Colorado Buffaloes vs Arizona State Sun Devils: Battle for the Middle

Sun Devil Stadium is a hard place to win unless you are playing for Arizona State or playing in a bowl game against another team from outside of Tempe.

The only time that Colorado has won there was in the Fiesta Bowl following 1994 season. In Bill McCartney's last game, the Buffs put a serious whipping on Lou Holtz's Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

Colorado has never beaten Arizona State in Tempe, and hasn't had much luck against them anywhere overall. Last year's victory in Boulder was the first ever for the Buffs against the Sun Devils. Overall, Colorado is 1-7 against ASU.

The past doesn't bode well for Colorado, so the job of Mike MacIntyre and his staff is to get their team to play for the future and forget the past. The Buffaloes have won five games this year, and need a win in the last three weeks to become bowl eligible.  

With Pac-12 South leader (and #17) USC coming to Boulder next week, the Buffaloes face a tough road to bowl-ville unless they can pull an upset of 4-4 Arizona State. 

The Sun Devils have been up and down all year. They got spanked at home last week by USC, but beat #5 Washington (at home) and went on the road to defeat Utah in the two weeks prior. Early in the season, the Devils also lost to San Diego State and Texas Tech. It's been a tough season to watch for ASU fans.

Likewise, things have been tough in Boulder. After last year's 10 win season, fans of Colorado expected them to once again vie for the Pac-12 South title. Coaches added to the expectations when they proclaimed Colorado would have one of the best offenses in the country.

Then came the season. The Buffs went 3-0 in non-conference games but looked wholly uninspired and far from explosive on offense. After losing their first three Pac-12 games, the Buffs squeaked by Oregon State, a team which had yet to be within 28 points of an FBS team. Then came the 28-0 debacle loss to Washington State to drop the Buffs to 4-4.

The grumblings from the Peanut Gallery at Folsom Field got louder and louder during the season, and became an outright roar during the Washington State loss. The quarterback was benched, and after neither backup QB could do anything either, calls were made for the play-caller (and Co-offensive coordinator) Brian Lindgren to be fired or demoted.

Finally, in week 9, the Buffs finally showed some fire. They were explosive offensively, and cruised to a big win over California. Most fans were willing to recognize the effort and congratulate the team on a well played game. It was good to see the team having fun again.

Throughout this week, however, the facts began to sink in about the Buffs' two conference wins. They were against the two worst teams in the league this year. The Buffs have lost to the middle of the road teams in the Pac-12, and been smoked by the upper level teams. 

Most fans were happy with last week's win, but are unconvinced that it will lead to more wins this year and a bowl game. But they are waiting with bated breath to see how this game goes. 

If the Buffs win, they will be bowl eligible and they will have a fighting chance to finish the season 8-4 and on a four game winning streak entering bowl season. 

If they lose, particularly if they lose badly (which is typical in games in Tempe against ASU), the Buffs could very well finish season 5-7 and on the outside looking in come bowl time. It's an all too familiar place to be with a decade between last year's bowl team and the last time they went bowling.

Buff fans are hoping against hope, but the emotional content from fans seems to be missing. They've had their hearts already broken this year. They are waiting for one more game before they give the Buffs their complete support.

They want their Buffs to win, and hope it comes true. The question remains whether the Buffaloes themselves are going to lay it all on the line and do whatever is necessary to win? Or will they face adversity and a tough road game and cash in their chips? Will the coaches rise to the occasion? Or will they be outcoached once again and lay the fault at the feet of their players?

Let's see who shows up. It's less than two hours until we find out.

Buffs Show the Nation they are THISCLOSE to Rejoining The TOP 25

First of all, a serious thank you to the Colorado Buffaloes and the Michigan Wolverines, their fans, and Ann Arbor.

A thank you to the Buffs for showing up ready to play both offensively and defensively. Until the time of the first punt, watching the Colorado Buffaloes brought back memories of a time long past. Their offense was on point and a threat to whoever they played and the defense was hard-hitting and a threat to score and shut down even very good teams.

By the end of the first quarter, feelings that had not been felt about the Buffs in more than a decade were raging throughout Buff faithful scattered around The Big House. Even the Michigan fans were impressed, and a whole lot shocked.

One of the wonderful side benefits to playing at Michigan is their fans. They were friendly and open even before the game started (on the walk to the stadium and in the stands).  And they were very complimentary of the Buffs when they bolted out to a quick 14-0 lead. 

