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Season predictions
- Thread starter Unleash Hell
- Start date
CSU: Win - We don't consider this a rivalry but they sure do. I always think this game is important as it sets the pace for the season. Personally, I would be disappointed with any win of less than two TD's. Boo Boo guided them to a 7-5 record last year but they have lost a lot through graduation and attrition according to what I read. If the Buffs are really taking the next step it should start with a big win here.
Idaho St: Win - How badly should the Buffs beat a team from the Big Sky conference that only won two games last year? This should be a clear cut rout. A loss here and HCMM is on his way out.
@ Michigan: Loss - Once Hairball gets all his pieces in place this team won't lose much and that could be this year. We stand a better chance vs the Ducks than we do the boys from Ann Arbor
@ Oregon: Loss - Closer than we have been, but there is still too much speed out there for the Buffs to handle. Outside chance of a signature upset here if our defense can get in the head of their QB.
Oregon St: Win - I think this will be a fight but the Buffs come out on top. We need this win as a positive in the middle of three losses.
@USC: Loss - Too many horses. I don't think Helton will be the solution for SC in the future but there is still too much talent on this team for the Buffs to beat.
Arizona St: Win - Finally get over the hump with ASU
@ Stanford: Loss - Away game and we just don't match up well with this powerhouse. McCaffery will run all over us like he does everyone else and I always hate to see a Colorado kid do well against the Buffs. I hit a personal season low here.
UCLA: Win - Upset win. We have come close and finally get the job done. Personal season high at this point.
@ Arizona: Loss - Too much jubilation in the win over UCLA and the Buffs take one on the chin that they could have won. How bad the loss is will determine how much I will be sweating that last win for bowl eligibility.
Washington St: Win - We have done well against the Pirate in the past and I think having Chiv on board will help little against Cougs as well.
Utah: Win - Tough game, but I think we win at home and get our bowl game and finish out a solid recruiting class.
Other thoughts:
Although we have a veteran team I think we will see a lot of playing time from some of our true freshmen and redshirts as well. Too much talent to keep off the field and we always seem to have some key injuries at the worst time they could happen.
Not trying to be a downer here, but here are the facts on recovery from a Lisfranc injury from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons: "Some athletes never return to their pre-injury levels of sport after these injuries. Despite excellent surgical reduction and fixation, arthritis may occur from the damage to the cartilage. This may result in chronic pain and may require fusion in the future." It would not surprise me to see Sefo miss some time from this injury because of soreness or a precautionary measure. Montez will play and be better than most here expect him to be. We will still get to a bowl with Montez starting a game or two. FWIW - I really want to be wrong about this one. Sefo has been a loyal Buff, one of the best ever and I want this to be a huge year for him.
Way early but -
I like Sefo, Fields or Winfree as offensive MVP
and Oliver, Tupuo or Lewis for defensive MVP
Freshmen impact players - Huntley, Julmisse, Maka, Bisharat and Udoffia
We will like what we see from - Lynott, Montez, Keeney, Kinney, and Jackson this year
Callahan and Adkins will have better seasons than most expect them to. The talent is there and they will finally get their head and their heart in to what they are doing.
Pointless disclaimer - There is no research or empirical evidence to support any of this. It is pure conjecture and gut feeling.
Idaho St: Win - How badly should the Buffs beat a team from the Big Sky conference that only won two games last year? This should be a clear cut rout. A loss here and HCMM is on his way out.
@ Michigan: Loss - Once Hairball gets all his pieces in place this team won't lose much and that could be this year. We stand a better chance vs the Ducks than we do the boys from Ann Arbor
@ Oregon: Loss - Closer than we have been, but there is still too much speed out there for the Buffs to handle. Outside chance of a signature upset here if our defense can get in the head of their QB.
Oregon St: Win - I think this will be a fight but the Buffs come out on top. We need this win as a positive in the middle of three losses.
@USC: Loss - Too many horses. I don't think Helton will be the solution for SC in the future but there is still too much talent on this team for the Buffs to beat.
Arizona St: Win - Finally get over the hump with ASU
@ Stanford: Loss - Away game and we just don't match up well with this powerhouse. McCaffery will run all over us like he does everyone else and I always hate to see a Colorado kid do well against the Buffs. I hit a personal season low here.
UCLA: Win - Upset win. We have come close and finally get the job done. Personal season high at this point.
@ Arizona: Loss - Too much jubilation in the win over UCLA and the Buffs take one on the chin that they could have won. How bad the loss is will determine how much I will be sweating that last win for bowl eligibility.
