Heading into the 2015 NCAA football season, Colorado Buff fans in Boulder and around the country are searching and hoping for a reason to care about college football again. At least when it comes to their Buffaloes.
Football is a PASSIONATE sport! It's one of the reasons that it has often been compared to war. One of the things that is necessary for that passion is deeply held feelings. And those feelings only come with time and hard fought wins and losses.
Unfortunately, the Buffs have not been in the Pac-12 long enough to have strong feelings about their conference foes. So far, it has just been "we're happy to be here" in the Conference of Champions. And since the Buffs have been nothing but the designated "Gimme" in the Pac-12 since joining the league, the other schools have been happy to have Colorado around as well.
Boulder is a new favorite among fans around the Pac-12 to travel to for away games as well. One reason is they can usually count on a victory. Boulder is also one of the most beautiful towns in the country. And, judging by the lines outside the legal marijuana dispensaries on game days, Boulder's social activities are popular among college students around the Pac-12.
Back on the gridiron, however, things are different. Due to a decade of futility, nobody in the Pac-12 spends time being worried about the Buffs when it comes to football. (That's not true in basketball and other sports where the Buffs are already teams to be feared.) Nobody in the conference fears Colorado... because the Buffs haven't earned it yet.
Last year was close. Two double-overtime losses (Cal and UCLA) would have done a great deal toward earning the Buffs some respect had the games gone the other way. But they didn't. So they enter 2015 as a team flying under everyone's radar. Again.
Only when the Buffs have broken the dreams of some conference foes will they get the respect they desire. That's how rivalries are built.
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Heading into the 1986 season, the Colorado Buffaloes were coming off a 7-5 record under Bill McCartney. That was considered an amazing feat since the Buffs had only won ONE game the year prior. Those seven wins earned McCartney his first of three conference coach of the year awards.
After the seven wins in 1985, Buff fans were excited about the possibility of even better things to come in '86. The Buffs started the year with FOUR straight losses before finally getting their first win in a nail-biter against Missouri. The next game the Buffs demolished Iowa State. The Buffs stood at 2-4 and would be hosting the hated #3 ranked Nebraska Cornholers at Folsom Field.
Almost nobody around the country, and very few around Boulder, gave the Buffs much of a chance. Nebraska had beaten the Buffs every single year since 1967, and the Buffs had not beaten the Fuskers in Boulder since 1961. Nebraska marched into Boulder undefeated and ranked #3 and ready to dominate.
Part of the turnaround made by coach McCartney was to designate the Nebraska game as Colorado's "red letter" game because he felt the Huskers were a model of consistency over decades and that if the Buffs wanted to be a national caliber team, they would have to be good enough to beat Nebraska on a consistent basis.
Husker fans laughed aloud at Mac declaring Nebraska a rival. Many of them had grown up without ever seeing Colorado win against their beloved Huskers. Back here in Boulder, Colorado fans were sick and tired of the condescending Nebraska faithful, who loved to swarm into Boulder and fill the bars and restaurants with tobacco smoke and boast about their team. Up until that point, Nebraska fans LOVED Boulder because they could count on a win and gloat their way around town.
Somebody forgot to tell Mac and his team, however. The Buffs came out and played hardnosed defense and beat the hated Huskers by a score of 20-10. Twenty-five years of frustration came to a boil in a party of exuberance that had been long missing at Folsom Field. The goal posts came down and the words "WE WIN!" blazed from the scoreboard through the night and across the front pages of the Colorado papers.
After that game, Colorado was indeed a rival for Nebraska. Husker fans refused to acknowledge the Buffs as a rival but their hatred shined through loud and clear. Whereas Boulder was once their favorite road trip of the season, they started complaining long and loud that Buff fans were "rude" to them (completely ignoring how Lincoln treats their out-of-town fans).
If you asked just about any Buff fan which team they loved to hate, Nebraska would be at the top of the list. The Fuskers and their fans were a classless bunch, by far the worst that Buff fans had encountered.
Some examples of Nebraska classlessness follow: In 1989, as the Buffs were rolling through a miraculous undefeated regular season marred by the death of their quarterback Sal Aunese. His death made national news and brought condolences from around the country.
But the slimeballs in Nebraska reacted to his death by writing "SAL IS DEAD, GO BIG RED!" across the highway where it crossed from Colorado into Nebraska. Talk about a rivalry gone wrong! Those poor jackasses were willing to glory in the death by cancer of a young man just because he played for a team they didn't like.
The next year, the Buffs won the National Championship. It should have been a unanimous National Championship, but the Buffs had to share it with Georgia Tech because Husker's head coach Tom Osborne ballot amazingly left #1 ranked Colorado off the list of top twenty teams. Osborne later claimed someone else filled out the ballot for him, but it was in HIS name and HE was responsible. Classless from the bottom and classless from the top. That's Nebraska.
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What's the point of the story? Mike MacIntyre's Colorado Buffaloes have to give up being happy to be in the Pac-12. They need to kick some doors down and piss some people off. They need to ruin some team's hopes for a Conference or National Championship. They need to deny someone a bowl game. They need to make Folsom Field a place where every other team fears to play.
Boulder will still be beautiful. And the fans from around the Pac-12 can still appreciate the social activities that Colorado has to offer. But they need to make Folsom Field THEIR HOUSE once again. Only then can bowl games and championships come back to Boulder.
Showing posts with label Nebraska Cornhuskers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nebraska Cornhuskers. Show all posts
Friday, August 14, 2015
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Colorado Fans Look to Past for Inspiration, Seek Upset Against Arizona State
BOULDER-- Heading into Saturday Night's Pac-12 clash at Folsom Field between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Colorado Buffaloes, the tone that many Buff fans are taking is that the game will be a wipe-out, and that Colorado has no chance at all of making a stand and protecting their turf in the first home game and conference game of the season.
Some long-time fans, however, say "Look to the past!"
Since Colorado joined the Pac-12, the Buffs have played the Sun Devils three times and been beaten soundly at each turn. Arizona State comes into the game ranked #16 in the AP poll. In 2011, the Sun Devils were ranked 23rd, and were unranked in both 2012 and 2013.
Some older fans point out that while Arizona State is a good team and deserving of their current ranking, the fact is they are not a nationally dominant team by any stretch of the imagination. They say to look a few years (okay, 28) to the past to see what the Buffs have historically overcome.
The year was 1986. It was a turning point in Colorado Buffaloes history.
Buff faithful began the year with a swell of anticipation. The year before (1985) had seen Colorado win a total of SEVEN games. That may not seem like a lot, but the six seasons prior to 1985 saw the Buffs win only 14 out of 66 games. Fans were excited! They thought that seven wins and a bowl game would be an annual thing. Then the season started...
The CU Buffs under Head Coach Bill McCartney started the season 0-4.
That's right. They lost their first four games. Colorado State, Oregon, Arizona and Ohio State all beat the Buffs to start the season. And Oregon was pretty horrible back then.
Fans immediately started to worry that the Buffs would be back to their old ways where only a couple of wins per season was all they could expect. McCartney had been named Big 8 Coach of the Year in 1985, but some fans were calling for his head after the Buffs started the season so poorly in '86.
Then, something unexpected happened. The Buffs went to Missouri in week 5 and pulled out a thrilling 17-12 victory. The next week they dominated Iowa State in Boulder by 31-3.
The next game had big, bad Nebraska coming to Boulder.
No game on any football schedule at that time gave Buff fans more to dread than the hated Huskers. In the 24 years prior to 1986, Nebraska had beaten Colorado 23 times. They had outscored the Buffs 826-268 in that time. That works out to an average score of 34-11, which was a pretty standard ass-kicking back in the day.
