Brooks: For Openers, ‘Coach Chev’ Calls Buffs’ Offense Passable

DENVER – Darrin Chiaverini normally doesn't search long for words, and as he stood in the entryway late Friday night in Colorado's loud and jubilant locker room he didn't go on an extended hunt for these:

"It was our night tonight."

Ah, yes, you might figure it's going to be your night when the first points of the season – indeed, the first rung up by your revved up, revamped offense – are scored by your 310-pound center.

Kudos, said Chiaverini, to senior Alex Kelley for being a right place/right time guy and toppling into the end zone atop quarterback Sefo Liufau's fumble.

"I've never even scored in practice . . . never," Kelley said much later with a laugh. "I thought we had to open the season with a bang."

And what a bang it was. Bold, fast, decisive, and satisfying for Chiaverini, the former Buffs receiver who admitted to "getting emotional" Friday afternoon on the team's bus ride from its overnight headquarters to Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

"Exciting," he said, "especially for someone who played at Colorado and played in this game. It was emotional for me . . . I'm thinking, 'I'm at the University of Colorado and I'm going to walk out there with the Buffaloes.' That's special; it means a lot to me as a person, someone who bled on Folsom, bled on Mile High. It was a really cool moment."

It was also very cool for "Coach Chev" to watch the offense he co-coordinates with Brian Lindgren score on three of its first four possessions, roll to a 21-0 first-quarter lead, go up 31-0 at halftime and ultimately demolish Colorado State, 44-7. The Buffs amassed 578 yards – 318 passing, 260 rushing – all numbers that produced opening-night satisfaction for Chiaverini and befuddled CSU coach Mike Bobo and his defense.

"I thought our guys played really well," Chiaverini said. "For the first game and to have all the different tweaks to the offense – I mean, you can see a different look from us. It's much different from what's been done in the past.

"For those guys to come out on those three drives and get points right away, that's huge. In an in-state rivalry game to be able to do that and stake your claim early in the football game, I was really proud of the way they played, proud of '13' (Sefo Liufau) and the way he handled adversity.

"He made some mistakes, he wasn't perfect. Sometimes you make mistakes, but it's how you respond. The true character of a person is what you do when adversity hits. He's had adversity . . . I'm proud of that kid."

Liufau, the holder of 75 CU records when the night began, added No. 76 in the first quarter when he unseated Cody Hawkins as the school's career passing leader. Liufau ended the night 23-of-33 for 318 yards and a touchdown.

But he also fumbled twice, saved by Kelley's recovery on the first one but losing the second after a numbing hit in the fourth quarter. Still, Chiaverini couldn't be too critical of his QB: "He didn't play a perfect game, but he played his heart out. He made plays when he had to. You have to take your hat off to a kid like that."

After absorbing the hit that caused his second fumble, Liufau reentered the game on CU's next series. Chiaverini said Liufau was more concerned with losing the ball than the hit he took. But the Buffs were leading 37-7 at the time, and to that point Liufau had carried 14 times for 66 yards.

Was Liufau running that much a part of the game plan?

Apparently so. "That's what he's really good at," Chiaverini said. "I mean, he's a big, 240-pound quarterback that can throw and run. In college football you have to be able to do that. You can't just keep him in the pocket all the time. This isn't pro football."

Nonetheless, coach Mike MacIntyre admitted that Liufau "should have slid on the hit he took in the fourth quarter, which is something we've been working on with him. I guess he just won't slide."

Liufau and the Buffs had their way with the Rams defense, especially early on. In the first quarter, said Chiaverini, "the only thing that really hurt us, we had a penalty, then the sack (CSU's only one). Besides that, we were moving the ball. We were excellent on third down (2-of-2 in the first quarter, 4-of-7 in the first half). We told them if we stay on the field we will give people problems. You could tell CSU hadn't seen that kind of tempo. We saw they were having a hard time lining up and we gashed them a couple of times."

Indeed, Bobo called CU's no huddle, up-tempo offense "extremely fast tonight and we could not settle down defensively . . . we were not getting lined up. They were going extremely fast and we weren't getting lined up. Guys were looking to the sidelines. You have to give them credit; they were doing a great job of changing their formation from trips looks to double looks to empty looks. We weren't getting adjusted."

But there was more to the Buffs' plan than trickery. CU's offensive line, said left tackle Jeromy Irwin, wanted to play physically and dominate up front. He and his linemates did that, and Irwin said they were "very pleased" with the running game's 2016 debut. "We wanted to dominate the line of scrimmage and I think we did a good job of that.

"We had some ups and downs as an offensive line last year and I think coming into the season people doubted us. It was definitely nice to get out there and move the line of scrimmage. It was a good way to start."

The only thing left undone, Irwin said, was "put up more points. They're a great team, but we should have had more points. We had a couple of opportunities where we didn't squeeze down protection and we missed on deep balls. There were a couple of dropped balls and a couple of looks we missed. We shot ourselves in the foot on a couple of drives, gave up a sack and had a holding penalty."

Asked to grade the offense's opening-night performance on a 1-10 scale, Irwin grinned and offered, "I don't know if I could grade it, I know you'd love me to. But it was a damn good effort by everybody; we played hard but we still have a lot of work to do. We've got a tough schedule . . . we have to come out and play Idaho State next week just as hard as we played this team."

In addition to Liufau's lost fumble, tailback Phillip Lindsay lost one. Again, Chiaverini wasn't happy with the turnover but was with how Lindsay responded. Said Chiaverini: "I told him to keep your emotions in check, take care of the football. We have our core values, and one of them is 'one snap and clear.' He made a mistake early but he was able to refocus and come out and play hard."

Translated: "Snap and clear" means move on to the next play. If a mistake was made, clear it from your mind and think only about the next snap. Lindsay carried 20 times and finished with 95 of the Buffs' 260 rushing yards, scoring twice on 1-yard runs.

Before the Buffs play Idaho State on Saturday in their home opener (Folsom Field, 3:30 p.m.), Chiaverini's clean up list will be topped by finishing drives and scoring TDs instead of field goals.

"We've got to be finish drives," he said. "Good football teams, when you have someone on the ropes you're able to finish them with touchdowns. We weren't able to do that. We had two really good drives to start the second half. We can't kick field goals, we have to score touchdowns. We emphasized that in fall camp, and for the most part we did a good job of it.

"But you have to take the next step. Most football teams get better from week one to week two, from week two to week three . . . and by the time they're in November they're playing really good football. I'm pleased with our great effort and great attitude, now we have to take the next step – knowing how to finish."

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU

Colorado University Athletics

Brooks: For Openers, ‘Coach Chev’ Calls Buffs’ Offense Passable

Players Mentioned

Jeromy Irwin

Alex Kelley

Phillip Lindsay

Sefo Liufau

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