Colorado is bringing a lot of baggage into Saturday’s game against Cal at Memorial Stadium, and I’m not talking just about suitcases. The Buffaloes have lost six straight games and a head coach.
Expected to finish fifth or sixth in the Pac-12 South, Colorado took the nation by surprise, roaring to a 5-0 start and climbing as high as No. 19 in the AP poll. Then the wheels came off.
The first two losses on the road at USC and Washington didn’t look so bad at the time. But then came the unforgivable sin of losing to Oregon State at home, blowing a 31-3 lead no less. The downhill spiral was heading full speed with losses to Arizona, Washington State and at home against Utah, which was playing without its No. 1 quarterback.
That was enough for athletic director Rick George, who fired head coach Mike MacIntyre, two years after he was voted Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
Perhaps sensing the inevitable, going into the Utah game, MacIntyre pointed out a problem area. “I've never had a season where going into the 10th game of the year we had nine starters out that started the first game; nine. And four other significant players out,” he said. “Basically, a third of your guys that you play, that you count on to win games, aren't out there.”
George wasn’t moved. Quarterbacks coach Kurt Roper was named interim coach and he will lead the Buffs Saturday, and if they win to their bowl game. Yes, even with the six-game losing streak, Colorado can still go to a bowl if they win Saturday.
The whole season has been a lot to absorb for the Colorado players.
“When you are 5-0, everything seems just dandy,” offensive lineman Aaron Haigler said during a news conference this week. “It is the best time anyone has ever had. When you lose those games, it just kind of stalls out and after a while you don't really know what to do differently.”
A closer look at the Buffaloes
Offense
“They are kind of spread team, whatever that means in this day and age,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said. “They use the quarterback runs, a lot of motion. They’ve got some really good skill players.”
The unit revolves around Steven Montez (12, above) in his second year as starting quarterback, who has thrown for 2,679 yards, 17 touchdowns and six interceptions this season. He left the Utah game with a leg injury and basically took the Buffs offense with him.
He has been practicing this week and in the news conference said, “I’m fine.” For Colorado’s sake he had better be. He was initially replaced by redshirt freshman Tyler Lytle, who lasted all of two two series, completed four of five passes, threw an interception and was sacked three times. MacIntyre then turned to sophomore Sam Noyer, who had attempted just eight passes this season before going 4-for-6 for 23 yards in mopping up the loss.”
Montez is as much a threat on the ground as he is in the air. He has 392 gross rushing yards, second best on the team. Some of them have come on scrambles, but many on designed runs. He is deceptively fast and elusive.
His 243.5 passing yards per game rank him fourth in the league. Critics say he would be even more productive if he didn’t look for sophomore receiver Laviska Shenault on every play. But one can understand why he does.
Shenault, who had an undistinguished freshman year, would be listed as leading the league in a lot of categories except he has missed three games because of injury (a partial reason for the team’s decline). To be inluded in the stat rankings a player must have participated in 75 per cent of his team’s games. He will meet that standard this week, then his name will be all over the stat lists.
He has 79 receptions, more than anybody in the league except Stanford’s JJ Arcega-Whiteside, and he would be first in receiving yards per game, 118.9, catches per game, 9.88, and touchdown scoring points per game, 8.25.
“He is big, physical, he can run, catches the ball in traffic,” Wilcox said. “He’s an excellent football player. They get him the ball in a lot of different ways, behind the line of scrimmage, screens, the jump balls. He’s the total package.”
He is a challenge for defensive backs to cover, and the first problem is finding him. He has lined up as a tight end, a wide receiver, a slot receiver, a tailback, a wing-back, an H-back and the quarterback in the Wildcat.
“I move him around so much, defenses don’t know how to double team him,” co-offensive coordinator Darrin Chiaverini said. “Opposing coaches have told me that they don’t know where he’s going to be so they can’t devise a plan for him.”
Shenault is not the only receiver to miss time because of an injury. Juwann Winfrey missed two games but was back on the field four games ago. Since his return he has caught 16 passes for 216 yards.
K,D, Nixon, second on the team with 50 catches, was out two games ago but returned to face Utah.
Jay MacIntyre, son of deposed coach, missed two games. Speaking of MacIntyre, the coaching change obviously affected him more than any other player, but he seems to dealing with it.
“I know that burden he feels is definitely heavy,” linebacker Drew Lewis said on Tuesday. “He said yesterday one thing that stuck with me, that this is the first time in all his years he's walked into that team meeting room and his dad wasn't there. That hit home. He's going through a lot right now. We're all doing a really good job of sticking up for him.”
Even with a mobile quarterback and a tailback Trevor McMillian who has rushed for 951 net yards, the Buffaloes running game has struggled. They are ninth in the league, averaging 142.5 yards per game, and just 3.9 per carry. Shenault has accounted for five of the 20 rushing touchdowns.
The offensive line has been shuffled. Haigler has played left tackle and both guard positions.
Defense
The Buffaloes are eighth in the conference in total defense, giving up 395.6 yards per game. Believe it or not that is an improvement over last year when they gave up 450.6.
They have some decent contributors, but depth is a bit of an issue.
“Defensively they’re a 3-4 team, a little bit like we are,” Wilcox said. “Aggressive, change it up, they’ve got good football players.”
Two of the best are inside linebackers Nate Landman and Rick Gamboa. “Two guys playing at a high level,” Wilcox said. “They play similar styles to what we do. Both of those guys have a real good understanding, play sideline to sideline, get people on the ground, good tacklers.”
Cal offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin is particularly leary of Landman. “He can defend the run, defend the pass. He’s smart, tough He does a lot of things really well.” Baldwin said, “And the instincts are stuff that you think about linebackers. Certain things you can’t teach. You can go get great athletes, recruit certain guys that can move, run and jump, but the instincts at the linebacker position, certain guys have that and certain guys don’t. And he really shows a lot of instincts in how he plays the game.”
Landman, 116 and Gamboa, 58, lead the team in tackles.
Davion Taylor was considered by some to be the top JC linebacker prospect in the country last year. He transferred into CU from Coahoma Community College in Mississippi in the spring. Something of a freak, the 6-3, 225-pounder finished sixth in the 100 meters at the Pac-12 track meet. He has performed well as a hybrid linebacker, DB.
Nose tackle Javier Edwards, 6-4, 345, is a senior who is difficult to move. Defensive end Mustafa Johnson is the best pass rusher and has 7 ½ sacks.
The secondary misses senior safety Evan Worthington, who has been out the last three games with an injury and is likely out Saturday.
The only member of the secondary to start all 11 games is free safety Nick Fisher.
Special teams
One of the preseason honors candidates was punter Alex Kinney, but he broke his collarbone trying to make a tackle in the second game of the year. Davis Price, who was on the roster primarily to attempt long field goals, has been handling the punting is averaging a net of just 38.6 net yards per punt. However, on 48 punts he has no touchbacks. With a long punt of 58 yards and a field goal of 54 he became the third player in CU history to have a punt and FG of more than 50 yards.
Regular field goal kicker James Stefanou is 5-for-8 on his attempts but he, too, has been hurt. Evan Price (4-for-5) and Tyler Francis (2-2 including a 48-yarder) have filled in..
Overall
The Buffaloes, who have had five shots to get bowl eligible, obviously have a lot more at stake than the Bears do, And Wilcox says he expects a desperate team to hold nothing back.
“We know they are going to come in here with everything they’ve got, playing for a bowl game. We’ll see everything, anything that hasn’t been called yet, whether it’s onside kicks, everything’s on the table. We’ve got a great respect for them. I’m sure it’s not just one thing over the last six games. It’ll be a challenge.”
As for Roper, he has walked into a difficult situation and is trying to make the best of it.
"What happened affects everybody differently," Roper said. "The good thing about this 12th opportunity is it gives us a chance to have a 13th opportunity. We want to go play a really good game against Cal and hopefully extend our season if we can play well.”
Notes
Cal leads the overall series, 5-4, although it’s 2-2 since the Buffs joined the conference. … Colorado has 14 turnovers in 11 games (nine interceptions, five lost fumbles), though it has six over the last two games (three each against Washington State and Utah). ... The 14 are tied for the 39th-fewest in the nation (the five fumbles lost are tied for the 21st lowest).... Colorado is 9-of-22 on fourth down, four of the conversions on runs out of the Wildcat formation by Shenault ...This game will be one of the Pac-12’s selected games in the pilot program to shorten game times. Commercial breaks will be fewer and shorter than normal, and halftime will be 15 minutes rather than 20.
