Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: SoCal Buffs Like Going Home, But A 'W' Would Be Better
October 04, 2016 | Football, B.G. Brooks
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Saturday's Pac-12 game at USC offers CU chance for historic win
BOULDER – For traveling college football teams, hotel lobbies on Friday nights and Saturday mornings – we're using Saturday as our game-day example here – can be a few sawdust loads shy of a circus.
A well-intentioned circus, but a chaotic scene nonetheless. Players' families, friends, high school coaches/teammates, girlfriends, and boosters/donors, gawkers, etc., craving a little time or just a quick look.
I've seen it unfold in lobbies on college football weekends for about three decades. And for the most part head coaches, their staffs and players handle it reasonably well, budgeting the appropriate amount of "family" time without having it interfere with the real business of the trip.
But the whole road trip lobby scene might be a little different, a little more amped up, when the Colorado Buffaloes travel to Southern California. CU joined the Pac-12 Conference in 2011, with one of the big draws for the Buffs being able to sell playing in front of family, friends, etc., to recruits.
It was a natural selling point and it's working. Quite well, too. CU's 2016 roster features 42 players from California, many of whom will make the trip Friday to Los Angeles for Saturday's game against Southern California in the LA Coliseum (2 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Network).
The Buffs leave for L.A. on Friday, and Buffs coach Mike MacIntyre knows what to expect that afternoon, night and Saturday morning. He's taken his teams to California over the three previous seasons, so he's well aware.
But this trek to SoCal is a little different, maybe a lot different. That the Buffs are nationally ranked (No. 21) this week for the first time since 2005 isn't by itself enough to create a different traveling scenario. Here's where the difference lies: This is MacIntyre's best CU team. The Buffs are deserving of their Top 25 appearance but they've set the bar higher than that.
They believe they can win the Pac-12, and with a win Saturday they can claim a pretty strong grip on the South Division. With a break or two (or a non-break or two), a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game on Dec. 2 isn't that farfetched.
So MacIntyre wants to skillfully manage the trip to USC and all the coming home fanfare that comes with it. I asked him Tuesday about the number of Californians on his roster and if their focus for the Trojans might be affected.
"We've talked about it already; we talked about it Monday, first thing, in our meeting," he said. "A lot of guys are going home, a lot of family. I wanted to get all their tickets and all that stuff out of the way early this week and be honed in for a business trip to go win a football game. That's what our goal is.
"I said after the game, after we win, we can spend a lot more time with them (family). It's an early kickoff, thank goodness, so we can hang out a little longer and let them see their families. The whole key is to go down there and win the football game. Just like USC, they're preparing for us to come in there and beat us. It's a business trip. Our guys will be ready for that. We do have a lot of California kids on our team and we always will, especially playing in the Pac-12."
A little CU-USC history . . . the Trojans have owned the Buffs – in the Pac-12 and otherwise. USC leads the series 10-0, including 5-0 since CU joined the conference. In their first two meetings as conference members (2011-12), the Trojans won by an average margin of 35 points, with a 50-6 mauling in 2012 being the most lopsided of those five Pac-12 games.
But USC's margin of victory has been steadily shrinking, narrowing to 27-24 last season in Boulder in a game that the Buffs left believing/knowing they let slip slide away. Their focus Saturday won't be on making amends for that, or even making a historic statement with a breakthrough win against the Trojans.
And yet . . .
"It plays a little bit," receiver Shay Fields said. "You always want to do something that's never been done in school history. So that aspect adds a little bit of fire for us. But we're still going to take it as a regular game."
Fields, a junior who is second in the conference in receiving yards per game (92.0) and tied for second in TD receptions (5), is one of CU's SoCal guys. He grew up in Bellflower, Calif., and was a USC fan. "But now I'm a Buff fan," he quickly adds.
As Fields answered questions during Tuesday's regular media conference, linebacker Rick Gamboa – another CU Californian (Sylmar) – stood in the rear of the room listening. When Fields said he was "sure everybody (kids in SoCal) wanted to be Reggie Bush," Gamboa laughed.
"Because I had a Reggie Bush jersey growing up," Gamboa explained later.
Now, both Fields and Gamboa have outgrown that. Gamboa, who is second on the team in tackles (35, 16 unassisted), has several former high school teammates who play for USC. But facing them doesn't drive him now.
"Maybe during my freshman year I was more motivated to play against USC just because I was from (L.A.)," he said. "At this point it's not really about that, it's about going out there and no matter who we play just wanting to get a win and playing great defense."
The non-Californians on CU's roster have an idea what their SoCal-born teammates are dealing with. Quarterback Sefo Liufau is from Tacoma, Wash., and when the Buffs have played in Seattle or Pullman, Wash., there's the tug of familiarity as well as family.
"It's kind of different for me because I try and treat every game as the same kind of game, keep it at the highest level," he said. "I want to keep a level head, keep all the distractions out. It's easy to be overwhelmed with the amount of family members you have and give them time in the hotel before the game. I think it's important to count on our teammates to focus on the game plan and go in there in the right state of mind."
Liufau's backup, Steven Montez (he's started the past two games and might open again Saturday), is from El Paso. Playing in his home state in front of a large family/friend entourage won't happen in the regular season. Still, Montez is mindful of what it means.
"It's always special when you can play in front of family, and we have a lot of guys from California," he said. "I know our players from California are going to be amped up. If they use that as fuel hopefully it will benefit us."