How dominant a team was Nebraska back then? Year in and year out, they were one of the best in the country. During that 24 year stretch, Nebraska came into their game with Colorado ranked in the TOP 10 a remarkable 16 TIMES! In eleven of those games, the Fuskers were ranked in the TOP 5!
If Colorado fans are looking at challenges, Arizona State is nowhere near the challenge of Nebraska if taken in a historical perspective.
Even though Colorado had not beaten Nebraska since 1967, those 1986 Buffs showed up all the same. While those of us sitting in the student section were a loud bunch, many of the more than 52 thousand in attendance were wearing Nebraska red. Many Colorado fans with season tickets paid for the rest of their games by selling tickets at inflated prices to Nebraska fans with deep pockets.
Nebraska rolled into Boulder that beautiful October day undefeated at 6-0, and sporting the #3 ranking in the country. Like they had done for almost an entire quarter century, Husker fans entered the game with Colorado with delight, because it was as certain a victory as just about any conference rivalry could be.
Three hours later, the Colorado Buffs had won 20-10.
The final score stayed emphatically on the scoreboard throughout the day and into the night and "WE DID IT!" ran as the headline of the Boulder Daily Camera Sunday edition. The win against Nebraska was the third of six wins in seven games for Colorado to end the regular season. A nearly one hour highlight video shows the Buffs from the locker room before the game until the final celebration.
The win was a turning point toward the greatest era of Colorado football. They won seven games in '87, eight games in '88, and 11 games each year in 1989 and 1990. The Buffs were named National Champions after the 1990 season and played for the title after the 1989 season.
Those Big 8 (and one NC) championship teams came just three years after the Buffaloes had started the '86 season 0-4. Two victories set the stage for a remarkable upset that catapulted the Colorado Buffaloes to the top of the collegiate football world over the next few years.
Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre has the Buffs poised to make a turn for the better.
After winning four games last year (and quadrupling the win total of 2012), Buff fans entered the 2014 season hoping for a breakthrough. A bad loss to Colorado State and an unimpressive win over UMass has left CU fans champing at the bit and sharing their anger on social media and news outlets.
Those fans should look to the past for inspiration. The Buffs may not defeat Arizona State, and Las Vegas odds-makers believe they won't. But the entire country believed the same thing about their chances against Nebraska in 1986, and instead of another defeat, the Colorado Buffs turned the corner toward becoming a national power.
Looking for another more recent example? The 2007 Buffs were coming off a 2-10 record in 2006. They were 2-2 when undefeated and #3 Oklahoma came to town and lost by a score of 27-24.
How about another Pac-12 story? Also in 2007, Stanford was coming off a 1-11 record in 2006. They were 1-3 when they faced the #1 USC Trojans in the Los Angeles Coliseum. USC was a 41 point favorite. Stanford won the game 24-23. Point spread wise, it's one of the biggest upset in the history of college football.
There's a reason they call it an upset. Whatever happens, it will not be the biggest upset in Folsom Field or Pac-12 history if the Buffs win. It won't even be close.
Some long-time fans, however, say "Look to the past!"
Since Colorado joined the Pac-12, the Buffs have played the Sun Devils three times and been beaten soundly at each turn. Arizona State comes into the game ranked #16 in the AP poll. In 2011, the Sun Devils were ranked 23rd, and were unranked in both 2012 and 2013.
Some older fans point out that while Arizona State is a good team and deserving of their current ranking, the fact is they are not a nationally dominant team by any stretch of the imagination. They say to look a few years (okay, 28) to the past to see what the Buffs have historically overcome.
The year was 1986. It was a turning point in Colorado Buffaloes history.
Buff faithful began the year with a swell of anticipation. The year before (1985) had seen Colorado win a total of SEVEN games. That may not seem like a lot, but the six seasons prior to 1985 saw the Buffs win only 14 out of 66 games. Fans were excited! They thought that seven wins and a bowl game would be an annual thing. Then the season started...
The CU Buffs under Head Coach Bill McCartney started the season 0-4.
