| Teamname: | Colorado Buffaloes football |
| Currentseason: | 2024 Colorado Buffaloes football team |
| Firstyear: | 1890 |
| Athleticdirector: | Rick George |
| Headcoach: | Deion Sanders |
| Headcoachyear: | 2nd |
| Hcwins: | 4 |
| Hclosses: | 8 |
| Stadium: | Folsom Field |
| Stadiumbuilt: | 1924 |
| Stadcapacity: | 50,183 |
| Stadsurface: | Natural Grass |
| Location: | Boulder, Colorado |
| Ncaadivision: | I FBS |
| Conference: | Big 12 |
| Pastaffiliations: | Independent (1890–1892, 1905) CFA (1893–1904, 1906–1908) RMAC (1909–1937) Skyline (1938–1947) Big Eight (1948–1995) Big 12 (1996–2010) |
| Atwins: | 723 |
| Atlosses: | 544 |
| Atties: | 36 |
| Bowlwins: | 12 |
| Bowllosses: | 17 |
| Natltitles: | 1 (1990) |
| Conftitles: | 26 |
| Divtitles: | 5 (4 Big 12 North) (1 Pac-12 South) |
| Heismans: | Rashaan Salaam – 1994 |
| Allamericans: | 30 (5 unanimous) |
| Fightsong: | Fight CU |
| Mascotdisplay: | Ralphie |
| Marchingband: | Golden Buffalo Marching Band |
| Rivalries: | Colorado State (rivalry) Kansas State (rivalry) Nebraska (rivalry) Utah (rivalry) |
| Websitename: | CUBuffs.com |
| Websiteurl: | https://cubuffs.com/sports/football |
The Colorado Buffaloes football program represents the University of Colorado Boulder in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level, and is a member of the Big 12 Conference. The team was a charter member of the Big 12 Conference before leaving to join the Pac-12 Conference after the 2010 season. After 13 seasons in the Pac-12, the Buffaloes will return to the Big 12 in 2024. Before joining the Big 12, they were members of the Big Eight Conference. The CU football team has played at Folsom Field since 1924.[1] The Buffs all-time record is 716–520–36 (.577 winning percentage) as of the 2022 season. Colorado won the 1990 National Championship. The football program is 27th on the all-time win list and 40th in all-time winning percentage.
See also: List of Colorado Buffaloes football seasons. Beginning in 1890, the Buffaloes have appeared in 29 bowl games (36th all-time), and won 27 conference championships, 5 division championships and an AP national championship in 1990.
Folsom Field was built in 1924, and since then, Colorado has a 308–169–14 record at home through the 2016 season. The road game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on November 24, 2006, was Colorado's 1,100th football game. The game on September 12, 2015, against Massachusetts was the school's 1,200th football game.
Colorado won one national championship in football for 1990.[2] [3]
| AP, Berryman, Billingsley, DeVold, FACT, FB News, Football Research, FW, Matthews, NCF, NFF, Sporting News, USA/CNN | 11–1–1 | No. 1 | No. 2 |
See main article: 1990 Colorado Buffaloes football team.
Colorado won the national championship in 1990 under the direction of head coach Bill McCartney, who helmed the team from 1982 to 1994. While the Georgia Tech won the United Press International Coaches Poll, Colorado won the Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America and other polls. Colorado played the most difficult schedule in the country, beat more ranked teams and conference champions, and had a more talented roster.[4] Colorado capped the season with a 10–9 win over Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, a rematch of the 1989 season Orange Bowl Game which Notre Dame won 21–6. Colorado's tie came against Tennessee, who was ranked No. 8, the first week of the season when Colorado was ranked No. 5. The second week gave the Buffs a scare, scoring with 12 seconds left in the game on a 4th and Goal attempt. The next week gave Colorado its only loss of the season, losing 23–22 to Illinois and dropping Colorado to No. 20 in the polls. Colorado then went on to beat teams ranked (at the time) No. 22 Texas, No. 12 Washington, No. 22 Oklahoma, and No. 3 Nebraska. They ended the season 7–0 in the Big Eight Conference for the second straight season. They then capped the season with a win over Notre Dame who were number 1 until a loss in their second to last game of the regular season.[5]
Colorado has won 26 conference championships in over a century of college play, spanning through five conferences.
