Colorado football: Buffs focus on positives ahead of matchup with UCLA

Colorado knows it let a golden opportunity slip away the last time it played a football game.

As the Buffaloes (4-3, 1-3 Pac-12) prepare for a matchup at No. 23 UCLA (5-2, 2-2) on Saturday (5:30 p.m. MT, ABC), they haven’t forgotten the disappointment of their last performance. The best and worst of the Buffs were on display during a 46-43 double overtime loss to Stanford on Oct. 13, and they are aiming to learn from that disappointment.

“A hard, hard, tough loss at home against Stanford,” tight ends coach Tim Brewster said Wednesday. “And, hopefully, we’ve learned some really good lessons. I think the bottom line is this: I still understand how you have to play 60 minutes in a football game.”

For weeks, head coach Deion Sanders’ squad struggled to put together a strong first half, but did that against Stanford, racing to a 29-0 lead. In the second half, however, the Cardinals outscored the Buffs 36-7 to force overtime and then got the best of the Buffs in the extra periods.

“We just lost focus in the second half and got extremely comfortable at halftime,” tight end Michael Harrison said. “I think our mindset going into the second half was just far too casual. I think it was just too casual on both sides of the ball.

“Obviously, on offense, we had a hard time getting going again, generating points until late in the second half. And, obviously, defense had its issues as well. Overall, it was just far too casual for the whole team. It was just a very disappointing half of football, considering how dominant we were in the first half.”

Had the Buffs held their big lead and gotten the win against Stanford, they’d be just one win away from bowl eligibility. As it stands, they’ve got to win two of the last five—three of which are against top 25-ranked teams, and all five are against teams that currently have winning records.

Harrison said the loss to Stanford was “a wake-up call for everybody,” but that the mindset this week has been to focus on the good things they did to get their big lead.

“It’s been positive, I think,” Harrison said of the mood in the locker room this week. “Coach Prime’s done a really good job of projecting the positivity, like carrying it from the first half. Obviously, in the second half, it is what it is; it’s in the past. He’s done a good job as our leader, just promoting what we did in the first half and making sure that’s what we come out and do for two halves of football.”

When the Buffs are on their game—as they were in the first half against Stanford or the second half of a 48-41 loss to USC—they are really good and tough to beat. When they’re not on, as they were in the second half against Stanford and the first half against USC, they look like a bottom of the Pac-12 type of team.

They’re aiming to finally put together a complete game as they head to Los Angeles this week.

“We’ve shown you guys; we’ve shown the rest of the country that we can be dominant when we want to,” Harrison said. “So, Sanders has done a good job of keeping everyone’s head up and keeping everyone positive coming off of the bye week. Just putting us in the best headspace to be dominant this weekend against UCLA.”

Recovering from a crushing loss like the Buffs had against Stanford won’t be easy, but Brewster said he’s been impressed with the way the players have responded

“We should have won that football game,” Brewster said. “I truly believe we had better talent on the field than Stanford did.  We were up 29-0 at the half and didn’t finish. It was a hurt locker room after that football game and it should have been.

“It’s a hard, hard lesson for our players, but again, you learn a whole lot about what you have (in those moments). … How are we going to respond? And that’s the most critical thing and we’ve had good work. The bye week was good.”

Brewster also echoed Harrison’s comments about Sanders’ leadership through adversity.

“There’s nobody in the country that does a better job of spelling out what it’s going to take to win each and every game than Coach Prime does,” Brewster said. “He does an amazing job of educating our players about the key components that are going to allow us to win football games, and hopefully we carry them into the game this week.”