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“Colorado, We Have a Problem … “
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Prior to joining the Big 12, Colorado had only played Houston once in football, with the Buffs defeating the Cougars in the 1971 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl in the old Astrodome.
A year before that game, in April, 1970, Houston, a/k/a “Space City”, endured the near disaster of the Apollo 13 mission. “Houston, we have a problem”, became an instant quotable quote, which was later immortalized in the Ron Howard/Tom Hanks film.
Fifty-five years later, on a steamy night in September, 2025, it wasn’t Houston which left TDECU Stadium with a problem, it was the visitors.
The Houston Cougars, 4-8 in 2024, dominated Colorado in every phase, settling for a 36-20 victory … a score which could have been even more lopsided if the Houston offense hadn’t settled for field goals in five of its eight scoring drives.
For a CU team coming off of a 9-4 season, including wins in seven of nine Big 12 conference games in 2024, to be mauled on both sides of the ball by a team which had as many issues as they did coming in … Colorado has a problem.
Make that a fistful of problems.
Quarterback
The late John Madden, first an NFL Hall-of-Fame coach and then an NFL Hall-of-Fame announcer, is generally credited with coining the phrase: “If a coach tells you he has two quarterbacks, he’s telling you he has none”.
What does it tell you about the state of the CU football program that the Buffs have three quarterbacks?
The idea of giving your backup quarterback the opportunity to lead the team against Delaware made sense. The Blue Hens were overmatched, and giving freshman quarterback Julian Lewis some reps was a sound concept.
But Coach Prime took it a step too far, and created a problem in the process.
After Kaidon Salter looked good in leading the Buffs to a 10-0 lead, two drives by Julian Lewis netted some yardage, but no points. Delaware made the Buff Nation nervous, clawing its way back to make it a 10-7 game just before halftime. Then third-string quarterback Ryan Staub passed his way into CU folklore with a touchdown drive in the final minute before the break, and then another in the first minutes of the second half.
With a small sample size against an inferior opponent, Coach Prime fell in love with his third-stringer, anointing Staub the starter for the Houston game.
While a good story, Ryan Staub wasn’t quite as impressive against Delaware as the highlights seemed to show. Staub came in with less than a minute to go before halftime. His first two passes both touched Blue Hen defenders, with the second almost intercepted. On third-and-ten, a straight handoff was designed to run clock. Instead, a 23-yard run by Dekalon Taylor gave the Buffs new life. Two passes later, the the Buffs were on the board.
Staub then led the Buffs to two second half scores:
- A bomb to Sincere Brown on the third play of the second half; and
- An 11-yard touchdown run after a blocked punt gave CU the ball at the Delaware 17-yard line (it would have been a field goal attempt after a sack and a three-and-out, but the offense was bailed out by a penalty on the field goal).
Definitely better to get touchdowns than not, but none of CU’s scoring drives under Staub were of the ten-play, 75-yard variety.
When called upon to do that against Houston, Staub failed to deliver. CU went three-and-out on three consecutive drives in the first half, when it was still a game, then three-and-out three more times to open the second half, allowing Houston to turn a 16-14 game into a 33-14 rout. Early in the fourth quarter, the Buff offense had been on the field for nine plays, going for zero total yards.
The problem? Does Houston just have a very good defense? Did Houston get to study film on Staub, something Delaware (and Utah two seasons ago) didn’t have a chance to study? Did Coach Prime fall victim to the “the most popular player on the team is the backup quarterback” syndrome?
Or, perhaps, is Ryan Staub just not that good?
“Staub didn’t play well,” Coach Prime said. “I saw what you saw. He did not play well today. It wasn’t his best, to say the least.”
And where does Coach Prime go from here with Staub? Does he admit his mistake, and go back to Salter? Or does he double down, hoping Staub is the answer?
That’s a problem.
Offensive schemes and play-calling
No one in the Buff Nation is excited to see CU’s next bubble screen. The wide receivers don’t block, the plays don’t work. Even when the passes are completed, they go for short yardage.
Other than the few long passes from Staub, deep passes don’t seem to be in the CU playbook. Or slants. Or crossing patterns. Or passes to the tight end. Or any pass across the middle of the field.
I have frozen in my memory a third-and-six the Buffs had against Delaware last weekend. Empty backfield, five wide receivers. All five receivers ran six yard patterns and stopped. The five Buffs, plus the five or six Blue Hen defenders, formed a straight line across the field. Not a single Buff was assigned to stretch the defense.
We can all see what the Buffs are doing. Opposing defenses can see what the Buffs are doing.
But the CU coaching staff?
When asked after the Houston debacle whether he liked his game plan going in, Coach Prime had this to say:
“You think I’m gonna go into a game and don’t like what we gonna do? That don’t make sense. No, I liked what we saw on film and the opportunities that the film showed us that we could take advantage of. I like the plan. I mean, I meet with the coordinators before we even get on the plane on a Thursday, this time or Wednesday as well. So I know what we’re planning to do, but I’m telling you, man, we had a wonderful week of practice, a wonderful week of preparation. So I’m still dumbfounded on what transpired. You guys tell me.”
Is it a lack of faith in the quarterbacks which prevents CU from having a more dynamic passing game? Dropped passes from what was supposed to be a quality receiver corps? Lack of protection from the offensive line, unable to give quarterbacks enough time for plays to develop?
Buff fans can’t be sure if it’s the coaches don’t know how to improve the play-calling, or don’t have the personnel to execute the game plan.
Either way … It’s a problem.
Defense
Prior to the CU game, Houston had played 21 consecutive games without reaching 400 yards in total offense – the longest active streak in the country. Against CU, the Cougars had 431 yards of total offense.
The Buff defense was supposed to be strength of the team, carrying the team until the offense figured things out. The defensive line was so deep, that defensive coordinator Robert Livingston bragged about rotating two sets of lines, keeping his players fresh.
Now, the defense can’t stop anyone, and can’t tackle.
And when the Buffs face a running quarterback, records are set … and that’s leading to some frustration (and finger pointing) in the locker room.
“I would say it’s hard,” CU cornerback Preston Hodge said of facing a running quarterback. “Especially, we play a lot of man (defense). So, when we’re in man, us as (defensive backs), we can’t see the quarterback, so we just have to be able to trust that our defensive line can do their assignment, stay in their gap. And that’s all it comes down to is everybody on the front line just staying in their gaps.”
Coach Prime was asked postgame about CU’s struggles on defense. His response:
“We’re not struggling, we don’t need that escape. You don’t have to be polite with me. You don’t have to sugarcoat it. We got our butts kicked. We’re not successful on either side of the ball as we wished to be. Guys are not making plays. You gotta sack, you miss a sack. Gotta play, you miss a play. Can’t give up explosions, because explosion plays lead to touchdowns. And we can’t continue to miss tackles, because those things lead to first down. First down leads to touchdowns. We gotta do better, but we gotta coach a lot better.”
The players are frustrated. The coaches are frustrated. The fans are frustrated.
And that’s a problem.
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There is still plenty of time for the Buffs to get back on track. Coach Prime has enough quality players for the Buffs to be competitive … but not if CU uses the same personnel and game plans.
Will Coach Prime and his coordinators make the proper adjustments? Will the Buffs regain their confidence – and swagger?
Wyoming is the worst team left on CU’s schedule. The Buffs will have one last chance to make corrections, one last chance to create an identity, both on offense and defense, which they can carry through the remainder of the schedule.
If they can’t figure out a way to dominate the Cowboys from Laramie … Well, that’s a problem.
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3 Replies to ““Colorado, We Have A Problem … “”
It’s always easy in hindsight, but from this vantage point it appears that Prime shouldn’t have rotated quarterbacks against Delaware. Probably would have been better to let Salter have a half to 3 quarters and then put Juju and Staub in for a series once the game was locked up. That might have let Salter work into the role and avoided a QB controversy. That the D is so bad is a surprise. Still time to get that fixed (I hope). And finally, not to beat a dead Shurmer, but we need better play calling and better game plans.
The write up was pretty comprehensive Stuart.
Wyoming is playing Utah in about 2 and half hours.
I plan to watch. Do you think shurmur will watch? Will it do any good if he does?
Do the guys on D need to do more lat pulls and curls? or just get a backbone?
Yes there are problems but GT took out Clemson today, so they aren’t exactly slouch’s. And Houston may prove to be a Big 12 top team. So just need to relax but need to find someone who can catch the ball