Washington St: Win - We have done well against the Pirate in the past and I think having Chiv on board will help little against Cougs as well.
Utah: Win - Tough game, but I think we win at home and get our bowl game and finish out a solid recruiting class.
Other thoughts:
Although we have a veteran team I think we will see a lot of playing time from some of our true freshmen and redshirts as well. Too much talent to keep off the field and we always seem to have some key injuries at the worst time they could happen.
Not trying to be a downer here, but here are the facts on recovery from a Lisfranc injury from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons: "Some athletes never return to their pre-injury levels of sport after these injuries. Despite excellent surgical reduction and fixation, arthritis may occur from the damage to the cartilage. This may result in chronic pain and may require fusion in the future." It would not surprise me to see Sefo miss some time from this injury because of soreness or a precautionary measure. Montez will play and be better than most here expect him to be. We will still get to a bowl with Montez starting a game or two. FWIW - I really want to be wrong about this one. Sefo has been a loyal Buff, one of the best ever and I want this to be a huge year for him.
Way early but -
I like Sefo, Fields or Winfree as offensive MVP
and Oliver, Tupuo or Lewis for defensive MVP
Freshmen impact players - Huntley, Julmisse, Maka, Bisharat and Udoffia
We will like what we see from - Lynott, Montez, Keeney, Kinney, and Jackson this year
Callahan and Adkins will have better seasons than most expect them to. The talent is there and they will finally get their head and their heart in to what they are doing.
Pointless disclaimer - There is no research or empirical evidence to support any of this. It is pure conjecture and gut feeling.
If we somehow win 8 next year, the roof is going to blow off this mother. National relevance plus new facilities plus finding religion with recruiting equals WE'RE BACK!
iSmellChip
Well-Known Member
Agree but I think we can snag a win against WSU at home .
CSU: Win. Hopefully we find something that works early on and dont show all our cards before game 3. The trials and trevails of this time have been hashed out here already.
Idaho St: Win. Conservative play calling and we still win.
My suspicion is we will be in a position to win one of these two...
@ Michigan: Unknown but lean to Mich win. Hawaii and UCF before us will be easy for them and maybe lull a false sense of confidence. Is UM under talented? Or just an under performer before Harbaugh? They might look past us to the PSU and Wisc games. Maybe we can throw in some surprises. UM will break in a new QB (Harbaugh hasnt named one yet) and their LBs were considered slow. They return most of the OL so running is apparently their strength and with a new QB I suspect there will be a lot of that.
@ Oregon: Unknown but Winnable. The starting QB is an FCS transfer from Mt State? Oregon also has new OC (Matt Lubick) and a new QB coach as well as a new DC (Brady Hoke) who has the challenge of fixing a defense that ranks 100th and gives up 37.5 points per game last year (sound familiar?). They open with UC Davis, Virginia, and at Nebraskå where they are likely to get exposed. If their offense is sluggish and their defense is still poor we could get a win.
Oregon St: Win
@USC: Loss
Arizona St: Winnable. ASU breaks in a new QB, the first time a Todd Graham recruited QB will be the starter. Add in a new OC in Chip Lindsey who held the same job for two seasons at Southern Miss. Otherwise, it sounds like the Sun Devils get a lot of players back. On defense they allowed a lot of passing yards against and it doesnt sound like the questions back there are answered yet. Good position for an experienced Sr QB to be up against.
@ Stanford: Loss
UCLA: Winnable For some reason this game is always a close game. Even when it shouldnt be. We get them at altitude this time (sea level is for sissies). Injuries forced them to play some younger kids last year. They lost their two best WRs from last season. New OC coming in (Mazzone and the spread went to A&M) with a new more traditional scheme to be installed. Mora also wants the defense to switch to a 4-3. Sounds like things could be in flux early in the season. Wish we played them earlier.
Injuries become a factor by this point for someone so going in depth is pointless. Someone will be clicking on all cylinders. Or licking his wounds.
@ Arizona: Winnable. Rich Rod seems to pull the rabbit out of the hat. He's a charlatan that opens the door against himself for a win.
Washington St: Winnable. Pirate Mike has given them away in the past on the road. But I think this is a tough game. I think we should win in the end.
Utah: Winnable. They play us tough and theyve been getting better. I think we will not have an easy game but we do get them at home.
Hard to say so late in the year on any of these three.
Idaho St: Win. Conservative play calling and we still win.
My suspicion is we will be in a position to win one of these two...
