With their season seemingly on the line this past weekend, Colorado football players took inspiration from an old saying.
“Our pastor gave a great message (Friday) night,” CU linebacker Jeremiah Brown said after a 24-17 win against then-No. 22 Iowa State on Saturday at Folsom Field. “He talked about pressure and how you respond to it. He talked about how pressure makes diamonds.
“The team, we all rallied behind that, and boy, the unity was great last night. We all just believed, so that was a great message.”
CU (3-4, 1-3 Big 12) took the pressure that had been building through the first half of the season and put together its most complete effort in beating Iowa State.
Throughout a 2-4 start, the Buffs lost close games to three quality opponents (Georgia Tech, BYU and TCU), failing to hold late leads.
Saturday was a similar test and the Buffs passed it finally. It was the type of performance that could be a springboard into the final five games, starting with an Oct. 25 trip to No. 23 Utah.
“I hate to say it’s one win that can turn it around,” CU head coach Deion Sanders said. “We should have been winning, and we’re still upset with that. The locker room has a different vibe today, and it’s a different challenge given at the conclusion of the matter, but we’re better than what our record says.”
No question the Buffs lament missed opportunities in previous games, but there was some pressure alleviated with how they finished Saturday’s game. Trailing 17-14 midway through the third quarter, the Buffs outscored the Cyclones 10-0 the rest of the way.
“We played really good as a team this week,” quarterback Kaidon Salter said. “Just the rough season we’ve been having, and we got a bye week next week. It’s way better to sit going into a bye week with a win instead of a loss, and just having that on your mind.
“I just felt like we went out there and we executed the game plan. We can always get better, but a win is a win, and I’m just excited that we got this win.”
CU is off this week and will no doubt use the down time for players to get healthy. The confidence it gained Saturday will help, however.
“That game just instilled a lot more hope into us, especially going out there and winning versus a top 25 team to show that we can,” Brown said. “We’re always close. With good teams, we’re always close with, but we never finish. Today showed that we can finish, and the team will take that into the bye week, and we’ll keep pushing forward.”
Right guard Zy Crisler agreed, feeling this could be the type of result that turns the tide for the Buffs.
“It could be. It will be,” Crisler said. “We’re gonna take this bye week, recover and try to get everybody back. And next we’re gonna try to go 1-0.”
CU, of course, has a long way to go. To reach bowl eligibility, the Buffs have to go 3-2 down the stretch, with a schedule that includes not only Utah (5-1), but Arizona (4-2), Arizona State (4-2) and a Kansas State team (3-4) that has four losses by a combined 13 points and is a last-second field goal away from a three-game win streak. The Buffs can’t count a trip to West Virginia (2-4) as an easy one, either.
Saturday’s win was much-needed and it certainly changed the mood in the locker room, but Sanders knows his team can’t rest on this one.
“We should have been doing that the last four weeks,” he said. “We shouldn’t be sitting up here with a plethora of losses. We should be sitting up here with a steering wheel in the driver’s seat talking like a boss right now. That’s how we should be.
“Unfortunately, we hadn’t been getting it together like we did today. But thank God we did, and hopefully today is the genesis of us getting things going the right direction, and truly believing that we can.”
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