BOULDER — Mike MacIntyre began knocking on the wooden podium before I could even finish the question.
If he had a lucky rabbit’s foot sitting nearby, the Colorado coach probably would have massaged it.
“Why would he do that?” MacIntyre asked those in attendance at his news conference Tuesday as I continued the question, looking at me as if I just shouted “Voldemort!” at the top of my lungs.
I wanted to know the secret behind one of CU’s most impressive numbers in a special season chock-full of eye-popping stats. In 10 games this season, the Buffaloes have won the coin toss nine times.
Being terrible at math, I had consulted the Internet to delve deeper into the peculiar probability of the Buffs getting so lucky. A quick Google search found a handy coin-flip calculator that tabulates the odds of winning X coin flips in X attempts.
The chance of nine positive outcomes in 10 occurrences with a 50 percent chance of success each flip? About one in 102 … or just less than one percent.
Surely, Sefo Liufau, the CU quarterback and senior captain who calls every coin flip when the Buffs are on the road, has developed a complex formula for achieving such unlikely odds.
Right?
“Tails never fails,” Liufau said with a wry smile. “If anyone out there is listening, tails never fails.”
Except the one time it did. When CU visited USC, the Buffs were 6-0 in the coin toss. Some of those victories came when the Buffs were at home, when the visiting captain picked the wrong side of the coin. And in his chances to call the toss on the road, tails had indeed never failed for Liufau.
But before he walked to midfield at Memorial Coliseum, Liufau claims his mojo was tainted when Daniel Daprato, CU’s offensive quality control coach, provided an ominous statistic.
“He jinxed me because he said, ‘You’re 6-0 right now,'” Liufau said. “Then we lost the toss. So Coach Daprato, it’s his fault for that.”
OK, so even the lucky get burned from time to time. But CU’s success at midfield before the game has had a tangible impact. When tails once again refused to fail for Liufau against Arizona on Saturday, the Buffs stuck to their normal method of deferring to the second half.
So the Buffs kicked the ball off to the Wildcats, forced a punt and then scored a touchdown on their first drive. It was the sixth time this season that CU had replicated that exact scenario.
The win-the-toss, get-a-stop, score routine has helped the Buffs tally a 106-41 scoring edge in first quarters this season.
When I finished my question about CU’s handling of the coin toss and how the decision to defer is made, MacIntyre didn’t delve too deep into the process.
“So far that’s what has worked out best for us,” he said.
Some things are better left to chance.
“Tails never fails,” Liufau repeated.
Knock on wood.
