Colorado's 20-10 victory over Nebraska on Oct. 25, 1986 — a game that wasn't even televised — was one that quite literally altered the trajectory of the Buffs' football program.
It was CU's first victory over the Huskers since 1967 and the 1986 season would prove to be the first time the Buffs finished higher in the Big Eight Conference standings than Nebraska since 1976.
The victory was a turning point in the Bill McCartney era that signaled an end to the Buffs' haplessness against the Huskers.
When McCartney's tenure at Colorado came to an end following the 1994 season, in every one of the 12 years that he'd led the Buffs, his teams had faced a Nebraska team that was never ranked lower than No. 9 in the nation.
Thus, to say McCartney had a tall task in front of him — getting the Buffaloes to a competitive position let alone beating Nebraska — would be an understatement.
Lance Carl currently is CU's associate athletic director for business development and a partner in crime in many aspects to Rick George.
But in the early 1980s, the Burlington, Iowa native became a key recruit for McCartney's Class of 1983 and would play an equally key role in the Buffs ending almost two decades of consecutive misery versus Nebraska.
By the time Carl had hauled in a 52-yard pass from O.C. Oliver to put the Buffs up 17-7 over the Huskers early in the fourth quarter of that pivotal 1986 showdown in Boulder, it was the result of a multi-year culture change McCartney sought to institute at CU.
A big part of that change in culture started on the recruiting trail.
"(McCartney) came into a situation in ‘82 where we were downtrodden," Carl said. "We were living off (junior college transfers) and very few Colorado recruits wanted to stay home. His very first order of business in our recruiting class, my recruiting class of ‘83, was that he got the Colorado guys to stay home."
"Whether it be (RB) Eric McCarty who could have gone anywhere in the country — Michigan, Ohio State, UCLA — (TE) Jon Embree, who could have gone to UCLA, David Tate, who could have played basketball for Bobby Knight at Indiana but chose to play football and stay home, to go into the Midwest and get Mickey Pruitt...he was able to go get guys and identify guys who he wanted to build around and that’s what he did.”
Bettering Colorado's talent pool via recruiting wasn't the only task requiring McCartney's attention.
In fact, McCartney saw the equation to the Buffs toppling Nebraska as being three-fold. First, he had to drastically improve Colorado's prowess on the recruiting trail, in which by 1986, there had been progress.
Secondly, the Buffs needed to be physically tough enough to go toe to toe with a Huskers program that was perpetually a Top 10 team in the nation. Ultimately, what McCartney decided would toughen up his team was a complete offensive overhaul.
Before the summer of 1985, he began preparations to shift the Buffs' offense from its pass-heavy roots to the more physical, grinding and option-based wishbone. In 1984, the Buffaloes attempted 224 passes. In 1985, the first year McCartney instituted with wishbone, they passed 51 times.
"When he changed the offensive system from our passing game — because we were deficient on the offensive and defensive line — to make us a wishbone team, that toughened us up on the defensive side of the ball and the offensive side of the ball," Carl said. "We were more in-tune with what Nebraska was running at the time."
Carl recalled McCartney telling the team how things were going to be moving forward.
"For me, I came here and we were throwing the ball 30 or 40 times a game," he said. "I came because I was a receiver. It was very humbling to sit in that meeting in the spring of ‘85 with (McCartney) telling us that we were deficient on both sides of the ball because we were deficient on the offensive and defensive lines. In order for us to generate some consistency and some winning, we were going to have to go to the wishbone. To a man, as receivers, we looked at each other and said ‘What the hell is a wishbone?’"
In the short term, for Carl and his fellow wide receivers, the transition to the wishbone meant that they would be pulling blocking duty the vast majority of the time. For Carl personally, he had thoughts of transferring, in particular to Iowa to play under Hayden Fry.
“You don’t buy in until you win games," he said. "You buy in to a level — as a receiver, very few of us bought in because we’re blocking all day at practice. I came here to catch balls and now I’m leading the team with nine catches — it’s ridiculous."
But as fate would have it, a call back home to his mother proved to be a major deciding factor in him sticking it out with CU.
