Shiver me timbers!

Yarr! The Buffs go into Lubbock, Texas - where they had never won - and hit the Pirates in the mouth! Ye not be wantin' another eh, scalawag? Yarr!

So how did it go down?


Well, these hopelessly unpredictable Buffs came out and played like champions Saturday. They were well prepared, played without mistakes and exhibited great confidence from the get go. Hugh got back on track and ran the ball passionately to the tune of 121 yards. Cody managed the offense well, took some chances but avoided mistakes. And, it's worth mentioning, Daniel Sanders did not once mis-snap the ball. Hallelujah!

Defensively, the Buffs contained the Tech high flying offense all-day. They kept the ball in front and minimized big plays. They blitzed with unholy ferocity and rattled the leading passer in the nation, Graham Harrell. Our dear Jordon Dizon (Is there any remaining question that he'll be taking home the Butkus? No.) got one pick and took it back for a touchdown. Meanwhile T-Wheat (Is there any remaining question that he'll be taking home the Thorpe? No.), playing most of the day against the nation's leading receiver, took uh - not 1, not 2, but 3 (yes 3) picks from Harrell.

So it was a big road win in a rebuilding year. It's a glimpse at what is coming on a more regular basis when Hawk gets this engine humming. Hey, winning is fun! Get ready for more fun.

Yarrr! Pirate warning!

Friends of the Buffaloes,

Our 4-4 Buffs travel Saturday to scenic Lubbock, Texas, to take on the swashbuckling cadets of Mike Leach's Pirate School (lesser known as Texas Tech University). Coach Leach is a one of a kind - eccentric genius, totally unorthodox, unfit to live in normal society but too skilled to be kept out of Division 1 Football. Thus, he coaches in Lubbock. He's an enigma wrapped inside a riddle. His team will either score 60 points on you or throw five picks and run for negative yardage. It's wildly unpredictable but undeniably fascinating to watch.

Leach is such an unusual figure that the whole of the college football blogosphere is practically obsessed with him. The greatest of all college football blogs, Sunday Morning Quarterback, frequently invents imaginary "Ask Mike Leach" columns. In a recent one, this beauty of a quote is wrought...

"Somebody told me Sam Houston State was pissed at me for attempting a double reverse screen throwback hook-and-ladder with ten seconds to go and a 62-point lead. That's just "not done." Well, we did it, and we scored, because the goal of the game is to score, and we accomplished our goal. How many times in your life will you score 80 points? Identify your goal and take the straightest line to its fruition. Don't let society tell you "you can't do that" when you obviously can."

Mike Leach is a beauty and should be simultaneously loved and feared by all college football fans. We must celebrate his uniqueness while guarding against the possible contagiousness of his brand of utter madness. Yes, Lubbock is a good quarantine center indeed.

So what happens when our beloved but inconsistent Buffs face the Pirate School? I have no earthly idea. But I'm immensely certain it will not be dull.

Go Buffs! Yarr!

KU-CU recap

Friends,

A .500 team are we. 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the conference. The very definition of mediocrity - which when you think about it is so much better than where we were last year. But satisfying? No.

Look, KU is a good team. We held them to 19 which is 31 points below their average. And we had a chance late to make that game winning drive. But it was not to be.

The running game (my previously mention key to the game) was non-existent. This of course hamstrung the passing game producing lots of sacks and interceptions. Meanwhile, the defense was still a bit shaky allowing the QB Reesing to run a bit to wild. Also we missed a field goal early that could have changed things. Well, at least the punter didn't fumble this time!

What more can I say? My hat is off to the undefeated Jayhawks. I only hope that their coach can someday find happiness...


Aahh making fun of other's misfortunes. The last bastion of losers, I suppose...

Bizarro World

Friends of the Buffaloes,

You know, it's a pity that I am not more studied in all things Star Wars because this seems the perfect week to do a Jabba the Hut caricatured...
But alas, my Star Wars tank is empty. Feel free to write your own episode!

Anyway....

Bizarro World. That's what this year's college football world is. At the time of this writing...
* Appalachian State has beaten Michigan (sorry Rob, Mitch, Kip)
* Stanford has beaten USC (congratulations Eric, Daphne, Lane)
* The rebuilding Buffs have beaten Oklahoma (sorry Timolyn, congratulations everyone else)
* Kentucky has beaten LSU
* Oregon State has beaten Cal (sorry Carolyn)
* Nebraska is in a tailspin (congratulations righteousness)
* The current Top 10 includes these scalawags - South Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky
* Arizona State is alone atop the Pac-10
* The 2 major Kansan universities are a combined 10-2
* The University of Kansas is the #15 team in the country

What in the name of Bo Schembeckler is going on here!?

The historically pathetic Kansas football program is currently 6-0 and on the inside track for the Big XII North title. Stop the madness! It's time to set some things right and that's just what the Buffs will do on Saturday. It will go like this...

Hey diddle, diddle, we're comin' up the middle! And around the end and off tackle! That's right, the Buffs are going to run, run, run the ball and force Kansas to try to stop Hugh and Demitrius. And that's when we hit 'em with Josh Smith (J-Fly) on the deep route. We're gonna light those Jay-chickens up!

Defensively, we must get after that fantastic QB Reesing. He's mobile and he throws a great ball. But as goes Reesing so go the 'Hawks and therefore Reesing must go down! Dizon tracks him down on a rollout - POW! Wheatley blind-sides him on a corner blitz - BAM! Down goes Reesing, down goes KU. Buffs back in the hunt for the Big XII North! Glory, glory Colorado.

Oh yeah, and there will be steaks too. Yum...

