Boulder – Colorado coach Gary Barnett watched his football team start the season with consecutive wins but now sees a bye week grind the Buffaloes’ momentum to a halt.
Because of his 2-0 team’s injury problems, though, Barnett isn’t complaining about having an extra week to rest and prepare for the Sept. 24 game against 13th-ranked Miami at the Orange Bowl.
“Normally I don’t like bye weeks,” Barnett said Monday on the Big 12 conference call. “But given our situation, I’m glad it’s here this week.”
Starting linebacker Brian Iwuh (knee) is expected back at some point during the next two weeks, most likely next week; the Buffs will practice just today, Wednesday and Thursday this week. Starting guard Brian Daniels (broken rib) is scheduled to practice this week.
Several other players have minor ailments.
“We’ve got a lot of guys banged up that we will need this week off for,” Barnett said. “We will use it to heal some guys up and get some guys a little more ready to play at the level we are going to play, really the rest of the season. We are not where we need to be, but we are getting better.”
Weekend leftovers
After looking at the tape of the Buffs’ 39-0 rout of New Mexico State, Barnett said he thought the CU defense played as well as he has seen in a long time.
“We tackled about as well as we have tackled here in years,” he said. “I was extremely pleased with the focus our team had throughout the whole week and through the game. Sometimes when the game gets out of hand, you can get sloppy and lose your focus.”
Time for TV
ABC will televise the CU- Miami game at 10 a.m. MDT, it was announced Monday. The game will be part of a split national telecast. The part of the nation that doesn’t see CU-Miami will get Iowa at Ohio State. ABC’s lead announcing team of Brent Musburger and Gary Danielson will work CU-Miami.
