Joy

Me after the Fresno game

"Without pain, how could we know joy?" goes an old saying.  

A Buff Nation now knows joy.  And after the immense, humiliating pain we've experienced over the first 3 weeks of the 2012 season, the joy of week 4 at Washington State is the sweetest joy any football fan is likely to feel.  

Party in Pullman

If Oregon or Alabama goes unbeaten this year to win the national title, will their fans feel joy as sweet as the Buff's victory over WSU?  Happiness, pride, satisfaction - yes.  But true joy - no.  For they have not suffered.  

We suffering lot know joy.  Yes, we know joy indeed!

Savor it.  And never, ever taking winning for granted again.

For though our Buffs have plenty of fight left in them, there is no victory assured throughout the course of this Pac12 slate.

Up next are the Bruins of UCLA.  Yes, the powder blue clad ones that Chuck Fairbanks briefly and miserably tried to imitate in the early '80s. 

Never forget

UCLA had a Neuheisel-ectomy in the off season and is suddenly a fearsome lot of powder blue assassins.  But for a stumble against Oregon State last week, the Bruins have been impressive, especially offensively.  Most notably, they gave the Fuskers a good shellacking a couple of weeks back - Buddha bless 'em.

Hucked 'em

So with a bit of wind in their sails, the Buffs return to the friendly confines of Folsom Field.  The WSU victory momentum plus the dizzying altitude of Boulder plus the lunatic screaming of the partisan fans could spell trouble for the gifted Bruins.

Wither beneath his emphatic pointing, Bruins!

So do come on out to dear old CU this Saturday.  Drink in the sunshine and the pageantry.  And "Never Give In"!

PS - You MUST watch this video:

Buff Video

Rock Bottomer

Your faithful correspondent reports this week from the warm and exotic climes of Hong Kong - home of armies of park occupying, slow motion, invisible foe kung fu fighting grandmothers.

Hong Kong grandmas.  Undefeated for eternity.

As I lumber through the park on my morning runs, I gaze at the kung fu grandmas...

Not pictured, invisible bad guys recoiling in pain.

So calm, so relaxed, in another zone unaffected by the buzzing madness of the real-time world.  And I think to myself - this must be how the Buff defensive backs feel.

Cover Two

Maybe the grandmas know something that we don't.  That the speed and stress of our lives is but an illusion, a world unworthy of conscious occupation.  In the right frame of mind and physical concentration one can disengage from the rat race and enter a better world.  A world of one's own making.

I want to enter that world.

Because in my world, the peace and equilibrium of tai chi is instead replace with the crazed screams and self immolation of Colorado defenses.

"It was my understanding that the opponents would be invisible and unable to punch me in the face."

"This is the worst tai chi class ever, coach."

"Again with the face punching?"

In my world, the browser transports to Hong Kong a withering assessment by the great Matt Hinton...

"There was already considerable evidence before Saturday that the Colorado Buffaloes, 0-2 with demoralizing losses to Colorado State and Sacramento State, may be the worst team in major college football. At Fresno State, though, the Buffs made a compelling bid for the ages in what must rank among the worst performances in recorded NCAA history."

Mr Hinton's words are as inarguable as they are indelicate.  The rock bottom we'd thought we'd seen has now sunk so, so much lower.

And now the Pac12 schedule begins.  First up is the familiar face of the dread pirate Mike Leach and his new charges, the Washington State Cougars.  The author of the Air Raid must be drooling with anticipation at the Buffs' incompetent teenaged defenders.  Dear Buddha...

But alas, this team is our team.  We're bonded by the Black and Gold blood coursing through our veins.  There's no escaping the turbulence.  Just pull your seat belt tight and hold on until it's over.

"Who is that sweaty white boy and why is he weeping?  He should try tai chi."

Don't say Fresno. Say Fresyes!

Buffriends...

Well here we are at long last...

Congratulations, we've arrived at rock bottom.  We are 0-2 after having played the two crappiest teams on our schedule.  Indeed two of the crappiest teams in the country.  It doesn't matter what happens now, it can't possibly get any worse. Smiley face!

The Sac State experience was a disaster reminiscent of the Hawkinsian opus, Montana State.  It was bad, so bad.  But allow me to extract one ray of sunshine out of the otherwise miserable affair.  The running game returned.  And it returned in the form of a big, bruising, true freshman fullback cum tailback.  Behold CPow!

Christian Powell, ladies and gentleman

The young man exploded for 148 yards of smashmouthy beauty.  His gutsy performance opened up the passing game which produced countless... misfires and under thrown ducks.  But let us not nitpick.  Hooray ground game!

So next up on the 2012 tour of horrors is a visit to Fresno State, home of the Bulldogs.

The maniacal, cross-eyed snarl.  The pigeon-toed stance.  The presence of a shirt with no pants.  And, oh god, please tell me that's a tail.

I remember a Fresno State team coming into Folsom some ten years ago.  A certain David Carr quarterbacked his team to an upset victory over the Buffs.  I hate that guy.  Well guess what - he's still there.

Can we just suspend this little charade, Mr. "Derek" Carr?

Apparently David's brother "Derek" is now the starting QB.  I suppose when his eligibility runs out brother "Doug" will show up.  Is it too much to ask the NCAA to perform some DNA testing?

Go Buffs... please.

Show Some Sac (State)!

Friends…

Another week in the football purgatory from which the Buffs have not yet emerged.

"Ray over there is the lucky one.  He died before he saw us lose to these fuckwits."

A painful loss to the Rams is humiliating, plain and simple.  A fact that will be repeatedly (and grammatically incorrectly) pointed out to us by our CSU friends and family.  At least until the next Monster Truck rally or tractor pull.

But, alas, the season is as young as the 3 true freshmen who will start in our defensive backfield this week. 

I have underpants older than Yuri Wright

The Buffs will make their 2012 Folsom Field debut against the Hornets of "Sacramento State University".  

It sounds made up because I don't think that Sacramento is a state.  But let's just assume that, in fact, Sacramento State University is a thing and possesses a football team that dares to enter Folsom Field.  The Hornets will meet an angry group of Buffaloes hungry for redemption.  The O line will have learned how to pass block, the receivers will have learned how to catch, the freshmen DBs will have learned their assignments, the punt returners will have learned how to get and hold the ball and the coaches will have learned to NOT call a sprint roll-out pass play to the back of the end zone with a gimpy, short quarterback on 4th and goal from the half yard line.

Learning.  It's why colleges exist, no?

And the Buffs will roll to a big win, 58-0.  Sorry Hornets, we've no time for compassion we are busy learning.

So come on out to dear old CU this weekend.  Don't let the anonymity of "Sacramento State University" keep you away.  Because if the last 8 years of mediocrity have taught you anything it's that winning cannot be taken for granted.  So don't miss an opportunity to witness it.  

And learning.  Value the learning.