A KSU game limerick

Dear Friends,

Look, I'm sort of mailing it in this week. I've been busy - family, work, travel. Now my company is being acquired. Whew, it's hard to be a wanna-be sports blogger when life gets in the way.

Anyhow, in place of my usual fake insight, I present to you a limerick about the up-coming game against KSU. There are a few things you should first know, however. 1) KSU's coach is Ron Prince, excitable guy who has been know to dance on the sideline (see video clip below). 2) Josh Freeman is KSU's talented and humongous quarterback. 3) Jordon Dizon should win the Heisman, but won't.

There once was a coach named Ron Prince
His dancing skills made me wince
Then Dizon sacked Freeman
Coach Prince had not glee, man
That crazy jig's not been seen since

Go Buffs!

Fundamentals

Winning football games really comes down to execution, doing the little things right. Everybody notices the "big plays" but very few people focus on the small things. And citizens, let me tell you - it's the small things that win football games. Running perfect routes, keeping your pad levels low, knowing the snap count, making down field blocks, going 100% until the whistle blows, form tackling. It's fundamentals, people.

As an example, study this still image below. Notice the excellent form of the Baylor player as he makes the tackle. Leads with shoulder, wraps up, drives his man to the ground. That's fundamentally sound football, friends, and that's what wins championships.

Buffs beat Bears!

FOTBs,

Remember last year? At this time last year, our beloved but hapless Buffs were 0-6. That's zero wins and six losses. This year, it's a different story. We're now 4-2. Four wins, two losses. This year is more fun, no?

The point is that we, the Colorado Buffaloes faithful, must never take winning for granted. Because winning is never, ever guaranteed. So whether it is a overtime win over CSU, a complete BLOWOUT of MofO, a time expiring mind-blowing win over #3 OU or a non-televised 20 point win over the Baylor Bears... it is always, always, always sweet. Let us not become the fans that are ever critical of a winning effort. Let us not be the guys who say, "we should have won by more" or "it sucks that we gave up more than 400 yards passing to one of the, no, THE worst team in the history of the Big XII." No, that's not us. We must stay ever humble and ever grateful for wins. Period. The end.



Oh yeah, Cody passed for 293, Hugh ran for 122 and Jordon had 13 tackles. What is not to love?!

Haikus for the Baylor/CU game

This week calls for the Buffs to travel to Waco, Texas to take on the Baylor Bears. It's a critical conference game in the suddenly wide-open Big XII. I'm sure that our Zen master coach is motivating the troops with some topical haiku. Imagine if you will what those versus might be like...

Toothless Bears they aren't
Vanquished our Buffs last two tries
Not again, Waco

Guy Morriss - two s-es
Weird ass spread offense he runs
T-Wheat'll have 3 pickss

Favorite flick, Star Wars
Cody-Luke, Dizon-Solo
Hugh's R2-D2

Young Kai Maiava
Samoan, fierce and hairy
Pancake block you, bro

Smash-mouth football guys
My bad haircut matters not
It's D-1 football!!

At last, the OU game recap

Where to start. This was not a fluky game where the under-dogs ran trick plays and the ball bounced their way. Simply put, the Sooners were outplayed and out-schemed. The Buffs overcame adversity and a 17 point deficit to win the game. Consider these 2nd half stats:
2nd-half total yards: Colorado 219, OU 56
2nd-half first downs: CU 12, OU 3
2nd-half rushing yards: CU 114, OU 45

The defense was simply fantastic. The offense was gutsy and undaunted. The special teams was special in all aspects despite missing an early 4th quarter field goal. The play calling was gutsy but never desperate. It was a total and complete body of work by our Buffs. Be proud, be very proud.

Many, many thanks again to our own Matthew Walton for assembling this comeback video chronicle. A picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a hundred thousand.




Nice footage.

But this is sort of how it looked from my vantage point...

I now love Star Wars

After the Star Wars pre-game premonition and the ensuing rocket ride to the Galaxy Euphoria, I can now count myself as a verified Star Wars fan. Improbably it was Buffs Football that finally completed my lifelong journey to total nerd-dom.

Sincere and teary love to the beautiful and talented Matthew Walton for this tribute video.



Incidentally, did you know that the subtitle of the Star Wars episode to which I referred to is actually - "A New Hope"? Damn, it's like George Lucas had a time machine when he wrote that crap over 30 years ago.

Dave Lapham quote about CU vs OU

You start running out of expletives for a victory like this. As a partisan, hyperbole is simply unavoidable. So when I try to find perspective from an unbiased source like Dave Lapham, who called the game for Fox Sports, I see this (from sundaymorningqb.com):

It's hard for me to express as a former football player on many successful football teams how proud I am of the football players who went out on that football field for the University of Colorado football team and played the football game of their lives to beat a truly outstanding football team of football players from Oklahoma. I'm paid to broadcast football games, so I can't always comment on the football teams I'm covering, but I have to say, I never thought a football team like Colorado, a football team that only won two football games last football season, could hang on in a football game against a football team obviously made up of more talented football players. And not only to play football toe-to-toe on the football field with such a great football team, but to come from behind in a football game those football players could have easily given up on? That's one of the great football accomplishments I've ever witnessed on any football field in my entire life in football. Dan Hawkins is a special football coach who took his football team on the football field and said, `We're going to win this football game' and his football players flew to the football, stopped Oklahoma from moving the football in the second half of the football game and somehow found a way to win a football game I don't think anyone in football thought this football team could win. What a football game.

That's high praise, my friends. Also, I challenge you to use the word "football" more times in a single paragraph.