Redemption on minds of Buffs
Colorado brings a three-game skid into Tucson on Friday night, when the Buffaloes face Arizona and a familiar face in Wildcats quarterback Khalil Tate.
The short week allows for one less day for the Buffs (5-3, 2-3 Pac-12) to prepare for the junior, who ran for an FBS quarterback rushing record 327 yards against Mike MacIntyre’s squad last year.
“We all vividly remember him running wild against us, there’s no doubt about it,” Colorado head coach MacIntyre said. “When I turned on the tape and saw 14 (Tate) I definitely had nightmares. He’s a great athlete.”
MacIntyre doesn’t envision any bad dreams slowing his team’s preparation this week for Arizona (4-5, 3-3 Pac-12), a squad coming off a 44-15 upset of No. 19 Oregon.
“We want to come out swinging,” MacIntyre said.
“You need to have a chip on your shoulder and come out hungry. Our guys have that and are doing a good job of keeping that attitude around the entire team. The attitude is still come of swinging. That has to be our attitude this week.”
It also helps that Tate has been slowed by an ankle injury this season, prior to leading Arizona past Oregon last week — in which they outgained the Ducks 465 yards to 270.
While Tate appears to be rediscovering the form that led to preseason Heisman Award whispers, Colorado has undoubtedly struggled without 2018 Maxwell Award semifinalist Laviska Shenault Jr. The sophomore leads the nation with a 130.0 receiving yards per game but hasn’t seen the field since injuring his toe against Southern California, the beginning of the Buffs’ three-game skid.
Colorado — which won its first five games of the year for the first time since 1998 and rose to No. 19 in the AP Top 25 — is coming off a tough loss, in which the Buffs blew a 31-3 lead in the second half to Oregon State during homecoming in Boulder.
“We kind of internalized it, understood what happened, and got right back to work,” MacIntyre said.
“The attitude that has been circulating the team has been a pretty good attitude to have. It’s been the same attitude we’ve had all year long. Oregon State is over now. What happened, happened. We have another game coming up and we have to focus on UA now. That is what our focus has been on.”