FB COACHES TALK ZONE-READ SCHEMES

For the first time since he took over leadership of the Colorado football program, coach Mike MacIntyre has moved away from downplaying expectations for his team and allowed himself to believe in a bowl game.

Let’s be clear: MacIntyre is not making any predictions. But he does believe his team is capable of winning enough games in the regular season this fall to qualify for the postseason, and the fact that he is willing to acknowledge it is a major step forward from the past two seasons, in which he focused his comments and aspirations simply on improving on a daily basis.

The Buffs went 2-10 last season and didn’t win a single conference game (0-9), but they were within a touchdown of six conference opponents in the fourth quarter and lost twice in double overtime. Those experiences and a good offseason have the Buffs and their coach believing they can make a significant jump in the win column. “We definitely want to win games, and I definitely believe we will,” MacIntyre said. “I don’t put a number on that. The close games we were in last year, I know for a fact, we won’t lose them all this year.”

They will need to win some of those games if they expect to get to the postseason for the first time since 2007. CU is playing a 13game schedule, without a bye week, beginning with a trip to Hawaii on Sept. 3. The extra game means CU will have to win seven games to become bowl eligible.

The process of getting there moves into the preseason phase Wednesday when players hit the practice field for the first day of fall camp. The Buffs are scheduled to practice 29 times before their first game, with six of those sessions (Aug. 5,6, 7, 8, 15 and 21) open to the media and public.

These are just some of the most significant issues to be addressed and questions to be answered by kickoff time in Honolulu.