Cougars set stage for showdown with Utah

If the Cougars had lost to Air Force, it would have been a strange rivalry week where reporters at all the newspapers and radio and TV stations have been asked to do a zillion stories and interviews on the Big Game.

But they didn’t. The Cougars went on the road and delivered a knockout punch to the Falcons. It wasn’t pretty, but if anything good came out of it, the team actually got ticked off.

That’s a good mode to be in, playing with a chip on the shoulder. They should have done it more this season.

But the Cougars will take a 10-1 record into Utah and that’s light years up on a 9-2 mark and a practice week knowing it was only for pride and not a championship.

Austin Collie kicked some emotional butt in this game. He called out his teammates and they responded with 21 third quarter points. Nobody’s done that on the Falcons in one quarter this season.

A Colorado Springs Gazette columnist labled the Cougars the most over-rated team in the history of college football last Monday. He was in the press box Saturday.

Collie, when asked about the quote, said the Cougars did play like an over-rated team the first half. That’ why he had to do something about it.

He elevated his voice and called for the business-like even-keel play to end. No more zombies. They responded.

This was a quality win by Bronco Mendenhall, when you consider the circumstances on the road, injuries, and a good AFA team.

It will give them confidence and an edge to this coming week and they’ll need it.

Jeff and I just filed our stories and I’m off to find a steak to eat. I think I wrote 24 game blogs, a couple of pre-game blogs on this page, two sidebar stories and a column. Jeff has a notebook and game story. We hope you enjoy the coverage of this 10th win. Isn’t that 31 of the last 34 going back to the Boston College loss? The only losses since then have been to UCLA, Tulsa and TCU, three road games.

Filed and gone.