Tackling & Toughness – UCLA
filed in Tackling & Toughness on Sep.23, 2002
I was selected as the “on-location” representative for the TnT awards this weekend since P wasn’t able to make the game. Let me tell you, it was a tough assignment this week; the Buffs finally played a complete game.
But the winners are…..
TACKLING: Donald Strickland. #4 played a serious, hard hitting game this week. He laid some body rocking, snot bubbling hits on a number of people throughout the game. While our secondary was still a little shifty Mr. Strickland stepped up his play and got back to where we all know he can play. By the 4th quarter Bragg and the rest of his friends were afraid to come anywhere near Strickland.
TOUGHNESS: The O-line. It’s one thing for a team to say your team’s offensive line tired them out when we are playing in the altitude at Folsom. After all, we’re at home and we’re at altitude which apparently seriously affects the lesser, low-land, version of the species. But when we go into someone else’s backyard and they say we beat the hell out of them on the line, that is awesome. Last week the O-line had some problems. We couldn’t get holes to send our runners through because we weren’t able to back the defense off with a pass threat. We couldn’t get a pass threat because our QB had no time. Basically, last week the O-line blew ass. This week, our QB had all kinds of time and even I could have hit the holes they were opening up. The O-line stepped up and played a great, old school, physical game.
HONORABLE MENTION:
TACKLING: We still had some trouble tackling so I thought about skipping the honorable mention on tackling. But then I remembered a hit on a kick return that brought a tear to my eye. The consensus was it was doled out by #46, Justin Ness. The UCLA return man was about to shake a Buffs tackler from his ankles when Ness went horizontal, clearing two players who were on their hands and knees, and leveled the return man. Impressive.
TOUGHNESS: Without a doubt senior QB Robert Hodge. He had a crappy game against USC. But it was his first game of the season and the O-line blew. Yet, as is the custom in a big loss, the fans, coaches and media piled the blame high on Hodge’s shoulders. But the ju-co transfer came out against UCLA and overcame all the hype and a tough 1st quarter and got it done, completing 11 (a couple of which were real beauts) passes for 117 yards and catching a pass for a 29 yard gain.
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September 23rd, 2002 on 10:22 am
Great job Ryno. I knew that I could trust you with the enormous duty of giving out the prized tackling & toughness awards. I am also pleased with the correlation between buffalos deserving awards in these areas and the final outcome of the game.
September 27th, 2002 on 3:15 pm
Yeah, the entire team was tough last week. The real test though will come this week against K-state, a team that beat the shit out of USC, the same Trojan’s that wore the entire buffs team as “Lifestyles” on their purple people eaters!!
Hoo-RAH
October 3rd, 2002 on 12:12 am
We outplayed you guys in every facet of the game. The Buffs got LUCKY AS HELL against the BRUINS.
October 3rd, 2002 on 8:58 am
You have to be joking. Without even looking at the stats or reviewing the game I can give you one facet of the game in which CU outplayed the Bruins, THE SCOREBOARD. You need to get out of LA more often, the smog is affecting your brain.