As the clock struck midnight, long after there was no doubt the would win the Rocky Mountain Showdown 52-31, Colorado State coach began calling three consecutive timeouts on three consecutive plays, like a petulant child who stamps his feet and refuses to accept itap time for bed.
“I tell our team: ‘We’re going to play, no matter what.’ Thatap the bottom line,” said Bobo, explaining why he repeatedly stopped the game clock late in the fourth quarter, as a handful of die-hards that remained in the original crowd of 66,997 booed him. “You preach to your team: ‘You play the whole game.’ We don’t blink. We’re going to continue to play, like it was the first quarter.”
On the opposite sideline in Broncos Stadium at Mile High, Mel Tucker celebrated a victory in his debut as CU coach. But he did not take a Gatorade bath or act like beating the Rams was any big deal, because Tucker’s belief is success should be expected and bigger goals await to be met, as reflected in one of his favorite catchphrases: “So what? Now what?”
Well, now what?
An even bigger showdown awaits the Buffs, who proceed to a buzz-worthy game against the one foe CU has always wanted to beat the most: those Bugeaters from Nebraska.
RELATED: “Itap bull crap”: CSU coach Mike Bobo rips Pac-12 refs as Mel Tucker wins his CU Buffs debut
And as for Bobo? He wears the frustration of a coach who strongly suspects the remainder of this long season will be spent on the hot seat.
Bobo was certainly hot after his fifth loss in as many tries against the Buffaloes. Without provocation, he recklessly and childishly blamed the referees for this lopsided defeat, taking issue with a fumble lost on CSU’s opening drive of the second half, at a juncture when the Buffs clung to a 24-21 lead.
“I think itap bullcrap,” said Bobo, strongly suggesting the Pacific-12 Conference officiating crew exhibited bias against the Rams.
“Itap too big a game not to have neutral refs.”
Playing the victim card is a sad move a football coach makes when he has been dealt a hopelessly bad hand, and all the brilliant ideas that landed him the job in the first place no longer win the day. Bobo has committed the boo-boo of trying to recreate Southeastern Conference football in the Rocky Mountains without SEC talent, and now wants everybody to kiss his grits because things refuse to go his way.
Two years ago, when CSU lost 17-3 in the Showdown and the Rams were pelted with penalty flags, they had a legitimate beef that itap hard to beat both the Buffs and a Pac-12 officiating crew. But this game was different, because it would be ludicrous to blame all four turnovers committed by the Rams on the refs.
While Bobo goes kicking and screaming, with fingernails clawing against what seems like a inevitable slide toward the unemployment line, the point where Tucker finds himself in the arc of his coaching career can be plotted nearly 180 degrees away, in a far more hopeful and happier place.
Rather than acting with desperation for a signature victory that Bobo now needs for a CSU program under the financial strain of justifying its new, $220-million stadium, Tucker can speak the philosophical language of culture-building, uttering with conviction: “Sometimes getting a win is just not enough.”
The golden era of CU football under Bill McCartney was defined by a physicality that forced foes into submission. Tucker seems bent on giving rise to precisely that same take-no-prisoners attitude. So the new coach had to take a measure of satisfaction in the Buffs’ ground-and-pound attack, led by running back , which averaged 6.1 yards per rush in 40 attempts against Colorado State.
But this wasn’t the CU team that Tucker envisions, much less one that can beat Nebraska. This should not be regarded as criticism, so much as simple acknowledgement these Buffs are a work in progress.
“We’ve got a ways to go until we’re the football team we want to have, and I think thatap obvious,” Tucker said. “But thatap why they call us coaches.”
Tucker coaches. Bobo whines.
If the tone is set at the top, then the Buffs have a fighting chance, while the Rams are doomed to failure.
