Buffs will rise again

Great news today that the University of Colorado is joining the Pac 10 conference. I thought the Buffs should have jumped to the pac 10 in the mid 90's when they had the opportunity. Good to see CU got a second chance and said "yes" this time!

Some in the media question the move. "How can the Buffs compete against the likes of USC and the other power schools of the pac 10?" (including Texas and Oklahoma if the rumored expansion comes true). I say the Buffs are sending the right message to their student body in wanting to compete at the highest level possible in college athletics.

When I graduated with honors as a Math major at CU in the late 70's it may not have happened had my adviser said to me, "Those advanced calculus courses will be too tough for you - why don't you take this college algebra class instead!" Yet that is what some CU naysayers have been saying lately on the college sports level - the pac 10 is too tough, cu can never compete, etc.

I say that's garbage. While the state of the football program isn't very good right now, I am confident Colorado can turn the program around. It's happened before. I attended many games in the early 80's when Bill McCartney was coach. In Mac's 3rd year he finished 1-10 and he was lucky to win that only game thanks to a long field goal. No one could have guessed at the time that by the end of the decade CU would win a national championship.

Mac was a once in a lifetime coach whose success is unlikely to be repeated you say? Well the program similarly rose from the ashes in the 60's. Eddie Crowder took over a scandal ridden program and led the Buffs to many good years, including a #3 in the nation finish in 1971.

The Boulder campus is such a great place to recruit to, with the most picturesque stadium in the country. All CU needs is the right coach to get the students and the state excited about Buff football again. Impact recruits will come if they know there's a chance of winning, just like they did for coach Mac and Eddie Crowder.

With the promise of a brighter future and more dollars coming in from the pac 10 deal, I am confident that Colorado can attract a top coach to replace Dan Hawkins after what I expect to be a down season in 2010.

Perhaps one day in the future we'll see something like this again from a Buff football team: