“The Money Gang” eager for challenge
The confidence was growing for the Colorado secondary with each drop of sweat that hit the grass under the sunny glare of preseason camp back in August.
The experienced unit knew it could become special on the back end of an improving Buffaloes defense, but the group wanted more. It wanted an identity.
“There is still some debate about who came up with it,” CU safety Tedric Thompson said. “We were all trying to come up with a name. What I remember is Chido (Awuzie) saying it had to be something about money, because we’re all trying to get money. I don’t remember who came up with it, but we’ve been rolling with it ever since.”
While pinpointing its exact origins may require deeper investigation, there’s no doubting this: CU would not be playing for the Pac-12 championship against Washington on Friday without the impact of “The Money Gang.”
Big plays by the CU secondary bring a celebration of the mock tossing of dollar bills toward the players who produce them by fellow “Money Gang” members. Yes, safeties Thompson and Afolabi Laguda and cornerbacks Awuzie, Ahkello Witherspoon and Isaiah Oliver all harbor NFL dreams, but the “money” move, they said, is more about collective bonding than it is a celebration of individual highlights.
“It carries us to have an identity on the field,” Thompson said. “As an entire defense, we feel like a group. But on the back end, we feel like having an iden- tity that people know us by is truly a blessing, and it brought that bond closer.”
“When you throw the money in the air, it falls everywhere,” Witherspoon added. “So that’s just showing love for each other. It’s not just one person who is going to have the money falling on him.”
The Pac-12 title game is a battle of the league’s best defenses, with both having among the country’s best secondaries. CU’s group is in for an especially stiff test against Washington sophomore quarterback Jake Browning, the Pac-12 offensive player of the year, and his cadre of talented playmakers.
Browning’s favorite target is John Ross III, a wide receiver who has overcome two major knee injuries to become one of the nation’s most explosive players. Ross has 72 receptions for 1,072 yards and 16 touchdowns this season, and he’s averaging nearly 15 yards per grab.
The speed of Ross, a former defensive back, presents problems for a defense that must also account for a strong running game and sure-handed receivers such as Dante Pettis.
“We just have to do what we’ve done all year,” Oliver said. “Get hands on him, disrupt routes, disrupt timing. That throws off some of the deep routes and the long balls that happen. That’s what we’re going to focus on.”
CU has held each of the last three starting quarterbacks it has faced — and six overall this season — to less than a 50 percent completion rate. That includes Washington State quarterback Luke Falk, who had trouble finding seams in the secondary in the second half of CU’s win over the Cougars.
Browning, an accurate passer whom CU coach Mike MacIntyre said can hit receivers “on the dime,” presents a bigger challenge. Then again, it’s not just the name that gives “The Money Gang” its identity.
“They’re really good across the board,” Washington coach Chris Petersen said. “They’ve got good safeties, long corners. They challenge you and press you a lot. There’s a lot of similarities to us.”