CU football used to start the season 4-0 regularly.
From 1894-1914 (11 times).
But then, Colorado played high school teams from Denver East, West, North and Manual, its own alumni team and athletic clubs from Denver and Littleton.
Reads like a Nebraska nonconference schedule. (Rimshot, cheap shot.)
Overall, 30 University of Colorado teams have won their first four games, or more, in every decade.
Except this one.
This is, I think, 2008. In 1998, ’88, ’78 and ’58, CU opened with four or more victories in a row. That should be an omen. Gas prices were 24 cents per gallon in ’58, 63 cents in ’78, $1.08 in ’88 and $1.03 in ’98 (the last time the Buffs won their first four).
As the Buffs embark to play Florida State in Jacksonville, Fla., on Saturday, they are 3-0, and gas seems to be about $42.68 a gallon.
The CU players would do well to walk to the stadium and beat FSU.
The Buffs have played in the state of Florida 12 times, losing eight. That would be a bad omen, except the two most important victories in school history were achieved in the Sunshine State (where temperatures are somewhere cooler this week than in Colorful Colorado).
On Jan. 1, 1957, CU defeated Clemson in its first appearance in the Orange Bowl in Miami and finished in the top 20 for the first time. And on Jan. 1, 1991, CU defeated Notre Dame in its last Orange Bowl appearance and finished as a national champion for the only time.
The Colorado game against Florida State may not have such consequences, although Colorado would become the first school in NCAA history to win the Rocky Mountain Showdown and the River City Showdown (at two neutral sites).
And if you want to get downright optimistic, with a victory and a few others, the Buffs could return to the Gator Bowl on Jan. 1, 2009, as the Big 12 representative, or could play in the Orange Bowl (which is no longer played in the Orange Bowl, but in Dolphin Stadium) on Jan. 1 as a Bowl Championship Series team.
Or, if the Buffs go undefeated, they could even play in the BCS national championship game Jan. 8.
In Miami.
Florida.
Of course, CU might consider winning Saturday’s game first.
We all know that Bobby Bowden is as old as crude oil (which produces gasoline, and my friend Tony only buys half a tank, so he feels like the price isn’t so high), and the Seminoles are not the power they once were (the real Seminoles ruled Florida in the 18th century), but the football team is not pork ‘n beans.
Four suspended defensive players return this week, and the defense already was good. The offense stinks, and the Seminoles have three quarterbacks, which means they have none.
CU can win if the two-headed freshman dragon at running back rushes effectively, and quarterback Cody Hawkins throws effectively, and Josh Smith receives effectively and returns effectively, and the defense shuts down FSU as effectively as it did West Virginia.
If the Buffs do win, they should be able to wrest three or four victories in Big 12 play and go to a bowl. If they lose to FSU, the next five games could doom them to a sub-.500 and bowlless season. Only Iowa State is a given, and CU does have to finish at Nebraska, no longer a Big 12 pull toy.
Thus, this is a big game, again, in Florida.
The ’98 team started 5-0, finished 8-4. The ’88 team started 4-0, finished 8-4. The ’78 team started 5-0, finished 6-5. The ’68 team started 4-2, finished 4-6. The ’58 team started 5-0, finished 6-4. But the 2008 team has a chance to be like the 1923 team — which started 4-0 and finished 9-0 as the last unbeaten CU team. Gas prices dropped to 16 cents a gallon.
That is a good omen.
(A plug: Dave Plati of CU has produced an all-time football book, “University of Colorado Football Vault,” full of replicas of old photos, programs, postcards, play-by- plays, players cards and other “p” fun stuff.)
Woody Paige: 303-954-1295 or wpaige@denverpost.com
