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Colorado State and Colorado first met on the football field in 1893. This week, for the first time in this Rocky Mountain rivalry, the game will take on the taste of a good ol’ Southern Sunday dinner.
Colorado is led by coach Mike MacIntyre, who is a graduate of Georgia Tech. Across the sidelines from him, the Rams are mentored by former Georgia quarterback and assistant coach Mike Bobo. The game kicks off at 7 p.m. ET at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver. The venue brought back memories to Bobo from his days at UGA.
“I’m excited about that, we played the Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville with the crowd split 50-50,” Bobo said at his Monday press conference. “I always thought that was a neat thing to have (the crowd) half and half and a passion for the game.”
The passion for the battle for the Centennial Cup is not lost on Bobo. He said since he took the job in Fort Collins, everywhere he has gone across the state all the CSU fans want to know is how the Rams with do against Colorado. Does that sound familiar SEC fans?
Each team is 1-1 on the season with CSU beating Savannah State and losing last week to Minnesota in overtime. The Buffaloes lost their opener at Hawai’i, but rebounded to win last week against UMass.
Both coaches want to take their programs to an elite level — like the SEC teams are at — and they decided the voice used to trumpet those advances needed to have a drawl to it. Here are some familiar Southern faces that now reside in the Rockies.
Colorado State:
- Mike Bobo, head coach. Former Georgia quarterback and offensive coordinator
- Will Friend, offensive coordinator. Played at Georgia
- Terry Fair, cornerback coach. Played at Tennessee
- Ronnie Letson, quarterback coach. Played at Georgia
- Ricky Logo, defensive line coach. Coached at Vanderbilt
- Ryan Davis, strength coach. Coached at Alabama
- Joe Cox, graduate assistant. Played at Georgia
CSU also has coaches that have served at South Florida, Central Florida, Chattanooga, Troy and Samford.
Colorado:
- Mike MacIntyre, head coach. Played two seasons at Vanderbilt, assistant coach at Ole Miss
- Jim Leavitt, defensive coordinator. Played at Missouri
- Charles Clark, cornerbacks. Played at Ole Miss
- Toby Neinas, special teams coach. Played at Missouri
- Troy Walton, wide receivers coach/recruiting director. Coached at Texas A&M
- Nathan Emert, graduate assistant. Played at Arkansas
Leavitt also started the football program at South Florida from scratch.
As for the players, Colorado has one each from Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi, while the Rams have three from Florida and — you can’t get much more SEC than this — one from Starkville, Miss.
The two teams are evenly matched (Colorado is a three-point favorite), but this is a rivalry game. Bobo remembers those from as a player and a coach.
“My favorite as a player was in ’97 when we were playing Georgia Tech,” Bobo said. “They took the lead and we were driving down the field and I throw an interception and we got a holding. They (the officials) called it pass interference and that’s why the Tech people got mad and on the next play we throw a touchdown with 14.8 seconds left.”
Bobo had two distinct games he remembered from his days wearing a headset for the Bulldogs. One was easy to imagine.
“As a coach, there are so many, but beating Florida when they were ranked No. 2 in the country was a big win,” Bobo said. “Florida owned that series for so long and then to come back and win two or three in a row and one was against the No. 2 was a big win.”
All Bulldogs fans can probably agree with Bobo’s opinion on that game, but hunker down Dawg fans, here comes a shocker.
“The Auburn-Georgia game in 2013, down 20 in the fourth quarter,” Bobo said. “The Aaron Murray put us on his shoulders to take us to the lead and then they hit that Hail Mary to win the game. That one hurt, but it is a favorite because of how Aaron Murray played.”
Colorado State probably doesn’t have an Aaron Murray on its roster this year and neither does Colorado. But rest assured, this game will turn into a Southern barn burner if all the SEC influences has anything to say about it.
Buffs and Rams, go get after it, y’all.
Steve Barnes is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football.