And when the Buffs scored to go up by 14 again after the Wolverines had scored on a blocked punt, their fans around us raved about the play of Sefo Liufau and the Buff defense. "Your quarterback is REALLY good!" they said about Sefo.

As for the Buff defense, Michigan QB Wilton Speight commented about the hit by Chidobe Awuzie by saying that he had never been hit so hard in his life. The hit by Awuzie led to a Speight fumble that was picked up by Derek McCartney and returned for a touchdown.

The days when the Buffs could be counted upon to be easy pickings in every phase of the game are over. The offense and defense showed they were the equal or superior of a top 5 team. And not just any top 5 team either.

Coach Jim Harbaugh is a recruiting master and the Michigan team is filled with the recruits who are the envy of schools across the country. A name often called during the game was Rashan Gary, the #1 recruit in the country earlier this year. In addition to Gary, Harbaugh's Michigan squad hauled in an additional 17 FOUR-star players in this year's class.

Despite Harbaugh's recruiting prowess, the Buffs were up 21-7 at the end of the 1st quarter. Buff fans should applaud that accomplishment. The 21 points the Buffs scored in the opening quarter EQUALED the most ever scored against Michigan at the Big House in their long and storied history.

Hundreds of games against the likes of Ohio State, Michigan State and Notre Dame (and a 1994 Colorado team that may have been among the top 3 CU teams ever), and NO team ever scored more points against Michigan in Ann Arbor in the 1st quarter than Colorado did this past weekend.

Unfortunately for the Buffs, the Wolverines are not only top tier on both offense and defense, they are probably the best team in the country on special teams. It's the one thing that separates a very good Buff team from a top 10 team.

Many Buff fans are up in arms that Colorado did not go on and beat a Top-5 team on the road after being up by 14 to end the first quarter. They are missing the reality that Michigan is truly a threat to win the national championship this year. Like all championship caliber teams, they found the weakness of their opponent and exploited it.

The Buffs were exposed on special teams (specifically punting) as a team that still has work to do. One small part of the game was the difference between winning and losing on the road against a Top-5 team.

It's a hectic week in Boulder as the Buffs prepare to go on the road against Oregon. Listening to radio and reading the papers and blogs, many in Buff nation seem to think this UNRANKED Duck team is the same as the Top 5 teams of years past.  That is not the case. This Oregon team is ripe for the taking. They have injuries to several of their star players, and their defense shows little sign of slowing down anyone.

If the Buffs can get their heads around the fact that they were so close to beating one of the best teams in the country on the road, they can go into Eugene and beat Oregon. If they fall back to psychological predispositions, it could be the beginning of a rough stretch of games.

The ball is in the court of Mike MacIntyre and his staff. How the Buffs respond will be played out Saturday.

Colorado Quarteback Sefo Liufau's Fine Ability to Convert on 3rd Downs A Key to the Buffs' Second Half

If 3rd down conversions are the key to an offense's ability to hold onto the ball and keep opposing teams from getting their hands on the pigskin, then Mike MacIntyre's decision to promote Sefo Liufau to starting quarterback may very well be one of the best decisions he has made this year.

If one goes back and looks at the stats to the two games against Oregon State and Oregon, one sees that the Buffs converted only 2 of 15 third downs against the Beavers in Corvallis and converted 0 of 15 against the Ducks. Before Sefo Liufau entered the game in Tempe against Arizona State, the Buffs were 0 for 3 against the Sun Devils. That means that before Liufau entered the game, the CU Buffs had converted only 2 of their prior 33 third downs. It doesn't take a PhD in statistics to know that those kinds of numbers would make it difficult for any team to win.

How did Sefo do when thrust into the spotlight when his team was already trailing by 25 points? All things considered, he did marvellous. Liufau consistently led Colorado down the field. He did throw two interceptions and fumbled a snap, leading to more scores by the ASU, but he was extremely efficient at converting 3rd downs into first downs or better.

How good was he at converting? Seven of 10 (70%) of CU's third down tries with Liufau at the helm ended with either a first down or a touchdown. That not only kept the Sun Devil offense off the field, but also managed to give the Buff defense a rest. Rest for the defense has been in short supply since kickoff at Oregon State.

If Colorado and Liufau can drastically cut turnovers and continue to convert 3rd downs at a high rate, the Buffs could literally turn their season around on a dime. 

The 1989 Buffs ended the regular season undefeated and played for the national championship against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. That team dominated almost every team they played that year. For the season, that great team converted 53.9% of their 3rd downs. The 1990 team which won the national championship (also against ND) converted 48.9% of their 3rd downs. The 1994 team which featured Heisman Trophy Winner Rashaan Salaam and a plethora of NFL draft picks converted 43.8% of their 3rd downs.

Make no mistake, the ability to hold onto the ball when facing 3rd down is an extremely important statistic. In the first two games of this year, Colorado converted 40% of their 3rd downs and won both games. In the games where the rate of conversion dropped into the single digits, the Buffs were blown out.

The game against undefeated Charleston Southern this week will give Liufau the chance to lead the Buffs from the opening kick. If they convert at over 50% on third down (and win the turnover battle) the team will walk off Folsom Field with a huge win.

The Buff defense under Kent Baer has been much maligned the last three weeks, but it must be remembered that the Colorado offense did nothing with any consistency during that same time. There were a few big plays, of course, but the Buffs failed miserably to hold onto the ball for any length of time. If Sefo Liufau can help the CU offense control the ball and the clock in the upcoming games, the Colorado defense will almost magically get much better.

Football is a game that is fueled by emotion. Nothing fires up the defense like watching from the sideline as their teammates on offense control the ball and the clock and drive for a touchdown. On the other hand, nothing does more to dishearten a defense than watching their offense go three and out over and over again. Or turning over the ball.

If Colorado can turn those two things around and do it on a weekly basis, they will immediately become competitive once again for the first time in many years.

Just Say No to Denver Hosting the Rocky Mountain Showdown

In just about 48 hours, the University of Colorado Buffaloes will take the field against Colorado State at the home of the Denver Broncos, known this year as Sports Authority Field at Mile High. It is a beautiful venue and a wonderful place to watch Colorado's favorite team. But that team is neither the CU Buffs nor the CSU Rams, it is the Broncos. Period.

I have been a long time fan of both the NFL and NCAA football. I have seen every Super Bowl. I attended my first college football game at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, AZ back when it held only 41,000 people. Hint: It was way back in the 1960s. I was raised on college football.

I moved to Colorado in 1983, and started to attend CU Buff games in 1985. I had season tickets for many years and followed the Buffs on the road several times, most notably to the National Championship game at the Orange Bowl in 1990, and to the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe in 1995. I am willing to travel to see the Buffs play ball.

When I was living overseas, I had my son Skype me the games by turning his computer toward the TV. This meant watching games in the wee hours of the morning. I go out of my way to watch my alma mater play.

That said, I am NOT willing to go to Denver to watch the Rocky Mountain Showdown. Yes, of course, I will watch on TV and enjoy the game immensely. But I will not go to the Broncos field to watch the game, and here are the reasons:

• The stadium is too big. If everyone who attends games at CU and CSU attended the RMS, the stadium would still look like no one was there.
• If the people who put the RMS together want a raucous crowd, the need to put them in the LOWER LEVEL.
• IF they want casual fans to attend the game, they cannot price the tickets as if it was an NFL game. The Broncos tickets are at a premium, since there has been a waiting list to get them for decades. By contrast, the Buffs sell out several games a year in a stadium which hold 25,000 fewer people, and the Rams generally draw fewer fans than Texas high school games. (As an aside, why is CSU spending so much money to build a new, bigger stadium when they can't even fill the tiny one they already have?)
• $20-30 for parking? Are you freaking kidding me?
• Numerous press releases telling folks to behave themselves, and warning people of the great number of regular and plain clothes police that will be on hand to be certain that no one has too much fun. I don't remember this many warnings when the Broncos play in front of a lot more people.
• The Denver media, particularly the Denver Post, have made it perfectly clear that they could not care less about CU or CSU. The only reason they want this game in Denver is so they do not have to drive to Boulder or Fort Collins.
  

  • PS - It really pisses me off that the media in Denver are willing participants in the extortion attempt this game presents. No, I do not care any less for the Buffs because I am not willing to spend an exorbitant  amount of money to see them in Denver.

