Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Embree, Buffs Eye Last Chance To End Streak
November 25, 2011 | Football, B.G. Brooks
SALT LAKE CITY - The last thing Jon Embree wanted was to have The Streak still intact for the last game. But here he is in the waning hours before Game 13 and his first Colorado football team remains winless on the road.
By now, Embree must feel like the nasty numbers - 24 straight out-of-state road losses since 2007 - have been stamped on his forehead. Although he inherited the bulk of the road defeats from his predecessor, Embree's team has been responsible for half a dozen.
Road Game No. 7 - the most ever in one season for a Buffs team - and the final opportunity to unload The Streak comes Friday against Utah in Rice-Eccles Stadium (1:30 p.m. MST, Root Sports). CU is 2-10 overall, 1-7 in its first Pac-12 Conference season. Utah is 7-4, 4-4 and still working to represent the South Division in the first Pac-12 championship game.
Embree and his staff have tried to facilitate a road breakthrough since before the opener at Hawai'i - a 34-17 loss and, as it turns out, the closest the Buffs have come to an out-of-state win in 2011. Their average margin of defeat on the road this season: 29.5 points.
"It's an issue that I have talked about since Day One," Embree said of the nearly 5-year-old road rash that he referred to earlier this week as "a stain on the program."
"We've let the players know, let the seniors know what is at stake for them," he continued. "We've talked about it every week, about the opportunity that presents itself. We've done special stuff for five or six games. They just have to play. At some point as a player, it is not about what the coaches are doing, you just have to go out there and play."
But playing efficiently, sometimes even energetically, once state lines are crossed obviously is a chore for the Buffs. Embree can only speak to this team's road difficulties and he refuses to blame a "mental block" for its six consecutive losses.
"This is just my first time through it, so I can only go through what I have seen and there have definitely been some missed opportunities," he said. "Some of it is that we have played some really good teams on the road. It is a combination of that.
"Whether or not it is a mental road block or not, you would have to ask those guys. I know our numbers are ridiculous, home and away. The numbers are crazy. I don't try and get too much into it. I'm not a guy that will try and figure out the mental block thing or whatever. To me, I'm excited every time you get to play, every time you get to compete. I would like to think that there are enough guys on this team that it doesn't matter where you are playing, you get to go play."
The "ridiculous" home and away numbers are just that. In their five home games, the Buffs have averaged 25.2 points and 406.2 yards in total offense; in their six road losses, those numbers are 14.1 and 322.4. (Not factored: 360 yards of total offense in a 28-14 win against Colorado State in Denver.)
Junior defensive tackle Will Pericak concedes road games require "a little more mental preparation because the 12th man out there isn't going to be with you. But really, it's just football and you've got to come prepared to play. The whole road losing streak, I don't look much into that. I just say you've got to go win a game.
"I'm not thinking we have to end anything. I'm thinking of what I have to do personally in the game to win. I have to play my best to win a game. If everybody's doing that, the road losing streak is going to end."
For it to end Friday, the Buffs must stop - or at least slow - Utes tailback John White IV, who averages 125.2 rushing yards and is second in the conference behind Oregon's LaMichael James (142.8). Most of the Utes' offense is found in the 5-8, 186-pound White. Utah is last in the Pac-12 in passing (170.4 yards a game) and total offense (311.9 yards a game), but seventh in rushing offense (141.5).
"They run the ball pretty well," Pericak said. "Every week that's a challenge for us. We've got to stop the run, stop their power and their zone (option) - that's what they run. If we can stop that, it gives us a chance."
But this isn't a promising stat heading into this game: The Buffs have slipped to last in the league in rushing defense, allowing 191.8 yards a game. The Utes are No. 2 in the same category, permitting just 97.3 yards a game.
Given Utah's strength against the run, CU will need quarterback Tyler Hansen and the passing game to be on target - and that need is underscored by Utah's 18 pass interceptions, a conference high. "We have to play smart and do our jobs," Hansen said.
Utah's strong comeback in conference play - the Utes entered November with a 1-4 record - has been engineered by backup quarterback Jon Hays, who transferred to Utah last summer when Nebraska-Omaha dropped its football program. Hays (6-0, 212 pounds) took over in early October when starter Jordan Wynn suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery.
Utes offensive coordinator Norm Chow hasn't asked Hays to exceed his capabilities. Touted initially as more runner than passer, Hays has completed 55.1 percent of his throws for 1,081 yards, with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions. His 49 rushing attempts have totaled minus-54 yards, but that figure is diminished by the yardage lost from Utah's 27 quarterback sacks.
Embree said Hays "gives his guys a chance" and manages the run game well behind "a big, physical line. Obviously, that's part of the reason for their success in the run game. You can see (Hays) gets more comfortable the more he's played."
Embree wishes he could say the same for his team's road play, but it isn't so. Hansen calls CU's embarrassingly long string of losses "hard to explain," but he tried with this: "You don't have that home crowd there . . . you do something good and expect to hear some cheers. The young guys especially expect to hear crowd going crazy and it doesn't happen. I think we need to create our own energy and be our own crowd. It's tough; it's something we need to figure out soon."
By late Friday afternoon, either they'll have figured it out or The Streak will be packed up and taken into 2012. It's not baggage Embree wants to carry.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
