facebook-pixel

Pac-12 football: Colorado has ‘a lot to prove,’ even as the South’s defending champion

Colorado quarterback Steven Montez (12) throws a pass against Oregon State in 2016. He'll be the Buffaloes' starter this season. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Media members who vote in preseason polls often are accused of giving too much value to the previous season’s results. That didn’t happen this year in the Pac-12 South.

Defending champion Colorado was picked fourth in the official vote – behind UCLA, which went 2-7 in conference play last season. Colorado running back Phillip Lindsay labeled the poll “cute.”

The forecast captures the way the Buffaloes are being viewed in the Pac-12, as a program that was geared to have everything come together with a strong senior class in 2016 and now will revert to its former status. Colorado may not drop all the way back to last place, but finishing first again? Only the Buffs themselves believe that’s possible, and they understand the perception of them.

“We have a lot to prove,” coach Mike MacIntyre said during the Pac-12 Media Days last month. “We’re still a team that people don’t believe in, and we’d like for people to believe in us, and the only way you do that is to put back-to-back-to-back things together.”

MacIntyre added, “We just don’t have the pedigree that some of the other teams do the last 10 years. Our pedigree has been pitiful. Now we’ve just got a blip. So we need to turn that blip into ‘year after year,’ and that’s what we’d like to do.”

The Buffs will have to do it without defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt, who may have been the Pac-12′s most valuable assistant coach. He took a similar job at Oregon, which offered him so much money that MacIntyre insisted he should go. Colorado also lost four players who were drafted by NFL teams from the conference’s top statistical defense.

D.J. Eliot came from Kentucky as Leavitt’s successor in “the exact same scheme,” MacIntyre said.

Offensively, the Buffs have to replace quarterback Sefo Liufau, but Steven Montez got considerable experience when Liufau was injured the middle of last season. Montez beat Oregon and Oregon State and lost to USC, although he played decently in that game.

Colorado’s traditional season opener is Friday vs. Colorado State in Denver. The Buffaloes will play 11 straight weeks, then have a bye prior to visiting Utah on Nov. 25 to conclude the regular season.

COLORADO<br>Coach: Mike MacIntyre (fifth season,20-31).<br>2016: 10-4, 8-1 Pac-12.<br>2017 media poll:Fourth in South.<br>2017 schedule<br>Sept. 1 – ColoradoState (Denver)<br>Sept. 9 – Texas State<br>Sept. 16 –Northern Colorado<br>Sept. 23 – Washington<br>Sept. 30 – atUCLA<br>Oct 7 – Arizona<br>Oct. 14 – at OregonState.<br>Oct. 21 – at Washington State<br>Oct. 28 –California<br>Nov. 4 – at Arizona State<br>Nov. 11 –USC<br>Nov. 25 – at Utah