Buff Bites: Which games will Colorado have a chance to win?

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As the season approaches, many folks speculate on the upcoming year and how it will play out. The win/loss predictions can be seen on countless websites, both local and national. If Colorado wishes to attain their goal of a bowl game and a .500 record, they clearly are going to win a few games against some seriously talented teams. The Buffs have a very challenging schedule with games on the road against Oregon, USC, conference-favorite Stanford, and of course a trip to the Big House to play a Michigan team that will almost certainly be top-10 team at that time. Add the likes of difficult conference foes such as UCLA, Wazzu, and Utah at home, and they surely have one of the harder schedules in America. So which games can CU realistically win?

The only 3 games that I feel the Buffs will not really have a realistic chance of winning are at Oregon, USC, and Stanford. Those are three great teams, all of which CU has struggled against mightily since moving to the Pac 12. Other than that, they have 9 winnable games including Michigan and UCLA. Michigan will be coming off games against two teams that went a combined 2-23 last year (Hawaii and UCF), and the following week is their Big 10 opener with Penn State. This sounds like the definition of trap game for the maize and blue. Michigan should have a good offense, but not one of the upper echelon power 5 elite offenses. If the Buffs can force a couple turnovers and don’t make many mistakes, then they have a chance to win a defensive grudge match and shock the nation in the Big House. As for the UCLA game, this is a humongous chance for CU to upset one of the top teams in the conference. Contrary to Michigan, Josh Rosen leads a superb offense for the Bruins. This could be a little bit more of a high scoring affair, but ultimately it’s a Thursday night game and Folsom will be rocking. The spotlight might be on the Buffs more in than game than in any other game on the schedule, but the have the experience on both sides of the ball will give them an opportunity to pull off the massive upset. Colorado will have to bring their A-game in both games in order to stand a chance against either team, but I think they could do it. All things considered, Colorado will have chances to win games, they’ll just have to play smart football and limit mistakes that have cost them recently. Then they can finally string some wins together that have evaded them in the past few years.

Buffs Begin Prep For CSU; O-line Taking Shape – cubuffs.com

The Buffs have just started implementing their gameplan in practice this week as they prepare for the Rocky Mountain Showdown.

CU Buffs’ Sefo Liufau pleased with progress of offense – Buffzone

“A lot better in my opinion,” said Liufau, heading into his fourth year as the starter. “It’ll be a lot different when bullets start flying and the real thing happens, but I’m definitely pleased with where we are as an offense. A lot of guys are doing a lot of great things right now on offense, in all positions. We’re really consistent right now also, which is real good to see.

Buffs Open Season 2-0 With Victory Over CSU At Home – cubuffs.com

After wins over Air Force, and little brother CSU, the women’s soccer team are off to a strong 2-0 start.

Predicting the 2016-17 Pac-12 College Basketball Standings (7. Colorado) – Bleacher Report

Bleacher Report predicted the Buffs to finish 7th in conference play this year. They retain almost the entire team from last year, and hopefully UCCS transfer Derrick White is as good as advertised. So in my eyes, a 7th place finish seems a little low for this year.

Stewart Mandel’s 2016 Pac-12 predictions  – FOX SPORTS

Stewart Mandel gives his conference outlook and has the Buffs finishing 5-7 and 5th in the South  ahead of ASU.

CU Buffs’ Kabion Ento hopes to seize opportunity – Buffzone

With the loss of Juwann Winfree for the season, fellow junior college transfer Kabion Ento hopes to fill the void at outside receiver.