2015 CU vs Utah Football Teaser

As is tradition, I'm headed westward this afternoon, driving down I-80 with a few of my closest friends towards Salt Lake City.  Sure, this season, much like all the others in recent memory, is doomed to end in bowl-less failure, but I've yet to miss a CU/Utah game since the revival of the series, and I'm not about to now.  The annual clashes - still unfortunately tabbed as the 'Rumble in the Rockies' -  make for interesting post-Thanksgiving fodder, and you can do a whole lot worse than a weekend in SLC... like, say, a weekend in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Let me use this space, then, for a plea to you, the humble consumer of CU Athletics: take this rivalry seriously.  We are never, I repeat never, going to get entwined with the Trojans or any of the other original Pac-10 schools.  They're always going to consume their traditional rivalries far more intently than any game against Colorado, nothing will ever change that.  Yep, the Utes are what we got, but it ain't exactly chopped liver; these guys are actually a perfectly fine foil for our purposes.  More importantly, they've made a far easier transition to the new era of western football than CU has, and can still serve as a standard of improvement for our beleaguered program -- far more than any mid-major, instate competition ever could. We Buffaloes need a rival, we have to pick a fight. There's no better option than Utah, so stop whining, and start flipping some Utes the bird.

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Hype Music for the Week: "Hello!" from the Book of Mormon Original Soundtrack

Yep, going with the Mormon pun.  I make no apologies.  Enjoy!

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Kickoff from Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, UT is set for 12:30pm MT tomorrow afternoon. Coverage for those not making the roadie to the Beehive State can be found on Pac-12 Networks, with the radio call on 850 KOA.

Click below for the teaser...

2015 CU vs USC Football Teaser

I hope you all got a taste of my basketball coverage this week.  Of course, it all started Tuesday morning when my 6th annual Massive Basketball Preview hit the interwebs - essentially a 20,000 manifesto for the coming season.  As if that wasn't enough, I also teased today's game with the Iowa State Cyclones, and appeared on a two-hour basketball round-table podcast with @RyanKoenigsberg, @BBadss, @BeauGamble14, and @CUGoose.  You want hoops content?  I got you covered, dude.

All that basketball talk, however, has left me hopelessly pressed for time.  In response, I'm going to revert to my standard practice for the early weeks of basketball season for the final home football game of the year - a teaser, rather than a full preview.  Slightly more narrative than the formulaic rigidity of my typical football fare, the teaser format allows me to hit the highlights of the matchup, talk about their star players and coaching issues, predict a final score, and do it all in an economy of words.  It's the perfect remedy to a time crunch.

But, enough of that gibberish, straight to the action!

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Hype Music for the Week: "Achilles Last Stand"

It has always bothered me that USC named their athletic teams after a failed city-state in Western Turkey. At the height of their power, as legend would tell us, the Trojans were laid waste by a Greek trap - the infamous Trojan Horse.  So, not only were they doomed to the side pages of history, they were gullible. Interesting choice of mascot.

As for the song, Achilles may not have survived the Trojan War, but he sure did slaughter a whole bunch of his Trojan enemies in the pursuit of the goal.  Since the Greeks won - and a 'W' is a 'W' - I give you "Achilles Last Stand" in his honor. Enjoy!

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Kick off from beautiful, frigid Folsom Field is set for 7pm this evening.  Holy Tad, what am I doing still here at work!  I have to get to Boulder and get to tailgate'n'!  If you're headed up the hill with me, remember to wear black.  For those of you unable/unwilling to fight the traffic up to Boulder this evening, you can find televised coverage on ESPN2, with the radio call on 850 KOA.

Click below for the teaser...

Watch as I react to the news that CU is 3.5 point underdogs to CSU...

*Golden Nugget releases lines for over 200 college football games*
*Installs CSU as 3.5 point favorites over CU*

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Quick-post: Wrapping whatever the fuck I just watched

Inspired by the effort the Buffs put forth this evening, I'm mailing in this wrapup.  In lieu of actual discussion of CU's 74-50 home loss to Stanford, I now present to you this episode of the classic television series "Alf."  Enjoy.

Cal preview should be up sometime tomorrow.

Quick Post: Mid-Week Grab Bag

It's pretty quiet in Buffland as I pensively await the road-trip to SoCal.  The Buffs have to prove they can beat somebody on the road to be taken seriously, and this upcoming trip is their best chance to sweep a road weekend in conference play.

While I hold my breath waiting for Thursday night to arrive, here's a few Buff-related items that have been kicking around the inter-tubes this week.

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- I was completely drawn in by the post-Arizona game presser featuring Carlon Brown, Austin Dufault, and Spencer Dinwiddie.  They're a bunch of open, affable guys, who seem very comfortable with each other.  From the anecdote about young Spencer's U of A debit card, to the description of Askia Booker as the "Scrat" from the Ice Age film series, this video is well worth your time.

- A few of the Arizona writers were more than impressed with the sold-out CEC last Saturday.  The Arizona Daily Star's Greg Hansen likened it to a "miniature version of The Pit at New Mexico," while the Daily Wildcat's Mike Schmitz sees great things in the program's future.  Boulder is quickly getting a reputation as the toughest road venue in the conference.


- Almighty Kenpom touched on the altitude factor for his blog yesterday.  Using the Buffs as a primary example, he tosses out a 6.5 points per game figure as a possible nitty gritty effect of altitude on a scoreboard.  He then goes off the rail by postulating that the problem isn't that low-elevation teams struggling at altitude, it's that higher elevation teams are hard-pressed to compete at sea-level.  That just defies both logic and science.

Conclusion aside, I'm kind of shocked he didn't turn to Utah for his examples, because I'm sure their storied history would be much kinder to them outside of SLC.  They also never had to come off the mountain-top to get throttled by blue-blood programs like Kansas and Missouri.

I'm still unconvinced that altitude plays that big of a factor, as home court advantage is dramatic at all levels of collegiate basketball.  Besides, I think it's all about how you use the altitude to your advantage; Coach Bzdelik's slow-paced Princeton teams would be easier to play at altitude than Coach Patton's all-run squads from the middle-decade, for example. However, it is nice to see someone try and put a figure on it, even if their concluding logic is a little off-base.


-Finally, Tom Kensler of the Denver Post did a nice feature on Askia Booker.  "The Scrat" gets some well deserved acclaim.  He certainly did come up big in the Arizona game, knocking down well-timed jumpers like a veteran.

This needs to be the next cut-out in the student section.

Kensler touches on his "moxie" and "fearless" playing style, along with the rather large chip he carries on his shoulder at all times.  Rush the Court used this article, and Booker's success, to once again poke at the talent evaluation skills of UCLA's Ben Howland.  Nice to see the Buffs can be used to help pile onto the struggling Bruin program.

Lazy Tuesday

No one is getting fired today; I don't care what netbuffs poster says he has a "source" that says Hawk is gone. Along with that, Buff nation is kind of holding it's collective breath. With a near hopeless weekend road-trip looming, we're all on a pseudo-bye week; waiting to see if Hawk gets shit-canned next week. In that vein, I'm crazy lazy this morning, so I've compiled a set of links with comments. Enjoy my half-assed attempt at a post.

Ringo's column - It was nice today to see Ringo kiss and make up with Cody. It did not go unnoticed that it was Ryan Thorburn who wrote the weekend article bashing Cody for his post-game comments. Ringo's absolutely right, Cody should not be blamed for playing as hard as he can; that it's the coaches who should be blamed for having to rely on his sub-D1 talent. My whole point yesterday was that Cody is too emotional when he goes to the press, and that he needs to, for the sake of everyone involved, stay away from microphones. That some people are going onto twitter and attacking him on a personal level is just plain incorrigible.

Kiszla's column - I've always felt that Mark Kiszla is kind of a douche. He's Mariotti-esque in the way he pushes his agendas, and it just rubs me the wrong way. That's why it pains me to admit he's right. Bringing Mac in during the season would be a bad move; but I'm slowly coming around to the idea of Mac actually becoming the next CU head football coach. Kiszla makes the valid point that installing Mac (or any other new head coach) during the season would create an needlessly uncomfortable situation. I'll buy it. Regardless of how the coaching deal shakes out, I think Hawk needs to be fired come Sunday/Monday, and, considering his experience with the position, Cabral needs to be installed as the interim head coach. We still need to look for other candidates, but if Mac was the one who's name is called the day after the Nebraska game, I won't cry foul. In a perfect world, I would like someone from outside the program come in and right the ship. But, with Mac willingness to take the position, it might just be time to turn our lonely eyes to the past for future leadership.

Thorburn's column - I was wondering why one of the two practice interview videos was with Shane; it seemed like an odd choice... The long search for playable Buffalo big-man has filled many column inches over the past 6 years (since David Harrison left). Considering that it's no surprise that Thorburn has jumped on the Harris-Tunks hope; but doesn't this column sound eerily similar to ones written about Austin Dufault last year? Adding some weight onto a wiry frame? check. Subtle intimation that if he doesn't pan out there's not really another option? check. Throw in some comments about how poor CU is at rebounding and blocking shots, and you've got yourself an easy-ass column. I'd love to see H-T develop into a decent post player (I really like some of the offensive skill sets he brings tot he table), it's just that, much like the football team and their "best practices ever" every week, I've heard the story before.

Yahoo Politics Van story - I found this story interesting since I had a friend participate in this video (He got all the answers right... with a little help from yours truly). Listen, asking a bunch of drunk kids at a football game the answers to basic political questions is a sure-fire way to make people look dumb; but it doesn't mean that the student body at large is either uninformed or ill-taught. I love how Tom Lucero, the regent who constantly runs around screaming the sky is falling, took the bait and whacked the school as a whole over this stupid video. It fits his panicky M.O. to a 'T'. Look, they gave us pie, and asked how many members of congress there are (considering that we were 8-ish beers in the hole at the time, I'm glad we were able to stand up straight); you know that they attracted some idiots, but what you don't know is how many people got those questions right. I got a minor in poli-sci from Dear Old CU, and I'll state for a fact that not only could I answer all of that dude's questions without thinking, but I could've taught him a thing or two in the process. The education that CU provides is excellent and encompassing, and anyone who twists their panties over this video is a moron.