@ Michigan: Unknown but lean to Mich win. Hawaii and UCF before us will be easy for them and maybe lull a false sense of confidence. Is UM under talented? Or just an under performer before Harbaugh? They might look past us to the PSU and Wisc games. Maybe we can throw in some surprises. UM will break in a new QB (Harbaugh hasnt named one yet) and their LBs were considered slow. They return most of the OL so running is apparently their strength and with a new QB I suspect there will be a lot of that.
@ Oregon: Unknown but Winnable. The starting QB is an FCS transfer from Mt State? Oregon also has new OC (Matt Lubick) and a new QB coach as well as a new DC (Brady Hoke) who has the challenge of fixing a defense that ranks 100th and gives up 37.5 points per game last year (sound familiar?). They open with UC Davis, Virginia, and at Nebraskå where they are likely to get exposed. If their offense is sluggish and their defense is still poor we could get a win.
Oregon St: Win
@USC: Loss
Arizona St: Winnable. ASU breaks in a new QB, the first time a Todd Graham recruited QB will be the starter. Add in a new OC in Chip Lindsey who held the same job for two seasons at Southern Miss. Otherwise, it sounds like the Sun Devils get a lot of players back. On defense they allowed a lot of passing yards against and it doesnt sound like the questions back there are answered yet. Good position for an experienced Sr QB to be up against.
@ Stanford: Loss
UCLA: Winnable For some reason this game is always a close game. Even when it shouldnt be. We get them at altitude this time (sea level is for sissies). Injuries forced them to play some younger kids last year. They lost their two best WRs from last season. New OC coming in (Mazzone and the spread went to A&M) with a new more traditional scheme to be installed. Mora also wants the defense to switch to a 4-3. Sounds like things could be in flux early in the season. Wish we played them earlier.
Injuries become a factor by this point for someone so going in depth is pointless. Someone will be clicking on all cylinders. Or licking his wounds.
@ Arizona: Winnable. Rich Rod seems to pull the rabbit out of the hat. He's a charlatan that opens the door against himself for a win.
Washington St: Winnable. Pirate Mike has given them away in the past on the road. But I think this is a tough game. I think we should win in the end.
Utah: Winnable. They play us tough and theyve been getting better. I think we will not have an easy game but we do get them at home.
Hard to say so late in the year on any of these three.
Last edited:
bigskybuff
Well-Known Member
I think we beat them too. I don't know the particulars of Leavitt not getting invited to join Harbaughs staff in Michigan even though he worked for him in SF, and he was known as a "college guy" according to Fazio, another assistant there. I would assume JMFL will have a little surprise for Jimbo and the players will be especially motivated to win it for him.
Idot Buff
Guest
8Jah
Well-Known Member
As I believe buffaholic mentioned a few days ago: we have nearly the identical depth chart we had a year ago. The small deltas are that we lost Spruce, Nembot and depth at safety but gained Tupou and some receiver depth - so that is more or less a wash. The oline is actually smaller on the depth chart this year (as if I ever believe depth chart data). More experience? Well...historically, returning so much experience on a losing team is NOT good.
That said I think this team wins five to seven games this year including one MAJOR top 10 upset, despite a massively good, massively under-respected Pac12 slate. The results will confirm my belief that last year's team was actually a good team with a series of bad breaks. This year is time warp, or groundhog day, or hot tub time machine, where we get a redo of 2015. We get the breaks we didn't get last time and we use our knowledge of the future to reshape our past.
Against the prognostications of the haters, Sefo will have the kind of year statistically that he had in 2014 and he will be drafted.
That said I think this team wins five to seven games this year including one MAJOR top 10 upset, despite a massively good, massively under-respected Pac12 slate. The results will confirm my belief that last year's team was actually a good team with a series of bad breaks. This year is time warp, or groundhog day, or hot tub time machine, where we get a redo of 2015. We get the breaks we didn't get last time and we use our knowledge of the future to reshape our past.
Against the prognostications of the haters, Sefo will have the kind of year statistically that he had in 2014 and he will be drafted.
Big Jim
WTF?
That is an interesting topic. It seemed to me that CU was a team that got a series of good breaks and didnt capitalize on them. Off the top of my head, here are some positive breaks that didn't help:
- Catching Hawaii when they were at there worst for coaching and talent in years. UH was so bad that the HC, Chow, was fired midseason. There is no UH on the schedule this season.
- Catching Oregon with the worst QB situation in the Pac-12. Gehrke would have been a major improvement for UO in that game. They could not move the ball, they sucked to epic proportions on offense against CU that day. This was the one heartbreak loss for me last season; the one game I felt like CU could actually pull off the epic upset while I was watching it; the one game that would have been a major breakout victory for CU that ended up being an opportunity squandered. There is no way that UO will be as poor at QB versus CU this season.
