Cal Football: First Look at Colorado Buffaloes

Bears trek to Boulder next Saturday to face the winless Buffs, led by a new coach.

Cal had the past week off to sort out its issues in the wake of a 28-9 loss to Washington State.

Colorado’s bye week was far more tumultuous.

The Bears (3-2, 1-1 Pac-12) trek this week to Boulder, Colorado, where on Saturday they face a Buffaloes’ team (0-5, 0-2) with a new interim coaching staff following a perfectly unsuccessful start to their season.

Colorado fired coach Karl Dorrell and defensive coordinator Chris Wilson a week ago following the Buffs’ latest show of ineptitude, a 43-20 loss to an Arizona team that Cal beat 49-31 the week before.

Kickoff Saturday at Folsom Field is 11 a.m. PT. The game will be aired on the Pac-12 Networks.

CU has been the Pac-12’s worst team so far this season, and the Arizona game showed it’s not even close.

How effectively they may be able to regroup under interim coach Mike Sanford, previously their offensive coordinator, is unknowable. But through five games, the numbers are grim.

Colorado ranks last in the Pac-12 in each of the following statistical categories:

Points: 13.4 per game

Points allowed: 43.2 per game

Total yards: 277.0

Yards allowed: 508.8

Quarterback completion accuracy: 51 percent

Defensive interceptions: 1

Third-down efficiency: 26.9 percent

Opponent third-down efficiency: 57.4 percent

This has added up to a season in which Colorado has come no closer to any opponent than 23 points. The Buffs have surrendered at least 38 points in every game.

Cal fans will recall the Bears taking a swing and a miss a year against Arizona, then the Pac-12’s most feeble team. The Wildcats won 10-3 in Tucson.

The circumstances here are significantly different. First of all, Cal isn’t expected to travel without 24 players, as it was a year ago when COVID-19 protocols stripped the roster of key players, including starting quarterback Chase Garbers.

Secondly, Arizona — as bad as it was — was not scrambling after a mid-season coaching change.

Sanford, 40, takes over after running the CU offense for the past five games. He is a former Boise State quarterback, served as a Stanford assistant from 2011-13, was an offensive coordinator for Boise, Notre Dame, Utah State and Minnesota, and compiled a two-year record of 9-16 as head coach at Western Kentucky (2017-18).

Sanford told reporters in Colorado he’s not viewing this interim assignment as a potential audition for the permanent job.

“No. 1, I’m looking this at this nothing about candidacy and all about players, all about these young men in front of me,” he said. “If I make it about something that it’s not today, then I think that you start worrying about the wrong things.

“I think the most important thing is getting these players to believe, getting these players to realize that they are capable of doing things that they haven’t done yet this season. That’s my job right now.”

Sanford said the Buffaloes will continue to pursue what every team does — a bowl berth.

"We have not been eliminated from any postseason to this point, and it all starts with having a fantastic bye week," Sanford said. "These players haven't quit. They have shown nothing but fight. This is a fresh start."

Defensive line coach Gerald Chatman was named the interim defensive coordinator — his first time in that role at any level.

Freshman quarterback Owen McCown / Photo by Ivan Pierre Aguirre, USA Today

The Buffaloes expect to be quarterbacked by Owen McCown, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound true freshman, who is the son of former NFL quarterback Josh McCown. He started the past two games for CU.

McCown is the team’s third starting quarterback this season, and has completed just under 56 percent of his pass attempts for 496 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.

He made his starting debut against UCLA in a 45-17 defeat, completing 26 of 42 passes for 258 yards with a touchdown, an interception and a lost fumble. He also ran for a touchdown.

“Surprisingly, I really wasn’t that nervous,” McCown said. “I felt more excitement. I felt like I got into a rhythm early and settled down. I thought I played good, just not good enough. I got too greedy coming out in the second half and that hurt the offense.”

McCown now will work up-close with Clay Patterson, promoted from tight ends coach to interim coordinator. He has never run an offense for an FBS program.

“I have a great trust and respect for (Patterson),” Sanford said. “He hasn’t done it the easy way – Division II, NAIA, JC football – but the one thing that was constant with coach Patterson was his team scored points; scored a lot of points.

“We obviously know that we have a long ways to go and I own that.”

Patterson said he plans no drastic changes in approach.

“We’re gonna run our offense; this is our offense,” he said.

But he does hope to adjust the players’ outlook. “Football sometimes becomes not fun,” he said. “We want these kids to have fun playing football again.”

The Buffaloes’ leading ground gainer is junior Deion Smith, who has rushed for 195 yards at 5.7 yards per clip through five games. But the hot hand right now may be freshman Anthony Hankerson, who rushed for more than 3,400 yards with 43 touchdowns during his career at St. Thomas Aquinas High in Florida. Hankerson gained 68 yards in the Arizona game.

Fifth-year senior Alex Fontenot, the team’s most experienced running back, has missed the past three games due to a chest injury.

Things are at least as bad on the defensive side.

The Buffaloes have allowed at least 50 points in each quarter so far, and opponents are averaging 6.7 yards per rush and 12.6 yards per pass completion.

The Boulder Daily Camera wrote this about the CU defense:

If there was a perceived strength of the 2022 Buffs going into the season, it was a deep and experienced defensive front. But that group isn’t a strength, and it’s not even close.

Chatman, the new DC, said he intends to change “traits,” not scheme,

“An outside eye could look and they ask the question, ‘Do these guys believe?’ I think that what we need to change and what we’re going to change is to the outside eye, you’re not going to have to ask that question,” Chatman said. “You’re going to look at the team and say that they believe.”

Athletic director Rick George said Colorado can be as good as it wants to be.

"This place can be and will be a football powerhouse. We have the facilities. We have the location. We have the programs,” he said. “We have everything that we need to be successful on the football field.”

Colorado media outlets have compiled early lists of potential head coach candidates. Among the names out there are Utah State head coach Blake Anderson, UNLV coach Marcus Arroyo, Air Force coach Troy Calhoun, North Dakota State coach Matt Entz, Baylor offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes, USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and Auburn head coach (and former Boise State coach) Bryan Harsin.

One name familiar to Cal fans is Troy Taylor, the one-time Golden Bears quarterback star, who now is head coach at Sacramento State. Here’s what the Daily Camera wrote last week about Taylor:

The engineer of high-powered offenses, Taylor finally got a head coaching opportunity in 2019 at Sac State. In his two full seasons (the 2020 season was canceled), he led the Hornets to two conference titles and he was Big Sky coach of the year both times. This year, his team is 4-0 (for the first time since 1982) and ranked No. 5 in the FCS. He was Utah’s offensive coordinator from 2017-18 and spent one year (1995) as a graduate assistant at CU.

Taylor’s Hornets are now 5-0 after beating Northern Colorado 55-7. Sac State is averaging 47.6 points per game at the FCS level.

Cover photo of Colorado receiver being crushed by the UCLA defense by Ron Chenoy, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo