Colorado Sunday morning key thought
(Written by kencraw)
Generally, I tend to focus on the X’s and O’s, strengths and weaknesses, projections for the future and that sort of thing, but today I’m going to start with something a little different:
That was FUN!
I started going to Cal football games to do something enjoyable. Back in those days, the team averaged about 3-8, but almost all of those 3 were at home, so a little more than half the 5-6 games I saw were winners. And every victory was something to be cheered. Even the near upsets when Cal was a big underdog was a positive despite the final score not coming out right. We weren’t burdened with higher expectations or a big stadium renovation that had to be paid by lots of butts in the seats (which requires winning).
In those days, games like last night were the best sort. Flawed, exciting, unpredictable… you never knew what was going to happen. Just when you thought Cal was doomed, a big interception got them back in it. Just when you thought Cal was going to win easy, they made a mistake (like the defense giving up an all too easy fade into the endzone). And in the end, those 3 victories a year at home kept us optimistic enough in those games to keep coming back even when they lost a heart breaker.
For most of the 2nd half yesterday I was able to slip back into that mindset of old and not let the haze of “we’re barely hanging with the worst team in the conference” to spoil what was a really fun game to watch.
So my prayer for this morning is that we all are able to enjoy the games again like that.
Let Sunday and Monday be for wailing and gnashing of teeth, but Saturday is to enjoy the game.
September 28th, 2014 at 10:22 am
After the field goal yesterday I heard an old blue in my section say “it’s just Colorado.” My reply was that he has no idea how much this win means to the players. You could see it in their faces. They came over to section D for high fives and they all looked like ecstatic kids. It was great to see. Lasco was even up in the stands and gave one of my daughters a high 10!
So, yes, plenty to fret about with this team. But let’s just enjoy a win when it happens and remember that fall Saturdays are supposed to be fun.
September 28th, 2014 at 11:01 am
My gut is there is a lot of parity in this conference and “only Colorado” will beat a team or two that is very unexpected. Stanford, Washington, ASU, USC and UCLA are more mediocre than people think, and very beatable by the muck that is the rest of us: Arizona, Oregon State, WSU, Colorado, Utah and Cal, all of whom are pretty close to one another.
September 29th, 2014 at 10:16 am
it’s JUST Colorado but…
We’re JUST Cal (more about that later but we were one of the worst teams in the country last year)
Last year we JUST beat Portland State
We’re 2-1 in games where we were 0-3 last year, and significantly improved against each opponent
JUST Colorado has improved year over year too making our improvement more significant
We’re still a young team
We are a few defensive players or improvements from a pretty good team
We have already exceeded the win total, 3, that most outside analysts had predicted for us
So JUST Cal has a lot going for it and I believe will be a very decent team in years to come, and a lot of FUN in the meantime
September 29th, 2014 at 10:18 am
First half wasn’t terribly fun. The next half, plus extras was. Reminded me a lot of that ’96 AZ game at Memorial with the student section moving from one end of the field to the other with each change of possession in OT. But, yes, while we’re not a great team (or maybe even a good team), we are at least entertaining. It was interesting how much air time we got on ESPN on Saturday. They must have showed the locker room celebration a dozen times, which is odd given that the matchup featured a couple of conference bottom dwellers. Surprised at how empty the stadium was. Had it not been for those HS marching bands that took up a full section, the lack of support would have even been more pronounced.
September 29th, 2014 at 2:43 pm
Ha yeah, the 3 hours of 2nd half made me forget the first half and how upset those second quarter penalties made me!