCLA were higher rated recruits. They knew it and the Buffs from California knew it as well.
Most of the Buffs from the Golden State grew up hoping for a scholarship offer to from the Bruins or Southern Cal. It would allow them to stay closer to home and the inherent support system that allows. Home cooking is a sports metaphor with real meat to it.
Then, there is the case of history. In Colorado's first five years in the league, UCLA and the Pac-12 had their way with Colorado. Sometimes it was close, but the Buffs always seemed to end up on the losing side before this season. All the bragging rights going back to high school belonged to the Bruins players. They were better in high school, and now they were better in college. Until this year, that is.
Like it was said before, the UCLA coach is a smart guy. He knew coming into this game that the Buffaloes were a better team on the record books and the stat sheet. The Buffs were 6-2, while the Bruins were 3-5. The Bruins had five close losses that came down to the last drive of the game (that should sound achingly familiar to Colorado fans).
The Bruins have had too much raw talent to be blown out. That's what Mora has banked on this year: Keep it close and find SOMETHING to put the Bruins over the top. The Bruins' coach knew that the only hope of beating the Buffs in Folsom Field was to turn it into a street fight and hope the Buffs would lose their cool. The Buffs did lose their cool, and it almost cost them the game. Almost.
UCLA came out talking smack from the get-go, and taking cheap shots in the piles hoping to draw angry responses from the Buffs. It worked like a charm. It's an old adage in football that it's always the SECOND piece of bad behavior that gets called by the refs. So the Bruins poked, prodded, and yanked on helmets and limbs while mouthing off non-stop. Unfortunately, the Buffs responded just as the Bruins hoped.
And the horribly clueless Pac-12 refs basically lost control of the game. The refs looked like a bunch of suburbanites who had been dropped in the ghetto, and their only protection was a yellow flag. They were too scared to call the Bruins (except on couple very egregious plays), and instead focused on the Buffs trying to protect themselves and their QB. On one play, when the Buffs should have had 2nd and goal from the one yard line, CU was hit with a 15 yard penalty after a UCLA player literally dragged Sefo Liufau from the pile by his head with no response from the refs. No, the refs did not drop a flag until one of the CU receivers tried to get between Liufau and the Bruin.
One could say that the Colorado players lost their cool, but that started from the top. Mike MacIntye was played like a fiddle by Mora, and emotionally drawn into a near melt-down on the sidelines. He was wide-eyed and screaming at the refs as well as his own players.
Mora, on the other hand, was cool as a cucumber. He stayed calm, even while delaying the start of the second half while complaining that the safety of his players was being risked by the dangerous jeopardy of possibly tripping over marshmallows. Yes, marshmallows.
Another meltdown on the Buffs staff happened high above the field, where play caller and co-offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren continued to call passing plays against a very good pass defense and ignoring the running game against a horrible UCLA team against the run. In the Bruins last game, Utah tailback Joe Williams gained 332 yards against them.
What happened? The Buffs insisted on throwing into heavy coverage, and turned the ball over FOUR times. Anybody with access to replay knows that the Buffs really threw 4 interceptions. Calling one a "fumble" doesn't make it any less of a turnover. And, if it leaves the hand of QB with his arm moving forward, and is caught before it hits the ground five yards down the field, it is an interception. More worrisome is that the Buffs threw four pics and also fumbled three times.
If one just looks at the box score, one might come to the conclusion that the Buffs ran the ball 52 times and only threw it 33. But that would be a gross distortion of the truth. Almost HALF of the CU rushes were by the QB (all but one by Liufau). So, if you take away the dozen or so "runs" by the Buffs that were actually scrambles off of called passing plays, it is quite clear the Buffs offensive play-caller Lindgren REALLY wanted to win this game in the air. Gosh darn it, that's what his plan was BEFORE the game, and no way he's gonna change his play calling.
Mac's gotta do something. The UCLA game was the THIRD out of the last FOUR that the Buffs play calling on offense has been the weakest part of their game. It cost them a loss against USC, and the only reason the Buffs won against Stanford and UCLA is because the Colorado defense is so damned good under Jim Leavitt, Joe Tumpkin and the rest of the defensive staff.
The Buffaloes are good enough this year that they don't need to have Sefo try to win it all by himself. But Lindgren seems intent on ignoring whatever defensive strategies are facing the Buffs and winning it the way he wants it to be. Load the box like USC, and we run it up the middle. Lindgren doesn't seem to care. In one of the interceptions last night, the CU receiver was surrounded by no less than FIVE Bruins. FIVE. With that pattern, is it any wonder UCLA took it from our QB four times?
Today is the day that MacIntyre needs to look at the film and realize how easily manipulated he and his team were during the UCLA game. There are three games left between now and their stated goal of playing for the Pac-12 championship.
The Buffs, their head coach and their offensive play caller need to get their heads straight. They have to eliminate the hard-headed refusal to adjust their play-calling. And they have to eliminate their soft-headed response to negative emotional stimulus, from Mac on down. They can't continue to kill themselves with penalties and poor play-calling and hope the defense bails them out.
If the head coach loses his cool over and over, how hard is it for the players to follow suit? The Buffs need to understand the psychological ploys that will be thrown at them, and refuse to be baited into losing their composure. They need to remember that they are in first place in November, ranked, and needing to play big boy football the rest of the season.
Winning out the rest of the way will be the best revenge.
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