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Brooks: 'Close' Is An Ugly Word For CU's Embree
BOULDER - If it was blurry early, it’s all coming into focus now: The first win of Colorado’s Jon Embree Era in football isn’t going to come easy – not after the way things went up, down, up again and finally way, way down Saturday in his home opener.
Maybe a third change of venue in three weeks will help. The Buffaloes have lost at Hawaii (34-17), lost in Folsom Field (36-33 in overtime to California) and now take theirs and their first-year coach’s now-desperate quest for ‘W’ No. 1 to a neutral site in Denver next weekend.
Waiting, and no doubt salivating, will be CU’s northern, ah, neighbor – unbeaten (2-0) Colorado State, which pushed around Northern Colorado 33-14 Saturday in Fort Collins.
CU rallied from a 10-point third-quarter deficit against Cal to take a four-point fourth-quarter lead and led again by three in OT, but the spirited comeback didn’t leave Embree in an “attaboy” mood.
He conceded his team “fought their butts off” before reminding a questioner that even in Season 1 of what has been called a reclamation project by outsiders that he, his staff and his players “expected to be 2-0. I don’t want to sound sour, I don’t want to diminish what these kids have done (vs. Cal), but we came here to win. We prepared and we trained to win – not to be close, not to be ‘oh, next week.’ It’s too much work and it’s too hard, so close ain’t it.”
But close against Cal, which bludgeoned the Buffs 52-7 last season, will have to do until they play next in a game that counts in the Pac-12 standings...more |
