Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Liufau Looks To Bounce Back Against Bruins
October 21, 2014 | Football, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - The University of Colorado's 28-point loss last weekend at Southern California was unquestionably the Buffaloes' worst game of the 2014 football season, but Sefo Liufau dropped his own afternoon in L.A. to an even lower level.
"I feel like that might have been probably my worst game in my career as a college football player," he said Tuesday.
In reality, Liufau doesn't have that many games to choose from; he's a true sophomore who throughout his brief career as a starting quarterback (14 games) has usually been his harshest critic. If his performance in the 56-28 loss wasn't up to personal standards, neither were most Buffs performances across the board.
But in a calamitous first quarter that saw CU fall behind 28-0, Liufau tossed a pair of interceptions that USC converted into touchdowns. Throw in five first-quarter penalties against the Buffs and a sunny afternoon was quickly showered with ugly. Liufau finished with his lowest passing yards total of the season - 143 on 23-of-35 completions - with two touchdowns and the two picks.
His biggest disappointment came from "missed reads that don't show up on the stat sheet. It's just frustrating and watching it back on film, it's a learning tool. But, just looking back, it's kind of frustrating letting your team down. And that's what I take the hardest is letting my teammates down."
A personal goal this Saturday when No. 25 UCLA visits Folsom Field (noon, Pac-12 Networkds) is "taking care of the football. Point blank, just taking care of the football. If I continue to turn over the ball, I'm just giving away the hopes and dreams of the team and you don't want to do that, especially as a quarterback."
Still, on Tuesday Liufau did what is expected of a team leader and quarterback: He shouldered a lion's share of the blame - and to coach Mike MacIntyre that's not such a bad thing. MacIntyre wouldn't second Liufau's "worst game of my college career" claim. USC, he said, "made plays . . . but we gave them a running start."
Moreover, MacIntyre said he has no concerns about Liufau's mindset, calling Liufau "very mature, very focused . . . he'll use (the USC loss) as motivation. He's confident but very humble. I think you've all seen that; that's the way he was brought up, that's the way he attacks life. He'll bounce back and keep competing."
MacIntyre also said Liufau taking the loss on himself is preferable "to the other way - where he's blaming everybody else and saying this and that. Taking blame for it is to understand it, look it in the barrel, and going from there I think is good for all of us."
Senior defensive tackle Juda Parker added that a quarterback shouldering such responsibility is "always good (but) a lot of the responsibility rests on the defense as well, giving up that many points. That's not acceptable at any level . . . you don't point the finger at nobody. We take our losses and we come up next week looking for that win."
Through seven games this season, Liufau ranks fourth among Pac-12 Conference passers, completing 211 of 323 attempts for 2,030 yards (290.0 yards a game) and 21 touchdowns. His 323 attempts are the second-most in the league and his nine interceptions are the most. In CU's 59-56 double-overtime loss at Cal, Liufau set school single-game records for attempts (67), completions (46), touchdown passes (7) and total offense (527). In the final five games, he needs one TD pass to become the school's single-season leader.
The USC game aside, Liufau believes his sophomore season progress has gone "really well . . . obviously I'm really disappointed with last week. It's just frustrating, but you're going to have that sometimes. It's just the way you bounce back is kind of the way everybody looks at it because not even the pros have a good game every week."
There remains room to grow, he said, adding that offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Brian Lindgren and others are "helping me along the way. So, we're going to keep going."
A DAY FOR THE QUESSENBERRYS
MacIntyre has a special place in his heart for David Quessenberry, an offensive linemen he coached at San Jose State. A walk-on tight end, Quessenberry put on 20 pounds at MacIntyre's request, made the shift to tackle, was put on scholarship and became a three-year starter and team captain.
Quessenberry, a 6-5, 307-pounder who was drafted in the sixth round by the Houston Texans in 2013, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in June. He is set to begin a seventh round of chemotherapy.
Quessenberry, 24, has younger brothers - Paul, a starting defensive end; and Scott, a starting guard - who play for Navy and UCLA, respectively. With San Jose State playing Saturday at Navy and UCLA visiting CU, MacIntyre seized the occasion to honor David and show support for his battle with cancer. Players in the four programs - CU, UCLA, SJS and Navy - will wear "DQ" helmet decals on Saturday. In addition, the Buffs are wearing wrist bands that read "QuizStrong."
MacIntyre said he called the other three coaches last Friday about participating in the endeavor "and all were excited about it; they all wanted to do something." Spartans coach Ron Caragher told the San Jose Mercury News, "I think it's a unique weekend with the four teams playing with the relationship to David. He's a Spartan great, and he's going through a battle right now, tougher than any battle that we have on the field on Saturdays. He's fighting for his life, and this is just a way to honor David, to honor his family and to support them during this challenging time."
MacIntyre helped start a "10 for 10" campaign in which supporters do 10 pushups and donate $10 to the Lymphoma Research Foundation at www.lymphoma.org or share on social media using the hashtag #lymphoma10.
MacIntyre and CU offensive line coach Gary Bernardi - Quessenberry's position coach at SJS - visited Quessenberry this summer. "He's got a long fight ahead of him," MacIntyre said, "but I know if anybody can beat (lymphoma) David can."
NOT LETTING SPRUCE GET LOOSE
Buffs receiver Nelson Spruce is averaging a Pac-12-best 10.1 receptions a game and has a league-high 11 TD receptions. He's also second in receiving yards a game at 114.4. Through the season's first five games, he averaged 11.1 catches, with an eye-popping 19 catches for 179 yards and 3 TDs at Cal. He needs one touchdown catch to become CU's all-time single-season leader.
In CU's last two losses (Oregon State, USC), Spruce has caught six and nine passes, respectively, for 104 yards and one TD. His long reception against OSU was 11 yards and against USC 15 yards.
Said Liufau: "I think a lot of teams right now are making us throw the ball underneath, making sure we don't have anything deep. That doesn't just go for Spruce, that goes for every receiver that we have. We just have to take what they give us though. If they want to make us dink and dunk down the field, we have to be able to do that and sustain long drives. We had one long drive against USC. I think it was an 18-play drive that resulted in a touchdown. We just have to be able to do that more throughout the game, not just that one time."
PAC-12 STAT WATCH
CU (0-4 Pac-12, 2-5 overall) is the sole leader in only one statistical category. The Buffs are averaging a league-best 27.1 first downs per game, while UCLA (2-2, 5-2) is fifth at 25.3 . . . . The Buffs are the second-most penalized team in the Pac-12, with their 57 in seven games costing them 80 yards a game . . . . UCLA QB Brett Hundley's completion percentage (72.5) leads the league. Only one other Pac-12 QB - Oregon's Marcus Mariota at 70.2 - is in the 70 percent range . . . . But Mariota's 19 TD passes and no interceptions put his QB efficiency rating at 191.0 (No. 1), while Hundley's 13 TD throws vs. four picks has him at 166.1 (No. 3) . . . . UCLA's Ishmael Adams is the league leader in kick returns, averaging 25.1 per return with one TD - a 100-yarder at Arizona State. Adams, who also returns punts and plays corner, had five kick returns for 201 yards in the ASU game . . . . Behind Adams in kickoff returns is CU's Phillip Lindsay (23.3 yard average on 23 returns).
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
