Legacy of Colorado’s senior class not yet in stone

At the end of last season, when Nelson Spruce was asked what his favorite memory of Folsom Field was, he answered “running behind Ralphie”. While the way CU enters the field is a magical moment, it was striking that he couldn’t name any particular game or play that stood out in his mind during his four years at CU. When you look at what he went through it’s not hard to see why.

Between 2012 and 2015, the Buffaloes went 6-18 at Folsom Field. The six teams they defeated were Central Arkansas, Charleston Southern, Nicholls State, Hawaii, UMass and California. They went 1-17 in Pac-12 games. They lost to Sacramento State. Attendance dropped from over 50,000 per game in 2011 to 45,000 in 2012 and 38,000 in 2013. In 2015 the average was still below 40,000.

Spruce’s onside kick return against Cal in 2013, arguably his most memorable Folsom Field moment, happened in front of roughly 10,000 fans, as everyone else decided that it was too cold to stay until the end of CU’s victory over a Cal team that would go on to an 0-9 Pac-12 record. It turned out to be the only home conference win of his CU career, and there were hardly any students left to sing the fight song with after the game.

His punt return near-touchdown against USC on Senior Day last season was overshadowed by a crushing loss that ended CU’s bowl hopes, as well as their quarterback’s season. He, and other seniors like Jered Bell, Stephane Nembot and Kenneth Crawley, were deprived of that perfect, glowing memory of triumph that would stick with them for the rest of their lives.

This year’s seniors might have a different conundrum when asked their favorite Folsom memory — too many options to choose from.

There’s the Oregon State game, in which the Buffs posted their biggest conference victory (in terms of scoring margin) since 1992. Two weeks later, they dominated a 5-1 Arizona State team that was ranked No. 24 in the coaches poll, in front of the largest crowd since 2011. There was the Thursday night UCLA blackout game, in which the Buffs played their first home game as a ranked team since 2005.

And then…then there was last Saturday. Colorado notched their first win over an AP Top 25 opponent since 2009; shutting down Washington State’s prolific offense in the fourth quarter and snapping the Cougars’ eight-game winning streak in front of a delirious crowd, the likes of which hadn’t been seen at Folsom in a decade.

The most amazing part of it all is that Sefo Liufau, Alex Kelley, Chidobe Awuzie, Tedric Thompson, Ahkello Witherspoon and company’s most memorable Folsom Field moment may still lie ahead of them.

With a win on Saturday, the Buffs would equal their home win total from the previous four seasons, achieve the ninth perfect home season, and eighth 10-win season in school history and become champions of a division whose basement they had occupied for the previous five seasons.

Last year’s senior class was the first at CU in recent history not to experience a field rush. This year’s seniors have already experienced two, and they could be in line for a third with a win on Saturday.

But if you thought even for a moment that this group was satisfied with what they’ve already accomplished, you’d be mistaken.

Kelley put it into perspective on Tuesday when he said “If we don’t win on Saturday we don’t become Pac-12 South Champs. To me, we just won a lot of games, and it’s cool, but that’s not our ultimate goal. So we still have a lot of work to do ahead of us.”

The mood of intense preparation for the biggest game of their lives this week is a marked departure from previous senior weeks when, as Liufau said on Tuesday, “everyone was pretty upset because there was nothing left to play for.”

Senior Day is always bittersweet, but for the last several seasons the emphasis has been on the bitter. In 2013 and 2015, defeats on senior day against USC gave CU their seventh loss of the season and confirmed that the seniors would finish their college careers without ever having played in a bowl game. In 2012 and 2014, 1-10 and 2-9 CU teams playing for pride lost heartbreaking games against Utah that served as the final college football memories for every senior on the field.

The current senior class has been through three Senior Days, all losses, played before paid crowds of under 40,000 that were closer to 30,000 in reality. Players walked out with their families before the game to a half-empty stadium. On Saturday, they will be playing before the first true sellout at Folsom Field since 2008 with a chance to etch their names into history.

Mike MacIntyre coined a new word when describing this Senior Day as a “send-off, but not an end-off”. It’s appropriate. Saturday will be a celebration of what these men have accomplished, but it will also be a hero’s send-off for the battle (or battles) they have yet to fight. Even if CU loses, this senior class will have one more game – the first bowl for the program since 2007. Win, and they guarantee at least two more games for themselves – and possibly even three.

When he was asked what he wanted the legacy of his class to be, Ahkello Witherspoon said that they wanted to be “the team that switched the program around”. Whether they win or lose on Saturday, they have already accomplished that. What remains to be seen is whether they will join the ranks of the greatest teams in the history of the school. With a victory, perhaps only 1989 and 2001 would top Saturday as the most memorable Senior Days Folsom Field has ever seen.

No matter the outcome, these seniors have done the impossible; they brought Colorado Football from the worst FBS team in the country the year before they arrived to a Top 10 team entering their final home game. They should be satisfied with that. They aren’t.

They want to write a final chapter that blows everything we’ve seen so far out of the water, and that ensures this Senior day will be the first in years where the players shed tears of joy, not sadness, on Folsom Field. If they succeed, there might not be a dry eye in the house.