It's Been 3287 Days Since the Colorado Buffaloes Last Played in a Bowl Game

Before today, the last time the CU Buffs played in a bowl game was way back on December 30, 2007. The Independence Bowl opponent that day was Alabama. Yes, that Alabama. 

In 2007, both the Buffs and the Crimson Tide had what their fans called disappointing seasons. Each team entered the Independence Bowl following 6-6 seasons.

The Buffs started poorly, throwing an interception on their first offensive play. Alabama raced out to a 27-0 lead by early in the 2nd quarter before Colorado got their act together and made a game out of it. Unfortunately for the Buffs, the lead was too big to overcome and they lost by a final of 30-24.

Coincidentally, the Crimson Tide had played  in the Independence Bowl the year before as well, where they lost to Oklahoma State, Colorado's opponent in today's Alamo Bowl.

After the game, Buffs fans were excited by how Colorado came back and looking forward to a bright future. Alas, twas not to be. The Buffs never won more than 5 games in a season over the next eight years, until breaking through in a big way this year to win 10 games.

We all know what happened to Alabama after barely holding on to beat the Buffs back in 2007... they have gone on to win FOUR national championships and are heavy favorites to win their 5th under Nick Saban this season.

"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens most eloquently stated the differences in the two programs since that time.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

 All that changed this year as the Buffs put together a breakthrough year under National Coach of the Year Mike MacIntyre. They may not be back in Alabama's class just yet, but this year no team in the country (not including the NFL) appears to be in the same class as the Tide. The Buffs have made their way back to the Top 10 for the first time since the 2001 season.

The future looks very bright for the Colorado Buffaloes. The culture has changed for the better. The stands are full again. The university  has world class facilities. Top recruits are hoping to come to Boulder. And football is fun again at Colorado.

The young men who made it happen should be in our good graces for as long as they live. The seniors going out this year came to Boulder at the worst time in the long and storied history of Colorado football. But they came determined to revive the program, and they achieved that goal against all odds.

The Buffaloes were picked to finish LAST in the Pac-12 South this year. Can't really blame the prognosticators, though, since that's where CU had been every year since joining the Pac-12. But the remarkable young men talked openly that their goal was to win the Pac-12 Championship. 

Fans and media alike chuckled at the thought, and hoped that the Buffs would finally make it to a bowl game... ANY bowl game. But for the players, that goal was not high enough. They wanted to play in the Pac-12 title game and then they went out and EARNED it. It wasn't USC or UCLA or Utah or Arizona State representing the Pac-12 South, it was these Buffs.

 And we couldn't be prouder. Go Buffs! Beat them Cowboys!