Colorado wins Bradford Bowl
The ESPN Thursday night game was of peculiar interest to OU fans. Colorado-West Virginia. Two of the three teams that beat the Sooners in 2007 and the two teams that made life miserable for Sam Bradford.
Colorado won 17-14 in overtime, and it was an interesting game. CU scored on its first two possessions, West Virginia scored on its second. The rest of the game and overtime, there was only one touchdown scored.
Colorado seems better. Its defense was solid. CU last season held OU to 24 points, Florida State to 16, Kansas to 19 and Texas Tech to 26.
The Buffs wore down later in the season and became a sieve, but against West Virginia, you saw CU rise up again.
Sophomore quarterback Cody Hawkins isn’t bad, though he’s not in that crowded tier of great Big 12 quarterbacks, and Colorado can run the ball. The Buffs will be a force in the Big 12 North, and while I don’t expect them to win the division (they have to play at Missouri), keep an eye on Oct. 4. Colorado hosts Texas the week before the Trinity River Shootout. Last year, it was OU that had to play in Boulder the week before Dallas. This year, it’s Texas.
As for West Virginia, I felt a twinge of sadness for the Mountaineers. WVU is staging a great experiment, trying to win with a nice guy. I don’t mean a guy who can put on a nice facade.
I think I’m safe in saying that Bill Stewart is a down-home, old-fashioned nice guy. He’s got no operator in him. No slickness. No knife-you-in-the-kidneys-for-a-first-down mentality. That’s what ex-West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez had, witness his actions and attitude since leaving his alma mater and going to Michigan. That’s what most big-time college football coaches have.
Alas, maybe that’s what you have to have. Stewart, who engineered a 48-28 thrashing of OU as interim coach and then the next morning was given the job permanently, is 1-2, with only a victory over I-AA Villanova.
Nice guys can win Fiesta Bowls. That we know for sure. But can nice guys win in the cutthroat world of college football? Bill Stewart is a superb experiment.
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Comments
Berry,
You seem to be implying that nice guy is someone who does not go all out within their power to win, that he lacks a competitive aspect. Stoops is a nice guy by all accounts, but he does not like to draw attention to himself and is hesitant to criticize anyone openly, kind of like speak evil of no man! That does not make for good news. Is a good guy someone who is so good guy that he does not care who puts out, competes, and advances the team so long as he is nice. The best good guys in my life are the ones that would not allow me to cheat myself or others or were hard on me and others. A man who allows his team to slip into mediocrity while he is nice , is not a nice man. I am not referring to Stewart because I do not know him. I am just referring to your nice man comment.
Please define what you mean by nice guy. Did you mean personable instead?
Its the Red River Shootout. I like how Dan Hawkins said that they beat a supposed “powerhouse” last season (Oklahoma). Nice class Dan. If my memory serves me correct, Oklahoma played for and won the Big 12 championship last season while Colorado fizzled. As much as I hate to say this, on Oct.4th I will be rooting for the Longhorns!
The CU/WVU game. My thoughts, CU won a game and at this moment CU is not a good football team yet, maybe next year or the next. WVU is not a good football team because of their coaching staff. Hill-Billy Stewart doesn’t have a clue on how to be the head coach at a major college. CU just needs to keep doing what they are doing and they will become a good football team and WVU needs a new head coach and staff to become a good football team.
The CU/TX game should be interesting. Colorado has just what Texas lacks. Good young runningbacks in Darrell Scott and Rodney Stewart (both freshman).
FYI: West Virginia is 1-2 with an opening week win over Villinova. They are 0-2 against FCS teams.