Boulder – Can a heart be broken twice in the same place?
Colorado 31, Colorado State 28. Year after year, the same scoreboard lights sear new holes into the souls of the Rams.
This rivalry now plays like a recurring nightmare for CSU. As much by fate as by skill, the Buffaloes win.
“Did they win the Super Bowl? Or what the heck? Did they tear the goalposts down out there? That’s Colorado State that came in and gave them everything they could handle,” fumed Rams coach Sonny Lubick, unable to hide his anger as CU fans stormed Folsom Field to celebrate yet another thrilling climax to a series the Buffaloes pretend is beneath their concern.
Know one thing: In more than 12 years on the job for CSU, Lubick has never wanted to even the score against a rival coach more.
“I keep saving Gary Barnett’s job,” Lubick told me early last week. He was kidding.
But Colorado State has done it again. The Rams have let Barnett and CU avoid statewide embarrassment.
The lone difference between these teams, all that really separated victory from defeat in the end, was courage.
Needing four scores in the final quarter to avoid an upset, the Buffaloes proved too brave to quit.
After being haunted by coming up short against CU a year ago, the Rams had a chance to exorcise their demons, then lost their nerve.
Scoring a touchdown in the final minute of the fourth quarter on a steamy Saturday afternoon, Colorado State could not summon the faith to try a two-point conversion for the lead.
And the Rams got exactly what an underdog who plays it safe deserves:
Bitterness. Envy. Regret.
Colorado State quarterback Justin Holland, who crumbled in tears on this same field last September, confessed he was too mad to cry this time.
What hurts most is how CU teases and tortures the Rams, who hate playing the role of snot-nosed little brother in this family feud.
On Monday in Fort Collins, while offering me a slice of pizza, Lubick self-effacingly recalled all the slack the Rams have cut Barnett in a series much closer than CU’s current winning streak would indicate. “Maybe he should give me half his salary,” Lubick joked. “Now that would be nice.”
No college football coach in America has felt more heat the past 18 months than Barnett.
No wins have given him more reason to smile than three straight thrillers against CSU. This time, with four seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, CU place-kicker Mason Crosby ripped a 47-yard field goal that tore the Rams apart. Again.
A year ago, the Buffs won by three points with a goal-line stand greatly helped by the bungled clock management of CSU coaches.
This time, when Holland hit Kory Sperry on a 9-yard touchdown pass with 36 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, many of the record 54,972 fans in the stadium were too shocked to breathe. The heads of Buffaloes were spinning. Suddenly down only 28-27, the Rams were battering at the door of redemption.
Did Lubick consider keeping his offense on the field to go for two points and take the lead? “I did,” Lubick confessed, “But (the coaching staff) talked me out of it.”
Bad choice. The Rams humbly kicked the extra point for the tie, and prayed for the best in overtime.
Conventional wisdom, however, never considers that when Goliath is vulnerable, you get only one rock to knock out the giant in a moment of weakness. The underdog who plays by the book seldom likes how the story ends.
Tied at 28, whoever ordered CSU to squib the ensuing kickoff obviously did not remember how the Buffaloes blew a chance to beat Nebraska in 2000 with the same painfully conservative strategy. Though the squib kick was bobbled by Stephone Robinson, he regained his composure and the ball, rambling to near midfield, putting the Buffs within two quick pass completions of field-goal range.
It was an unforgivable error of judgment by the Rams. From high schools to the NFL, there is not a kicker in the country with a more dangerous leg than Crosby.
Accepting a congratulatory handshake after a game so perfect it deserved a frame, Barnett said: “Everybody got their money’s worth.”
Everybody except Lubick. Sooner or later, doesn’t fate owe him one?
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-820-5438 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
