Brooks: Buffs Need To Make Folsom Fearsome Again

BOULDER - The Colorado Buffaloes desperately need a refresher course in how to win a home opener, or better yet how to win at home period. And please, when it happens, can Parker Orms get a feel-good picture?

CU's two most recent openers at Folsom Field - 2011 vs. California, 2012 vs. Sacramento State - have been nothing less than gut punches for the Buffs. Yet for the longest time Orms kept pictures as raw reminders.

Two seasons ago, Cal used a short touchdown pass in overtime - it was thrown over Orms - to defeat CU 36-33. A newspaper photo the following day showed Orms kneeling in the end zone . . . dismayed, distraught, defeated.

When he finally got to his feet, he realized his knee brace was broken. The stadium had gone deathly quiet, and as he began a long walk back to the locker room, "All I could hear was the broken brace squeaking . . . I remember it vividly and I'll remember it forever."

Orms, then a sophomore defensive back playing in his first game at Folsom (he missed all but the opening game of the previous season with a knee injury), kept the photo pinned in his locker to help him remember how bitter defeat can be and to stay focused.

Last season's home opener delivered an almost identical dose of misery. Sacramento State won 30-28 on a final-play field goal. A newspaper photo the next morning showed Orms leaping in a futile attempt to get a hand on the football. He kept that picture, too.

"We came up short again," he said. "Those are not good memories. We've got to change that."

The Buffs (1-0) get their chance - it's the last chance for Orms - Saturday night at Folsom Field (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network) against Central Arkansas (1-0), the No. 5 ranked FCS team that cares little about being a double-digit underdog on the home field of a FBS opponent.

UCA believes it can follow the lead of fellow FCS schools against FBS opponents on the first weekend of the 2013 season. North Dakota State won at Kansas State, Eastern Washington won at No. 25 Oregon State. In total, eight FCS schools won against FBS opponents last week.

Moreover, CU is 1-2 vs. FCS opponents, defeating Eastern Washington (2008) while losing to Montana State (2006) and Sacramento State (2012). UCA's only FBS opponent since 1926 was Mississippi last season in Oxford; the Bears lost 49-27 but led at halftime.

CU's home field advantage has been dissed and all but dismissed; the Buffs haven't won at Folsom since Nov. 12, 2011 - a 48-29 victory against Arizona. The Buffs were 1-4 at home that season and 0-6 at Folsom in 2012. Their last winning record at home was 4-2 in 2010, and if you're doing the math that's 5-12 at Folsom over the past three seasons.

Even at altitude, those are figures that hardly make visitors gasp, and CU coach Mike MacIntyre expects the Bears to arrive in Boulder eager and confident. He believes players at FCS schools generally start younger and play longer - hence their teams' success. He cited UCA senior quarterback Wynrick Smothers as one example, noting that Smothers - a dual threat QB who passed for 3,101 yards and 31 touchdowns last season - was the Southland Conference's offensive player of the year as a junior in 2012 and is back.

"They just have so much experience and have had so many reps they've played in so many games," MacIntyre said. "I think that's why you see (FCS teams beating FBS teams). Some of the FBS schools graduate some guys and you might have a younger team than the FCS school coming in. I think that's what's happening."

The Bears, who have won nine games in each of the past two seasons, opened last week with a 58-7 rout of Incarnate Word. The Buffs, who won four games total over the last two seasons, opened the MacIntyre era last week with a 41-27 victory over Colorado State.

CU players said that win in Denver represented a fresh start for the program, just as Saturday's game against UCA represents a new beginning on their home turf. Buffs junior left guard Kaiwi Crabb took the fresh start to heart, or perhaps head; he had his shoulder length hair cut for the first time since he's been on campus.

"Fresh start, fresh look," said Crabb, who made his first career start against CSU. "It's a fresh start from last year to this year. We have to put last year behind us and look at (Saturday's) game as an opportunity to kind of prove to ourselves that we're making the right moves and we're on the right track to being a winning program again. No matter who comes in (to Folsom), we have to look at it as an opportunity to get better and an opportunity to win."

Sophomore right tackle Stephane Nembot called Saturday's home opener "very big, not only for us but for our fans . . . last year is behind us and this is a new year, a new beginning with a new coaching staff and a new way of playing. We hope to be way better than last year."

Not many opening wins and the way it was accomplished have meant as much to a program as last week's did for CU. MacIntyre acknowledged the enormity of it: "I think if you look at the overall scope of the program, (CSU) being your in-state rival, playing at a neutral site, all the excitement, being an underdog to your in-state rival . . . I think all of that added into it and made it a little more special, especially for the kids. And I imagine for the fans, too," he said.

"Now, if we'd been 10-2 (last year) and a 20-point favorite and all that, it might not have been (as big). But being the other way around, yeah, it added a little more spice to it, made it a little more special."

But MacIntyre also spent this week reminding his team that it needs to stay focused, that last week was one game of a dozen and that a loss to UCA might be as deflating as last week's win was uplifting. The Buffs' last win in a home opener occurred in 2010 (31-13 vs. Hawaii) and that season marked the last time they enjoyed back-to-back wins, which is almost as frightful as going winless at home last season.

Orms called losing at home painful for everyone: "It hurts . . . especially with your student body and Colorado fans all over the state watching you. It's tough to disappoint them."

Freshman linebacker Addison Gillam isn't accustomed to losing in front of a home crowd. His high school team - Foothill in Palo Cerdo, Calif. - went 12-0 at home during his junior and senior seasons. "It's the best feeling there is, especially if you can come out and play as hard as we did (Sunday) and win," Gillam said. "There's nothing better than playing in front of your home fans.

"I've heard it's pretty awesome to play up there (at Folsom), but I've also heard it's been rough lately. It's time to turn that around."

It's past time, really. It's been too long since Folsom was fearsome.

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU