Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: '90 Buffs Blast KU, Eye Sooners, Huskers
October 21, 2010 | Football, B.G. Brooks
To commemorate CU's national championship, secured that season in the Orange Bowl against Notre Dame, CUBuffs.com will take a look back at each game of the '90 season. Game stories that appeared in the Rocky Mountain News and were written by B.G. Brooks, now Contributing Editor for CUBuffs.com, will be reprinted each Wednesday on the website.
The Buffs traveled to mid-America needing a tune-up and a blowout - and they got both.
With back-to-back games against Oklahoma and Nebraska on the horizon, CU crushed Kansas 41-10 for its fifth consecutive victory and set the stage for what Buffs players were anticipating as the twin acid tests of the 1990 season.
The meager 10 points managed by the Jayhawks were a season-low allowed by the Buffs defense. And for the third consecutive game, CU rushed for more than 300 yards and surpassed 400 yards in total offense.
If the Buffs weren't yet hitting on all cylinders, they were very, very close.
Bring on Big Red: Buffs crush Kansas
By B.G. Brooks
Rocky Mountain News
LAWRENCE, Kan. - The impressive numbers flashing on Colorado's side of the Memorial Stadium scoreboard yesterday transported Bill McCartney to another time and several other places - most of them in the Big Eight Conference in 1989.
"I thought, 'Man, I've been here before - but it's been a l-o-o-n-g time,'" he said.
McCartney's afternoon of déjà vu unfolded point for point with his Buffaloes' first authentic blowout of the 1990 college football season. Finally making a muscle the national pollsters might not ignore, No. 14 CU flattened Kansas, 41-10.
But this is hardly the time for the Buffs' flexing to cease.
"Now, we've got the great ones coming," said All-America guard Joe Garten, CU's offensive captain.
"The great ones" are Oklahoma and Nebraska, although the Sooners probably wouldn't acknowledge that label this morning. Beaten by the Buffs 28-12 two games ago, Iowa State stunned OU 33-31 yesterday in Norman.
The Buffs play the Sooners Saturday at Folsom Field, then travel to Lincoln to meet the Cornhuskers on Nov. 3. Whether CU wins back-to-back conference championships for the first time is likely to be decided in the next two weeks.
After mauling the Jayhawks for their fifth consecutive victory, the Buffs and their coach pronounced themselves eager for their "Big Red Weekends."
"We're an improving team. And we're getting better," McCartney said. "We have not leveled off. It was hard to improve in the non-conference portion of our schedule, with the degree of difficulty there.
"But now we're starting to improve. I feel good about our club going into these two games."
Before yesterday, CU (6-1-1 overall, 3-0 Big Eight) had not won by such a large margin since a 59-11 victory over Kansas State in the final game of the '89 season. KU's 10 points were a season low for a CU opponent.
And for the third consecutive game, CU rushed for more than 300 yards (340) and gained more than 400 yards in total offense (457).
"Feels good," Garten said of the big numbers and lopsided score. "It's good for our hearts, and a lot of our fans' hearts. We don't like to go to the wire, but you take them any way you can get them."
In effect, the Buffs had to get this one twice -- first in the opening period, finally in the third.
Behind the running of tailback Eric Bieniemy (18 carries, 174 yards, three touchdowns) and the passing of Darian Hagan (three of six, 90 yards, one TD), CU fashioned a 17-0 first-quarter lead and appeared ready to lock into cruise control.
The Buffs counted their 17 early points on the first of Jim Harper's two field goals, a 36-yarder; a 31-yard run by Bieniemy, and a 44-yard pass from Hagan to Mike Pritchard.
KU listed badly but didn't sink.
On the first play of the second quarter, Hagan fumbled after a blindside hit by outside linebacker Pat Rogan. The officials ruled inside linebacker Brad Peebler recovered, but Bieniemy claimed he had the ball. McCartney protested vigorously.
Of course, the call stood. KU (1-5-1, 0-2-1) had the ball and a touchdown two plays later, with Chip Hilleary's 11-yard pass to wide receiver Kenny Drayton cutting CU's lead to 17-7.
"When they gave them that fumble down there on the 10- or 11-yard line, that was a big factor in this game," McCartney said. "It put Kansas back in position. It put them within 10 points, and it brought the crowd back into the game."
Two possessions later, KU closed to 17-10 on Dan Eichloff's 26-yard field goal. It was as close as the Jayhawks would get. Harper answered with his 42-yard field goal with one second left in the half, giving CU a 20-10 halftime lead and positioning the Buffs to run amok in the third quarter.
They did, with Bieniemy gaining 88 of his 174 yards and scoring on runs of 41 and 10 yards. Bieniemy, who averaged 9.7 yards per carry and has rushed for 665 yards in the past four games, became CU's all-time leading scorer. His runs finished off scoring drives of 80 (nine plays) and 73 yards (eight plays).
But he wasn't the Buffs' only big-play performer in the decisive third quarter. Dave McCloughan capped the 21-point period with a 90-yard punt return, his second TD return of the season.
And KU was kaput.
"Once we were able to re-establish momentum, then the key was the second-half kickoff, taking the ball and going 80 yards," McCartney said.
The loss was not hard for KU coach Glen Mason to explain. "As a coach, you're always looking for secrets to beating a team," he said. "Today, there were no secrets."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