| 8–1 | 5–0 | ||||
| 5–1 | 3–0 | ||||
| 5–0 | 2–0 | ||||
| 7–1 | 2–0 | ||||
| 5–1–1 | 2–0 | ||||
| 5–1 | 4–0 | ||||
| 8–2 | 4–0 | ||||
| Fred Folsom | 6–0 | 3–0 | |||
| 6–0 | 3–0 | ||||
| 6–0 | 4–0 | ||||
| 5–1–1 | 3–0–1 | ||||
| 9–0 | 7–0 | ||||
| 8–1–1 | 5–0–1 | ||||
| 6–1–2 | 6–1 | ||||
| 5–4 | 5–1 | ||||
| 8–1 | 7–0 | ||||
| 5–3 | 5–1 | ||||
| 7–2 | 5–1 | ||||
| 5–2 | 2–0 | ||||
| 6–2 | 2–0 | ||||
| 9–2 | 7–0 | ||||
| 1976† | 8–4 | 5–2 | |||
| 11–1 | 7–0 | ||||
| 11–1–1 | 7–0 | ||||
| 1991† | 8–3–1 | 6–0–1 | |||
| 10–3 | 7–1 |
| 2001† | Big 12 North | W 39–37 | |||
| L 7–29 | |||||
| 2004† | L 3–42 | ||||
| L 3–70 | |||||
| Pac-12 South | L 10–41 |
See main article: List of Colorado Buffaloes head football coaches. The Buffaloes have played in 1,109 games during their 125 seasons, through 2014. In those seasons, 11 coaches have led Colorado to postseason bowl games: Bunny Oakes, Dallas Ward, Marcel M. Mazur, Bud Davis, Eddie Crowder, Bill Mallory, Bill McCartney, Rick Neuheisel, Gary Barnett, Dan Hawkins, Mike MacIntyre and Karl Dorrell.[6] Ten coaches have won conference championships with the Buffaloes: Fred Folsom, Myron Witham, William Saunders, Oakes, Jim Yeager, Sonny Grandelius, Mallory, McCartney and Barnett. The Buffaloes won the national championship in 1990, and have won a total of 28 conference championships.
McCartney is the all-time leader in games coached with 153, total wins with 93, and conference wins with 58.[7] Folsom had the longest tenure as head coach, remaining in the position for 15 seasons. Harry Heller and Willis Keinholtz are tied for the highest overall winning percentage. Each served a single season and won eight of his nine games for a winning percentage of .889. Of coaches who served more than one season, Folsom leads with a .765 winning percentage. Davis, in terms of overall winning percentage, is the worst coach the Buffaloes have had with a .200 winning percentage. No Colorado coach has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, although McCartney was inducted into the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame in 1996.
Mike MacIntyre had brief success with the program. Hired on Dec. 10, 2012,[8] MacIntyre compiled a 30–44 record over five-plus seasons at Colorado. In 2016, MacIntyre lead Colorado to a 10–2 regular season and a trip to the Pac-12 Championship Game. It was the first winning season for Colorado since 2005, ending a 10-year streak of finishing below .500. 2016 was also the best season for the Buffaloes since 2001. As well, it marked their first time playing in a conference championship game since the 2005 Big 12 Championship Game. The team also went 8–2 in the Pac-12 after having five conference wins in the previous five seasons. Mike MacIntyre was named the Walter Camp 2016 Coach of the Year by the Walter Camp Foundation, the second Colorado football coach to earn the honor (Bill McCartney in 1989). MacIntyre was also awarded the 2016 Pac-12 Coach of the Year, American Football Coaches Association's coach of the year and comeback coach of the year awards, the Associated Press coach of the year, and the Eddie Robinson coach of the year by the Football Writers Association of America. In 2018, the Buffaloes started out the season 5–0 with wins against rivals Colorado State, Nebraska, Arizona State, and UCLA - however, MacIntyre was fired as the head coach on November 18, 2018, after a six-game losing streak.[9]
Mike Sanford was named interim Head Coach after Karl Dorrell was fired during the 2022 season, Sanford was previously the Buffaloes Offensive Coordinator for the start of the 2022 campaign.[10] On December 3, Colorado announced Deion Sanders as Head Football Coach.[11]
See main article: Rocky Mountain Showdown. Colorado's in-state rival is the Colorado State Rams of the Mountain West Conference, located north of Boulder in Fort Collins. The two schools are separated by 45 miles (72 km) and both consider it important and noteworthy to beat the other for bragging rights for the next year. The two football teams annually compete in the Rocky Mountain Showdown for the Centennial Cup, played in Denver, Fort Collins, and Boulder. The trophy takes its name from the state of Colorado's nickname of "The Centennial State". The Buffaloes lead the series 67–22–2 through the 2023 season.[12]
See main article: Colorado–Kansas State football rivalry.
