Don’t expect “The Rise” to continue at CU in 2017

BOULDER – On March, 5 of 2017, Michael Jordan said, “the ceiling is the roof,” in front of a packed Dean Smith Center. His beloved UNC Tar Heels went on to win their seventh college basketball national title little less than a month later.

It’s hard to go anywhere without seeing the internal hype about ‘The Rise’ and how it will continue in the coming month or never stop now that it has started.

I have two questions:

Should any season after 2016 be associated with a rise? Can they keep rising?

Essentially, the question becomes what is the ceiling for the Colorado Buffaloes and how should one value 2017 in context?

2016 was special, it always will be one of CU’s most magical seasons as they re-established themselves among college football’s best. Trying to replicate 2016, however, would be a fool’s errand. Last season saw the perfect mix of leadership, health, conflict, luck, and talent which converged into a 10-4 season. But that was then.

There’s one thing at altitude that’s missing more than anything and that’s attitude. Maybe it’s the loss of Jim Leavitt or some seniors who had seen the previous horrors – 27 butt-whippings against just 10 wins —but the desire just hasn’t seemed the same, at least so far, as we head towards fall camp.

Really, one can trace the lost attitude to the Rumble in the Rockies, when the Buffs clinched the Pac-12 South. In the two subsequent games, all of CU’s meaningful mottos—”Welcome To The Fight” (WTTF), “Don’t Blink”, etc.—were reduced to. … cute.

Aside from attitude is the all-important talent, more important: upperclassmen talent.

This is a weird year for Colorado because the coaches have done great recruiting-wise for two straight cycles. But their upperclassmen have some holdovers from the dark days of the program. Aside from a handful of seniors, most of the Buffs’ talent lies with lower classmen.

Colorado is a tweener team this year, not quite ready for their exciting youth that the rise helped obtain and in need of some talent in impact positions.

They lack the four players that were drafted into the NFL, as well as the nine starters that are no longer in Boulder. These were hugely important players, from their skill to their leadership. A lot of players looked at Chidobe Awuzie and Tedric Thompson like blood brothers. Playing for their brothers to help them leave a legacy was half the motivation for “The Rise.”

That’s impossible to replicate.

It’d be easier to justify a column such as this one if after one of the top five quarterbacks in school history didn’t have a clear replacement with oodles of talent, nevertheless he does. Even then, you’re handing not just the keys but the deed to the offense over to a youngster.

Nobody will deny that CU’s offensive skill positions are loaded, but how are they supposed to makeup for a special teams unit which struggled most of the year, a young and inexperienced defense and an offensive line with some turnover? Also, can you trust the offensive players to not grow egos and still keep it about the team whilst they fight for positioning in the Draft with fewer opportunities than normal due to the depth at those positions?

The most boastful of Buffaloes fans have to be a little concerned about this team, no?

To raise one more concern, the consensus coach of the year, Mike MacIntyre, failed pretty miserably in CU’s last two games to rally his team, on unarguably the biggest and brightest stage they set foot upon. MacIntyre has only won 20 games in four years, 10 of which came last year, CU and Rick George have pledged their faith to the front man, but it’s still hard to know what to expect, especially with so much turnover on his staff.

I’m by no means saying tear it down or have no hope. I’m just saying I have some concerns. It’s not fair to put this year’s team—or any team—in the same realm as “The Rise.”

This incarnation of the Buffs will most likely make the postseason and that’s huge. Don’t get it twisted but the ceiling is far from the roof of college football in 2017 for the Golden Buffaloes, the ceiling is closer to a Holiday Bowl.