MacIntyre might count on that for a fractional amount of motivation, but he'd rather have his players depend on each other and remain locked in on their goal of going 1-0 every week. And why not? In four of five weeks this season, it's worked very well.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
A well-intentioned circus, but a chaotic scene nonetheless. Players' families, friends, high school coaches/teammates, girlfriends, and boosters/donors, gawkers, etc., craving a little time or just a quick look.
I've seen it unfold in lobbies on college football weekends for about three decades. And for the most part head coaches, their staffs and players handle it reasonably well, budgeting the appropriate amount of "family" time without having it interfere with the real business of the trip.
But the whole road trip lobby scene might be a little different, a little more amped up, when the Colorado Buffaloes travel to Southern California. CU joined the Pac-12 Conference in 2011, with one of the big draws for the Buffs being able to sell playing in front of family, friends, etc., to recruits.
It was a natural selling point and it's working. Quite well, too. CU's 2016 roster features 42 players from California, many of whom will make the trip Friday to Los Angeles for Saturday's game against Southern California in the LA Coliseum (2 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Network).
The Buffs leave for L.A. on Friday, and Buffs coach Mike MacIntyre knows what to expect that afternoon, night and Saturday morning. He's taken his teams to California over the three previous seasons, so he's well aware.
But this trek to SoCal is a little different, maybe a lot different. That the Buffs are nationally ranked (No. 21) this week for the first time since 2005 isn't by itself enough to create a different traveling scenario. Here's where the difference lies: This is MacIntyre's best CU team. The Buffs are deserving of their Top 25 appearance but they've set the bar higher than that.
They believe they can win the Pac-12, and with a win Saturday they can claim a pretty strong grip on the South Division. With a break or two (or a non-break or two), a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game on Dec. 2 isn't that farfetched.
So MacIntyre wants to skillfully manage the trip to USC and all the coming home fanfare that comes with it. I asked him Tuesday about the number of Californians on his roster and if their focus for the Trojans might be affected.
"We've talked about it already; we talked about it Monday, first thing, in our meeting," he said. "A lot of guys are going home, a lot of family. I wanted to get all their tickets and all that stuff out of the way early this week and be honed in for a business trip to go win a football game. That's what our goal is.
"I said after the game, after we win, we can spend a lot more time with them (family). It's an early kickoff, thank goodness, so we can hang out a little longer and let them see their families. The whole key is to go down there and win the football game. Just like USC, they're preparing for us to come in there and beat us. It's a business trip. Our guys will be ready for that. We do have a lot of California kids on our team and we always will, especially playing in the Pac-12."
A little CU-USC history . . . the Trojans have owned the Buffs – in the Pac-12 and otherwise. USC leads the series 10-0, including 5-0 since CU joined the conference. In their first two meetings as conference members (2011-12), the Trojans won by an average margin of 35 points, with a 50-6 mauling in 2012 being the most lopsided of those five Pac-12 games.
But USC's margin of victory has been steadily shrinking, narrowing to 27-24 last season in Boulder in a game that the Buffs left believing/knowing they let slip slide away. Their focus Saturday won't be on making amends for that, or even making a historic statement with a breakthrough win against the Trojans.
And yet . . .
"It plays a little bit," receiver Shay Fields said. "You always want to do something that's never been done in school history. So that aspect adds a little bit of fire for us. But we're still going to take it as a regular game."
Fields, a junior who is second in the conference in receiving yards per game (92.0) and tied for second in TD receptions (5), is one of CU's SoCal guys. He grew up in Bellflower, Calif., and was a USC fan. "But now I'm a Buff fan," he quickly adds.
As Fields answered questions during Tuesday's regular media conference, linebacker Rick Gamboa – another CU Californian (Sylmar) – stood in the rear of the room listening. When Fields said he was "sure everybody (kids in SoCal) wanted to be Reggie Bush," Gamboa laughed.
"Because I had a Reggie Bush jersey growing up," Gamboa explained later.
Now, both Fields and Gamboa have outgrown that. Gamboa, who is second on the team in tackles (35, 16 unassisted), has several former high school teammates who play for USC. But facing them doesn't drive him now.
"Maybe during my freshman year I was more motivated to play against USC just because I was from (L.A.)," he said. "At this point it's not really about that, it's about going out there and no matter who we play just wanting to get a win and playing great defense."
The non-Californians on CU's roster have an idea what their SoCal-born teammates are dealing with. Quarterback Sefo Liufau is from Tacoma, Wash., and when the Buffs have played in Seattle or Pullman, Wash., there's the tug of familiarity as well as family.
"It's kind of different for me because I try and treat every game as the same kind of game, keep it at the highest level," he said. "I want to keep a level head, keep all the distractions out. It's easy to be overwhelmed with the amount of family members you have and give them time in the hotel before the game. I think it's important to count on our teammates to focus on the game plan and go in there in the right state of mind."
Liufau's backup, Steven Montez (he's started the past two games and might open again Saturday), is from El Paso. Playing in his home state in front of a large family/friend entourage won't happen in the regular season. Still, Montez is mindful of what it means.
"It's always special when you can play in front of family, and we have a lot of guys from California," he said. "I know our players from California are going to be amped up. If they use that as fuel hopefully it will benefit us."
MacIntyre might count on that for a fractional amount of motivation, but he'd rather have his players depend on each other and remain locked in on their goal of going 1-0 every week. And why not? In four of five weeks this season, it's worked very well.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
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