Boulder, Colo. • The possibility of a bowl game stares the Colorado Buffaloes in the face each day at practice.
Those waving flags are hard to ignore.
Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre has taken to flying the logos from bowls with tie-ins to the Pac-12 Conference at the team's training complex, including that big one — the Rose Bowl.
It is MacIntyre's way of letting his squad know the postseason possibilities are out there, even for a team coming off a 2-10 season and predicted to finish last in the Pac-12 South.
His players are already buying in.
"We are a bowl team. I definitely believe that," senior tailback Christian Powell said Saturday at media day. "If you look at last season, it's not like we were getting blown out every single game. It's not like everybody was putting up numbers on us and we couldn't do anything. We just had one or two mistakes here and there that generally cost us the game. Our focus all offseason has been to finish — just finish what we start."
Colorado lost four games by five points or less in 2014. That's why MacIntyre is preaching persistence heading into this season. His team has been in those pressure-packed situations — such as losing to UCLA in double-overtime on Homecoming — and should now know what to do.
"Our theme is trusting each other in those situations," said MacIntyre, who has a 6-18 record in two seasons in Boulder after turning around the program at San Jose State. "We will be in a lot of close games again. We'll come out on top in a lot more close games.
"I expect us to be good. I really do. I see it out on the field, and see it in their eyes, in their work ethic."
And in their talk about bowl possibilities. They're not shying away from such assertions, even planning for the possibility.
"They say, 'Coach, what's our schedule for Christmas for a bowl game?' They haven't asked me that before," said MacIntyre, whose team opens the season Sept. 3 in Hawaii. "I can talk about it with this team because they believe it. It's not something I throw out there. That's what they see.
"Now we have to go do it."
The players are holding each other accountable as well. Say, for instance, someone leaves a towel on the floor. Well, something will be said. Same with not properly stacking their dinner dishes in the dining hall.
"That's part of caring about all the details," MacIntyre explained. "They're managing the room, where I don't have to do that anymore. When they're doing that, it shows a culture change."
