Colorado Montana State Post Game Notes

September 02, 2006 | Football

By: CUBuffs.com

Miscellaneous Statistics

Colorado Montana St

Time Spent In The Lead............. 18:25 30:24

Average On First Down.............. 21/5.2 26/3.7

Rush/Avg. ............................. 10/4.7 15/3.3

Pass/Avg. ............................. 11/5.7 11/4.1

Third Downs............................. 5-14 7-18

3rd & 5 or less........................ 5-8 2-5

3rd & 6 or more....................... 0-6 5-13

Avg. Yards To Go...................... 6.4 8.2

Yards Gained On 3rd Down........ 33 68

Colorado Montana St

Poss./Avg Field Position............ 10/C26 12/M37

Drives Started Inside/At 20....... 2 (2/0) 4 (2/2)

Three Plays & Out.................. 4 4

Plus Territory: Plays-Yards........ 22-48 36-135

Yards By Quarter: 1st............... 72 81

2nd............... 79 10

3rd................ 20 120

4th................ 45 77

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Quickly... The loss snaps a 3-game winning streak in season openers for the Buffaloes... Colorado scored in its 211th consecutive game this afternoon, adding to the 13th longest streak of all-time (sixth longest active streak)... Tickets distributed for the game were 45,513, though CU officials estimated around 2,500-3,000 no shows, likely due to the weather... CU has opened 0-2 only two times in its history (117 seasons), last doing so in 2000 and 1986... the 216 yards of total offense were the fewest in a season opener since 1979, when the Buffs had 211 in Chuck Fairbanks' first game at Colorado... the 288 allowed by CU was the fewest since 2001 (Fresno State had 287), the 11th time the last 20 the opponent has failed to reach 300.

Inaugural Jinx. For whatever reason, CU has now dropped the first game in a new coaches' tenure for the 12th time in the last 13 debuts (dating back to 1935). Small consolation is that two of the most revered coaches in CU history, Eddie Crowder and Bill McCartney, did the same (ironically with rain the day before and of the game, the only two instances of bad weather for a CU coaching debut prior to today).

Series Stuff. Montana State has now won three straight in the series to take a 3-1 lead, though the two last met in 1927 when Babe Ruth slugged 60 home runs on hot dogs and beer as opposed to needles and pills.

First Play of the Year. The 42-yard pass from James Cox to Patrick Williams was the longest first offensive play of the season in Colorado history. The old best was a 31-yard pass from Kordell Stewart to Erik Mitchell against Colorado State in Boulder in the 1992 opener. The 42 yards almost equaled the total of the 13 season opening plays since (50 yards total); the only other one over 20 yards came in 1984 (a Steve Vogel pass to Loy Alexander for 21 yards against Michigan State).

?The play decimated the previous best first offensive play under a new head coach, the last eight of which totaled all of 13 yards, the longest being a 4-yard pass from Koy Detmer to Matt Lepsis at Wisconsin in Rick Neuheisel's first game in 1995; defensively, CU forced the third incompletion in the last four coach openers on that side of the ball.

PK Mason Crosby (1-2 FG: 24, 63s; 1-1 PAT; 4 points). He became CU's all-time leading kick scorer in today's game, as he entered the contest tied with Jeremy Aldrich with 231 points; with 235 points, he is now second all-time in overall scoring, trailing only Eric Bieniemy, who scored 254 points between 1987-90. He tied Aldrich for the most field goals in a CU career with 48; the 63-yard attempt in the fourth quarter was also a school record for the longest field goal attempt in school history, besting two previous 62-yard tries: Fred Lima vs. Oklahoma State at Stillwater (Sept. 30, 1972) and Ken Culbertson vs. Oklahoma in Boulder, Oct. 22, 1988.

FIRST STARTS (7): S Benjamin Burney, TE Riar Geer, DT George Hypolite, FB Samson Jagoras, OLB Brad Jones, DT Brandon Nicolas, WR Patrick Williams.