Colorado University Athletics
Woelk: Buffs Aim To Build On OSU Win
October 26, 2015 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Maybe the best news coming out Saturday night's Colorado win over Oregon State — well, other than the fact that the Buffs ended a Pac-12 win drought, earned a much-needed conference road win, played their best defense of the year and moved back to .500 for the season — is that even as the 4-4 Buffs were celebrating their win, they were looking ahead to more.
"This is just one," head coach Mike MacIntyre said, merely minutes after Chidobe Awuzie's fourth-quarter interception nailed down a 17-13 CU win. "We have to build on this and get some more."
Players echoed MacIntyre's sentiments. In almost the same breath of talking about the importance of getting their first Pac-12 win in nearly two years, players also talked about the importance of next week's game at UCLA. They talked — confidently — about adding more wins to their ledger, and how their preseason goal of a bowl game is still on the table.
Simply, they talked about the end of the skid as the beginning of something much bigger, one piece of a foundation they plan on adding to soon.
It's not a construction project for the faint of heart. Three of the Buffs' remaining five opponents — Stanford (8), Utah (13) and UCLA (24) — are currently ranked in the Associated Press top 25. The other two, USC and Washington State, received votes. Not many folks outside the CU locker room today will be calling the Buffs a favorite against any of those teams.
But if anything, the Buffs are exactly what MacIntyre and his coaching staff have been calling the team all season — resilient. They haven't hung their heads in defeat. They've never accepted losing as their fate, they haven't pointed fingers and they haven't resorted to alibis and excuses.
Instead, they've continued to work, continued to aim for improvement each week.
The progress has been slow but steady. Already this year, the Buffs have doubled their win total from a year ago and matched the program's best win total since 2010. They earned a win over rival Colorado State, ended a pair of Pac-12 losing streaks, played two quality conference opponents close — and they still have five games to go.
Clearly there's work to do. MacIntyre was the first to admit that Saturday night's win wasn't pretty. The Buffs still haven't put together a complete game against a quality opponent, a game in which the offense and defense have put forth consistent efforts for four quarters. They'll need to establish that consistency and play by far their best football of the year to realize their goals down the stretch.
But now, at least, they've seen concrete rewards for their resilience.
It's progress — and with five games to go, there's plenty of room for more.
CHART CLIMBING: CU wide receiver Nelson Spruce is now just one shy of CU's all-time touchdown reception mark of 22 after his 15-yard TD catch from Sefo Liufau in Saturday's win over OSU. He added to his school records of career receptions (256) and receiving yards (2,857) and is now third on the all-time Pac-12 receptions list, just four away from the top spot.
UCLA UPDATE: CU next faces 5-2 UCLA in a 1 p.m. game Saturday at the Rose Bowl (Pac-12 Networks). After reaching as high as seventh in the national polls following four wins to open the season, the Bruins slipped from the national rankings after losses to Arizona State and Stanford. The pollsters, however, saw fit to move them back to No. 24 in the wake of their 40-24 win over Cal on Thursday.
ANOTHER FRESHMAN: The Buffs had their way with a pair of freshman quarterbacks in the Oregon State game, limiting OSU quarterbacks Seth Collins and Nick Mitchell to just 199 yards passing and no touchdowns.
The Buffs will see another freshman quarterback next week against UCLA — but they won't be expecting the same results. Bruins QB Josh Rosen is fourth in the Pac-12 in passing, with 1,967 yards and 15 touchdowns this season, including a 399-yard, three-touchdown performance against Cal. It will be interesting to see what kind of defense CU coordinator Jim Leavitt dials up for this game. Leavitt's menu of blitzes has seemed to increase each week and it won't be a surprise if he cooks up a new package for the Bruins and Rosen.
DAY OFF: The Buffs didn't return from their trip to Oregon State until 5:30 a.m. Sunday after their fourth Saturday night game in a row.
CU coaches had originally scheduled a practice for Monday, but decided to give the players another day off, and the Buffs now won't reconvene for practice until Tuesday.
Colorado is one of only two teams in the nation this year to play 13 straight weeks (the other is Hawai'i), and CU coaches decided an extra day of rest at this juncture of the season might be best.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
