Plati-'tudes - University of Colorado Athletics

August 21, 2000

The sun came up Sunday morning, though I, like many Buff fans, could have been about five points better... Scrambling to get out of town, a shorter P-Tudes this week but hopefully still interesting.

TRIVIA QUESTIONS... CU-All three football games between CU and USC were played prior to 1965. So that will make this the first "what" in the series? Godfather-Where did the some of the associates come from to attend the meeting to make the peace between the Corleones and Tataglias in the original Godfather?

ESPN, TOSTITOS SPONSORING COLLEGE TRADITION CONTEST... Thanks to CU graduate Jim Depatie ('77) for pointing this one out: College football traditions are going head-to-head in a contest sponsored by ESPN and Tostitos on ESPN's College Football Home Page. They have selected what they feel are the 16th most popular college football traditions, and have split the field tournament style. There will be eight match-ups to decide what schools advance, and in the first one, which matched "Texas A&M's" 12th man against Nebraska's "Tunnel Walk," over 69,000 votes were cast with the Aggies running away with 60.8 percent of the vote to advance to round 2. CU will square off against Georgia starting October 6 with votes to be cast for a week in "Ralphie" vs. "Uga". Other first round match-ups: Navy vs. Oklahoma (currently being waged), Florida State-Clemson, Ohio State-Army, Michigan-Florida, Penn State-Texas and Notre Dame-Auburn. Several others were shot down, including Stanford (band/tree), LSU (Mike the Tiger), Texas Tech (the masked rider) and Miami, Fla. (the Hurricanes' infamous smoke entrance). Those interested can find more information at http://promotions.go.com/espn/tostitos/frontpage.html.

SAD SIGHT... Walking off the field at Mile High Stadium on Saturday, there was a CU fan dressed in all black, shouting obscenities and insults in the direction of Nate Wright. Hopefully, Nate didn't hear anything this so-called supporter had to say. It's a shame some people lose sight that these are just college kids trying to do their best. And in Nate's case, he played pretty good last October in a starting assignment against Oklahoma's talented receivers. He's a good kid, and he's a religious kid. More young people should be like Nate, and if the worst thing he's ever going to do in his life is to allow a couple of touchdowns, more power to him (and as it turned out, he was responsible for only one of the scores after the coaches reviewed assignments).

RUMOR: Sandy Clough hates the University of Colorado.
TRUTH: The perception by CU fans that he hates CU is a false one. I've known Sandy now for the better part of 18 years, and people have to understand his on air persona is his schtick. If you step out of the picture and listen to him, he really treats no CU no different than any other team in the state, at least those teams and programs people have come to expect something from. It's not like he's ever said anything positive about any of our programs or players, but his show is designed to be controversial at times. Simply put, he does not hate the Buffs.

Remember to take talk shows as mostly entertainment and opinion, not always fact. There are about two dozen people in this town doing Sportstalk, and most of them don't come to practices in person, heck some don't even go to games. Sandy is at least someone who will pick up the phone and make a call, which maybe only five or six in this town will ever do. People would be surprised that many of the so-called experts in this town means just picking up the morning papers and regurgitating what they read, but if it's entertaining, the purpose has been accomplished.

LOST IN THE LOSS... A couple of things were lost in the 28-24 loss to Colorado State last Saturday. The offense gained 532 yards, the most ever in a Colorado offensive coordinator debut, in this case, Shawn Watson's (it topped the 530 CU had against Texas when Elliot Uzelac made his debut and the offensive pilot in 1993). And the Buffs were called for just three penalties, its fewest since being called for three in the '84 opener against Michigan State.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW... Former CU All-American Shelley Sheetz dropped by the office the other day to visit with her old college publicist Colleen Reilly Krueger. Shelley lettered four years for Ceal Barry between 1991-95, leading CU to a pair of final eight appearances (and just missing out the '95 Final Four when Georgia staged an incredible comeback). Shelley, now 28, coached last winter at Washington State University on the women's basketball staff, but resigned in March to give the WNBA one more shot. She had two private tryouts with the Seattle Storm and the Los Angeles Sparks, but a past knee injury reared its ugly head, tearing cartilage for a second time, ending her attempt at a professional comeback (she played three years in the ABL). So what is she up to now? She is residing in the Los Angeles area and is pursuing several career options, including sports in general as well as coaching.

2001 SEASON OPENER/CSU... Speculation was rampant last week that we had already made a decision to return the Colorado State game to Boulder. The truth is that nothing has been decided, and the game is as it always was, penciled in for Boulder. That's where the game will be if the game is not played in Denver, but that decision will rest upon a complete financial review of the last three years and the atmosphere the game created (obviously better in 2000 than in 1999). One thing to remember is that once skyboxes are built at Folsom Field (hopefully in the next two years), we will want to play as many games as possible in Boulder to maximize both revenue and the experience. Financial considerations of a neutral site will have to outweigh those of playing at Folsom if we decide to move a home game elsewhere.

TV QUESTION... Brian Hoffmeyer E-mailed in a common question: why aren't games that ABC or FOX do not televise aired locally? The simple answer is that they fall within the Big 12 television "window," meaning 10:30 a.m. through 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time. Any game televised must fall outside of that window, which in our case, means 7:30 a.m. or 8:00 p.m. kickoffs, and that's not going to happen. Those interested in knowing the entire in-depth scoop on television arrangements can refer to the March 27 Plati-'Tudes at http://www.cu-sports.com/sche-rel/plati_tudes/00/000327st.shtml.

THIS WEEK'S NUMBER... 3. That's the season opening national rank for both the men's and women's cross country teams (the women received one first place vote in the ballot, conducted nationally among coaches). Coach Mark Wetmore's squads, both defending Big12 champions (the men are four-time defenders), host the conference meet in Boulder on Oct. 28, and are expected to again contend for both the conference and NCAA titles.

RANDOM THOUGHTS... Sometimes, you just have to write them out:

Shouldn't football officials measure where a team starts on first down if it's going to measure on fourth down?
Why do aliens know we call our planet Earth? Especially when we've named theirs' something like SP-142?
Why do the English lose their accents when they sing?
Though it's been in the rule for what, four or five years, why do NFL coaches, and announcers for that matter, really have no idea when to go for two? Just look at San Diego-Oakland yesterday; the Chargers scored to go up, 6-2, then went for two and missed. Oakland came back and scored a TD and kicked the point to take a 9-6 lead. Though SD was intercepted with 1:25 to go, a field goal would have just tied it whereas they kick the point...
And from former Buff offensive tackle Clint Moles: They tell you in airports not to accept packages from unknown persons, but what if John Elway and Dan Marino are handing out unmarked ones? Should he accept them since they are not unknown?
Okay, so Steven Wright I am not.

FINNIGAN UPDATE... We now know when former CU assistant SID will appear on "Win Ben Stein's Money." He will grace the television airwaves the night of October 3, at 7:30 and 10:30 Pacific time (do check local listings).

TRIVIA ANSWERS... CU - CU & USC played in 1927, 1963 and 1964; college football dramatically changed in 1965 with new substitution rules, so this will be the first game in the series where the players on each team will not be playing on both sides of the ball. Godfather - Corleone thanked those who had come "from as far as California and Kansas City."