Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: After 2012, Buffs Know Value Of Solid Start
August 04, 2013 | Football, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - The importance of an opener might pale in comparison with a football game played in late November or early January, but at Colorado over the last several seasons looking past early September has produced major eyestrain and very little comfort for Buffs fans.
When a team is starting fresh with a new coach and desperately trying to put away putrid memories - a 1-11 season produces a bunch - the weight of an opening game increases by the ton.
First-year coach Mike MacIntyre is trying his best to keep the weight of CU's Sept. 1 opener with Colorado State properly proportioned. The CU-CSU rivalry is new to him, but he knows a little something about openers, the value of fast starts and early momentum.
"I think every team in America's first game is important," he said. "Everybody is excited. It's like Christmas morning - you open that first present and you're excited. Now, it's always great to get the first present, no doubt. But that tenth present might be the best present of them all. So you have to keep everything in perspective."
That said, MacIntyre narrowed his focus and added this: "But our game (with CSU) being a big rival game, being an in-state game, being a neutral site game . . . that all adds a little more pomp and circumstance and excitement to it. Every game is important, but given all that, I guess you could say it adds a little more importance."
Ah, yes indeed.
It would be difficult, maybe erroneous, last season's 22-17 opening loss to the Rams started a CU death spiral that lasted until Thanksgiving and produced a handful of hideous entries in the school's record books. But there's nothing blatantly wrong in saying that come-from-ahead loss to the Rams didn't help. In the weeks thereafter - until the winless Buffs visited Washington State - recovery never seemed plausible or possible.
Returning CU players remember last September's loss to CSU and the tone it set for 2012. Not all of them agree that the season's first 'L' sent the Buffs to the cliff's brink, but most of them realize the importance of turning the page early in the Mac II Era. On several levels, this is a very large opener.
"I think it's huge," said junior tight end Kyle Slavin. "Last year I think the season could have been completely different if we'd ended up getting that CSU game. Morale, momentum . . . it just speaks volumes if you can get that one under your belt. You develop confidence in the team and can start building each other up instead of having to kind of force it, I guess."
Senior linebacker Derrick Webb, one of the team's six captains, called winning the opener "extremely important . . . we've got to get this season kicked off right, starting with CSU. We have to be prepared for that game and it starts in camp."
But Webb, CU's leading tackler in 2012, wasn't sure that the CSU loss rendered the season irreparable. "People would say it shook the team . . . I don't know," he said. "I can't tell what could have or should have happened. I just know between winning and losing, we'd rather win - especially that first game and get that momentum. We don't need people doubting themselves, that's why that first game is extremely important - to get the ball rolling."
Memories of the CSU loss lingered a little longer for D.D. Goodson than many of his teammates. His bobbled punt just before halftime led to a Rams score and helped blunt the Buffs' momentum. Second-guessers, with justification, pounced on the coaches' decision to even have a returner back to field the punt. CU held a 14-3 lead but CSU took advantage of the fumble recovery at the 20-yard line and scored with 26 seconds left in the half.
"It stuck with me a little bit . . . but as a football player you make plays and you make mistakes," Goodson said. "My job was to get over that hump and prepare for next week's game."
He has succeeded in moving on and into a new position - slot receiver - that appears to suit him more than tailback, which he played in his first two CU seasons. Reflecting now on the CU-CSU rivalry, he called it "a really big game . . . I haven't really played much in both of them, but I can see the atmosphere, the fans and even with our last staff I could see the passion they have for this game. It's just an incredible event. If we prepare well, we'll be happy with the outcome."
Like Webb, he wasn't prepared to say that the Buffs were doomed after losing to the Rams. "There was definitely more to the season," Goodson said. "The way we started the season kind of took us on a different track, but there was definitely more to the season than just that game. We could definitely have recovered, but we took that loss the wrong way. We suffered."
Mightily, too. Returning to Folsom Field the following weekend, the Buffs lost to Sacramento State (30-28). They next trekked to Fresno State and were slapped silly (69-14). It capped one of more humbling three-game stretches in CU history, but then came October and November and more misery - an eight-game losing streak.
The Rams didn't exactly prosper from rallying to beat their in-state rival, winning only three more times under first-year coach Jim McElwain. Nonetheless, opening day in Denver proved historic for McElwain, who became the first rookie Rams coach in 13 attempts (1-11-1) to defeat the Buffs.
MacIntyre has met McElwain "a few times at various events." He was familiar with him because MacIntyre's first-year San Jose State team (2009) played Alabama, where McElwain was the offensive coordinator. "I knew when he got the CSU job," MacIntyre said. "But I've never coached with him or spent a lot of time with him."
In preparing for the Buffs, CU's first-year coach expects McElwain to draw heavily on San Jose State tape. Plus, CSU has an on-staff resource in offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin, a one-time SJS head coach who also coordinated Utah State's offense.
Said MacIntyre: "I do know him - and he does a great job. I would imagine they're looking at a lot of our San Jose State film and will try to take advantage of some stuff there."
CU's in-earnest preparation for CSU likely won't start until near the end of the third week of camp, which opens Tuesday. MacIntyre's initial camp goals are scrutinizing personnel - especially the newcomers - and cultivating team unity.
Then the focus switches to the Rams and the opener. No, it won't be a make-or-break afternoon in Denver, but know this: from past experience the Buffs are aware of how much better a 'W' would make the rest of September and beyond.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
