Baffling Buffalos in Toledo

Coach Dan Hawkins must have read motivational books about setting high goals as a method to reach better than expected results. In the off-season, Hawkins stated he expected Colorado to win 10 games this season, which is ambitious to say the least for team picked fourth in the Big 12 North. Nevertheless, unless you set the bar high things won’t change and he’s hoping his son Cody or Tyler Hanson come thru at quarterback. Running back Darrell Scott needs to live up star billing and has the ability to make the Buffaloes special on the ground.

Well, none of this happened in upset 23-17 upset loss to Colorado State in the open in Boulder. The Rams jumped all over Colorado in building 17-0 lead. The Buffalos were forced to play catch-up the rest of the way and had the opposite of what they wanted from offense with 40 pass attempts, compared to 21 runs. QB Cody Hawkins was off target and when he was accurate, balls were clanging off receivers hands.

Defensively, Colorado has to come up with answers beyond a solid linebacker group led by Jeff Smart. The Buffs secondary was burned repeatedly by QB Grant Stucker of the Rams and with Toledo wanting to throw the ball all over the field, as pass rush is tantamount. Colorado is 5-9 and 5-7 ATS the last three years in non-conference games.

It’s a new era of Toledo football with coach Tim Beckman now at the helm. Reports out of Toledo have he’s sold his squad on the fact of taking ownership, convincing them it’s their team, not his. This will be the third time in four years a Big 12 team has visited the Glass Bowl and the Rockets have won and covered the previous two. Toledo has offensive talent with seniors Aaron Opelt under center, running back DaJuane Collins and wide receiver Stephen Williams. This trio contributed to 493 yards in 52-31 loss to Purdue.

Where coach Beckman has to make impact is on defense, a weak spot the last couple of seasons and again last Saturday, where they were run over for 305 yards and passed on for 220 more. Beckman’s background is defense and he likes swarming defenders to the ball. Right now he needs to have about 13 Rocket defenders on the field at all times. The best news is a nationally televised game before an excited Friday night crowd, with Toledo 15-5 ATS in home games off a road loss.

DiamondSportsbook.com has the Rockets as 3.5-point underdogs with a total of 54.5 and they are 8-3 ATS as a home underdog, which has included six outright upsets in the last 10 years. Colorado has to be ready to play against fired-up Rockets club or this could be the start of the end of the Dan Hawkins era in Boulder. The Buffaloes are just 4-9 SU and ATS in true road openers.

ESPN will be in Klinger’s backyard (of MASH fame) starting at 9 Eastern and Toledo is 21-7 OVER in home games.