"My mom said: ‘You committed to Bill McCartney and Colorado. I don't know what a wishbone is and I don’t care what a wishbone is — you’re staying there.'"
The 1985 season, Colorado's first using the wishbone offense, resulted in a 7-5 record on the year. The Buffs were slightly edged in that year's Freedom Bowl by Washington but McCartney had guided Colorado to its first postseason appearance since 1976.
Also of note was that CU appeared to be gaining some ground against the Huskers. In 1982, McCartney's first year in Boulder, the Buffs had been throttled by NU at home, 40-14. The next season was worse, as No. 1 Nebraska demolished CU, 69-19.
In 1984, things had been a bit closer, but Nebraska still cruised to a 24-7 win. On Oct. 26, 1985 in Lincoln, it was the same result but a far different story. The No. 5 Cornhuskers and 5-1 but unranked Buffaloes were tied, 7-7, at halftime.
Nebraska built a slim lead entering the fourth quarter, going up 14-7, before one final field goal sealed a 17-7 NU victory.
When it came time for the 1986 showdown against Nebraska in Boulder on Oct. 25, noticeable confidence had been building within Colorado's football program. And on that note came the third area that McCartney knew he had to improve for his team: mental toughness.
He'd brought in better recruiting classes, the wishbone transition was beginning to bear fruit but lastly, Colorado needed to be mentally robust enough to square up with big bad Nebraska.
"At the time, Nebraska would beat you up physically — they’d conquer you physically and then by conquering you physically, they’d conquer you mentally, and then you’re out of the game," Carl said. "I think building us up to that point with a belief system and schematically and technically from an offensive and defensive standpoint really helped us a lot.”
Unfortunately for the Buffs, the 1986 season could not have gotten off to a worse start. After the first month of play, CU sat at 0-4 on the year after losses to Colorado State, Oregon, Ohio State and No. 10 Arizona.
“Coach McCartney always believed that iron sharpens iron," Carl said. "We had practiced so hard in the (1986) offseason. To lose your first four games — he could have lost the team. But he as a leader was able to galvanize us. We came back and won two (against Mizzou and Iowa State) and coming into that Nebraska game, we had momentum."
When it was all said and done, Colorado had shooed away its boogeyman and after nearly two decades, finally beat Nebraska.
... Awesome 55-ish minute summary of the CU/NU game in. '86: ...
The Buffs' first win over the Huskers since 1967 saw them out-gain NU in total offense, 263-262 — the first time since 1970 that a CU team had generated more offense than their Huskers adversaries.
Return man Jeff Campbell scored the opening points of the game on a 39-yard reverse that was pulled off with milliseconds to spare, as QB Mark Hatcher was being dragged down in the backfield by a few Huskers defensemen when he miraculously managed to flip the ball to Campbell, who darted up the left sideline and into the end zone.
In the second quarter, after recovering a Huskers fumble, the Buffs' wishbone attack stalled out on three straight short gains and kicker Dave DeLine took the field for a longshot field goal.
Amazingly, DeLine, who to that point had converted a lackluster 40% (4-of-10) of his kicks on the year, drilled a 57-yarder with less than five minutes left in the half.
Colorado would go on to hold Nebraska scoreless for much of the third quarter, but the Huskers did shorten their deficit and finally score late in the third to make things 10-7.
As the fourth quarter got underway, the Buffs took possession of the ball and on the opening play of the final quarter, ran the same option play that they'd been using all day, only this time with a twist.
“It was a play called 32-5," Carl said. "All it was was a triple option down the line of scrimmage. You run it all game. For me as a receiver, I’d been going downfield to crack the safety all game. I’d been going in trying to crack the safety, crack the safety, crack the safety. That’s what the play originated from. Coach McCartney said that we were going to be cracking them all game, and at some point in that game, they won’t be ready."
The monotony of the wishbone attack had done much to lessen any expectation from Nebraska that the Buffs would have some deception up their sleeve. McCartney had designed his offense to wear down defenses through attrition, not for flare.
