BOULDER — It’s only human nature for a team that is winless in its conference to view a game against another team at the bottom as a great opportunity to end the losing. But chances are, the other team will be looking at it the same way.
That will be the psychological dynamic this week for Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre and Oregon State coach Gary Andersen when CU plays in Corvallis on Saturday night. Both teams are 0-3 in the Pac-12.
“I know on our side, and I know Gary on his side, hope that his team and our team looks at every game as a winnable game,” MacIntyre said. “You have to. If you looked at it that way — ‘You should win this game, this is a great chance for you, if you don’t win this game, uh-oh …’ — all that kind of stuff really is just talk.”
CU won one conference game in 2013 and has not won one since, dropping 14 consecutive. Oregon State won four conference games in 2013 and two last year. The and .
“Every team would be desperate for a win if you don’t have one, especially in conference,” said CU quarterback Sefo Liufau. “Both teams are going to go out there and definitely try their best to get the win, because it will help them kick-start the second half of the season. There’s little room for error left in the season. For us especially, this is a really important game. Not because of who we’re playing, but because of how many games are left.”
CU’s remaining games are against UCLA, Stanford, Southern Cal, Washington State and Utah. Not one has a losing record, and Stanford and Utah are undefeated in conference play. This appears to be CU’s best chance to end its losing streak. They probably will be underdogs in all remaining games.
“I think every game is a great opportunity to end a losing streak,” Liufau said. “I don’t think any team (stinks) in the Pac-12. Every team has great players, Division I athletes.”
Senior defensive back Ken Crawley says he tells his teammates every day that they need to grow up.
“We’re very frustrated right now,” Crawley said. “I’m very hungry. What I experienced the last three years wasn’t what I expected, coming here. I was a high-profile player coming out of high school, and I wanted those bowl games, championships and those things. … We’re grown men now. We came to school to play D-I football. We’ve just got to play.”
MacIntyre wants to make sure his players don’t develop a losing mentality.
“I would hope they struggle with losing,” MacIntyre said. “If they don’t, you’re not going to be able to get them out of it. It needs to hurt them. If you put a lot of time and effort into trying to do something and do it well, it should hurt when you’re not as successful at it as you would like to be. Hopefully that is in their makeup, the losing does hurt them, and they want to keep working to overcome it.”
Gillam out for season. Inside linebacker Addison Gillam will have a second surgery on his injured knee Friday and will be out for the season. He has not played since the second game of the season. CU’s other first-string inside linebacker, Kenneth Olugbode, will be back this week. … Wide receiver Shay Fields will miss this week’s game with a high ankle sprain.
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or @johnmeyer
