Whether its in recruiting or attendance, the Colorado Buffaloes might want to keep an eye out over their shoulder for the school from the north.
Benny Bash and Benjamin Allbright of The Big Show on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 can make a case that the CSU Rams have (or soon will) assumed the role of the “Big Brother” football program in the state of Colorado.
“I truly believe CSU can become the big brother and they can do it this year,” Bash said.
“I think they already are the big brother,” added Allbright. “People who live in Colorado might not have that perspective but from a national perspective CSU is the flagship program in Colorado right now.”
The Buffs may have won the Rocky Mountain Showdown last year, but the Rams were the ones bowling come December. CSU is gaining ground in other areas as well.
In college football terms, CSU and Colorado have relatively close attendance numbers, which is saying something for a school like CSU, whose stadium isn’t even on campus. The Rams averaged 24,917 fans in 2015. The new stadium CSU is building is set to be finished at the beginning of the 2017 college football season.
The attendance figures will rise in CSU’s case but the same cannot be said for the Buffs.
CU only averaged 37,503 fans in a stadium, Folsom Field, that holds more than 51,000 seats. This would be the the lowest average in attendance since the 1985 season where they averaged a mere 36,789 people.
The solution for CU is simple, though, says Allbright.
“CU doesn’t have a marquee player. They haven’t closed the border, they don’t have a marquee signing, they don’t have somebody that they could put the eyes of the country on.”
Recruiting has been the biggest reason the Buffaloes can’t keep up with the rest of the country, let alone CSU. Coach Mike MacIntyre has lost a bunch of Colorado’s top recruits to more successful college football programs and hasn’t yet made an appeal to any of the other top recruits from states like California, Texas, or Florida.
The top recruit from Colorado in 2016 is Carlo Kemp, a defensive end from Fairview High School in Boulder. He has committed to the Michigan Wolverines.
Last year’s top recruit in Colorado was Eric Lee, a cornerback from Littleton. Lee passed up on the Buffs for longtime rival Nebraska.
Christian McCaffrey, who came in second in the Heisman voting, had an unbelievable performance at the Rose Bowl against Iowa, and is arguably the best and most exciting player in college football is from Denver. He plays with the Stanford Cardinal. Imagine how popular a team CU would be if McCaffrey was on the team?
“Give us someone to watch!” pleaded Bash. “Give me a running back, give me a linebacker, give me someone of that nature and you got my attention. You have to start with that guy, some guy, a guy, because right now you don’t even have that and you got new uniforms, and that ain’t enough.”
“You can’t look great losing,” Allbright jokingly added.
The University just invested $156 million dollars into a new Champions Center, an indoor training facility and renovations to the Dal Ward Athletic Center. The Buffaloes can now compete with the rest of the Pac-12 when it comes to athletic facilities, specifically football, but they have to prove they can do it with the players that occupy those facilities.
The Buffaloes have long held a perceived advantage over the Rams. Their conference affiliation and the peaks the program has reached in years past have always been advantages. But the Rams have a brand new stadium coming and they’ve been to a bowl game in three consecutive seasons. The Buffs have a new, world-class training facility, but that elusive bowl appearance is now eight years removed. Little brother is hot on their heels.
Hear the full discussion in the podcast below…
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