Winning close games key to Buffs’ success

LOS ANGELES» During the past few years, the Colorado football team has experienced the sometimes razor-thin difference between winning and losing.

In their 10-4 season in 2016, the Buffs went 4-1 in games decided by 10 points or less. In 2015 and 2017, when they went a combined 9-16, they were 3-7 in those games.

“It’s a lot more fun to be in first place than down where we were (last year),” Buffs coach Mike MacIntyre said during Pac-12 media day Wednesday. “It all goes back to winning the close games. You hear coaches talk about that all the time. We lost a lot of good players the year before, and so we played some guys out there that were a little bit newer. We just didn’t quite make enough situational plays in some games.”

Looking ahead to this season, MacIntyre said he’s encouraged by the fact that the Buffs have experience at key positions.

“We have a lot of experience in the areas that make that happen — quarterback, our kicking game,” he said. “Our punter’s back, our kicker’s back, our kickoff guy is back, our long snapper. Those guys make strategic changes in field position, make a winning field goal, team has momentum. So those things are small factors that end up being big factors in close games.”

Rivalry renewed.

CU’s Sept. 8 visit to Nebraska was a common topic for the Buffs at media day. It will be the first time since 2010 that the former Big 12 rivals have met on the football field.

While it’s a game that has the fans excited, the current players aren’t familiar with it and aren’t focused on the Cornhuskers.

“I don’t know too much about it,” linebacker Rick Gamboa said. “I just know that I’ve been told multiple times I shouldn’t be wearing red on campus.”

Quarterback Steven Montez said he’s looking forward to the atmosphere in Lincoln, but added, “As of right now, we’re not really focused on Nebraska. We’re focused on fall camp and then we’re going to be focused on Colorado State.”