Colorado Daily – Nicholls

Note: According to the Nicholls athletic department website, it is improper to call the Colonels “Nicholls State”.

To quote the site … “We are NICHOLLS (NICH) Please refrain from using Nicholls State and NSU. Thank you”.

 

September 26th – GAMEDAY!

… CU in a few minutes …

Buffs looking for a fast start

From cubuffs.com … One of the major points of emphasis for the Colorado Buffaloes this year has been to finish strong.

They’ve now added “start fast” to their to-do list, something they’ll be aiming for Saturday when they play host to the 0-2 Nicholls Colonels in an 11:30 a.m. contest at Folsom Field (Pac-12 Networks).

Thus far this year, the first quarter has been the Buffs’ worst on the defensive side of the ball.  In each of their last two games, the 2-1 Buffs have allowed 14 points in the first 15 minutes, including last week against Colorado State, when the Rams jumped out to a 14-0 lead.

Offensively, it hasn’t been a whole lot better. The Buffs have scored just 14 points in the first quarter this season, and all of those came in a 48-14 win over UMass.

Quotes

– “We’ve just got to start faster,” safety Tedric Thompson said earlier this week. “For whatever reason, we’re letting teams get a jump on us early. Once we start playing fast, we’re hard to slow down, but we can’t let teams score early like that because it puts our offense in a hole.”

– “I think they’re a good team, despite their record,” CU quarterback Sefo Liufau said. “They’re going to be really fired up to come up here and play us. From what I’ve seen on film, they’re a good team and we’ll have to come out ready to play.”

– “We want to keep going,” Liufau said. “We aren’t satisfied with where we are right now. We’re still a little frustrated with how we’ve been playing. I know we’ve played better but I think we expect more from ourselves. We expect ourselves to keep going and be prepared for the tough games coming up.”

– “I think we’re going to need to be able to throw the football and take some shots down field,” Mike MacIntyre said. “Those are the areas that we need to do well. We need to do well in our special teams. We’ve had some big plays in our special teams, and have had some bad plays. We haven’t put a consistent, full game together on special teams, so I think that’ll make a big difference in the game.”

—–

 

September 25th

… CU in a few minutes …

Forward – Episode III has ben posted!!

Here is the link to Forward – Episode III – The Colorado State game.

Enjoy!!

… More quotes about the game …

– Safety Tedric Thompson said the lessons (of the 2013 loss to Sacramento State) were hammered home in the short one-minute clip. ”You can’t take any game for granted, especially us,” Thompson said.

– The film that caught Colorado QB Sefo Liufau’s eye wasn’t so much Sac State’s but Nicholls State’s. ”I think that they are still a good team despite their record,” Liufau said. ”They’re going to be really fired up to come up here and play us. We have to come out and perform just like it’s any other team. You can’t take Nicholls State lightly.”

– Nicholls State QB Tuskani Figaro is athletic and has ”a little bit of an option type look to him,” coach Mike MacIntyre said. ”We’ve got to be sound defensively. We really hadn’t had a team that’s done that yet. Defensively, they’re going to load the box on us; that’s what they showed. I think we’re going to need to be able to throw the football and take some shots down field.”

 

More on Sefo’s injury

CU at the Gamer Bufftrax posted this in the comments section, but it bears posting here.

I’ve been involved with providing primary health care for 35 years, including treating patients with injuries, including fractures, strains, sprains and dislocated joints.

The AC (shoulder bone/clavicle) joint is connected by an extremely short ligament. The two bones almost touch. When the AC joint becomes dislocated, there has to be injury to the ligament which is very sensitive. (wish I could bold face and underline sensitive).

Ligament tissue is very fibrous and does not have much flexibility or circulation. If the ligament was not torn during the separation, it should be fine, given time and physical therapy. If it was actually torn away from the attachment sites… a whole different story. If so, it would take quite a lengthy time to heal.

I would imagine, (without knowing for sure and going only on what is written), that the ligament may not have been torn away from it’s attachment site or severely torn. In that case it may have been contused, resulting in a bruise…. so, the final determination is to what degree the ligament was injured. Bruised slightly, moderately or severely (?).

Regardless, when injured, it had to be painful and Sefo deserves KUDOS for being a tough son-of-a-gun. If the ligament was just injured slightly to moderately during the separation, he could be playing Sat.

Time will tell. Leave it up to our ol’ All-American orthopedic doc, Dr. Eric McCarty. I would imagine that he was evaluated sufficiently immediately after the injury to justify allowing him to “go back in.” As for the future, Sefo’s better interests will not be jeopardized by having him playing too soon.

… Thanks, Bufftrax, for the info! …

Buff Stories …

– “Justin Solis Discovers Staying Power, Comes On Strong In D-Line” … a good story posted by B.G. Brooks at cubuffs.com

– “Texas trio reuniting on Buffs offense” … a story from the Daily Camera on Texas high school teammates Sam Kronshage, Jonathan Huckins and Patrick Carr

– “Q&A with CU Buffs cornerbacks coach Charles Clark” … from BSN Denver

 

Nicholls star wide receiver C.J. Bates: “The No. 1 thing about (the CU game) … we do need to find ourselves”

From the Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, Daily Comet … If Nicholls State University’s offense wants to find its identity against Colorado, the offense needs to find C.J. Bates more in the passing game.

The Colonels play its final nonconference game of the 2015 season with a road test at Football Bowl Subdivision Colorado on Saturday. Nicholls (0-2 overall) is trying to end its school-record losing streak (20 games), but doing it against the Pac-12 member Buffaloes is a tall task.

While winning is the No. 1 goal, there are other goals Nicholls wishes to achieve against Colorado. One goal is for the Colonels to be more efficient on offense, something Nicholls struggled with in last week’s loss to Incarnate Word.

The Colonels started fast with a 96-yard drive that ended when quarterback Tuskani Figaro hooked up with Bates on a 5-yard touchdown strike. But, the offense did little after that drive and went 1-for-11 on third down for the remainder of the game.

Bates was a bright spot with four receptions for 55 yards and a touchdown, but he said the offense stopped doing the little things after the first drive.

… It is easy for Bates, a junior, to take a leadership role due to his experience. After playing one season at East Mississippi Community College, where he had 1,551 all-purpose yards on a 12-0 NJCAA national championship team, he played at Louisiana-Lafayette last season. With the Ragin Cajuns, Bates made three starts finishing with 12 catches for 167 yards and one score.

Transferring to Nicholls was about playing time and Bates is satisfied with his decision, but now he wants to help this offense find an identity that was missing in the previous two games.

“The No. 1 thing about (the Colorado game) is to play hard and fight no matter what the score is, but we do need to find ourselves. We need to see what will work and what allows us to play at a quicker pace. This is an opportunity to find ourselves and get comfortable with what we are doing,” Bates said. “I feel good about coming here and I am like a leader because of where I’ve been and where I played. But, I never wanted to be complacent and I keep pushing. I want to see the guys do the same.”

—–

 

September 24th

… CU in a few minutes …

Sefo Liufau played with a separated shoulder against Colorado State

Tweets concerning Coach MacIntyre’s comments on The Fan:

Ryan Koenigsberg (BSN Denver): Mac just said on @1043TheFan that Sefo had a separated shoulder, not a bruised shoulder, on Saturday: “He said ‘shoot it up, I’m playin.’ ”

Brian Howell (Daily Camera): MacIntyre said Liufau told doctors to give him pain killers and he went back in the game. Threw a 65-yard TD on his next play.

Brian Howell (Daily Camera): Asked about it after the game, Liufau said it was just a bruise. Sure looked worse than that at the time and now we know.

Brian Howell (Daily Camera): Followed up CU, which said Sefo Liufau is full-go this week and ready to play vs. Nicholls.

