BOULDER – Two too many times have the Colorado Buffaloes allowed an FCS school defeat them recently. One of those epic losses came against Montana State. For Head Coach Mike MacIntyre and his Buffs, they won’t be taking this weekend’s matchup with Idaho State for granted.
“All we have to do is tell them that the head coach of Idaho State, Mike Kramer was the head coach at Montana State when they beat Colorado here,” MacIntyre told the media this week. “We’ve already shown them that game, highlights of it and everything to make sure they understand he is a heck of a coach and he’s not afraid of coming in here, I know that.”
Kramer has coached teams to four Big Sky championships, one coming at Eastern Washington and the others at Montana State. Now at Idaho State, Kramer has a 17-41 record since taking over the program in 2011, but in 2014, his squad finished second in the conference.
This season, Kramer’s Bengals are 1-0 after a 47-3 drubbing over Canadian college and NCAA Division-II Simon Fraser.
“We have got to harass their quarterback,” MacIntyre told. “They do a lot of quick throws so they’ll get some off but hopefully our guys will have tight enough coverage and we can make them go to their second reads. We need to get after their passer for sure.”
In the game against Simon Fraser, Tanner Gueller threw for 338 yards on 24-36 passing. Gueller had three different receivers make significant contributions as well.
“We have been working on them tipping some passes with their quick passing game, we hope to get a few tips, but it’s gonna be mainly pushing the pocket and making their guy fell the pressure,” MacIntyre said.
On defense, they forced Simon Fraser’s quarterback into some tough spots this past weekend. Pestering the opposition into a few turnovers and serval rushed throws.
“Their offense is just like Hawaii’s was last year that gave us problems,” MacIntyre described. “They play a 3-4 defense so we’ll have to get ready for that. They play wide ends like Oregon State used to do. They’ve got some good players that’ll make plays and they’ll come in ready to beat us.”
