BOULDER — The first bye week for Colorado in more than two years isn’t exactly a bye week.
Call it a “bye four days.”
After beating Stanford last Saturday, the No. 23 Buffaloes (6-2, 4-1 Pac-12) are off this weekend before resuming action with a home game against UCLA (3-5, 1-4) next Thursday. It’s one of many interesting quirks to this season’s Pac-12 schedule, which includes Cal, on short rest, playing a USC team Thursday that is coming off a bye.
CU coach Mike MacIntyre said he’s never experienced playing a Thursday game after a bye, but he’s not complaining.
“In a way we got an extra reprieve for the next game,” MacIntyre said, referring to CU’s Nov. 12 game at Arizona. “We’ll have a couple extra days off then to help our guys keep recovering. This late in the season it’s a good place to have it. It’s probably a good fit for it.”
The Buffs have not enjoyed an off weekend since Oct. 11, 2014. CU did not have a bye week last season because it played at Hawaii and therefore had a 13-game schedule. The NCAA enacted a rule that allows teams who play at Hawaii to schedule an extra home game as a way to offset travel costs.
This season has history to provide motivation in the final month. The path to the Buffs’ big goal is simple: win its remaining four games and CU will play in its first Pac-12 championship game.
That CU is enjoying such a standing with a month left in the regular season means this bye week is certainly not a time for wholesale changes.
“Number one we have to stay in rhythm on offense,” MacIntyre said. “You get concerned about getting out of rhythm. So the way we practice should keep us in rhythm. We’ve got to keep working defensively for UCLA. They’ve kind of changed their offense in a way. Early in the year they were running it a little bit more. Now they’re throwing it 70 times a game, so we’ve got to be prepared there, and a little more time there helps us. And, of course, we’ve got to keep working on all our special teams stuff.”
The last item could be the most important for the Buffs, who lost senior kicker Diego Gonzalez to an Achilles tear on Sept. 17. Three missed field goals — two by third-string kicker Chris Graham and one by punter Alex Kinney — almost sabotaged the Buffs in a 10-5 victory over Stanford last Saturday. Second-string kicker Davis Price missed the game after being diagnosed with mononucleosis, and his status for the UCLA game is uncertain.