Colorado leads the series 45–20–1. Both former Big 8 and Big 12 rivals Kansas State played annually against each other in all sports from 1948 to 2010.[13]
In 2016, Colorado announced a renewed rivalry series between Kansas State in a home-and-home series in 2027 and 2028.[14] Following Colorado's announcement that it would rejoin the Big 12 starting in 2024, the two will likely play as regular conference opponents, earlier than the series that was previously scheduled.[15] On November 1, 2023, the Big 12 announced the opponents for the 2024 through 2027 seasons, with Colorado and Kansas State scheduled to meet in 2024, 2025, and 2026.[16]
See main article: Colorado–Nebraska football rivalry. A traditional college football rivalry with the Nebraska Cornhuskers restarted in the 1980s (many historical documents show the importance of this game going back to 1898) when Bill McCartney declared the conference opponent to be their rival. His theory was since Nebraska was such a powerhouse team, if Colorado was able to beat them then they would be a good team. Colorado began to repeatedly threaten Nebraska in the late 1980s, following their win over the Huskers in 1986, and then surpassed the Huskers for the Big 8 crown in 1989.
In 1990, Colorado beat Nebraska 27–12 in Lincoln for the first time since 1967, en route to their first national title. From 1996 to 2000, the series was extremely competitive, with the margin of victory by NU in those five years being only 15 points combined. The rivalry was further buoyed by the introduction of the Big 12 Conference in 1996, which moved Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to the southern division with the four new schools from Texas, formerly in the Southwest Conference. Nebraska had traditionally finished the Big 8 conference schedule with a rivalry game with Oklahoma, but the two were now in different divisions, which meant they met every other year in the regular season. Colorado replaced Oklahoma as Nebraska's final conference game of the regular season, which further intensified the rivalry. In 2001 No. 1 Nebraska came to Folsom Field undefeated and left at the short end of a nationally televised 62–36 blowout. Both teams departed the Big 12 in 2011, as NU headed east to join the Big Ten and the future of the rivalry was in doubt. On February 7, 2013, Colorado and Nebraska agreed to renew the rivalry.[17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] Colorado traveled to Lincoln in 2018 and won 33–28 (winning against Nebraska for the first time since 2007 and the first time in Lincoln since 2004). On September 7, 2019, Colorado mounted an improbable comeback after being down 17–0 at half, to win the game in overtime, 34–31. After a 3-year break, Nebraska lost 36–14 to Colorado in Boulder in 2023 and then host CU again the next year to finish the series. Nebraska leads the series 49–21–2 through the 2023 season.[23]
See main article: Rumble in the Rockies. The rivalry with Utah ran from 1903 to 1962, in which Utah and Colorado played each other nearly every year; through 1962 they had met 57 times.[24] At the time, it was the second-most played rivalry for both teams (Utah had played Utah State 62 times;[25] Colorado had played Colorado State 61 times[26]). The rivalry was dormant until 2011, when both teams joined the Pac-12, renewing the rivalry on an annual basis. The Colorado–Utah rivalry remains the fifth-most played rivalry in Utah's history, and eighth-most in Colorado's history.[27] [28] Utah leads the series 34-32-3 through the 2022 season.[29]
See main article: List of Colorado Buffaloes bowl games. Colorado has participated in 29 bowl games, with a record of .
| 1937 | Cotton | Rice | L 14–28 | 35,000 | — | ||
| 1956 | Orange | Clemson | W 27–21 | 72,552 | CBS | ||
| 1961 | Orange | LSU | L 7–25 | 62,391 | ABC | ||
| 1967 | Bluebonnet | Miami (FL) | W 31–21 | 30,156 | ABC | ||
| 1969 | Liberty | Alabama | W 47–33 | 50,144 | ABC | ||
| 1970 | Liberty | Tulane | L 3–17 | 44,500 | ABC | ||
| 1971 | Astro-Bluebonnet | W 29–17 | 54,720 | ABC | |||
| 1972 | Gator | Auburn | L 3–24 | 71,114 | ABC | ||
| 1975 | Astro-Bluebonnet | Texas | L 21–38 | 52,728 | ABC | ||
| 1976 | Orange | L 10–27 | 65,537 | NBC | |||
| 1985 | Freedom | Washington | L 17–20 | 30,961 | Lorimar | ||
| 1986 | Bluebonnet | Baylor | L 9–21 | 40,470 | Raycom | ||
| 1988 | Freedom | L 17–20 | 35,941 | Raycom | |||
| 1989 | Orange | L 6–21 | 81,191 | NBC | |||
| 1990 | Orange | W 10–9 | 77,062 | NBC | |||
| 1991 | Blockbuster | L 25–30 | 52,644 | CBS | |||
| 1992 | Fiesta | Syracuse | L 22–26 | 70,224 | NBC | ||
| 1993 | Aloha | Fresno State | W 41–30 | 44,009 | ABC | ||
| 1994 | Fiesta | Notre Dame | W 41–24 | 73,968 | NBC | ||
| 1995 | Oregon | W 38–6 | 58,214 | CBS | |||
| 1996 | Holiday | W 33–21 | 54,749 | ESPN | |||
| 1998 | Aloha | W 51–43 | 34,803 | ABC | |||
| 1999 | Insight.com | Boston College | W 62–28 | 35,762 | ESPN | ||
| 2001 | Fiesta | Oregon | L 16–38 | 74,118 | ABC | ||
| 2002 | Alamo | L 28–31OT | 50,690 | ESPN | |||
| 2004 | Houston | UTEP | W 33–28 | 27,235 | ESPN | ||
| 2005 | Champs Sports | L 10–19 | 31,470 | ESPN | |||
| 2007 | Independence | Alabama | L 24–30 | 47,043 | ESPN | ||
| 2016 | Alamo | Oklahoma State | L 8–38 | 59,815 | ESPN | ||
| 2020 | Alamo | Texas | L 23–55 | 10,822 | ESPN |
See also: Colorado Buffaloes football statistical leaders.
Heisman Trophy:
| 1937 | HB | 2nd | 264 | ||
| 1961 | OG/LB | 6th | 279 | ||
| 1969 | TB | 11th | 100 | ||
| 1971 | TB | 16th | 28 | ||
| 1989 | QB | 5th | 242 | ||
| 1990 | TB | 3rd | 798 | ||
| Darian Hagan | QB | 17th | 17 | ||
| WR | 50th | 2 | |||
| 1991 | Darian Hagan | QB | 20th | 12 | |
| 1992 | CB | 30th | 4 | ||
| 1993 | WR | 15th | 24 | ||
| WR | 61st | 1 | |||
| 1994 | Rashaan Salaam | TB | 1st | 743 | |
| QB | 13th | 16 | |||
| 2002 | TB | 8th | 48 |
Jim Hansen – 1992
1989 Bill McCartney
2016 Mike MacIntyre
2016 Mike MacIntyre
2016 Mike MacIntyre
2016 Mike MacIntyre
2016 Mike MacIntyre
2016 Mike MacIntyre
| 1952 | |||
| 1984 | |||
| 1993 | |||
| 2006 | [33] | ||
| 2010 | [34] | ||
| 2012 | [35] | ||
| 2013 | [36] | ||
| 2016 | [37] |
Colorado has one inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The following is a list of Consensus All-Americans from CU as listed in NCAA record books.[38]
The following players have been honored by having their uniform numbers designated as retired numbers by the Buffaloes.[39] [40]
| Colorado Buffaloes retired numbers | |||||||||
| style=; width=50px | No. | style=; width=150px | Player | style=; width=50px | Pos. | style=; width=100px | Tenure | style=; width=100px | Year retired |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 1967–1969 | 1969 | |||||||
| 19 | RB | 1992–1994 | 2017 | ||||||
| 24 | 1935–1937 | 1937 | |||||||
| 67 | 1959–1961 | 1961 |
In 2020, Colorado athletic director Rick George announced plans to re-issue uniform numbers 24, 67, and 11, with the support of the noted players (or their families).[39] Contemporary uniforms issued with those numbers will include a commemorative patch.[39] Nonetheless, no player has used any of those numbers since the announcement.[41] [42] [43] [44] Uniform number 19 will remain unused for 19 years, after which it may be re-issued.[39]
On November 1, 2023, Colorado's Big 12 opponents from 2024 through 2027 were revealed.[45]
Home Schedule
| Baylor | Arizona | Houston | Arizona State | |
| Cincinnati | Arizona State | Kansas State | Kansas | |
| Kansas State | BYU | Texas Tech | TCU | |
| Oklahoma State | Iowa State | UCF | West Virginia | |
| Utah | − | Utah | − |
Away Schedule
| Arizona | Houston | Arizona State | Arizona | |
| Kansas | Kansas State | Baylor | BYU | |
| Texas Tech | TCU | Cincinnati | Houston | |
| UCF | Utah | Oklahoma State | Iowa State | |
| − | West Virginia | − | UCF |
Announced schedules as of December 19, 2023.[46]
| Aug. 31 North Dakota State | Aug. 30 Georgia Tech | Sept. 5 at Georgia Tech | Sept. 4 Colgate | Sept. 2 UMass | Sept. 1 TBA | Aug. 31 SMU | Aug. 30 Missouri | |
| Sept. 7 at Nebraska | Sept. 6 Delaware | Sept. 12 Weber State | Sept. 11 Northwestern | Sept. 9 at Florida | Sept. 8 Florida | Sept. 7 at Missouri | Sept. 6 at SMU | |
| Sept. 14 at Colorado State | Sept. 13 Wyoming | Sept. 19 at Northwestern | Sept. 18 Northern Illinois | Sept. 16 Northern Colorado | Sept. 15 at Colorado State | Sept. 14 Colorado State | Sept. 13 Northern Colorado |
Others beyond 2031: vs. North Texas, Sept. 4, 2032; at North Texas, Sept. 3, 2033; vs. Colorado State, Sept. 17, 2033; at Colorado State, Sept. 16, 2034; vs. Colorado State, Sept. 19, 2037; at Colorado State, Sept. 11, 2038.