Deion Sanders and Colorado can't sleep on Texas Tech with Big 12 title dreams

Coach Prime and the Buffs need to make a statement in Lubbock

Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

It’s really simple for Coach Prime’s second band of Buffaloes. Keep winning and pray one of four opponents of Iowa State can knock off the 17th-rated Cyclones. A road game at Utah and a season-finale home encounter with No. 22 Kansas State still remain on ISU’s schedule. The Buffs need the ‘Cats, or someone else, to downgrade the Cyclones.

Two upsets cracked open the door of hope. Now, the question becomes, can the Buffs kick it wide open? Four games remain, three against conference bottom dwellers Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma State. Looming ahead in Lubbock? The Texas Tech Red Raiders coming off a shocking upset of previously unbeaten Iowa State on the road. Tech is now bowl eligible and hungry for more.

The Big 12 was advertised in preseason as one of the most unpredictable of the Power Four conferences. It was not disappointing. BYU is undefeated but still has to play at Arizona State, currently 6-2, and Utah. The Utes are down this year after losing their talented quarterback Cam Rising but would love to play the spoiler role against Colorado and BYU.

The Cougars in preseason polls were ranked 13th out of the conference’s 16 teams, two spots behind the Buffs. The preseason prognosticators whiffed on the Big 12 Conference with expected bottom dwellers in a great position to play for the championship December 7th at Jerry’s World in Dallas.

All this craziness takes the ol’ noggin back to the wild and crazy 1990 season. Hall of Fame coach Bill McCartney’s Buffs squad started 1-1-1. That was not the plan as most respected national polls expected Colorado to contend for a national title after the tragic but magical ’89 “One Heartbeat” season.

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Colorado opened the 1990 campaign with a tie against Tennessee in the Pigskin Classic. It was the “bursting out” party for future first-round NFL pick Mike Pritchard. Game two was at home against Stanford and a last-second touchdown leap from Eric Bieniemy prevented a disastrous upset. Game three was a disappointing loss at Illinois where the Buffs blew an early 17-3 lead and lost 23-22.

I’ll never forget interviewing downtrodden Buffs in a tiny and crowded locker room in Champaign, Illinois following the crushing setback. Almost every player or coach interviewed solemnly proclaimed, “We gotta forget about this ‘national championship’ talk and focus on winning the Big Eight.” It was similar to how Coach Prime and his players were after Nebraska.

Long-time Buff fans know what happened next. Colorado ripped off ten straight wins including a fifth-down officiating snafu at Missouri and beat Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl for the school’s only national championship. It was a split decision. The Buffs won the AP poll and unbeaten Georgia Tech took the UPI Coaches poll (Thanks to Tom Osborne).

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Back then there was no playoff system. Georgia Tech's ACC champion status did not preclude the Yellowjackets from taking their No. 2 ranking to the Orange Bowl to face the automatic Big 8 champion in top-ranked Colorado for a decisive title game. But the Orange Bowl committee wanted Notre Dame instead of Georgia Tech as the Buffaloes' opponent, because Notre Dame had a larger fan base and would accrue more money and better TV ratings. Money talks, then and now.

Back to the present. Watching Iowa State lose at home to Texas Tech and K-State lose on the road to Houston stirred emotions to the 1990 team. It needed help just like Prime’s team needs help now.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Texas Tech is coming off the emotional high of rallying late in Ames. Third-year coach Joey McGuire’s team will be playing before rabid home fans and would love nothing better than to deflate CU’s “incredible season” dream.

There’s others trying to deflate the team. Reportedly Coach Prime harped big time about academics this bye week. “Discipline on the field, in the classroom and everywhere else builds champions” kinda rhetoric. Reminds your scribe of McCartney again. He always talks about “Love on ‘em after a tough loss but humble them when they’re flying high.”

The Buffs are stampeding. Lady Luck has shown up too. Buff fans hope the Red Raiders don’t become CU’s dream raiders.