D.J. Eliot achieved something in his first game as Colorado defensive coordinator that has been accomplished just once in school history.
Prior to last Friday’s Rocky Mountain Showdown against Colorado State at Sports Authority Field in Denver, the fewest points allowed by the Buffaloes in the debut of a new defensive coordinator had been three points.
Colorado, of course, matched that record low in the impressive 17-3 victory over the Rams, putting Eliot in rare company. The only other Buffs defensive coordinator to allow as few as three points in his first game was Mike Hankwitz in 1988 when Colorado blasted Fresno State, 45-3.
The three points the Buffaloes allowed were the fewest in a season opener since 2010 (24-3 win over CSU in Denver). You have to go back to a 0-0 tie at Wisconsin in 1965 to find the last time CU allowed fewer points in a season opener.
The fact the Rams scored 55 fewer points than they did a week earlier against Oregon State was impressive.
Nobody was more pleased after the Rocky Mountain Showdown win than Mike MacIntyre.
“D.J. [Eliot and the defensive coaches) have all done a phenomenal job with our defensive guys,” MacIntyre beamed. “Our kids take their coaching really well. We’ve developed a culture of defense, we’ve recruited well for it, we’ve redshirted guys, we’ve gotten junior college guys, we know what we want.
“I always tell them ‘players make plays, players win games’. We coach them, but when they step out there they have to go make plays. From everything I’ve heard, I don’t think anybody expected us to be able to tackle anybody, but those kids played hard and I’m really proud of them.”
Eliot and the Colorado defense should come close to equaling that number of points allowed on Saturday when the Buffs face Texas State at noon MT in the home opener at Folsom Field. The Bobcats scored just 20 points and amassed a lowly 290 total offensive yards last Saturday against Houston Baptist, a FCS school whose players understandably had far more important things on their minds than playing a football game.
After limiting Colorado State to 88 rushing yards and 2.67 yards per rushing attempt, essentially make the Rams one-dimensional on offense, Buffs linebacker Rick Gamboa gushed about his new defensive coordinator.
“He did a great job with the game plan,” Gamboa said. “He helped us out with a lot of new guys playing for the first time, and the fact that he simplified it for us, let us play fast, I think that’s one thing that helped us a lot.”
One of Eliot’s coaching strengths (and perhaps a key reason why he was hired besides hs scheme being almost identical to former DC Jim Leavitt) is his keen ability to communicate with the players in a way that makes it easier for them to perform at a high level.
“Coach Eliot and (all the defensive coaches) are all on the same page,” CU linebacker Drew Lewis said. “They’re really good at communicating with us and they got us really well prepared for this game.”
After kicking a field goal with 9:56 left in the second quarter, Colorado State failed to score on its final seven possessions of the game. They punted once, turned the ball over on downs three times and committed three turnovers (two interceptions and a fumble). The Rams didn’t score a touchdown in two red zone trips.
CSU’s average per rush and average per play fell from 4.4 yards and 6.4 yards to 2.7 and 5.0, respectively, a significant difference. Even their passing yards per attempt (the best indicator of how productive a passing attack is) dropped from 8.6 against Oregon State to 6.6 against the Buffaloes.
Buffs cornerback Isaiah Oliver applauded Eliot for preparing the Colorado defense well for what the Rams offense tried to do schematically during the game.
“He did a tremendous job,” Oliver said. “He’s always watching film, he knows everything about the defense and (he knew) everything about CSU’s offense. So he knew what was coming before it happened. He was able to prepare us to do the same thing. We knew what they were going to run almost every single play. That helped how it looked on the field. He did a great job and all the defensive coaches did a great job.”
While 11 regular season games remain, the defensive-dominated victory in the Rocky Mountain Showdown allowed the Buffs defensive players to answer their skeptics with a resounding performance. Many analysts thought Colorado would take a step back defensively after losing so many major contributors to last season’s turnaround. First impressions? That won’t necessarily be the case.
For Gamboa, the defense’s exceptional first game performance afforded him a satisfying ‘I told you so’ moment after the game.
“All offseason, basically since last season, we’ve just been hearing about the offense and all the guys defensively we lost,” Gamboa said. “That’s one thing that pushed us in the offseason. We knew if we wanted to win, the defense would have to play well in games, and that’s kind of something we’ve preached throughout the off season.”
Lewis echoed those sentiments, saying his side of the ball was motivated in part by the low expectations many people had for the new look Colorado defense coming into the season.
“Obviously there are some naysayers and some doubters who didn’t know how we were going to play with half the defense graduating,” Lewis said. “I feel like I even came out and surprised myself. We surprised a lot of people being able to compete and stepping up to how the starters last year played.”
