It’s really simple for Coach Prime’s second Buffaloes band. Keep winning and pray that one of Iowa State’s four opponents can defeat the 17th-ranked Cyclones. A road game at Utah and a late-season home game against No. 22 Kansas State still remain. on the ISU calendar. The fans need the ‘Cats, or someone else, to demote the Cyclones.

Two surprises opened the door of hope. Now the question is: Can the Buffs get him wide open? There are four games left, three against the conference’s bottom residents, Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma State. Is it coming to Lubbock? The Texas Tech Red Raiders are coming off a surprising upset against previously undefeated Iowa State on the road. Tech is now bowl eligible and hungry for more.

The Big 12 was heralded in the preseason as one of the most unpredictable Power Four conferences. It wasn’t disappointing. BYU is undefeated but still has to play Arizona State, currently 6-2, and Utah. The Utes are down this year after losing their talented quarterback Cam Rising, but would love to play the role of spoiler against Colorado and BYU.

The Cougars in the preseason polls were ranked 13th among the conference’s 16 teams, two spots behind the Buffs. Preseason forecasters turned their attention to the Big 12 Conference, where the last-place finishers were expected to be in excellent position to play for the championship on Dec. 7 at Jerry’s World in Dallas.

All of this madness takes us back to the wild and crazy season of 1990. Hall of Fame coach Bill McCartney’s Buffs team started 1-1-1. That was not the plan, as the most respected national polls expected Colorado to compete for a national title after the tragic but magical “One Heartbeat” season of ’89.

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Colorado opened the 1990 campaign with a tie against Tennessee in the Pigskin Classic. It was the “explosive” party for future NFL first-round pick Mike Pritchard. The second game was at home against Stanford and a last-second touchdown by Eric Bieniemy averted a disastrous upset. Game three was a disappointing loss at Illinois, where the Buffs blew an early 17-3 lead and lost 23-22.

I’ll never forget interviewing the downtrodden Buffs in a small, crowded locker room in Champaign, Illinois, after the crushing setback. Almost every player or coach interviewed solemnly proclaimed, “We need to forget about this ‘national championship’ talk and focus on winning the Big Eight.” It was similar to how Coach Prime and his players were after Nebraska.

Longtime Buff fans know what happened next. Colorado reeled off ten straight wins, including a fifth-down officiating error at Missouri, and beat Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl to win the school’s only national championship. It was a split decision. The Buffs won the AP Poll and undefeated Georgia Tech won the UPI Coaches Poll (thanks to Tom Osborne).

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There was no playoff system back then. Georgia Tech’s ACC champion status didn’t stop the Yellowjackets from taking their No. 2 seed to the Orange Bowl to face top-ranked automatic Big 8 champion Colorado in a deciding title game. But the Orange Bowl committee wanted Notre Dame instead of Georgia Tech as the Buffaloes’ opponent, because Notre Dame had a larger fan base and would rake in more money and better television ratings. Money talks, then and now.

Back to the present. Watching Iowa State lose at home to Texas Tech and K-State lose on the road to Houston stirred up emotions for the 1990 team. It needed help just like Prime’s team needs help now.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Texas Tech is coming off the emotional high of the late rally in Ames. Third-year coach Joey McGuire’s team will play in front of rabid home fans and would love nothing more than to deflate CU’s dream of an “amazing season.”

There are others who try to deflate the team. Coach Prime reportedly insisted great moment about academics this farewell week. A kind of rhetoric: “Discipline on the field, in the classroom and everywhere else creates champions.” His scribe reminds him of McCartney again. He always talks about “Love them after a hard loss, but humble them when they are flying high.”

The fans are stampeding. Lady Luck has also appeared. Fans hope the Red Raiders don’t become CU’s dream raiders.