Thus, Nebraska's defense was caught flatfooted when the Buffs opted to go for a rare pass — something they would run on just 12% of all offensive plays for the 1986 year.
"We didn't run trick plays — our biggest trick play was a reverse," Carl said. "We ran that to Jeff Campbell earlier in the game and Jeff scored a touchdown on that play. For them to see that over and over and over — that’s the thing about the wishbone offense. It’s famine, famine feast. As a receiver, it’s famine, famine, famine, famine, famine and you rarely feast."
Hatcher took the snap, rolled right and pitched to Oliver, initiating the option read that was far from irregular. But as Oliver halted and wound up his arm to throw, Carl, who had deceptively infiltrated the space between NU's defensive backs, was ready.
"I knew my responsibility," he said. "The most important thing for me was to sell the (block) but also look the ball in and not drop the ball, because you don’t get too many catches as a wishbone receiver. O.C. put it on the money and the safety couldn’t get there."
As Carl hauled in the pass on Nebraska's 15-yard line and ran across the goal line, Folsom Field and the Colorado contingent amongst its 52,440 fans that day went crazy. With 14:52 left in the game, CU led the Huskers, 17-7.
"After I was able to be on the receiving end of that play by O.C. Oliver in the fourth quarter, it was shocking because the mood in the stadium just changed," Carl said. "You could feel it on the sideline, you could feel it with the students behind us — ‘Oh my god, they’re actually going to do this.’"
Despite the jubilation, the job was not done and Nebraska would soon remind the Buffs of that when on the Huskers' ensuing offensive possession, they marched downfield, getting as far as CU's 12-yard line before Colorado's defense dug its heels in and thwarted a 3rd-and-8 attempt.
Nebraska settled for a field goal and the Buffs' lead was trimmed to seven.
DeLine converted a 36-yarder later in the fourth to cushion CU's lead, now 20-10, with under eight minutes to play.
While there doubtless was a significant amount of nailbiting going on for the CU faithful from that point until the clock read all zeroes, the Buffs had pulled it off. Colorado had out-toughed and out-played the mighty Nebraska Cornhuskers.
As much as Carl enjoys reflecting on that game, to him, despite his own huge touchdown, it's clear why the Buffs emerged victorious.
"The reason we won that game wasn’t because of that play," he said. "We won that game because of our defense. (Nebraska) had a renowned offense — Steve Taylor at quarterback, Dana Brinson at wingback, they had some studs at running back — our defense took it to them that day. We turned them over and we had some special teams plays."
Credit certainly is due to punter Barry Helton, who had numerous strong kicks that routinely pinned the Huskers deep within their own territory to start drives.
The Buffs' 1986 win over Nebraska had two major implications. First, McCartney, after four tries dating back to 1982, had managed to land a punch to the jaw of the Big Eight Conference's biggest, baddest team.
McCartney of course came to CU from Michigan, where as a defensive coordinator for the Wolverines he'd been well-versed in the intensity of Big Ten Conference rivalries. Upon arriving in Boulder, with the Buffs having failed to beat their "rival" Nebraska in a decade and a half, he knew that the future prestige of the program in large part depended on becoming competitive with the Huskers.
"Anytime you have a rivalry, you’ve got to do some damage to the other team," Carl said. "It’s similar to when people say we have a rivalry with CSU. At the time, we hadn’t beat Nebraska in 19 years. So for us to say Nebraska was our rival — it was a stretch of our imagination."
Finally arriving at the destination that McCartney had sought to lead his team was extremely gratifying for the players.
"It was just that feeling you get as a team and there’s no greater feeling than 100 guys coming together for one cause," Carl said. "Our cause was to beat Nebraska. We knew that in order for us to be anybody, be legitimized or to have any chance to have a future in the Big Eight Conference at the time — you had to beat Nebraska, the top team."
In the short term, the win was vindication for McCartney, who inherited a program in the dumps and who'd battled some serious adversity — going 14-30-1 in his first four years — in order resuscitate Colorado's football team.