   
• Rivalry games belong on campus, or at least in the city where the campus is located. There are no CU or CSU banners strung around Denver. College football is just a diversion for Broncomania.
• Folks running the RMS need to understand that we live in a capitalist society, where the concepts of supply and demand dictate the going market rate for anything. They have WAY more tickets than customers, yet they price their commodity as if it was in short supply.
• I have a good chuckle on a daily basis watching Craigslist and StubHub and Ticketmaster. The closer we get to the game, the lower the prices for tickets seem to go. By the time kickoff arrives, they will probably be GIVING them away for practically nothing outside the stadium. It reminds me of the CU game at the Orange Bowl. Even though the Buffs and Notre Dame were playing with a National Championship on the line, tickets outside were going for $5-10 apiece because there were no teams from Florida playing.
• I know the folks at CSU like playing in Denver. Of course they do, who wants to stay home to play in front of 18,000 people? Maybe they should start scheduling the CSU vs. Air Force game in Denver. Similar drive for both sets of fans and it gets the Ram fans a chance to get out of town. Of course, it has been a long time since CSU beat Air Force anywhere.

For some ungodly reason, this game is scheduled to be played in Denver through 2019. Somebody somewhere is apparently making good money off this. Unfortunately, I do not think it is either CU or CSU. Their fans are paying the freight, though. This game being played in Denver should be ended as soon as possible. The vigorish paid by the schools and fans is too great.

For those of you going to the game in Denver, I wish you a great time. I am going to save my money for a game out of town which will actually get me out of town. Looking forward to maybe a return trip to Sun Devil Stadium against Arizona State on October 12^th. The Phoenix Craigslist has tickets offered to the ASU vs. CU game for as little as $20. They money saved by not going to the Rocky Mountain Showdown will just about pay for my gas to get down to Tempe.

The Bill McCartney Connection Still Runs Deep for the University of Colorado Buffaloes

Getting out to watch the CU Buffs fall football camp was made even more exciting on Monday when I noticed that one of the men moving along the sidelines of the practice fields was none other than retired Colorado coaching legend Bill McCartney. Even now, almost 18 years since he roamed the hallowed grounds of Folsom Field, his presence is still commanding.

Bill still has the great smile and his deep voice remains capable of stirring the soul and rousing passion for life and football. Having him there was a great thing for new coach Mike MacIntyre. After all, McCartney is the man who led Colorado to two National Championship games (and barely missed out on a third) and one title. He also earned national Coach of the Year honors once as well as Big 8 Coach of the Year 3 times. Earlier this year he was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame

All these years later, when Bill McCartney talks, coaches and players alike are well advised to listen. That being the case, one of the great things that the CU football team has going for it is the fact that the team has TWO grandsons of McCartney involved in the program.

Graduate assistant T.C. McCartney is the son of former CU starting quarterback Sal Aunese, who died on Sept. 23, 1989, from stomach cancer. That CU team rallied around Aunese and, led by Darian Hagan, ran the table during the season to go undefeated and was ranked number one in the country going into the Orange Bowl in Miami. The Buffs lost the national title after playing their worst game of the season to Notre Dame. After a poor start the following year, the Buffs rallied from a 1-1-1 record to begin the season to winning the national championship following a rematch victory over Notre Dame.

Sal Aunese was recruited to Colorado by current LSU coach Les Miles. Media reports have said that Miles made a promise that he would make sure that Sal's infant son would have a scholarship waiting when he graduated high school. Miles kept that promise, and T.C. was a member of the LSU National Championship team in 2007.

Following his graduation from LSU, T.C. worked with Les Miles as a graduate assistant and helped get his team to the BCS title game. Following that year, he moved back to Boulder to become a graduate assistant at CU.

On the field itself for Buffs is another McCartney grandson. Derek McCartney is a redshirt freshman defensive lineman who father Shannon Clavelle played for the Buffs in the 1990s before moving on to the NFL Green Bay Packers in 1995. Clavelle also played for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Both T.C. and Derek attended high school in Colorado. T.C. played for his uncle Tom McCartney at 4A Fairview High School in Boulder before attending LSU. Derek played his high school ball at 2A Faith Christian High School in Westminster.

It was a great thrill to see Bill on the practice field with the Buffs, and it gives hope for the future that two of his grandsons are with the program. They have had their whole lives to learn from their grandfather, and the lessons they have learned can only help their teammates.

