It’s All Gravy From Here

—

It’s All Gravy From Here

—

Welcome, Buff Nation, to Thanksgiving Week!

A week filled with traditions. A week filled with family, friends, food, and football … though not necessarily in that order.

While travel issues and family dynamics can take away from the celebration, most of us are fans of Thanksgiving – especially the food and the football.

I love a good Thanksgiving dinner. A few large slices of turkey, dressing, and mashed potatoes fill the plate (alongside a few “no thank you” helpings of whatever weird side dishes people bring over). Covering it all, of course, is a generous helping of gravy.

True confession about how much I love gravy: When I was about ten or so, I gave my mother a gravy boat for Christmas … just to make sure we had enough gravy for Christmas dinner. The gravy boat gift story has been a family favorite for years. (Make that decades, as, to this day, my sister, who hosts our Thanksgiving get together, always makes sure that “Stuart has his gravy”, happily retelling the gravy boat story for any new guests at the table).

The point of all this, as it pertains to your Colorado Buffaloes, is the saying, “It’s all gravy from here”. The accepted meaning of this phrase is that life itself is the meat and potatoes, with the “gravy” being the extras in life. The luxuries. Having the gravy to go with your meat and potatoes means there is an abundance in your life.

Well, Buff fans, as far as the remainder of CU’s 2024 season, and at least the foreseeable near future … It’s all gravy from here.

The rise of Colorado football from rags to riches in just two short years has been nothing short of a miracle.

Two years ago, CU’s November went like this … scores of 49-10, 55-17, 54-7, and 63-21 … and I don’t need to tell which side of those scores the Buffs were on.

A 1-11 season, with CU losing by an average of 29 points per game. Northwestern, the other 1-11 Power Five team that year, was second in embarrassing losses, but the Wildcats’ average loss was by 14 points per game, half of CU’s misery index.

Some of you know that, at the time, I was considering ditching CU at the Game. My labor of love had become just a labor. My plan was to see the Buffs through the hiring of the new coach, through Signing Day, through spring practices, then take the month of May, 2023, off, to see if I could step away from the website for good.

Then, CU athletic director Rick George brought Coach Prime to Boulder.

And you know the rest of the story.

The instant rise in media attention. A purging of the roster never seen before in the sport. CU’s meteoric rise to a national ranking with a 3-0 start to the Coach Prime era. Sold out stadiums. ESPN Game Day. Fox Big Noon Saturday. 60 Minutes. Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.

The 2023 season brought everything to CU that a Buff fan could have ever wished for … except wins.

CU’s 1-8 finish to the 2023 campaign gave the naysayers an entire off-season to crow about the failed experiment in Boulder. See, they howled? A team can’t be built overnight. Coach Prime is all flash and no substance. The CU experiment is fraud.

And the Colorado football team was right back where it was supposed to be – at the bottom of the rankings.

But the 2024 Buffs have flipped the narrative. Las Vegas had CU’s over/under win total in 2023 at 3.5 wins, and the Buffs barely cleared the bar at 4-8. For the 2024 season, the over/under projection was raised to 5.5 wins, with CU on the cusp of bowl eligibility.

And, if we’re being honest, that’s what most of us in the Buff Nation were hoping for three months ago … bowl eligibility. Get over that five win hump. Get to a sixth win for the first time since 2016.

Get a “Bowl for Peggy”. Get the Colorado program back to respectability.

After a closer-than-hoped for win over North Dakota State (an FCS power which went on to win its next ten games, BTW), then an embarrassing loss to Nebraska.

Two weeks into the season, the Buffs were a shaky 1-1. A 6-6 record seemed like a distant goal.

Then, the Buffs got their act together. A workmanlike 28-9 win over Colorado State was satisfying. Then, there was the miracle overtime win over Baylor. Instead of 2-2, with the Buff Nation wondering if Peggy would get her 100th birthday present, CU was 3-1, and had momentum.

A dominating 48-21 road win over Central Florida raised eyebrows, with a tough but disappointing 31-28 loss to No. 18 Kansas State leaving the Buffs at 4-2.

The 4-2 record was exactly the same as CU had at the midway point of the 2023 season, with the Buffs going on to lose every game in the second half, slumping to a 4-8 finish.

