FanNation

Mike4redsox: GO BIG RED! said 06/18, 10:18 AM
I'll go over here, mostly because I'm a Big 12 guy, but I know I can make a great argument for them.

The Buffaloes are coming off of a .500 year. This is a team that made it to the Independence Bowl and almost beat Alabama, led by a freshman quaterback. Cody Hawkins is returning most of his offensive weapons, plus they have one of the best running backs in this incoming recruiting class. Darrell Scott, should fill up his potential and shine for the Buffs this year.

The Buffs do have a pretty tough schedule for the sleeper team in the Big 12. Though they don't play Oklahoma or Texas Tech this year, they have Mizzouri, Kansas, and Nebraska all on the road. Plus they play West Virginia and Florida State slated in nonconference play. Out of these 5 games I see them winning 2 of them.

The Buffaloes are also pretty great at defense. They have great depth on the D-Line and in the Secondary, the only problem here is that they lost two great linebackers in Jordan Dizon, and Jake Duren who was dismissed from the team.

I see the Buffs getting 7 wins with strong play from Cody Hawkins, and a big win in the conference schedule.

Mike4redsox: GO BIG RED! said 06/18, 11:31 AM
Nice call, lets' make it an over under 7.5 games then, but here's why I set the bar so low.

Schedule strength...

Let's see they play Mizzouri, Kansas, and Nebraska, all Big 12 North opponents, on the road this year. Mizzouri and Kansas are both Big 12 title threats, and CU almost lost to Nebraska last year at home. I can see them losing all of these games, and if winning any I'd say they win the Nebraska game.

They also play West Virginia and Florida St in their non-conference schedule, and I think they can beat Florida St. but West Virginia is a stretch. Pat White will run all over this Linebacking core that Colorado has. So add that to the 2 losses to Mizzouri and Kansas, that's 3 losses already, plus there's no guarantee they beat Nebraska and Florida St, so that's potentialy 4 to 5 losses.

They also play Texas, a team they haven't beat for who knows how long, and they play Texas A&M in College Station, one of the toughest places to play in the college football world. And who says Kansas State can't beat the Buffs, they did last year by 27. So when you look at their schedule strength, they could go anywhere from 3-7 losses this year with Cody Hawkins' inconsistency.

Mike4redsox: GO BIG RED! said 06/19, 08:55 AM
Well, in both ways I'm sort of right with those statements. Hawkins was great against teams like Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, but then struggled against Kansas State, Iowa State, and Arizona State. This guy hasn't proved to anyone yet that he can play a whole year without making a lot of mistakes. Maybe it was just freshman jitters, but one thing's for sure, if he can't prove to me or anyone that he is consistent, then Colorado gets no more than 7 wins.

Another thing that has me worried about this CU team is their Linebacking core. They lost two STARTING LB's on a core that wasn't that great without them. Now that they're gone, this defense is screwed without a LB that can lead the defense that also lost CB Terrence Wheatley. So the defense also has problems which will prevent them from getting more than 7 wins.

Colorado won't beat Mizzouri, I'll bet that on my life, it's in Columbia, Chase freakinDaniel is still playing, and they also have a heisman candidate in Jeremy Maclin. I agree that WV will be slowly declining, but you forgot one person that will make them have a good year, PAT WHITE, he;ll run all over this LBless crew. The Kansas game is in Lawrence so rock-chalk