Three Things: The mentality of the CU Buffs has changed

BOULDER – The word “walloping” in noun form is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a beating.” As an adjective, the word means “large and powerful,” and as a verb, it means, “strike or hit (someone or something) very hard.” All forms of this word are apt in describing the Colorado Buffaloes 44-7 walloping of the Colorado State Rams in the Rocky Mountain Showdown on Friday.

The mentality has changed

The Colorado Buffaloes did what they said they were going to do by absolutely taking care of business in the Rocky Mountain Showdown on Friday.

One player told me on Thursday night, “we think we can finally blow them out,” referring to CSU. They did it. They blew them out and then some. It’s the first true wire-to-wire blowout against a somewhat respectable school in quite some time.

Perhaps most telling was this quote from Mike MacIntyre, “Tasting winning is important, doing it like that is important too. But the thing that it will teach the players is that they can keep doing it and put it back to back to back in a game, which we did. I was concerned when we got up so quick, how we gonna handle this we haven’t done it before. That went through my mind for a second, and we just kept on them, and I could see in the kid’s eyes that they weren’t gonna back down, they weren’t gonna goof off, they were into it. That was very encouraging.”

In the past few years under MacIntyre, the Buffs could put away nobody with the exception of FBS schools. The win and in the fashion that it happened was very telling of a team that has the drive to succeed throughout a season.

Dominate Defense

Though the offense has been praised for putting up 44 points, the defense only allowed seven. The Rams didn’t get over midfield until five minutes had expired in the third quarter, and even then the Buffs stout defense forced a turnover.

Starting with the secondary, Chidobe Awuzie was a beast. The future pro racked up eight solo tackles, one for a loss, an interception and pass breakup it’s obvious he came ready to backup the lofty preseason hype surrounding himself.

On the other side, Ahkello Witherspoon was somewhat quiet, but he did have two very nice pass breakups on some of the only good balls the Rams’ quarterbacks threw. Afolabi Laguda was flying all over the field as he made five tackles, one for a loss. Laguda’s new No. 1 jersey was everywhere it needed to be. Tedric Thompson was once again out to make big plays in this annual contest, and he succeeded. Unfortunately, an injury ended his night, and his status is unknown.

Another note on the defense, Kenneth Olugbode loves playing in this game. He was another guy that just seemed to be everywhere the Colorado State offense didn’t want him to be.

Dinero

Diego Gonzalez was money. The Colorado Buffaloes second year starter at kicker was pounding the ball through the uprights and the prior questions about his ability have quieted down. MacIntyre has talked plenty about the adjustments Gonzalez has made as well as his now healthy body. Last night MacIntyre told reporters that Gonzalez has “a leg-and-a-half,” and it really looked that way last night.

One of the biggest things talked about this offseason is the Buffs’ necessity to capitalize and score in the Red Zone. With Gonzalez’ money leg, the Buffs were 100 percent against the Rams. And in order to make a bowl game this season CU is going to need Gonzalez to be a great kicker.