- Catching USC in major turmoil. The AD, coaching situation, and many USC players mailing it in left CU ahead through three quarters. Yet again, CU didn't capitalize on a great break. USC is not in turmoil and vulnerable because of it this season.
CU needs to overcome itself and capitalize on the good breaks they get in order to win enough games to make a bowl.
8Jah
Well-Known Member
I don't think those were good breaks at all. First UH in the first few games was not UH after injuries and them giving up. They were putting it to OSU in the first half of their second game in Columbus. Yes, we should never have lost to UH (bad summer prep), but still we probably would have won if not for a terrible call in the last seconds (that is a bad break).
Oregon was a good team no matter what - they were an awesome team with Adams. No way Gehrke is better than Lockie, even though Lockie is the exact wrong QB for Oregon's offense. We did really well against a top team even though we were playing second string due to injuries (that was a bad break).
Likewise, USC was in no less major turmoil than they have been in the past six years. If anything they were in a period of relative stability. Todd Helton was and is loved by his team. It was Helton's coaching that pulled them through and he was scared as ****e coming out of that one...go replay his presser. Absolutely no way we were lucky here. We would have been way way way better off with a drunk Sark. Nonetheless we would have won that game if Sefo hadn't broken his foot (extreme bad luck).
We had a decimated OL last last year, we had to play freshman at LB cause of injuries and most importantly Sefo separated his shoulder in the second game and was never the same. When we were actually competing you think we were just lucky. I think you are working hard to see the glass half empty.
That was a horrible butt ****ing and it was the coaches fault.
went 6-7
not sure where they come from, but **** it, we're doing it live
not sure where they come from, but **** it, we're doing it live
I think we win 5 and compete well in the others. We will beat a ranked team but lose one of the games that most are counting as a win.
6 is the imposible number this season. We either win 5 and miss a bowl or win 6 and win the bowl easily giving us 7. If we get to a bowl it will either be against an also ran from another conference who is disappointed to be there or against a G5 school who doesn't have our talent. After as long as the Buffs haven't been in a bowl they will be focused on winning like you rarely see outside of the playoff level bowls.
6 is the imposible number this season. We either win 5 and miss a bowl or win 6 and win the bowl easily giving us 7. If we get to a bowl it will either be against an also ran from another conference who is disappointed to be there or against a G5 school who doesn't have our talent. After as long as the Buffs haven't been in a bowl they will be focused on winning like you rarely see outside of the playoff level bowls.
8Jah
Well-Known Member
That is totally what I think will happen too.
I look at the schedule and see 10 games that we will have a chance to win, and I am going to say we win 60% of them.
Honestly I feel that @ Oregon and @ USC are in the could win category
The preseason koolaid is strong with this one. Buffs haven't shown an ability to take it on the road against a good opponent in a long time.
Darian3Hagan
'89 Player of the Year
that's where I'm at. I'm still in show me mode even though apparently everything is allsome.
At some point, CU is going to win multiple conference and/or road games, contrary to what history has shown.
Big Jim
WTF?
I would move CSU and OSU into the "could win" catagory. CSU has rarely been a gimme for a generation now. Either way, eight games to win six is tough especially when only one to three are "should win".
I can envision a scenario where CU wins six or more games this season. That would require CU to win a game early that they are not supposed to win, giving them confidence and belief which creates momentum. Barnett was able to get his teams over this hump at both NU and CU. MacIntyre did it in his final season at SJSU.
If CSU and OSU are both in the "could win" category then, Oregon and USC should be as well. That's hardly the point and we're talking meaningless, opinionated semantics, but that would mean finding 6 wins out of 10 possibles.
Big Jim
WTF?
No. It is too much to put a road game against vastly superior talent in the could win catagory. Play these teams in Folsom and I would agree as we saw last season. CU needs to learn how to win a home game that they are dogs in before expecting that they could do it on the road. Two different steps.
UCLA has vastly superior talent and CU probably "should have" won at the Rose Bowl last year. That one definitely falls in the "could have" category, so I'm not sure I believe Oregon and USC are any different in that respect.
Bufffan68
Club Member
I'll buy that for $1. I'm thinking CU is going to be quite a bit better than those 2 teams based on program trajectories, but I definitely see your point.
I agree. But it's not going to come this year against the two best teams on the schedule. We need a win at Arizona because the rest are pretty tough.
This. I don't see a scenario where we make a bowl if we lose this game. Most likely, we'll need to win 2/3 or all 3 of the last games to get there. Either way, it would be a good , confidence building road win to that hopefully gives us the momentum to win the last two.