That's right. They lost their first four games. Colorado State, Oregon, Arizona and Ohio State all beat the Buffs to start the season. And Oregon was pretty horrible back then.
Fans immediately started to worry that the Buffs would be back to their old ways where only a couple of wins per season was all they could expect. McCartney had been named Big 8 Coach of the Year in 1985, but some fans were calling for his head after the Buffs started the season so poorly in '86.
Then, something unexpected happened. The Buffs went to Missouri in week 5 and pulled out a thrilling 17-12 victory. The next week they dominated Iowa State in Boulder by 31-3.
The next game had big, bad Nebraska coming to Boulder.
No game on any football schedule at that time gave Buff fans more to dread than the hated Huskers. In the 24 years prior to 1986, Nebraska had beaten Colorado 23 times. They had outscored the Buffs 826-268 in that time. That works out to an average score of 34-11, which was a pretty standard ass-kicking back in the day.
How dominant a team was Nebraska back then? Year in and year out, they were one of the best in the country. During that 24 year stretch, Nebraska came into their game with Colorado ranked in the TOP 10 a remarkable 16 TIMES! In eleven of those games, the Fuskers were ranked in the TOP 5!
If Colorado fans are looking at challenges, Arizona State is nowhere near the challenge of Nebraska if taken in a historical perspective.
Even though Colorado had not beaten Nebraska since 1967, those 1986 Buffs showed up all the same. While those of us sitting in the student section were a loud bunch, many of the more than 52 thousand in attendance were wearing Nebraska red. Many Colorado fans with season tickets paid for the rest of their games by selling tickets at inflated prices to Nebraska fans with deep pockets.
Nebraska rolled into Boulder that beautiful October day undefeated at 6-0, and sporting the #3 ranking in the country. Like they had done for almost an entire quarter century, Husker fans entered the game with Colorado with delight, because it was as certain a victory as just about any conference rivalry could be.
Three hours later, the Colorado Buffs had won 20-10.
The final score stayed emphatically on the scoreboard throughout the day and into the night and "WE DID IT!" ran as the headline of the Boulder Daily Camera Sunday edition. The win against Nebraska was the third of six wins in seven games for Colorado to end the regular season. A nearly one hour highlight video shows the Buffs from the locker room before the game until the final celebration.
The win was a turning point toward the greatest era of Colorado football. They won seven games in '87, eight games in '88, and 11 games each year in 1989 and 1990. The Buffs were named National Champions after the 1990 season and played for the title after the 1989 season.
Those Big 8 (and one NC) championship teams came just three years after the Buffaloes had started the '86 season 0-4. Two victories set the stage for a remarkable upset that catapulted the Colorado Buffaloes to the top of the collegiate football world over the next few years.
Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre has the Buffs poised to make a turn for the better.
After winning four games last year (and quadrupling the win total of 2012), Buff fans entered the 2014 season hoping for a breakthrough. A bad loss to Colorado State and an unimpressive win over UMass has left CU fans champing at the bit and sharing their anger on social media and news outlets.
Those fans should look to the past for inspiration. The Buffs may not defeat Arizona State, and Las Vegas odds-makers believe they won't. But the entire country believed the same thing about their chances against Nebraska in 1986, and instead of another defeat, the Colorado Buffs turned the corner toward becoming a national power.
Looking for another more recent example? The 2007 Buffs were coming off a 2-10 record in 2006. They were 2-2 when undefeated and #3 Oklahoma came to town and lost by a score of 27-24.
How about another Pac-12 story? Also in 2007, Stanford was coming off a 1-11 record in 2006. They were 1-3 when they faced the #1 USC Trojans in the Los Angeles Coliseum. USC was a 41 point favorite. Stanford won the game 24-23. Point spread wise, it's one of the biggest upset in the history of college football.
There's a reason they call it an upset. Whatever happens, it will not be the biggest upset in Folsom Field or Pac-12 history if the Buffs win. It won't even be close.
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