MCCAFFREY READY FOR DEBUT AGAINST CU
Ed Mccaffrey’s honeymoon, 20 months and counting, has already lasted longer than three of Elizabeth Taylor’s marriages.
“A lot of my teammates went to CU, so I have to hear from them leading up to the game,” the former Broncos wideout and Valor Christian boss said with a grin when asked about his long-awaited — and we’re talking seriously long, here — debut as the football coach of the UNC Bears.
“Hopefully, I don’t hear from them after the game.”
Mccaffrey hasn’t lost a tilt, officially, since the 2019 Class 5A quarterfinals against Columbine. That was the last game of his second season at Valor, and only his second setback in 26 contests.
A few weeks after that, in early December, Eddie Mac shocked the world by jumping to Greeley to take the Northern Colorado head coaching gig. Meanwhile, a virus dubbed COVID-19 was starting to get frisky, and you know the rest of that sordid tale already.
“Honestly, we’re not through the woods yet,” Mccaffrey said of his Bears, who took a ’Rona timeout in 2020. “I don’t know how it’s going to play out this season (with the coronavirus). I do know that the players that are suiting up and practicing, the ones that will play, are really excited just to play football again.”
The Buffs — who’ll host Mccaffrey’s Bears on Friday in the season-opener for both schools — charmed us all last fall in a fun, throwback sort of way. Steve Addazio’s CSU Rams only played four times in 2020 to cap off the strangest five months in recent program history.
And yet among the college football narratives cranking up along the Front Range this fall, none are more fascinating, potentially, than the fate of the UNC Bears.
This could be spectacular.
This could be a disaster. A stroke of inspiration or complete insanity.
The coach is a Mccaffrey. The offensive coordinator is a Mccaffrey (Max, Ed’s son). The starting quarterback is expected to be a Mccaffrey (Dylan, another of Ed’s kids, a Michigan transfer).
In early August 2019, the future head coach and defensive coordinator were tutoring highschool kids. At the same time, the future offensive coordinator was taking part in the San Francisco 49ers’ training camp — as a wide receiver.
“Max was blessed to play for several different NFL teams, so he’s got a lot of good experiences with some great coaches and great teammates,” Ed said. “He brings a level of experience that we wouldn’t otherwise have to our coaching staff.”
He’s also 27, and pushing bigboy buttons for the first time.
For the Mccaffreys and for
UNC, it’s one massive, shared leap of faith.
The experts think they’re all destined to land on their collective backsides. Big Sky coaches pegged the Bears to finish 13th out of 13 league squads. The media picked them 12th.
Of the 23 signees Mccaffrey added during the 2020-21 recruiting cycle, eight were transfers. The Bears’ preseason roster features 18 guys who used to play at FBS schools.
Even the staff is in flux. UNC this past spring parted ways with veteran offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin and recruiting coordinator Lyle Moevao before they’d even coached in a regularseason contest. Moevao eventually joined San Jose State as a defensive analyst.
“Yeah, well, I’m excited that I
already have a coaching tree of coaches that went on and got promotions at other schools,” Mccaffrey said of the turnover. “We had a coach that took a head coaching job and we had another that got an offensive line job at a bigger school and he gets paid a lot more money. And I can’t blame them — they’re taking care of their families, taking advantage of opportunities.
“Every year, coaching staffs change. I mean, hardly any stay the same, whether you play games or not.”
And no honeymoon lasts forever. On paper, CU should be able to pick the score.
Then again, remember Montana
State in 2006? Dan Hawkins’ debut to forget? Buffs QB James Cox completed just eight passes on 22 attempts. CU lost 19-10 to the FCS Bobcats, a day that would portend a 2-10 campaign.
These Buffs are better. How much better remains to be seen. For CU, UNC is more a mental test than a physical one. A date with No. 6 Texas A&M at Mile High looms for Week 2, a national television showcase. Which makes the Bears your classic no-win deal — zero karma for running up the score, fingerpointing and guffaws from the Rams crowd if it’s closer than two touchdowns.
“We’ve seen David-goliath games before, where every now and again, David connects and wins the game,” Mccaffrey said of the Buffs. “And we expect to win every game.”
Second-year coach Karl Dorrell, Mccaffrey’s position coach with the Broncos from 2000-02, has had his guys breaking down Valor tape from a few seasons back. Other than a pair of scrimmages a few months back, the Bears are a blank slate.
“A lot of our guys grew up in Colorado and didn’t receive offers from CU, and they know that,” Mccaffrey continued. “They’re going against some of the kids they played against in high school, and some of their teams beat the other players’ teams in high school. But this isn’t high school anymore, it’s college. The (Buffs) are FBS and we’re FCS.
“But we have some really, really talented players on our team that expect to perform well on this stage. And our team, as a whole, expects to win this football game.”
Like we said: Genius. Or insanity. Football, like love, is a funny business. And some marriages are so crazy, they just might work.