Miami – Though they didn’t want to say it ahead of time, Colorado football players knew their game against Miami at the Orange Bowl was a cosmetic one.
Since the Buffaloes were 2-0 entering the game, it wasn’t a must-win. Win it, and it provides a great boost. Lose, and it doesn’t matter much anyway because Big 12 Conference play is right around the corner.
“You don’t want to say this is when the real season starts, but this is what we’re striving for,” said CU senior quarterback Joel Klatt. “We’re here to try to win that Big 12 championship. Next week is the first step of that. (The Miami game) was not the first step of that. That was a program game.”
Coming off a 23-3 loss to the Hurricanes, the Buffs play their Big 12 opener Saturday at Stillwater, Okla., against Oklahoma State, the first of three consecutive games against South Division teams. CU’s conference home opener, against Texas A&M, is Oct. 8. CU’s cross-division play concludes at Texas on Oct. 15, a week when the Longhorns might be vulnerable after having faced archrival Oklahoma the week before.
“We’re prepared to go to Big 12,” CU senior offensive tackle Clint O’Neal said. “We just have to work on some things, reduce our penalty factor. But other than that, I think we’re ready as a whole.”
Penalties were CU’s biggest problem during the nonconference schedule. In three games, the Buffs committed 32, resulting in 261 yards in losses. They had an eye-opening 16 penalties in their loss to Miami.
CU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said details on offense must be addressed. Overall, the Buffs have had success, averaging 399.3 yards and 24.3 points per game. Until Miami held the Buffs to three points, they averaged 35 points.
“We’re close, you can tell we’re close,” Watson said. “We just need to clean some things up.”
Defensively, CU’s defense against the running game has been the brightest spot on a unit that has shown improvement across the board. The Buffs lead the Big 12 and are seventh nationally against the rush, allowing just 74.3 yards per game.
CU has made slight improvement in pass defense, allowing 246 yards per game through the air compared with 254.6 last season. But creating more turnovers is a chief concern of defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz.
“We’ve got to continue to eliminate mistakes and improve in areas,” Hankwitz said.
Coaches concede there are no big fixes, only tweaks they hope allow CU to repeat as the Big 12 North champion and compete for a league title.
“We can be a good football team,” CU coach Gary Barnett said. “We’ll learn a lot from (the Miami) game. We needed a game like this. It’ll tell a lot about who we are.
“We’ve got the experience now, and we’ll take it right into conference.”
Staff writer Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-820-5455 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
