Woelk: More At Stake Than Pride For Buffs In Finale

BOULDER — With the Colorado Buffaloes once again guaranteed to be home for the holidays, conventional wisdom suggests the Buffs have little to play for Saturday — other than pride — when they wrap up their season at Utah.

Two thoughts in that regard:

One, pride should be enough. Any team worth its salt won't go away quietly, and if there's one thing this team has shown for much of the season, it's a refusal to quit. The Buffs haven't always played well, but their character has never been questioned. They've always played hard, and it would be a surprise if they showed up Saturday in Salt Lake City and played any other way.

Two, there's plenty more than pride at stake. With another year of no bowl practices and no postseason reward, the season finale could prove to be a springboard to 2016 — if the Buffs can make it a game worth remembering.

After Saturday night's 27-3 loss at Washington State, head coach Mike MacIntyre was asked whether he thought his team would have the resolve to be emotionally ready for one more game. MacIntyre said hoped his seniors would “have enough pride in them that they'll do it.”

But the season finale is about much more than a senior class that has endured four years of struggling to build a foundation while playing under two — and in one case, three — head coaches.

Rather, the finale is just as much about the the juniors, sophomores and freshmen who will be on the field Saturday — a group that must recognize one last chance to set the tone for next season.

On the surface, this season has had too many similarities to the last few, most obviously when it comes to wins and losses. But instead of following the storyline of recent years — one that usually began and ended with the Buffs being overmatched physically — this year has been different.

This year, the Buffs have spent the majority of the season attempting to explain the inexplicable: missed tackles, missed passes, missed blocks, missed kicks and missed assignments.

In the end, it has all added up to one rather large missed opportunity. And after each near miss — beginning with the opener in Hawaii, followed by at least four more games the Buffs had chances to win — they vowed to correct the mistakes.

In some instances, they did just that. But as soon as they corrected one area, another issue popped up. It's been a season of miscue whack-a-mole.

At least part of problem has been youth. While the Buffs entered the season as a more experienced squad, they are still by no means a senior-laden team. When they take the field for Saturday's finale, they'll likely start only five seniors — and one of them only because a sophomore is injured.

Injuries have also played a part. The defense lost one of its best players, linebacker Addison Gillam, in the second game of the year, and the offensive line — which lost starting left tackle Jeromy Irwin in the second week of the season — has been a game of mix-and-match all season in a vain attempt to stay ahead of the latest injury.

And, it's simply been a long season. The Buffs are one of only two FBS teams in the nation that will play 13 straight weeks without a bye, and such a schedule can take its toll, physically and mentally.

But as defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt pointed out earlier this season, there's no place on the scoreboard for excuses. You play the hand you are dealt.

All of which brings us back to Saturday's finale at Rice-Eccles Stadium, where the Buffs get one more chance at the 2015 table.

This one's not just a finale for the seniors, although we'd love to see Nelson Spruce, Jered Bell, Stephane Nembot, Ken Crawley and Justin Solis go out on a high note. While their contributions may not have produced a big step forward in victories, each of them can walk away knowing they helped establish a foundation for the future. The hope here is that Buffs fans will remember them for those contributions.

But Saturday is also a chance for the younger players to prove they can make more big plays than game-turning mistakes. It is, in a sense, an audition for next season, one last chance for the young Buffs to produce a victory they can hang their helmet on during the offseason.

By virtually all measurables, 2015 has been a step forward for the program, although certainly not as big as the Buffs would have liked. Still, they have already doubled the number of victories from a year ago, collected a win over their in-state rival, ended a Pac-12 win drought and proved they can play straight up with some of the conference's upper-level squads.

But despite the advancements, it's still had a frustrating resemblance to 2014, a season that led to an offseason talking about turning the corner — without that one concrete piece of evidence to look back on and say, “That's what we are going to do every week.”

Saturday, they have one more chance to nail down that kind of game.

Pride? Of course it's a factor. There's no reason to believe these Buffs won't go out and put forth a solid effort in their last game of the 2015 season. There's no reason to expect anything less from the seniors.

But there's just as much at stake for the players who will be returning. This is their last chance to add another building block to the 2016 foundation, one last chance to produce an effort that says with authority: “This is what we are capable of doing.”

That's far more than just pride.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu