The Colorado Buffaloes are heading down the homestretch, and if they want any chance of playing in a bowl game this season, they need to take care of business against the USC Trojans in their final home game of the year.
That won’t be easy, though, as the 6-3 Trojans are 16-point favorites over the 4-6 Buffs. And given that the Buffs have lost five of their last six games, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone picking CU for the upset. That said, crazier things have happened, right?
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s run down the five things you need to know before CU takes on USC:
It’s on Friday and it’ll be on ESPN2
Whatever you do, don’t wake up on Saturday morning expecting to watch the Buffaloes; you will have already missed it.
Once again, the University of Colorado will be playing a night game, but this time the Buffs will be nationally televised on ESPN2 Friday night. So go kickoff your weekend right, with a big game at Folsom.
Kicking it into high gear
The Stanford Cardinal absolutely dominated the Buffaloes’ offense. After running a school-record 114 plays against UCLA the week before, the Buffs only totaled 53 offensive snaps against the stout Cardinal defense. Not only is that the fewest snaps the Buffs have run since 2012, when Stanford held CU to just 44, but the game-to-game drop off (61) was the largest in program history.
Safe to say, that’s not how the Buffs want to run their offense.
Through nine games, Mike MacIntyre’s team was fifth in the nation averaging 82.9 plays per game. If they want to compete with USC, they’ll have to get back to that style of play.
When the Buffs score, they score quickly
As detailed before, the Buffs love to run as many offensive plays as possible, using tempo and quick passes to move up and down the field. But when the Buffs are most successful, they’re moving towards the end zone in chunks.
Of the Buffs 32 touchdown drives this season, 51.6 percent of them have taken two minutes or less (12th highest in the nation). And on those drives, the Buffs averaged an outstanding 9.1 yards per play.
So when this offense gets into a groove, they’re virtually unstoppable. The issue, though, is finding and keeping that groove.
Shay Fields is joining elite company
Sophomore wideout Shay Fields may still be the Buffs No. 2 wideout, but he’s quickly placing himself in an elite conversation.
Against UCLA two weekends ago, Fields surpassed 1,000 yards for his career, making him the fourth fastest Buffalo wide receiver to ever reach that mark.
Fields’ outstanding second season in Boulder was highlighted by two straight 100-yard games against Arizona State and Arizona back in October. Unfortunately, he injured his ankle late in the Arizona game and has had a hard time finding his way back onto the field. After missing the Buffs’ victory against Oregon State, Fields returned against UCLA but wasn’t able to finish the game after re-injuring his ankle.
Fields is still listed as questionable for this Friday’s game against the Trojans, but according to quarterback Sefo Liufau, he believes his star wideout will be on the field.
History is not on the Buffaloes’ side
Since their first matchup on Nov. 12, 1927, the USC Trojans have won all nine games against the CU Buffaloes, and in a convincing fashion, too.
In fact, the only time the Buffs were within one score of the Trojans was back in 2000, when the game ended at 14-17. Otherwise, CU has fallen to USC by an average of 25 points in each of their matchups.
That said, this will be the first time the Buffs will face an unranked USC team since that first game back in 1927. So there’s that.