Colorado Football: Can Buffs force CSU to 0-2 start?

Here’s the Week 1 preview and prediction for Friday night’s Colorado football game against Colorado State.

The Rocky Mountain Showdown kicks off the 2018 season for Colorado, as the Buffaloes meet in-state rival Colorado State from the home of the Denver Broncos.

Played for the first time in 1893, the series has been dominated by Colorado. The Buffs own a 65-22-2 victory over the Rams, including 12 consecutive wins between 1934-47.

Last year, Colorado picked up a 17-3 victory as Phillip Lindsay ran for 140 yards and a touchdown to offset a 300-yard passing game by CSU’s Nick Stevens. Steven Montez was 21 of 29 passing for 202 yards with a passing touchdown to Shay Fields.

The winner will hoist up the Centennial Cup at the end of the game.

Here’s how you can watch Friday night’s Colorado vs. Colorado State game:

Date: Friday, Sept. 31
Time: 9:30 p.m. ET
Location: Denver
Venue: Sports Authority Field
TV: CBS Sports Network
Live Stream: CBS Sports

Keys to Victory

How quickly Colorado can overcome those “opening week” jitters will be critical to the eventual result. You cannot overestimate how important playing a game will be for the Rams, who broke in a new quarterback in K.J. Carta-Samuels. 

All Samuels did was set a single-game school record with 537 yards, adding five touchdowns in a losing effort. The plan for CSU should be much the same, with the Buffs focusing on taking away Preston Williams and Olabisi Johnson, who combined for 15 receptions and 345 yards.

Newcomers will be aplenty for Colorado, which is expected to use six sophomores, two freshmen and three junior college transfers making their Div. I debuts.

One returning player is quarterback Montez, who is a junior now and has loads of game experience under his belt. He’ll have Virginia Tech transfer Travon McMillian and senior Kyle Evans in the backfield with him, with Jay McIntyre, K.D. Nixon and Juwann Winfree at the receiver position.

Betting Odds

Odds courtesy of Oddshark

Point Spread: Colorado -7.5

Over/Under: 65

Prediction

Not wanting to face an 0-2 start to the season, there is plenty of pressure on Colorado State. Of course, with this also being a rivalry game, the pressure is jam-packed on both sidelines. The Rams showed plenty on offense in the first week, and you can bet the coaches have been stressing defense this week in practice.

That extra game-week prep work for Colorado State should be huge vs. the Buffaloes.

Final Score: Colorado State 39, Colorado 27