It's easy to be down on the Buffs after last week (believe me, I am), but I have been around this program too long to not know the script. CU plays like shit on the road; fans start screaming bloody murder, wanting everyone fired; CU comes home to the altitude, "circles the wagons," and narrowly beats an opponent they probably should beat anyway. It happens just about every year. In fact it happened twice last year: Kansas and the powder-blue A&M game. (Further primary examples: K-state in '08, Miami(OH) '07, Kansas '03... every season has one of these, these 3 are the best examples) They're called bounce-back games, and they happen all the time in sports.
And, thus, we turn our attention to the Hawaii (road) Warriors. After flying nearly 5,000 miles to get to West Point for their game against Army last Saturday, the Warriors only flew back as far as Las Vegas to prepare for CU (my roommate asked "what about classes?" I'm not entirely sure there are classes at the University of Hawaii). For any other team to go through that sort of globe-trotting excursion to get to a football game, I'd count it as an advantage for CU. Hawaii, however, is used to that kind of roadtrip, typically staying on the mainland at least one trip a year.
Hawaii, being your typical Run-and-Shoot Hawaii team, will throw the ball all over the yard. This isn't Big XII throwing the ball; this is "seriously, we hardly ever run" throwing the ball. Hawaii will throw and throw and throw. Hawaii QB Bryant Moniz leads the Warrior passing game, which is 2nd in the nation in passing yards(and 113th in rushing. YAY we're finally playing a team that rushes for less yards than we do! Unfortunately, it's by design, as opposed to our general football impotence). He will look to find star WR Kealoha Pilares early and often. Star corners Jimmy Smith and Jalil Brown will get a lot of work Saturday (along with just about every DB on the 2-deep).
(This will be a familiar image come Saturday afternoon: Hawaii QB Moniz launching the ball down-field.)
Defensively, the Warriors are susceptible to the run. They've been gashed for 245+ yds in each of their first two games this year. A good team, with a good O-line should look to pound the run and keep the ball out of the hands of Moniz and that "electric" Hawaii offense. Unfortunately, Hawk doesn't seem interested in that type of game-plan as, at least according to Ringo; he's dismissing the Warriors vulnerability to the ground game just because Army is an option team. I expect us to figure out halfway through the 2nd quarter that we should've been running the ball the whole time (and using that success to open up play-action routes for our receivers); hopefully its not too late.
For CU, it's all about actually fixing the issues that have plagued the first two games of the season. We're 111th in the nation in penalties with 9.5/game! That's Oakland Raider-level bad. Hopefully, Hawk was just kidding when he said that all you need to do is remind the offending player that what he did was wrong to fix mistakes like all the dumb penalties from the Cal game (Seriously "can you do that? Yeah coach I can do that. Ok, well then, we've got that thing solved" damn near sent me into the mother of all tirades yesterday). Other than that we just have to stay out of a shooting match with Hawaii. We just can't score enough points to keep up with them. If CU keeps the ball, through a strong rushing attack and an absence of turnovers, we should win.
It would be a terrible way to repay Alfred Williams for all his contributions to CU athletics if we came out and laid an egg Saturday afternoon when we should be celebrating his entrance into the college football hall-of-fame. I'm saying we don't... barely. CU 27 - Hawaii 26.
(We just need a little dose of that Big Al magic, and we should squeak one out on Saturday)
Go Buffs!
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