Would the 2024 Buffs meet the same fate?

Nope. Instead, the 2024 Buffs gave us a month of great memories.

— A dominating 34-7 road win over Arizona, with a 28-7 lead at halftime? Fun.

— A 34-21 win over Cincinnati, with Travis Hunter going for 153 yards and two touchdowns, including a 34-yarder just before halftime, making it a 24-14 lead at the break? Nice.

— A 41-27 road win over Texas Tech, with the Buffs rolling, out-scoring the Red Raiders 41-14 after spotting Tech a 13-0 first quarter lead. Satisfying.

— A 49-24 win over Utah. The Buffs winning in all three phases of the game, a domination over a team which had dominated Colorado since the two teams joined the the Pac-12. Sweet.

Yes, the 37-21 loss to Kansas was disappointing. The Buff defense, which had held Utah to 31 yards rushing on 30 attempts, gave up 331 yards rushing to the Jayhawks … 331! Running back Devin Neal couldn’t be stopped, with 207 yards – and three touchdowns – on 37 carries, adding another touchdown and 80 yards on four receptions. The Kansas offense scored on all of its possessions except the last … and that was a ten-play, 60-yard drive closing out the last six minutes of the game.

Yuck.

If the Jayhawks had needed to score on its eighth possession – anyone betting they wouldn’t have scored?

Now, the Buffs, who controlled their own destiny for a berth in the Big 12 title game, are now 8-3, 6-2 in conference play. A victory over Oklahoma State in the regular season finale no longer guarantees a trip to Arlington.

But it says here … Don’t worry about it.

We’ve already got the meat and potatoes, Buff fans. The rest is gravy.

The win over Cincinnati, getting the Buffs to six wins and bowl eligibility for the first time in a full season since 2016? Huge. A CU team which couldn’t take the field with five wins and leave the field with six … for eight years, finally getting that sixth win? A miracle.

The win over Texas Tech, giving the Buffs seven wins, and guaranteeing a winning season? A win getting CU back into the national polls, and into the national conversation? Delicious.

The win over Utah, a clear domination of a weaker team, a game in which the offense, defense, and special teams took turns taking it to the hated Utes? Playing before the fourth-largest crowd in Folsom Field history, on a beautiful fall day with the Fox Big Noon gang in town? Heaven.

Then, during the week leading up to the Kansas game, the Colorado football program received a HUGE gift. Five-star quarterback prospect Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, a USC commit for the past year, committed on national television to play at Colorado.

Depending on which recruiting service you pay follow, Lewis may be the highest-rated prospect to ever commit to play at Colorado. But, as we all know, it’s more than that.

With CU’s success, and with Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter soon to take their talents to the NFL, the speculation that Coach Prime would leave CU for the SEC or the NFL consumed the airwaves. The commitment of Lewis, while it doesn’t guarantee that Coach Prime will stay in Boulder (or that Lewis will either, for that matter), gives the Buff Nation fresh hope that the 2024 season won’t be like the 2016 season … an unexpected Rise for one season, only to see the program slip back to mediocrity (or worse) immediately thereafter.

Now, we not only get to enjoy the remainder of the 2024 season, but have reason to believe that success can be sustained …

Will the Buffs take out Oklahoma State, a team ranked in the preseason which will come to Boulder 0-8 in Big 12 play?

Will the Buffs have to “settle” for a trip to San Antonio, Las Vegas, or San Diego as a consolation prize if they don’t make the Big 12 title game?

Will CU fans get to enjoy Signing Day on December 4th, then sit back and watch the CU coaching staff cherry pick some of the best transfers available in the Portal?

Will the Buff Nation get to celebrate a second Heisman trophy winner, and have two Buffs taken in the top ten of the 2025 NFL draft, with a number of teammates also hearing their names call next April?

After almost two full decades of wandering the desert, the Buff Nation has found an oasis.

The loss to Kansas stings. It hurts. But it is far from the end of the story for this team.

The Buffs will regroup. The Buffs will win again this season. The Buffs will continue to set season and career records.

Living with an 8-3 team with winnable games left to play isn’t a tough assignment.

We’ve already been served our meat and potatoes, friends.

The rest is just gravy.

–

—–

This post, about the Kansas game, from the 2024 Season, is filed under Article.
You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment.