Colorado University Athletics
It's CU vs. CU in the Champs Sports Bowl
BOULDER?The University of Colorado accepted an invitation Sunday to play Clemson University in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., set for Tuesday, December 27.
The game will be televised nationally by ESPN and will kickoff at 3:00 p.m. mountain time. It is one of just two bowls that day, along with the Arizona State-Rutgers match-up in the Insight.com Bowl.
Colorado, the two-time reigning Big 12 Conference North Division champions, are 7-5 on the season, with a 5-3 record in league play. The Buffaloes will be coming off a 70-3 defeat at the hands of No. 2 Texas in the Big 12 Championship game, but will be seeking to regain the form they had when rolling up 20-plus point victories over bowl-bound teams Kansa s and Missouri, as well as the defensive play it achieved in being one of only four Division I-A schools to post two shutouts in 2005.
Clemson will enter the game with a 7-4 record, including a 4-4 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference play, finishing third in the league’s Atlantic Division. The Tigers closed the regular season with three straight victories, including signature wins over then-No. 17 Florida State, the eventual ACC champion, and archrival and No. 19 South Carolina.
Both fared the same against two common opponents: Clemson opened the year at home with a 25-24 win over Texas A&M, a team CU defeated soundly in Boulder in October, 41-20; the Tigers lost to Miami, Fla., 36-30, in three overtimes, also at home, just one week before the Hurricanes defeated the Buffs in Miami, 23-3.
“I know our team will be excited about the opportunity to go to Orlando, and it’s a great city to host a bowl game,” CU head coach Gary Barnett said. “We should be healed up physically, and hopefully by then, be healed up emotionally after some time off and will be anxious to play Clemson.”
Barnett will give his team about 10 days of rest, both physically and mentally, “and it’s just what they need. Let them get through final exams, and then we can come back with a great attitude and prepare for Clemson. I’m fairly familiar with the ACC, we watch their games a lot on Thursday nights and I’ve seen Clemson play a couple of times.”
It will be the 27th bowl appearance for Colorado, the 23rd most in the nation, as CU is 12-14 in the postseason. This will technically be Colorado’s second appearance in the Champs Sports Bowl, its first in Orlando; the Buffaloes played in the game when it was located in Fort Lauderdale as the old Blockbuster Bowl, losing to Alabama, 30-25, in 1991. It will be Clemson’s 28th bowl, as the Tigers are 14-13 in previous bowl games.
This will be just the second meeting on the gridiron between the two schools who both go by CU; the first also came in the postseason, as in the 1957 Orange Bowl, the Buffaloes sprinted to a 20-0 lead, saw the Tigers rally to take a 21-20 edge, with John Bayuk’s second touchdown run of the day rallying the Boulder-based CU to a 27-21 win.
Colorado and Clemson have two of the three Lou Groza Award finalists, as Mason Crosby and Jad Dean vie with Oregon State’s Alexis Serna for the honor, which will be announced this Thursday, ironically in Orlando.
The two schools also have the nation’s co-leaders in fourth quarter comebacks. Colorado quarterback Joel Klatt and Clemson signal-caller Charlie Whitehurst, both seniors, have led their teams back from fourth quarter deficits to win or send games into overtime nine times; both own 8-1 records in such instances.
In other team news, Klatt was released from the Hermann Medical Center in Houston after being held for observation overnight following a vicious illegal helmet-to-chin hit in the third quarter of CU’s loss to Texas in the conference title game on Saturday. He returned to Colorado with his wife, Sara, and his parents, Gary and Rita Klatt, midday Sunday. The Longhorns Drew Kelson was penalized but not ejected from the game for the violent shot, which left Klatt on the ground for several minutes with a major concussion but fortunately no expected long-term effects.
The ticket price is $50, and Colorado will receive an allotment of 12,000 tickets for the 65,438-seat Florida Citrus Bowl, which will also play host to the January 2 Capital One Bowl between Wisconsin and Auburn.
Those interested in purchasing tickets from Colorado's allotment can do so in two ways at present, either in-person at CU's Athletic Ticket Office at Folsom Field (located between gates 4 and 5), or by phoning 303-492-8337 (1-800-872-8337) beginning Monday at 8:30 a.m. There are no internet sales at present due to system problems, which hope to be rectified early this week.
CLASSIC CU FLASHBACK: 1957 Orange Bowl
Big Seven runner-up Colorado stormed out of the chute and had Atlantic Coast champion Clemson down 20-0 at the half as 72,552 fans yawned and went for refreshments at the 23rd Orange Bowl Classic.
But a lot of those drinks were spilled in the second half as Clemson rallied to take a 21-20 lead in the final period before the resurgent Buffs buckled up and drove for the winning score to take their first bowl triumph in history by a 27-21 score.
Fumbles, eight of them, three lost to Clemson, were a nemesis Colorado managed to overcome in the school’s first national television appearance in history. One at the goal line at the end of the first half perhaps prevented CU being able to put the game away, and one on its own 27 with three minutes remaining in the game gave the Tigers one last shot to pull out the win.
Dal Ward's Buffaloes got first half touchdowns from John Bayuk, Howard Cook and Boyd Dowler to take the seemingly safe 20-point halftime lead. But Frank Howard's Tigers roared back to go ahead by 21-20 with 11:12 left in the game on a one-yard run by fullback Bob Spooner.
But the Buffs sucked it up and drove 53 yards for the winning score after a Clemson onside kick attempt following the score had failed. Eddie Dove carried four times and Bayuk three in the drive, with Bayuk getting the TD from the one-yard line with 7:13 left to play. Ellwin Indorf's kick gave CU what proved to be the winning margin.
With less than three minutes to go and facing a 2nd-and-9 on the Buff 26, Clemson’s Charlie Bussey was intercepted at the 17 by Bob Stransky, nailing down the decision for the Buffs.
Big Seven runner-up Colorado stormed out of the chute and had Atlantic Coast champion Clemson down 20-0 at the half as 72,552 fans yawned and went for refreshments at the 23rd Orange Bowl Classic.
But a lot of those drinks were spilled in the second half as Clemson rallied to take a 21-20 lead in the final period before the resurgent Buffs buckled up and drove for the winning score to take their first bowl triumph in history by a 27-21 score.
Fumbles, eight of them, three lost to Clemson, were a nemesis Colorado managed to overcome in the school’s first national television appearance in history. One at the goal line at the end of the first half perhaps prevented CU being able to put the game away, and one on its own 27 with three minutes remaining in the game gave the Tigers one last shot to pull out the win.
Dal Ward's Buffaloes got first half touchdowns from John Bayuk, Howard Cook and Boyd Dowler to take the seemingly safe 20-point halftime lead. But Frank Howard's Tigers roared back to go ahead by 21-20 with 11:12 left in the game on a one-yard run by fullback Bob Spooner.
But the Buffs sucked it up and drove 53 yards for the winning score after a Clemson onside kick attempt following the score had failed. Eddie Dove carried four times and Bayuk three in the drive, with Bayuk getting the TD from the one-yard line with 7:13 left to play. Ellwin Indorf's kick gave CU what proved to be the winning margin.
With less than three minutes to go and facing a 2nd-and-9 on the Buff 26, Clemson’s Charlie Bussey was intercepted at the 17 by Bob Stransky, nailing down the decision for the Buffs.