Metaphorically speaking, anyway. While the most hostile hooved mascot in all of intercollegiate athletics shall not lead her human namesakes onto the turf at Folsom Field tonight, the Colorado Buffaloes shall begin their 2020 football season against the UCLA Bruins. It is the season opener of a COVID-affected, abbreviated, seven-game season for the Buffaloes and our new Head Coach, Karl Dorrell.
I have no idea what type of success, if any, Coach Dorrell and his Buffs shall have this season. Coach Dorrell was hired in late February, shortly after our then-Coach, Mel Tucker, exited Boulder for East Lansing, Michigan and the Michigan State Spartans. Shortly after Coach Dorrell was hired, and before spring practice began, COVID-19 shut down the university. Then, this summer the Pac-12 Conference voted to cancel all fall sports, including football, due to the ongoing presence of COVID-19, which decision they later reversed. In the late summer/early fall, after the conference decreed football would be played this autumn, a shutdown the Boulder County Health Department ordered due to a spike in COVID-19 cases at CU resulted in the football team not being permitted to practice for two weeks. Long story short (I know you are thinking "not so far"), Coach Dorrell first saw his players in pads and on the practice field on October 9, which is roughly four weeks ago.
My Buffs are not on television very often. Tonight, however, is such a night. I shall root, root, root for them from the comfort of my living room beginning at 7:00 pm on ESPN-2. I have no idea how they will do tonight or on the weekends to follow.
I know however that they shall put forth their best effort and, at day's end, neither I nor anyone else has the right to ask for anything more.
Shoulder to Shoulder.
-AK
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