Plati-'Tudes Shorts: Top Season Openers

Welcome to a notes and comment column in its 19th year, penned by CU Associate Athletic Director David Plati, who is his 36th year as the Buffaloes' director of sports information.

Plati-'Tudes Shorts No. 1 ... Watching what AT&T Sports did with the Colorado Rockies "Stay-at-Home Opener," where they took 18 half-innings from assorted games in the club's 27 previous openers, it gave me a similar idea. What are CU's best or most exciting football games in its history as to where they fell on the schedule? The best season openers, the best game fives, etc. So I went through and took a look over the years and came up with – in my humble opinion based on importance, the outcome or for just plain excitement – the best game, the runner-up and an honorable mention selection for every week over the course of our football history (granted, most are since the 1950s when we have thorough game details).

Some were obvious, others likely up for some debate, but having seen 42 years of CU football in person, and listening to others speak of games on the front end of our history, I'd hope I'd be close. I'll do this in 13 installments over the next 13 weeks. So here we go!

GAME 1's / SEASON OPENERS

#1— 1971: Colorado 31, LSU 21 at Baton Rouge.
An unranked Colorado team on the road at No. 9 Louisiana State, just 75 degrees at kickoff, but with 90 percent humidity. CU scores first and never trailed (LSU tied the game at 7-7, but never pulled even again). Sophomore Charles Davis makes a splash in his first collegiate game (freshmen still ineligible), rushing 20 times for 174 yards and two touchdowns, with John Tarver gaining 92 on 18 carries (prompting a postgame comment by LSU coach Charlie McClendon: "Colorado's running backs were some of the best we've ever seen."). It's tight at halftime, the Buffs owning a 10-7 advantage, but as it would happen several times during his career, a kick return score by Cliff Branch would open up the game for CU. This time, after CU turned the ball over on its first possession of the second half, but Carl Taibi's sack of LSU quarterback Bert Jones forced the Tigers into a three-and-out, Branch dazzled the sellout crowd with an electrifying 75-yard punt return for a score. John Stavely intercepted Jones on LSU's next drive, and Davis would score four plays later and the Buffs had stunned the 70,099 in attendance by taking a 24-7 lead. The CU defense forces six turnovers (four interceptions) and held the Tigers to just 227 net yards; John "Bad Dude" Stearns had seven tackles and returned two interceptions 88 yards. The Buffs would go from unranked to No. 12 in the polls with the win.

Runner-Up—1995: Colorado 43, Wisconsin 7 at Madison.
A first-year CU head coach had not won his first game since 1932, 11 tried but came up short. Bill McCartney had retired, the team was minus 10 NFL draft picks (seven in the first 71 selections), including many explosive players on offense. Rick Neuheisel's first game draws No. 21 Wisconsin on the road but are only 1-point underdogs; what does CU do? It leaves Camp Randall Stadium with a 43-7 rout of the Badgers, with a first-time offensive coordinator named Karl Dorrell guiding the offense to 507 yards – 229 rushing, 278 passing. It's finally Koy Detmer's team, the '92 recruit waiting patiently behind the graduated Kordell Stewart to get his shot; he did not disappoint as he completed 17-of-24 passes for 267 yards and three touchdowns, a rating of 205.5 which was the second-best at the time in a season opener in school history (and still the third-best). Phil Savoy caught eight of those passes for 107 yards, Rae Carruth four for 100, the eighth time at Colorado two receivers hit for 100-plus in the same game.

Honorable Mention—1989: Colorado 27, Texas 6 in Boulder.
The Buffs came in ranked No. 14 in the preseason polls, the first time since 1977 that Colorado entered the season among the ranked (1989 was also the first year that the polls ranked 25 teams instead of 20). Making his first start at quarterback, he was naturally nervous, even more so with Sal Aunese fighting for his life; he'll tell you about the butterflies he had in his stomach all week and on game day until a minute into the game. To take things up a notch, ESPN is in town to televise the game nationally; Mike Patrick and Gene Washington are on hand to call the game, which is the last game of opening weekend as it was also Labor Day night. Now wearing No. 3 instead of No. 14 he wore as a freshman, he starts the game by handing off to Eric Bieniemy for a 3-yard gain on first down; it's now second-and-7 at the CU 23. He takes the handoff, runs left, cuts back over the middle and gains 75 yards to the Texas 2, caught from behind to prevent a score that could have been scripted in Hollywood. His butterflies are gone: Darian Hagan has won over BuffNation as their quarterback. Two plays later, Bieniemy scores and CU is on its way to the victory, the first of 11 in a row. It was the first win for Hagan as a starter, who would go on to finish 28-5-2, the best mark by any starting QB in program history to this day.

Now, you vote!

What's our top season opener? @DavidPlati picked his ?? https://t.co/BBAtkG1IzH

Vote ????? or comment ?? with your pick!
— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) April 16, 2020

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