"To come in here and make that declarative statement — people rolled their eyes at him and did not believe in him," Carl said. "But it was also a declaration that he believed in us. He instilled that belief in us that we’re going to beat the team to the east of us. We’re going to begin dominating them in some fashion, whether it be recruiting-wise or on the football field, and that’s what we did. It was based upon coach McCartney and what he believed."
The Buffaloes would finish the 1986 campaign at 6-6 — a slight regression from 1985 — and also failed to win in the postseason once more, as CU lost to Baylor in the Bluebonnet Bowl to end the year.
However, ironically enough the 6-6 Buffs, who had stumbled into a 0-4 start to the season, went on to go 6-1 in conference play that year and finish in the Big Eight standings in front of the 10-2 Huskers, who ended the year with a Sugar Bowl win over LSU and at No. 5 in the final Associated Press rankings.
But without a doubt, CU's upset of Nebraska signaled that the Buffs had made the leap from average program to good program and put the team in the driver's seat to go from good to great, which McCartney would do over the next few years.
Beating Nebraska was a major accomplishment for the Buffs in general, but the win in '86 also proved to have significant implications for CU on the recruiting trail as McCartney sought to bring in the next wave of recruits who would propel Colorado to bigger and better things.
“(McCartney) was able to go into (recruits’) homes in ‘86 and in ‘87 and that gets you Alfred Williams, Kanavis McGhee and Eric Bienemy and Mike Pritchard — they heard the rumblings of us beating Nebraska and said ‘let’s check out Colorado now,'" Carl said. "If we hadn’t won that game, those guys may not have come here. Think about the impact of that recruiting class — those guys came in my senior year in 1987 — and Alfred, Kanavis and E.B. all started for us as freshmen. That game allowed recruits to see us in a different light.”
"That game, that 20-10 win, changed our program. I firmly believe that. It gave us an identity of what you could do by buying in and believing what your coaches are doing for you."
FIN
Had. great time interviewing Lance Carl about one of the biggest wins in CU program history. That win truly did set the Buffs up to keep creeping towards greatness. Yet another game of old I would have loved to see live.
Can't believe it wasn't even on TV either...and those '86 uniforms with the blue patch around the bicep — yuck!
It was CU's first victory over the Huskers since 1967 and the 1986 season would prove to be the first time the Buffs finished higher in the Big Eight Conference standings than Nebraska since 1976.
The victory was a turning point in the Bill McCartney era that signaled an end to the Buffs' haplessness against the Huskers.
When McCartney's tenure at Colorado came to an end following the 1994 season, in every one of the 12 years that he'd led the Buffs, his teams had faced a Nebraska team that was never ranked lower than No. 9 in the nation.
Thus, to say McCartney had a tall task in front of him — getting the Buffaloes to a competitive position let alone beating Nebraska — would be an understatement.
Lance Carl currently is CU's associate athletic director for business development and a partner in crime in many aspects to Rick George.
But in the early 1980s, the Burlington, Iowa native became a key recruit for McCartney's Class of 1983 and would play an equally key role in the Buffs ending almost two decades of consecutive misery versus Nebraska.
By the time Carl had hauled in a 52-yard pass from O.C. Oliver to put the Buffs up 17-7 over the Huskers early in the fourth quarter of that pivotal 1986 showdown in Boulder, it was the result of a multi-year culture change McCartney sought to institute at CU.
A big part of that change in culture started on the recruiting trail.
"(McCartney) came into a situation in ‘82 where we were downtrodden," Carl said. "We were living off (junior college transfers) and very few Colorado recruits wanted to stay home. His very first order of business in our recruiting class, my recruiting class of ‘83, was that he got the Colorado guys to stay home."
"Whether it be (RB) Eric McCarty who could have gone anywhere in the country — Michigan, Ohio State, UCLA — (TE) Jon Embree, who could have gone to UCLA, David Tate, who could have played basketball for Bobby Knight at Indiana but chose to play football and stay home, to go into the Midwest and get Mickey Pruitt...he was able to go get guys and identify guys who he wanted to build around and that’s what he did.”
Bettering Colorado's talent pool via recruiting wasn't the only task requiring McCartney's attention.
In fact, McCartney saw the equation to the Buffs toppling Nebraska as being three-fold. First, he had to drastically improve Colorado's prowess on the recruiting trail, in which by 1986, there had been progress.
Secondly, the Buffs needed to be physically tough enough to go toe to toe with a Huskers program that was perpetually a Top 10 team in the nation. Ultimately, what McCartney decided would toughen up his team was a complete offensive overhaul.
Before the summer of 1985, he began preparations to shift the Buffs' offense from its pass-heavy roots to the more physical, grinding and option-based wishbone. In 1984, the Buffaloes attempted 224 passes. In 1985, the first year McCartney instituted with wishbone, they passed 51 times.
"When he changed the offensive system from our passing game — because we were deficient on the offensive and defensive line — to make us a wishbone team, that toughened us up on the defensive side of the ball and the offensive side of the ball," Carl said. "We were more in-tune with what Nebraska was running at the time."
Carl recalled McCartney telling the team how things were going to be moving forward.
"For me, I came here and we were throwing the ball 30 or 40 times a game," he said. "I came because I was a receiver. It was very humbling to sit in that meeting in the spring of ‘85 with (McCartney) telling us that we were deficient on both sides of the ball because we were deficient on the offensive and defensive lines. In order for us to generate some consistency and some winning, we were going to have to go to the wishbone. To a man, as receivers, we looked at each other and said ‘What the hell is a wishbone?’"
In the short term, for Carl and his fellow wide receivers, the transition to the wishbone meant that they would be pulling blocking duty the vast majority of the time. For Carl personally, he had thoughts of transferring, in particular to Iowa to play under Hayden Fry.
“You don’t buy in until you win games," he said. "You buy in to a level — as a receiver, very few of us bought in because we’re blocking all day at practice. I came here to catch balls and now I’m leading the team with nine catches — it’s ridiculous."
But as fate would have it, a call back home to his mother proved to be a major deciding factor in him sticking it out with CU.
"My mom said: ‘You committed to Bill McCartney and Colorado. I don't know what a wishbone is and I don’t care what a wishbone is — you’re staying there.'"
The 1985 season, Colorado's first using the wishbone offense, resulted in a 7-5 record on the year. The Buffs were slightly edged in that year's Freedom Bowl by Washington but McCartney had guided Colorado to its first postseason appearance since 1976.
Also of note was that CU appeared to be gaining some ground against the Huskers. In 1982, McCartney's first year in Boulder, the Buffs had been throttled by NU at home, 40-14. The next season was worse, as No. 1 Nebraska demolished CU, 69-19.
In 1984, things had been a bit closer, but Nebraska still cruised to a 24-7 win. On Oct. 26, 1985 in Lincoln, it was the same result but a far different story. The No. 5 Cornhuskers and 5-1 but unranked Buffaloes were tied, 7-7, at halftime.
Nebraska built a slim lead entering the fourth quarter, going up 14-7, before one final field goal sealed a 17-7 NU victory.
When it came time for the 1986 showdown against Nebraska in Boulder on Oct. 25, noticeable confidence had been building within Colorado's football program. And on that note came the third area that McCartney knew he had to improve for his team: mental toughness.
He'd brought in better recruiting classes, the wishbone transition was beginning to bear fruit but lastly, Colorado needed to be mentally robust enough to square up with big bad Nebraska.
"At the time, Nebraska would beat you up physically — they’d conquer you physically and then by conquering you physically, they’d conquer you mentally, and then you’re out of the game," Carl said. "I think building us up to that point with a belief system and schematically and technically from an offensive and defensive standpoint really helped us a lot.”
Unfortunately for the Buffs, the 1986 season could not have gotten off to a worse start. After the first month of play, CU sat at 0-4 on the year after losses to Colorado State, Oregon, Ohio State and No. 10 Arizona.
“Coach McCartney always believed that iron sharpens iron," Carl said. "We had practiced so hard in the (1986) offseason. To lose your first four games — he could have lost the team. But he as a leader was able to galvanize us. We came back and won two (against Mizzou and Iowa State) and coming into that Nebraska game, we had momentum."
When it was all said and done, Colorado had shooed away its boogeyman and after nearly two decades, finally beat Nebraska.
... Awesome 55-ish minute summary of the CU/NU game in. '86: ...
The Buffs' first win over the Huskers since 1967 saw them out-gain NU in total offense, 263-262 — the first time since 1970 that a CU team had generated more offense than their Huskers adversaries.
Return man Jeff Campbell scored the opening points of the game on a 39-yard reverse that was pulled off with milliseconds to spare, as QB Mark Hatcher was being dragged down in the backfield by a few Huskers defensemen when he miraculously managed to flip the ball to Campbell, who darted up the left sideline and into the end zone.
In the second quarter, after recovering a Huskers fumble, the Buffs' wishbone attack stalled out on three straight short gains and kicker Dave DeLine took the field for a longshot field goal.
Amazingly, DeLine, who to that point had converted a lackluster 40% (4-of-10) of his kicks on the year, drilled a 57-yarder with less than five minutes left in the half.
Colorado would go on to hold Nebraska scoreless for much of the third quarter, but the Huskers did shorten their deficit and finally score late in the third to make things 10-7.
As the fourth quarter got underway, the Buffs took possession of the ball and on the opening play of the final quarter, ran the same option play that they'd been using all day, only this time with a twist.
“It was a play called 32-5," Carl said. "All it was was a triple option down the line of scrimmage. You run it all game. For me as a receiver, I’d been going downfield to crack the safety all game. I’d been going in trying to crack the safety, crack the safety, crack the safety. That’s what the play originated from. Coach McCartney said that we were going to be cracking them all game, and at some point in that game, they won’t be ready."
The monotony of the wishbone attack had done much to lessen any expectation from Nebraska that the Buffs would have some deception up their sleeve. McCartney had designed his offense to wear down defenses through attrition, not for flare.
Thus, Nebraska's defense was caught flatfooted when the Buffs opted to go for a rare pass — something they would run on just 12% of all offensive plays for the 1986 year.
"We didn't run trick plays — our biggest trick play was a reverse," Carl said. "We ran that to Jeff Campbell earlier in the game and Jeff scored a touchdown on that play. For them to see that over and over and over — that’s the thing about the wishbone offense. It’s famine, famine feast. As a receiver, it’s famine, famine, famine, famine, famine and you rarely feast."
Hatcher took the snap, rolled right and pitched to Oliver, initiating the option read that was far from irregular. But as Oliver halted and wound up his arm to throw, Carl, who had deceptively infiltrated the space between NU's defensive backs, was ready.
"I knew my responsibility," he said. "The most important thing for me was to sell the (block) but also look the ball in and not drop the ball, because you don’t get too many catches as a wishbone receiver. O.C. put it on the money and the safety couldn’t get there."
As Carl hauled in the pass on Nebraska's 15-yard line and ran across the goal line, Folsom Field and the Colorado contingent amongst its 52,440 fans that day went crazy. With 14:52 left in the game, CU led the Huskers, 17-7.
"After I was able to be on the receiving end of that play by O.C. Oliver in the fourth quarter, it was shocking because the mood in the stadium just changed," Carl said. "You could feel it on the sideline, you could feel it with the students behind us — ‘Oh my god, they’re actually going to do this.’"
Despite the jubilation, the job was not done and Nebraska would soon remind the Buffs of that when on the Huskers' ensuing offensive possession, they marched downfield, getting as far as CU's 12-yard line before Colorado's defense dug its heels in and thwarted a 3rd-and-8 attempt.
Nebraska settled for a field goal and the Buffs' lead was trimmed to seven.
DeLine converted a 36-yarder later in the fourth to cushion CU's lead, now 20-10, with under eight minutes to play.
While there doubtless was a significant amount of nailbiting going on for the CU faithful from that point until the clock read all zeroes, the Buffs had pulled it off. Colorado had out-toughed and out-played the mighty Nebraska Cornhuskers.
