Overall, the 2024 Colorado football team exceeded the expectations of pretty much everyone who doesn’t have an office or a locker in the CU Champions Center.

Las Vegas set the bar at 5.5 wins for the season. The Big 12 media picked the Buffs to finish 11th.

Now, even after 36-14 a blowout loss to BYU in the Alamo Bowl, leaving CU with a five-game losing streak in bowls, a 20-year drought since the Buffs’ last bowl victory, and an 0-4 all-time record in San Antonio, there are positives to consider.

Don’t get me wrong, losing another bowl game – and another Alamo Bowl – in embarrassing fashion, is not to be discounted. The deficits along CU’s offensive line, from failing to generate a rushing attack to failing to protect the quarterback, were again painfully obvious. CU hasn’t won a bowl game since 2004, and has now been mauled in three straight Alamo Bowls.

It sucks.

Buff fans are licking their wounds after another disappointing postseason effort, but those wounds will heal.

For only the second time in the past 20 seasons, there is reason to believe that the CU program is not only good … but has the ability to stay that way.