Can CU beat the No. 3 ranked team?
The Buffs came back to Boulder last Saturday and broke their two-game skid with a convincing 42-0 win over Miami (Ohio).
Tailback Hugh Charles rushed for 123 yards and a touchdown, racking up his first 100-yard game since Oct. 14, 2006, against Texas Tech.
Backup tailbacks Brian Lockridge finished with 90 yards rushing and a touchdown, while Demetrius Sumler packed on another 91 yards as CU revived its ground game, totaling 359 total rushing yards.
“We were called out,” Charles said. “Our coaches said our run game needed to step up and we practiced to get there, and we just took that into the game.”
The RedHawks never drove deeper than CU’s 38-yard line, as Colorado’s defense held the RedHawks to 139 yards of total offense and six first-downs
But coming to Boulder on Colorado’s Homecoming weekend are the No. 3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners are averaging 61.5 points a game, which is best in the nation. And Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford is pushing into the Heisman Trophy limelight with his 14 touchdowns and only two interceptions through the first four games.
The Sooners’ top-ranked NCAA offense will face a Buffs’ defense that ranks fourth in the Big 12 and have held the opponents to an average of 19.2 points a game.
“We’re good. We know that.” Preseason All-Big 12 CU linebacker Jordon Dizon said. “We just have to focus on ourselves and focus on not making mistakes. If everyone does what they’re suppose to, we are good.”
CU is a little thin at the linebacker position though. Sophomore linebacker Michael Sipili was supposed to rejoin the Buffs’ defensive unit for the match-up against the RedHawks after his initial three-game suspension for his role in a dispute with a CU student in June. But on Sept. 21, the university suspended him for the remainder of the fall semester for violating two articles of CU’s Student Code of Conduct.
The passing attack, led by quarterback Cody Hawkins, averages 238.5 yards per game, which ranks 82nd in the NCAA. CU’s offense will face a Sooner defense that has given-up only 11.8 points per game.
“Oklahoma has a really good defense,” Hawkins said. “We just have to move the ball and keep our defense off the field.”
OU has outscored its opponents 246-47 in its first four games and have not scored less than 50 points in any of those four games.
But the Buffs feel they are ready to take on the high-powered offenses of the Sooners.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Brent New at brent.new@colorado.edu
