The Michigan Wolverines, the Big House, Stewart to Westbrook, the history! If you’re not starting to feel the buzz in regards to Saturday’s Colorado versus Michigan game, you’re either a Colorado State Ram, a Michigan Wolverine or you have been living under a rock since August.
The Buffs come in at 2-0, but it’s a different kind of 2-0 than most of us could have hoped for. After two blowouts, one coming against in-state rival Colorado State in the Rocky Mountain Showdown, it feels different, and, to be honest, it feels good.
That feeling will be amped tenfold this Saturday with a victory over the No. 4-ranked Wolverines, or we’ll all be brought back down to reality in a hurry. The in-between is also possible — a moral victory. I hate the term … So you want us to find a way to feel good about a loss? Save the sliver lining, I’ve always been more a fan of gold!
Don’t get me wrong, though, if the Buffs go to the Big House and hang around for most of the game and then fall short, I would feel great, great about where the team is. I wouldn’t feel good about the game — a loss is a loss — but this is an opportunity to show the world, show us here in Colorado, that all this talk about “The Rise” is real.
Colorado is a football state, to the point of nausea sometimes, but it is the way of the world. Well, our world. With that said the Buffaloes can turn some heads Saturday if they’re able to showcase the powerful offense we saw throughout the first two weeks.
Insert Jim Harbaugh and his No. 4-ranked Wolverines, who come into Saturday’s game also at 2-0, with wins over the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and UCF Knights — no, those aren’t team names on my ultimate franchise mode in NCAA 21 or whenever they bring the damn game back; those are actual universities with athletic programs and everything!
The Wolverines needed a good kick in the you-know-what after Brady Hoke, and Jim Harbaugh is pretty much a swift kick in the ass dressed in khakis and terrible tennis shoes. So, obviously, he was a great hire and has shown that, despite being a bit of a d-bag, he knows how to win football games.
These two teams have met four times, the first meeting coming in 1974 and the last coming in 1997. The one win for Colorado came on September 24, 1994 — the famous “Miracle at Michigan” play. Kordell Stewart’s 64-yard touchdown toss to Michael Westbrook, who caught the ball off of a deflection, will go down in CU lore. I couldn’t have been any more proud of my Buffs starter jacket that week at school. That thing has to be at my mom’s place somewhere, and if this week goes well, I may have to begin the search!
I’m not going to call the upset or pretend the Buffs have a really good shot at going into the Big House and beating one of the best teams in college football, because the reality of the situation is that they don’t. If we were forced to bet the mortgage, we would all lay on the Wolverines. Lucky for us, gambling is illegal and no one can force us to make ridiculous bets, unless you’re Billy Hoyle from “White Men Cant Jump” — that guy just didn’t know when to stop.
I’m saying that for the first time in a very long time, the feeling around this team is good, refreshing, and people actually feel optimistic. It’s not that fake optimism we get every April in regards to a certain baseball team. It feels different. It looks different. Beating bad teams is what good teams do, and that’s exactly what the Buffs have done through two weeks.
Now, the Buffs have an opportunity to show us “The Rise” is real. Will they do it?
