Boulder – It sounds clever coming from the head coach. That is where it starts, any inkling of an upset on the road against an enchanting team.
Gary Barnett is telling his players leading up to the CU-Texas clash that he wants each one to outplay his opposite in burnt orange. That is right, his top running back to outrun the top Texas back, his middle linebacker to maul more than the Texas middle ‘backer.
“It was my challenge last week,” Barnett said of CU’s mashing victory over Texas A&M. “We’ve done it once.”
Now to do it at No. 2 Texas on Saturday.
Joel Klatt, outplay Vince Young.
Whoa!
Joel Klatt outplay Vince Young? Who can envision that? Klatt vs. Young on the surface is like grabbing a leaky canoe with a couple of oars and trying to outpace a speedboat.
But the Buffs have the right idea.
Klatt has to embrace the plan that he can outplay a faster, sleeker, more prominent quarterback in Young.
When confronted with a ghost, just say boo.
Great quarterbacks always understand this.
I remember several private visits with Joe Montana in his prime in which he never shunned the matchups against great quarterbacks. It was one of the traits that made Montana click. Others would insist when he faced, for example, Dan Marino, that it was not Marino that mattered but the Miami defense.
Montana knew better.
His goal was to outplay Marino.
No trembling.
Klatt finds Young a fixture in college football, a Heisman Trophy favorite, a famed mix of big arm and fleet legs and pure athletic joy. The media sweetheart. The fans’ favorite.
Every quarterback who faces this guy is made to feel like refuse. It must be tiring. Sickening.
“Obviously, he has been mentioned this week and I am aware to that extent,” said Klatt, coyly revealing he does not live in a cave near the regal mountains that brace the CU campus. “He is in a lot of ways the face of college football right now. Athletically he is in a different realm.”
Now came the part every CU fan would want to hear.
“I saw Carson Palmer play against us when I was a freshman and wasn’t playing,” Klatt said. “I played against Jason White twice, and he won the Heisman. I’ve had games like this where I was perceived as a step below the other team’s quarterback.
“I am not thinking that. I want to manage our offense better than he manages his offense. I don’t have to have the extravagant play. I don’t have to throw for more yards or rush for more yards than he does. I need to lead us to more points than he does for his team. That is outplaying the other quarterback.”
That is what could make this the signature game of Klatt’s career.
Count his two years as a third baseman in the San Diego Padres minors, and Klatt has more exposure than most college quarterbacks. At 25, he is more seasoned, and with three years as a CU starter, more wise. He is a walk-on, for goodness’ sake. All of that gives him extra grit.
He holds 27 CU passing records and will have more before he is done. He has 20 touchdown passes and one interception in the red zone during his career with no sacks there. Amazing. He is on a current string of 85 passes thrown without an interception. He can be efficient and razor-like if not spectacular.
“Football isn’t sexy,” Buffs tight end Quinn Sypniewski said. “Football is about an offense operating at a high level for 3 1/2 hours. You can have flair and flash, and sometimes that does not win the game.
“Joel is from Colorado; football at this university means something different to him. He could call the offense by himself. He’s genuine.”
It is a defining game for Klatt.
His team is ranked No. 24, CU’s first national ranking in more than two years. There was a stretch from 1989 through 1997 when Colorado was ranked in 143 consecutive polls; Klatt wants his school back on that track. CU is 0-7 in road games vs. No. 2 teams, and 0-9 when you add such games played at neutral sites.
This is a game for CU, for Klatt, to make the exit overshadow the entrance.
“As a player, as a program, this is the way you want to leave your legacy as a senior,” Klatt said. “This is a game that could springboard us to big things this season and bigger things for the program for years to come.”
Klatt gets it.
That means CU could, too.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