… Howell’s story on the Liufau revelation can be found here

… Other Buff Stories …

– “Confident Ken Crawley rises to occasion” … from the Daily Camera

– “Buffs’ Donovan Lee Ready To Line Up At Running Back” … from cubuffs.com

– “What they’re saying: Nicholls head coach Tim Rebowe on the CU Buffs” … from BSN Denver

– “Huckins, Buffs offensive line improving every week” … from BSN Denver

… Then there is this from the CSU beat writer for BSN Denver … “It’s all about a response for Colorado State“, which opens … “The Colorado State Rams are a better football team than the CU Buffaloes; plain and simple. The Rams out-played the Buffs in nearly every facet, save field goal kicking” … Some things never change …

—–

 

September 23rd

CU in a few minutes …

Coach MacIntyre talks with media

YouTube video courtesy of BuffStampede.com … (encouraging words about the return of Addison Gillam)

 

 

CU trying its best not to overlook Nicholls … even if that means watching tape of the Sacramento State game

Full story at cubuffs.com … Quarterback Sefo Liufau underscored that belief on Tuesday. He said preparing for and playing the Colonels this week with the Ducks on deck would “definitely” test the Buffs’ maturity. Disregard Nicholls State’s 0-2 record and the losing streak, he added: “They’ll be fired up to come here and play us.”

Safety Tedric Thompson, whose blocked field goal against CSU positioned CU for its OT win, conceded that it was difficult to keep his thoughts from straying to the Pac-12 opener. “Sometimes, but I stop myself,” he said. “I don’t look into the future until it’s there. I’m not really focusing on anything (but Nicholls State).”

That’s what MacIntyre wants to hear, and he was further inspired at Monday’s weekly meeting of his 12-member Leadership Council when several upperclassmen urged him to revisit CU’s 2012 Sacramento State debacle. The Buffs lost 30-28 to the FCS school on a last-second field goal and would finish the season 1-11.

“They said, ‘Coach, show the Sac State game, show highlights of the Sac State game,’” MacIntyre said. “So I went and showed about a minute clip of the Sac State game of them beating us . . . you know they say, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ I think that might have been worth a million words. That’s all I needed to say.”

Or in this case, show.

Continued MacIntyre: “I think it’s true in anything you do in life. You have to take care of yourself, you have to take care of us. What that means is you can’t worry about if you are playing someone everyone thinks is a great opponent or everyone thinks is a poor opponent. You have to take care of yourself, number one: individually. Number two: as a team. You have to focus on what you need to do to execute.

“I don’t think it’s hard,” he said. “Coming from this team where each week last year was a dog fight no matter who we played, you have to respect each opponent that you come up against each week.”\

Full story by B.G. Brooks can be found here

—–

 

September 22nd

CU in a few minutes …

Injury report

In case you missed it, CU has altered its way of reporting injuries. We used to get an update on Tuesday’s, which listed players who were injured, the nature of their injury, whether they were out, doubtful, questionable, day-to-day, or probable.

Now, from the CU weekly media release … We have altered our injury report at Colorado; we have been on an island as very few schools have been doing them (we had done one weekly since 1984). So combining that fact that we offered info few others did, and the recent emphasis by some in the national media (re: ESPN) to start talking about games and in particular, point spreads, we will only list those players lost for the season from here on out.

Those who are out:

DE Tyler Henington – ankle/leg – suffered dislocation/fracture when accidentally stepping in a hole walking home (July 25); had surgery on July 26

OT Jeromy Irwin – knee – he suffered a torn ACL in the second quarter against Massachusetts; will have surgery later this month

LB Travis Talianko – knee – he tore ligaments in conditioning workouts in late July; had surgery on July 28

There are, however, some indications of those who are injured.

From the depth chart:

Players listed as “Injured” … running backs Michael Adkins and Patrick Carr; and linebacker Addison Gillam

Phillip Lindsay is not listed as being injured, but, there is this in the notes … With the status of Adkins and Lindsay for Nicholls State unclear, MacIntyre said sophomore receiver Donovan Lee would shift to running back for at least this week. Lee rushed for 1,979 yards and 37 touchdowns as a high school senior (Chaminade College Prep, West Hills, Calif.) and has been used as a kick returner in CU’s first three games.

 

Colorado uniform combination for Nicholls

Courtesy of a Ryan Koenigsberg (BSN Denver) tweet …

Had to figure this was one of the players’ least favorite, as it was chosen for the lowest profile game of the season …

uniforms for Nicholls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… Buff stories …

– “Justin Solis stepping up to the challenge” … From BuffStampede.com

– “Sefo Liufau coming of age for Buffs” … from the Daily Camera

– “It’s been a long road for CU Buffs Diego Gonzalez” … from BSNDenver

 

—–

September 21st

… CU in a few minutes …

CU listed as a 50-point favorite over Nicholls

At 5Dimes website, the University of Colorado is listed as 50-point (actually, 50.5-point) favorite over Nicholls.

See for yourself here.

 

Local newspaper … Defense not to blame for Nicholls’ latest loss

From the Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, Daily Comet … The defense isn’t to blame for Nicholls State University’s loss to Incarnate Word on Saturday.

The Colonels’ defense held Incarnate Word to one score in the first half and 26 yards in the second quarter resulting in a 10-7 at halftime lead.

While the defense played well, the same couldn’t be said about the Colonels’ offense. After Nicholls went on a 96-yard drive in the first quarter, the offense did little else the rest of the game. Eventually, Incarnate Word made enough plays against a tiring Colonels’ defense for a 20-10 Southland Conference win at Benson Stadium.

The loss extends Nicholls’ school-record losing streak to 20 games. The Colonels have also lost 15 straight conference games.

Field position, penalties and four turnovers handcuffed the offense as Nicholls was just 1-for-11 on third-down conversions.

“We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot, and I thought field position again was a factor. We can’t play from behind the chains and first-and-15 is tough to overcome. We would put two plays together then take a step back,” Nicholls first-year coach Tim Rebowe said. “We got to learn from this. We made some progress, but some new problems arose and we came up short. I think after we get over the initial hurt we have to move on and we have the 24-hour rule.”

Continue reading story here

 

Game time set for Oregon game

From cubuffs.com … The Oregon at Colorado football game on Saturday, Oct. 3, will be televised nationally on ESPN and will kick off shortly after 8:00 p.m. from Folsom Field in Boulder.

TV plans for Oct. 3 in the Pac-12:

FOX has utilized a six-day game selection; two games have been held for the six-day selections (Arizona at Stanford and Arizona State at UCLA) and two games have been have been selected for release today (Oregon at Colorado and Washington State at California). The six-day picks will be made no later than Monday, September 28, 2015.

Saturday, October 3, 2015 (Selection order is 1. FOX, 2. Pac-12 Networks, 3. ESPN and 4. Pac-12 Networks)

10.3.15 (these games may be released on Monday, 9.21.15)

1:00pm PT – Washington State at California, Pac-12 Networks

8:00pm local/7:00pm PT – Oregon at Colorado, ESPN (8:07 KO, with 5-minute slide available)

 

10.3.15 games held for six-day picks

Arizona at Stanford (held for six-day pick)

Arizona State at UCLA (held for six-day pick)

—–

 

September 20th

… CU in a few minutes …

Coach MacIntyre talks with the media

YouTube video courtesy of BuffStampede.com

 

Nicholls loses 20th straight game, falling 20-10 to Incarnate Word

From Nicholls athletic department website … A valiant effort by the defense and a halftime lead were not enough to pick up the first win of the season for the Nicholls State University football team as the Colonels fell, 20-10, to Incarnate Word on Saturday afternoon at Benson Stadium.

With the loss, Nicholls dropped to 0-2 on the season and 0-1 in Southland play. The Colonels have now lost 20 consecutive games, including 15 straight in conference. UIW improved to 2-1 on the season and 1-1 in league play.

For only the second time in the past 15 games, Nicholls held a lead at the half as the team went into the locker room ahead, 10-7. But the Colonel offense could only muster two first downs after the break and UIW scored 13 unanswered points to improve to 2-0 all-time against Nicholls.

Both defenses held the opposition to under 300 yards of total offense and combined for six interceptions, with UIW picking off the Colonels four times. Of the six turnovers, none had a bigger impact on the outcome of the game as Darius Knight‘s would-be interception return late in the fourth quarter.

Following a pair of field goals to gain the lead for UIW, 13-10, the Cardinals came up with an interception which gave them the ball at their own 42. After chewing five minutes off the clock, UIW moved deep into Colonel territory with six minutes remaining in the game. On third-and-goal, Knight picked off a pass and returned it 93 yards for a potential game-winning touchdown; however, the Colonels were flagged for an illegal block, moving the ball back to their own 16.

A UIW sack on quarterback Landry Klann, who played most of the second half, forced a three-and-out and gave the Cardinals the ball back with 4:31 to go. A 37-yard run by Broderick Reeves started UIW’s drive and after Nicholls called all three of its timeouts, Trent Brittain ran a naked bootleg for a 4-yard touchdown on third-and-goal with just 1:18 remaining in the game.

The Cardinals intercepted Klann’s first pass on the final drive before kneeling the rest of the way.

 

Pac-12 ties SEC with six ranked teams; USC falls out of top ten

From the Pac-12 … Six Pac-12 teams are ranked in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, with the Bruins leading the way – UCLA is No. 9, Oregon is 13th, Arizona is 16th, Utah climbs to 18th, USC falls to 19th and Stanford climbs back in at No. 21. The six ranked teams are tied for most of any conference with the SEC.

The poll:

1. Ohio State
2. Michigan State
3. Ole Miss
3. TCU
5. Baylor
6. Notre Dame
7. Georgia
8. LSU
9. UCLA
10. Florida State
11. Clemson
12. Alabama
13. Oregon
14. Texas A&M
15. Oklahoma
16. Arizona
17. Northwestern
18. Utah
19. Southern California
20. Georgia Tech
21. Stanford
22. Wisconsin
22. Brigham Young
24. Oklahoma State
25. Missouri

 

21 Replies to “Colorado Daily – Nicholls”

  1. Yo Stuart,

    It seems to me that the Buffs should sit the guys who are nursing injuries. They should not need them to beat Nicholls. And besides, some of the backups (particularly Gehrke and Apsay) need to get into a game and run the offense. Especially running the offense in a game that CU is likely to winning handily.

    It does no good whatsoever to bring in a backup QB and just have him hand the ball off. Lindgen had a chance to let these guys do something against UMass, but just called off the dogs instead.

    After this game, the Buffs have nine straight Pac-12 games (seven of which will come against teams ranked or very close). We all hope Sefo stays healthy, but the Buffs better get his backups prepared or “all bets are off” if Liufau gets hurt.

    The Buffs should know that they would win this game even if they did not throw a single pass, but that will do nothing to help the team prepare for conference play.

    Mark
    Boulderdevil

    1. Totally agree on why Lindgren didn’t let Gerke and Apsay develop some real playing time and save a potential season ending injury to Sefo.

      Like I’ve said, “I think my 7 y.o. grandson can win “Best of 5″ games of checkers, monopoly and Madden Football against Lindgren.” HANDS DOWN.

      I’ll give the OC a couple of Kudos tho’ as I didn’t see a run up the middle on 3rd and 16 again against Nicholls State…. and, the play calling did have a bit more flair….. but let’s see what the offensive scheme looks like against the Pac-12.

  2. No way can you throw a ball that long for a 65 yard pass immediately after a shoulder separation. I don’t care if you are injected with 5000 cc of Morphine. Especially play in the second half and throw like he did. And practice all week I would assume. Folklore is great, and people should rightfully eat it up and admire it. No doubt.I’ve has a two different shoulder seperations skiing in my life. Know lots of tough guy skiers who have had multiple. I don’t care how tough you are, you can’t physically throw that far immediately after or practice all week if you have one. The reporters would have said something if he didn’t practice. The practices may be closed, but they know. I’m thinking this was leaked in case Sefo is having his bruise heal, and get ready for a tough 9 game in a row Pac schedule. Nothing wrong with that. Fans would understand. But you don’t need to make a mountain out of a molehill. It’s not right.

    1. I’ve been involved with providing primary health care for 35 years, including treating patients with injuries, including fractures, strains, sprains and dislocated joints.

      The AC (shoulder bone/clavicle) joint is connected by an extremely short ligament. The two bones almost touch. When the AC joint becomes dislocated, there has to be injury to the ligament which is very sensitive. (wish I could bold face and underline sensitive).

      Ligament tissue is very fibrous and does not have much flexibility or circulation. If the ligament was not torn during the separation, it should be fine, given time and physical therapy. If it was actually torn away from the attachment sites… a whole different story. If so, it would take quite a lengthy time to heal.

      I would imagine, (without knowing for sure and going only on what is written), that the ligament may not have been torn away from it’s attachment site or severely torn. In that case it may have been contused, resulting in a bruise…. so, the final determination is to what degree the ligament was injured. Bruised slightly, moderately or severely (?).

