With the Colorado Buffs' 2016 season opener against CSU approaching fast, Buff fans are hoping that the 4th year is the charm for head coach Mike MacIntyre, and that the season ends with a bowl game for the first time since 2007. For a little inspiration, Buff fans should be looking back to 1985, when Bill McCartney (CU's first "Coach Mac") coached his 4th season in Boulder.
Many Colorado fans younger than myself know that Bill McCartney was a coaching legend who led the Buffs to the National Championship and is also CU's all-time most winning football coach. But the winning ways for McCartney did not start right away, There was penance to pay and building to be done before the winning started.
In Mac I's first three years, his record as head coach was 7-25-1. That's only seven wins out of 33 games. Not only that, but the record in 1984 was only 1-10. The Buffs were a mainstay in the infamous Bottom 10. Nobody in the national or local sports media expected much (if anything) from Colorado.
But a funny thing happened at Colorado after the 1984 one-win season. The new athletic director Bill Marolt recognized something special in what McCartney was doing and realized that the changes were just not showing up in the win column yet. Despite Mac's abysmal record, Marolt chose to extend McCartney's contract. That decision was met with some surprise and amusement by the local media. But Marolt turned out to be right.
Back in 1985, the Big 8 was known around the country as the Big 2 and the Little 6. Those two, however, were two of the most winning football programs in the history of college football. The 1985 season ended with Oklahoma winning another National Championship and Nebraska finishing at number 10, continuing their traditions at Top 10 programs.
Something was very different for Colorado in 1985. They finished the regular season with SEVEN wins and 3rd place in the Big 8. Coach McCartney won as many games in 1985 as he had won in his first three seasons combined. The four losses in the regular season were to teams ranked in the Top 12 teams in the country, including a 3 point loss to eventual national champion Oklahoma. How impressive was that accomplishment? McCartney was voted Big 8 Coach of the Year in the same season as another coach in the conference (Barry Switzer) won a national title!
After that breakout year, McCartney never had another losing season again. In the 10 years following AD Bill Marolt extending Mac's contract, his teams won 86 games and played for the national title twice. In fact, they were one bad game from playing another championship in 1994.
Mike MacIntyre has a three year coaching record at Colorado of 10-27. Nobody in the national media would be surprised if the Buffs limped to another losing record and Mike MacIntyre was looking for a new job by the end of the year. By the same token, some of us wouldn't be surprised if the Buffs broke through this year and won 7 games (or more) like the first coach Mac in 1985.
It would be a tough task, tougher even than the one faced by McCartney. With Colorado now playing in the Pac-12, they have five teams in the conference in the Top 25, and a total of 7 in the top 29. Back in 1985, the Buffs only had 7 conference games to worry about. The current Buffs have NINE conference games (10 if they make it to the conference championship).
The Pac-12 is a much harder conference to play in than almost any other in the country, so the current coach Mac has his work cut out for him. But the foundation has been built, and Mac's gang is ready to bust out... or not.
Mike Tyson used to say, "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth!"
The first game is now just a week away. We'll find out then whether the Buffs will be punching back like the 1985 Buffs under Bill McCartney.
No comments:
Post a Comment