Colorado Buffaloes 2013 Opinion: Please Spare us the Musings of Slick Rick Neuheisel

The University of Colorado Buffaloes continued fall camp on Thursday and played host to the Pac-12 Network and their resident weasel "Slick Rick" Neuheisel. As a horrible past head football coach to no less than 25% of the teams in the new Pac-12, the weasely-one now returns as an "analyst" and "media celebrity." This apparently impressed the local media enough to have a plethora of articles written about whatever drivel leached out of his lips about the state of CU football, the University of Colorado, and Boulder.

It is truly an indictment of the local media that they chose to waste space that should have been allocated to Mike MacIntyre's Buffaloes by instead writing about the musings of a man who has been disgraced, fired, and frequently accused of being a liar and lawyer. I digress, of course, and must admit that calling anyone a liar and a lawyer would be redundant. But hey, after all, this is 2013 and fame is more important than anything, especially honesty and integrity.

Unfortunately for NewWeasel and the local media, some of us have been around long enough to remember the first go-round. I worked at the Daily Camera Newspaper when the boy wonder first made his way into Boulder in 1994 to work with the great Bill McCartney.

Mac had won one National Championship during his tenure coaching in Boulder, but more importantly, had come within two bad games of winning two more championships (the NC game against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl following the 1989 season, and the 1994 game against Nebraska in Lincoln). If you had been there to see those games and those seasons, then you know what I am talking about.

McCartney shocked everyone by announcing his retirement following the game in which Rashaan Salaam wrapped up his Heisman Trophy by going over 2000 yards in a season during the season ending game with Iowa State. The 1994 team was so good that NINE Buffs were selected in the NFL Draft the following April, including SEVEN in the first three rounds.

Colorado surprised a great many people by choosing a very young Neuheisel over more experienced coaches with at least coordinator experience to become the next head coach of the Buffs for the 1995 season. I have to admit that I was excited that CU was showing rare foresight (or so I thought then) by hiring a guy who was nearly the same age I was. Judith Albino was wrong to hire Ricky Boy then, and I was wrong in thinking that a guy smart enough to get through law school and pass the bar had the dedication to be a great head coach.

As an aside, I realize that the Wikipedia page dedicated to Rick Neuheisel says he was the Offensive Coordinator for the Buffs in 1994, but that is wrong. The OC during Mac's final year was Elliot Uzelac.

Neuheisel inherited a perennial top-5 team built by Mac, and then got way too much credit when the Buffs won 10 games each of his first two seasons. In hindsight, the Buffs would have won 10 games in '95 and '96 no matter who was the coach because of the depth of the program built by McCartney. Once the program was in the hands of players developed by Neuheisel's staff, however, the wheels started to come off the program.

It was bad enough that the Buffs went from their typical 10 wins in a season to only 5 in 1997, more embarrassing still was that CU had to later forfeit their wins because they used an ineligible player. Also came revelations that there were recruiting improprieties from the very top (the big dog, or, in this case, the big weasel). Those things alone had me and other serious Buff fans calling for Ricky's job.

What really pissed me off about the articles written by the local media is that they really don't know anything about the people they are writing about. Several mentioned their incorrect belief that Buff fans were angry with Neuheisel for leaving CU to go to Washington. Nothing could be further from the truth. I became chat room friends with several people at UW fansites during that time. In a much more civilized era of college sporting discussions, I explained my misgivings about Neuheisel.

Several years later, after the general consensus that Neuheisel had embarrassed their school as well, they thanked me for trying to warn them. Years later, we marveled at the warped mentality that led UCLA to hire a man who had twice run afoul of the NCAA, leading to sanctions of his teams, and then successfully sued the NCAA and Washington for doing their own jobs poorly.

One would think that nowadays that any hiring Rick analysis would come with a comprehensive risk analysis. That is, considering his high pay, profile, and position, what does he offer as a benefit compared to potential risks to the prestige and financial health and wellbeing of the program?

All said, like most lawyers, you have to take anything Rick says with a grain of salt. Better yet, in the case of Neuheisel, you should probably add the wedge of lime and shot of tequila to make anything he says palatable. I am sure the local media, in their obsequious desire to pay homage to fame and/or infamy, believe they are entitled to share the opinions of such a man “who is like any other man, only more so.” (Casablanca). I think I share the opinions of many long time Buff fans who have the image of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men come to mind when we say we “don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.”