As much as Carl enjoys reflecting on that game, to him, despite his own huge touchdown, it's clear why the Buffs emerged victorious.
"The reason we won that game wasn’t because of that play," he said. "We won that game because of our defense. (Nebraska) had a renowned offense — Steve Taylor at quarterback, Dana Brinson at wingback, they had some studs at running back — our defense took it to them that day. We turned them over and we had some special teams plays."
Credit certainly is due to punter Barry Helton, who had numerous strong kicks that routinely pinned the Huskers deep within their own territory to start drives.
The Buffs' 1986 win over Nebraska had two major implications. First, McCartney, after four tries dating back to 1982, had managed to land a punch to the jaw of the Big Eight Conference's biggest, baddest team.
McCartney of course came to CU from Michigan, where as a defensive coordinator for the Wolverines he'd been well-versed in the intensity of Big Ten Conference rivalries. Upon arriving in Boulder, with the Buffs having failed to beat their "rival" Nebraska in a decade and a half, he knew that the future prestige of the program in large part depended on becoming competitive with the Huskers.
"Anytime you have a rivalry, you’ve got to do some damage to the other team," Carl said. "It’s similar to when people say we have a rivalry with CSU. At the time, we hadn’t beat Nebraska in 19 years. So for us to say Nebraska was our rival — it was a stretch of our imagination."
Finally arriving at the destination that McCartney had sought to lead his team was extremely gratifying for the players.
"It was just that feeling you get as a team and there’s no greater feeling than 100 guys coming together for one cause," Carl said. "Our cause was to beat Nebraska. We knew that in order for us to be anybody, be legitimized or to have any chance to have a future in the Big Eight Conference at the time — you had to beat Nebraska, the top team."
In the short term, the win was vindication for McCartney, who inherited a program in the dumps and who'd battled some serious adversity — going 14-30-1 in his first four years — in order resuscitate Colorado's football team.
"To come in here and make that declarative statement — people rolled their eyes at him and did not believe in him," Carl said. "But it was also a declaration that he believed in us. He instilled that belief in us that we’re going to beat the team to the east of us. We’re going to begin dominating them in some fashion, whether it be recruiting-wise or on the football field, and that’s what we did. It was based upon coach McCartney and what he believed."
The Buffaloes would finish the 1986 campaign at 6-6 — a slight regression from 1985 — and also failed to win in the postseason once more, as CU lost to Baylor in the Bluebonnet Bowl to end the year.
However, ironically enough the 6-6 Buffs, who had stumbled into a 0-4 start to the season, went on to go 6-1 in conference play that year and finish in the Big Eight standings in front of the 10-2 Huskers, who ended the year with a Sugar Bowl win over LSU and at No. 5 in the final Associated Press rankings.
But without a doubt, CU's upset of Nebraska signaled that the Buffs had made the leap from average program to good program and put the team in the driver's seat to go from good to great, which McCartney would do over the next few years.
Beating Nebraska was a major accomplishment for the Buffs in general, but the win in '86 also proved to have significant implications for CU on the recruiting trail as McCartney sought to bring in the next wave of recruits who would propel Colorado to bigger and better things.
“(McCartney) was able to go into (recruits’) homes in ‘86 and in ‘87 and that gets you Alfred Williams, Kanavis McGhee and Eric Bienemy and Mike Pritchard — they heard the rumblings of us beating Nebraska and said ‘let’s check out Colorado now,'" Carl said. "If we hadn’t won that game, those guys may not have come here. Think about the impact of that recruiting class — those guys came in my senior year in 1987 — and Alfred, Kanavis and E.B. all started for us as freshmen. That game allowed recruits to see us in a different light.”
"That game, that 20-10 win, changed our program. I firmly believe that. It gave us an identity of what you could do by buying in and believing what your coaches are doing for you."
FIN
Had. great time interviewing Lance Carl about one of the biggest wins in CU program history. That win truly did set the Buffs up to keep creeping towards greatness. Yet another game of old I would have loved to see live.
Can't believe it wasn't even on TV either...and those '86 uniforms with the blue patch around the bicep — yuck!
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