Colorado University Athletics
?90 Buffs Crush Wildcats, Set Sights On Orange Bowl
To commemorate CU's national championship, secured that season in the Orange Bowl against Notre Dame, CUBuffs.com will take a look back at each game of the '90 season. Game stories that appeared in the Rocky Mountain News and were written by B.G. Brooks, now Contributing Editor for CUBuffs.com, will be reprinted each Wednesday on the website.
With one regular-season game left on their schedule and an overmatched opponent coming to Folsom Field, the Buffs were looking at a recipe ready-made for fun.
And, oh, did they enjoy themselves.
By the fourth quarter, with Kansas State trailing by 10 touchdowns - that's ten TDs - coach Bill McCartney inserted defensive stalwarts Alfred Williams and Kanavis McGhee as tight ends. Williams made a leaping grab for the first catch of his college career, McGhee bobbled his lone opportunity.
But the Buffs didn't mishandle much of anything else in overpowering the Wildcats, 64-3.
CU set a number of records, but the most number was '1.' The Buffs entered the game ranked No. 2 behind Notre Dame. But after Penn State shocked the Fighting Irish 24-21, CU would climb to the top spot and enter the Orange Bowl as the nation's top-ranked team for the second consecutive season.
And unlike their trip the previous January, the Buffs weren't going to take a tumble.
CU stakes claim to
No. 1
Buffs frolic to 64-3 rout of K-State
By B.G.
Brooks
Rocky
Mountain News
BOULDER - It wasn't a day at the beach, but for a mid-November Saturday in Boulder, it was sufficient.
Orange Bowl-bound Colorado had fun, fun, fun 'til Bill Snyder took his Wildcats away, frolicking to a 64-3 victory yesterday afternoon over Kansas State.
"It was too much fun to describe," said outside linebacker Alfred Williams, one of 23 Buffaloes seniors to conclude their careers at Folsom Field. "Only in dreams does something like this happen. In reality, it seldom does."
But in college football, fiction also pales alongside fact, and yesterday's reality stretched far beyond Folsom Field. In South Bend, Ind., Penn State stunned No. 1 Notre Dame 24-21 in the final seconds, once again paving the way for CU's trip to Miami as the nation's top-ranked team.
The Buffs entered yesterday's record-setting romp in the sun ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press poll. They should be No. 1 when this week's poll is released, capping a 1990 odyssey that saw them drop as low as No. 20 after a 1-1-1 start.
The Irish - CU's Orange Bowl opponent for a second consecutive year - is likely to disappear from the top five. And Notre Dame has one regular-season game remaining - Saturday at Southern Cal. So the Buffs' postseason challenge should match last year's: defend their No. 1 ranking in Miami.
"It's a great honor for Colorado to finish the regular season as No. 1 - if that's how they vote us," said CU coach Bill McCartney. "But it won't change anything in the Orange Bowl. We still have to beat Notre Dame. I was hoping they would win. It's rare when it's one vs. two in a bowl game for a national title, but they were playing a good team."
Snyder, however, believes the Wildcats were overrun yesterday by the best team in the nation. His second KSU team had allegedly made a quantum leap in the Big Eight, but yesterday's whipping was the fifth-worst in Wildcats history.
"I honestly feel that football team could win the national championship. They're good enough, and they've been there," Snyder said of CU, which finished the regular-season 10-1-1 overall and 7-0 in the conference.
On their way to back-to-back Big Eight championships for the first time and consecutive 10-victory seasons for the first time, the Buffs toyed with the Wildcats. Williams, a candidate for the Butkus Award as the nation's best linebacker, was used as a receiver in the fourth quarter and caught the first pass (17 yards) of his college career.
"I haven't seen a tight end make a catch like that," Snyder said of Williams' leaping catch.
Williams wasn't the only CU player aligned in an unfamiliar position against overwhelmed KSU (5-6, 2-5). Fellow outside linebacker Kanavis McGhee also got a fourth-quarter chance as a receiver, but bobbled the only pass thrown him.
What was McCartney thinking?
"They deserve to have a little fun in their careers," he explained. "All the things you like to see happen happened. The score just got a little out of hand."
Or a lot out of hand if you were Snyder. At halftime CU led 40-3, scoring on six of seven first-half possessions. Their 64 points were the most ever scored by CU at Folsom Field, surpassing the Buffs' 62-0 mauling of Wyoming in 1940.
But Snyder didn't begrudge the Buffs for the points deluge or McCartney for his odd substitutions. "They were senior guys, and they were just trying to have a little fun," Snyder said. "I'm not sure they weren't trying to show off people to the pros, just to let them know how good of athletes they are."
The Buffs have several of those.
CU quarterback Darian Hagan passed for 200 yards - all in the first half - and finished the regular season with a school-record 1,538. Hagan's 48-yard touchdown pass to Mike Pritchard gave Hagan 11 for 1990 - one short of the seasonal school record.
Was it as enjoyable for Hagan as it was for Williams?
"The last time I had that much fun was homecoming (of his senior year in high school)," Hagan said, remembering a 65-12 victory at Los Angeles' Locke High School.
Big plays were routine for Hagan and the Buffs. In addition to his 48-yard TD pass from Hagan, Pritchard scored on a 70-yard reverse with six seconds left in the first half.
CU finished with 634 yards in total offense, its fifth-best in history and the highest since gaining 662 last year against Iowa State. The Buffs' 274 yards passing surpassed last week's 237 as the highest since 1985. They rushed for 360 yards, with Eric Bieniemy gaining 115.
Bieniemy's rushing total was below his nation-leading average (151.3). Like the other Buffs starters, he went to the bench after two series in the second half, missing an opportunity to reach 4,000 career yards.
But Bieniemy, who finished his CU career with a school-record 3,940 yards, wasn't disillusioned.
"I couldn't be more happy than I am right now," he said.
Even after being doused with a cooler full of ice water near game's end, McCartney's mood matched Bieniemy's.
"I can't ever remember being on a sideline when a team had so much fun," he said.
Next: Orange Bowl vs. Notre Dame
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU