Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Refocused Buffs Eye Upset Of No. 25 Bruins
October 24, 2014 | Football, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - Mike MacIntyre doesn't like his University of Colorado football team spending too much time (or any) peering into the past. That includes the recent past - such as last weekend's 56-28 drubbing at Southern California - or the distant past - such as CU's 45-23 loss to UCLA last season in the Rose Bowl.
As MacIntyre might have heard, forgetting the past can be a recipe to repeat it. But here's the difference: Instead of dwelling on it, he wants his young Buffaloes to remember it, learn from it and move on.
They remain in a learning mode, and lessons hopefully were absorbed a week ago in L.A. as well as in Pasadena a year ago. CU's story over this season and last is much the same: The Buffs haven't yet advanced to the level of overcoming myriad mistakes against a good team, which happened in a 28-0 first-quarter slide against now-No. 20 USC. It also was evident against quarterback Brett Hundley and UCLA last season.
Hoping to break a three-game losing streak with their first Pac-12 Conference of the season, the Buffs (2-5, 0-4) get another chance at Hundley & Co. Saturday at Folsom Field (noon, Pac-12 Networks). No. 25 UCLA (5-2, 2-2) is 7-2 all-time against CU and has won all three meetings since the Buffs joined the Pac-12 in 2011. The Bruins were ranked No. 7 in the preseason polls but slipped after consecutive losses to Utah (30-28) and Oregon (42-30).
Hundley was hampered by an elbow injury in mid-September, but has been healthy enough to torment CU for two seasons. He accounted for four touchdowns (two passing, two running) in each Bruins win against the Buffs. His two-game total offense numbers: 345 yards (273 passing, 72 rushing) last season and 295 (281 passing, 14 rushing) in a 42-14 win in 2012.
In short, Hundley -- a preseason Heisman Trophy candidate -- has been CU's recurring headache. He directs what MacIntyre called "a true spread" offense, scrambling when needed and at other times running on designed zone read option plays. His 72-yard rushing performance last season against CU featured a pair of scrambles "where we had him and he makes plays and gains about 20 or 30 yards," MacIntyre recalled. "He's just very, very explosive. The other thing is, he's very, very accurate in his passing game (72.5 percent). So, even when you make him move his feet, he's still very accurate . . . he makes it all go, there's no doubt about that. He makes it all go."
Senior defensive tackle Juda Parker contended the Buffs will have a better handle this season on containing Hundley and the zone read option: "We're really prepared this year. It's our second year under this coaching staff and they have us in the right position. We've been watching film all week and we are up for the challenge against the zone read."
Still, the Buffs' biggest improvement over their final five games must come on defense. The Trojans amassed 532 yards of total offense last weekend and quarterback Cody Kessler threw a school-record seven TD passes. CU is in last place in the conference in scoring defense (38.6 points a game), 11th in rushing defense (175.9 yards a game), fifth in pass defense (307.6) and ninth in total defense (435.0).
The Buffs have been better offensively than a year ago, averaging almost 100 yards (466.1 to 369.9) and nearly seven points (31.3 to 25.4) more per game. But their penalty count also has climbed (57 through seven games to 52 in 12 games last season) and the increase in flags has been devastating for a team with a scant margin for error.
It was painfully apparent last weekend; in addition to five first-quarter CU penalties, quarterback Sefo Liufau was intercepted twice as USC bolted to a 28-0 lead. Game, set, afternoon. "We're a lot better than the scoreboard showed," said freshman defensive end Derek McCartney. "I think if you look at a few plays we could have made or not made or whatever, it would have changed some things."
The Buffs have five more chances this season to make some of those changes. MacIntyre has them focused on week-to-week improvement, not the four more wins required to make them bowl eligible for the first time since 2006.
"We don't really talk about bowls," MacIntyre said. "Now, they might because I know they haven't been to one . . . but that's not something we talk about at any length. We know that if we put an amount of games together and keep winning games, then we'll be in a bowl. Of course we want to be in one, there's no doubt about that.
"I'm not downplaying that, but that's not something where we go out and say, 'Hey, we need to win this one or we're not going to a bowl.' We don't talk about it that way. We just talk about going 1-0 and getting better and finding a way to get this win coming up."
Several Buffs enter Saturday's homecoming game with school records in reach. Liufau needs one TD pass to tie the single-season mark (22) set by Koy Detmer in 1996. Junior receiver Nelson Spruce needs one TD catch to pass Derek McCoy's 11 in 2003 and set a CU record. And a Liufau-to-Spruce TD connection would give them 15 for the season, tying the school career record set by Cody Hawkins and Scotty McKnight (2007-10).
But more than school records, the Buffs need a Pac-12 win. They talked of a breakthrough before the season's midway point and their bye week. Then came the USC trip and a major stumble. MacIntyre believes his team was able to refocus over the past six days, but he admitted there is growing desperation for a 'W.'
"I guess the best way to put it is: You work hard, you work hard, you work hard and you want to kind of see a reward for the hard work that is actually tangible," he said. "There's definitely no doubt that we want to get (a big victory) as quick as we can, there's no doubt about that."
The chances are dwindling. CU faces Washington - the last unranked opponent - at Folsom next Saturday. Then the Buffs play back-to-back road games at No. 15 Arizona (Nov. 8) and at No. 6 Oregon (Nov. 22). The season finale is at home against No. 19 Utah (Nov. 29).
The Buffs, said MacIntyre, haven't lost their focus or their desire to improve. But weekly resilience and individual commitment are needed for that breakthrough to occur.
"The heart, the effort and the intensity - we (coaches) motivate them and all that, but different things happen," he said. "You get your bell rung, you miss a tackle or something negative happens, I can't jump in their heart, I can't jump in their soul, I can't jump in their mind to get them to keep playing.
"So far, they've kept playing. There could have been some incidents Saturday (at USC) where they could have just folded the tent, but we regrouped and did it and kept going. But, that was one of those games where it kind of got out of hand and you weren't playing really to win, you were just playing for your pride. I don't want to go through that again, I know that."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
