Colorado University Athletics
Woelk: Buffs Must Be Ready To Handle A Little Success
September 04, 2016 | Football, Neill Woelk
ISU coach Mike Kramer no stranger to Folsom Field
BOULDER — Consider the upcoming week another major test for the Colorado Buffaloes' upperclassmen.
Fresh off a 44-7 win over in-state rival Colorado State, the Buffs will no doubt be in a good mood when they return to practice Monday morning. The test will be whether the team's leaders make sure everyone continues to maintain the focus that produced such a dominant performance in the season opener.
In other words, it will be interesting to see if a little success goes to their heads, particularly with a visit from FCS Idaho State on the immediate horizon.
Friday night, head coach Mike MacIntyre addressed the issue with the Buffs in the locker room immediately after their win over the Rams. He reminded them that the game was just one in a 12-game regular season, the first step in what they believe could be a long and successful journey.
There's no doubt CU coaches will be watching carefully Monday morning to see how the Buffs react when they return to practice after a weekend off.
"We'll see how we handle having a little bit of success really early," MacIntyre told the media after Friday night's win over the Rams. "We've got to handle that correctly, and we'll see what the guys are made of on Monday."
From a physical standpoint, the timing of the opening game couldn't have been better. After a month of fall camp practices, the Friday opener provided what amounts to two days off for the players. While they did lift weights and attend meetings on Saturday, the weekend still gave them basically two days to rest, recharge and catch up on their studies.
It will be their last such opportunity until late October, when they'll have 11 days between their Oct. 22 game at Stanford and their Nov. 3 (Thursday night) home game with UCLA.
But while players had a weekend to give their minds and bodies a break, CU's coaches were back at work, reviewing film of the CSU game and preparing for Saturday's home opener against Idaho State at Folsom Field (3:30 p.m.).
What they'll see on film from the Bengals is a team that opened with a 47-3 win over Simon Fraser in its season opener on Saturday. ISU quarterback Tanner Gueller threw for 338 yards and three touchdowns on a 24-for-36 afternoon, and Idaho State also finished with 165 yards rushing, led by Jakori Ford, who ran for 68 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.
Defensively, the Bengals limited Simon Fraser to minus-22 yards rushing while recording four quarterback sacks and a pair of interceptions. ISU head coach Mike Kramer called it a "convincing effort," but added, "I wouldn't call it dominant."
If Kramer's name sounds familiar to CU fans, there's a reason. The ISU coach is actually 1-0 at Folsom Field as a head coach. In 2006, he brought the Montana State Bobcats to Boulder, where they knocked off CU and head coach Dan Hawkins in his Buffs debut, 19-10.
Kramer obviously isn't intimidated by Folsom Field, and it's a safe bet the Buffaloes will know that factoid before the week is over.
But what the Buffs will be concentrating most on this week is correcting their mistakes from the opener. While they were indeed dominant from beginning to end on Friday, there were still plenty of areas that could be improved — beginning with ball security.
In MacIntyre's first three years, taking care of the ball has been a strong point for Colorado. In 13 games last season, the Buffs lost two fumbles just twice all season. But against the Rams, CU put the ball on the ground three times and lost two. They were lucky enough to recover one of the drops for the opening touchdown of the night, and another potential fumble was overruled by replay.
It's an issue MacIntyre promised will be addressed quickly this week.
"We had too many turnovers," MacIntyre said. "We haven't fumbled like that in the past. We have to go out and fix that, which is something we'll do this week, I promise you."
CU also settled for three field goals after reaching inside CSU's 20-yard line on each drive. In a 44-7 game, those instances obviously didn't affect the outcome. But in a close game, those circumstances could produce a much different result.
"We had a chance to put them away a little quicker than we did, and I'd like for us to be able to finish off teams a little quicker than that," MacIntyre said. "We had a couple of opportunities where we could have scored touchdowns but we had to kick field goals. We were 100 percent in the red zone, but we want to be 100 percent in touchdowns."
Overall, though, MacIntyre and his staff couldn't have asked for much more from the Buffs in their season opener. It was just CU's second win in four openers for MacIntyre, and it produced what is probably the most important win thus far in his time in Boulder.
Now comes the next step.
Throughout fall camp, coaches and players insisted this team had a different demeanor than past squads. They insisted that their attitude was one that would not waver from the task at hand — that of producing a turnaround season.
The next test will be to see if they can maintain that demeanor after their first taste of success.
"We haven't made a statement yet," said Buffs safety Afolabi Laguda late Friday night. "We made plenty of mistakes. We want to set the bar high. We're chasing that Pac-12 championship, nothing less. We don't want to go to some random 6-6 bowl game, we want to get to a championship. To do that, we need to play championship-level football."
If the Buffs can back up those words with actions, it will be another positive step for the program.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