      Regardless, when injured, it had to be painful and Sefo deserves KUDOS for being a tough son-of-a-gun. If the ligament was just injured slightly to moderately during the separation, he could be playing Sat.

      Time will tell. Leave it up to our ol’ All-American orthopedic doc, Dr. Eric McCarty. I would imagine that he was evaluated sufficiently immediately after the injury to justify allowing him to “go back in.” As for the future, Sefo’s better interests will not be jeopardized by having him playing too soon.

      1. I was hoping someone in the Healthcare arena would respond to that! Thank you! Especially an experienced, credible person as yourself. And a diehard Buff fan it seems. People are taking this as if it were the type of injury Goff had two years ago, which required season ending surgery. Clearly it was not that severe as people are making this out to be. Like Lindsay playing with sore ribs, or Irvin continuing on playing before his season ending injury, so on and so on, they are football players whom are injured and persevere and play through those injuries. Lots of players do and lots of our Buffs do with no recognition. Thanks for clearly that up on the medical side.

        1. Thanks. Nice compliments, Scott, however if I were to evaluate Sefo’s injury, he might be in trouble. The first thing I would do is refer to a specialist.

          Best that Dr. McCarty is in charge and, believe me, he’s on top and all over this like a hound dog on steak as his foremost concern is in Sefo’s best interests.

  3. I actually liked the all white uniforms for away games. Not a huge fan of the white helmet black top white pants but its not a big game so i dont really care. But guys we live in a new age. If you dont have interesting options for uniforms, unless if you are an SEC team, you will not compete in college football. It is a huge recruiting tool. Notre Dame even does it now. It will look different and weird at times but they are still the Buffs.

  4. For home games, keep the black/gold, or black-out for big games. For away games, I thought the grey/silver away uniforms vs. Hawaii looked great. (the game was ugly) Hated the all-white vs. CSU.

    This is very, very serious.

  5. I don`t care for the different look ,black and gold for me . just hope they pull a real bone head move and lose the next game NSU. if the uni`s help ok but its time the Buffs show some life and play mad and as a team .GO Buffs

  6. BTW, Stuart there is a HS game between Vista Ridge (Colorado Springs) and Palmer Ridge (Monument) this Fri. night at Vista Ridge featuring 2 of Colorado’s best 3 QB’s (statistically).

    Those three QB’s being 1) 4-A Vista Ridge QB Elway Tubbs, 2) 4-A Palmer Ridge QB Isaiah Sanders and 3) 5-A Valor Christian Jr. QB Dylan McCaffery.

    Both Tubbs and Sanders are seniors, both are 6’2″ plus. Max Preps has some videos on Tubbs, don’t know about Sanders. Tubbs has a really smooth throwing motion and seems to be heady and accurate.

    Do you know what colleges may be courting the three I mentioned?

    1. I didn’t find any of the three in the Rivals database.

      On MaxPreps, Isaiah Sanders is listed as the No. 22 quarterback in the state of Colorado; the 1,741 nationally

      Elway Tubbs is rated as the No. 12 QB in Colorado; 1,021 nationally.

      Dylan McCaffrey is rated as the No. 9 QB in Colorado: 595 nationally.

      1. Although not deep into the season, these 3 QB’s are worth keeping an eye on and may improve their ratings immeasurably as the season goes on.

        One would think Tubbs and Sanders are beginning to warrant a look-at by Div. 1 teams as they are passing for over 300 yds p/game….. not that stat is the only criteria for rating QB’s…..and, we are only a couple of games into the season.

        Still, where do you have an opportunity to see two players (same position) match up with the lofty numbers they have put up to this point ?.

  7. The uniform is ugly and Nike needs to just bug off , you want to play around with Oregon’s uniforms feel free you own the Oregon Ducks anyway.

    Leave the CU tradition ALONE that goes for the higher ups at CU quit screwing
    around with a good uniform.

  8. RE; the unis: why not the standard uni for NSU game ?

    I would think uni changes should be reserved for big games, not done just for the sake of it. The oregon game should be a blackout, for instance. I hope they dont ruin it with the pink look.

    I support breast cancer awareness, but please, no pink for that game.

Leave a Reply to jhenry01 Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *