Denver, CO
Keeler: Do you believe? North Dakota State sure does. Here’s how Deion Sanders, CU Buffs can avoid shocking upset in Boulder
BOULDER — Football questions only today, kids. Since Deion Sanders doesn’t want mine, I chucked one at Dave Baldwin instead.
“I don’t think they’ll feel it’s their Super Bowl,” Baldwin, the former San Jose State coach, CSU and UNC offensive coordinator, said of North Dakota State, which visits CU on Thursday night to kick off the 2024 slate at Folsom Field.
“I really believe, in their hearts and minds, they feel they belong there and they can beat them.”
Lovely. Any advice for Coach Prime when it comes to rustling a herd of upset-minded Bison on the Front Range?
“It’s not going to be, ‘Oh, it’s a lifetime dream’ for them,” the Colorado native continued. “They believe they can win there. That’s the attitude they brought into our place.”
Ah, yes. Their place. Baldwin was calling plays at old Hughes Stadium for Jim McElwain and the Rams in September 2012.
Now this was a Rams roster, mind you, with at least six future NFL players, including Broncos fan fave and Super Bowl 50 champ Shaq Barrett; wideout Crockett Gillmore; and quarterback Garrett Grayson. As our best pal Steve Addazio used to say, the Rammies had some dudes.
Naturally, CSU scored on the third play of the game, a 69-yard touchdown toss from Grayson to Gillmore. Ex-Rams wideout Joe Hansley told me he remembered, after the celebration, thinking this was going to be easy. Almost too easy.
“Gillmore scored,” the Highlands Ranch product recalled, “and we sat down on the bench looking at each other and said, ‘We’re going to kick the (expletive) out of this team.’”
Yeah, turns out, not so much. The Bison scored 22 straight after that, shutting out CSU the rest of the way to steal a 15-point win.
“They started calling our (offensive) plays on the field,” Hansley said with a laugh. “(We) were more or less just embarrassed.”
Baldwin even remembered some “film exchange” shenanigans between McElwain and then-Bison coach Craig Bohl, who continued to torment the Rams with Wyoming until his retirement this past December.
“The Bison are not going to finesse you,” Baldwin said. “They’re going to smack you in the face and they’re going to hit you on defense … they’re going to play their style of defense, which was Tampa-2 at the time.
“And they’re going to play it over and over and over and play to every formation they can. And they’re going to be as physical for a small school as you’ve ever seen. They won’t back down with their physicality.”
Nothing travels like defense and the run game, and since 2010, NDSU is 6-1 against Power 4 teams, all on the road. The Bison led 28-24 two Septembers ago against Arizona in Tucson until Wildcats QB Jayden de Laura found Jacob Cowing with a 22-yard touchdown pass to escape with a 31-28 victory.
The Bison have a new coach in Tim Polasek, but the same shock-the-world mojo. NDSU doesn’t want you to see the herd coming until you’re between the hashmarks.
“They play that old-school brand of football, that they’re going to take it to the end (of the game),” Baldwin stressed. “They’re going to tackle well. They’re going to block really well. They’re not big-time talkers. They come to play football.
“They’re going to pound and hit you and play with such physicality. They feel they can slow down the tempo. And their thing is, they love getting into the fourth quarter with a chance.”
Meanwhile, of the 14 questions posed to Sanders at the Champions Center on Saturday, only four pertained to the Bison. And Coach Prime dismissed the idea of Week 1 being a “trap” game.
“I think who we are encourages (NDSU),” Sanders said of the Bison. “Everybody wants to beat us, and we want to beat everybody. So that encourages them tremendously. They know they’re on national television. They know the world is watching. I think we had four, five — maybe five scouts out there today, scouts out there every day watching practices. They see that kind of stuff. So regardless of who you place on the schedule. These guys want it.”
On this, Baldwin and Hansley agreed — they’re not sure if these Bison can run with the Buffs in Ralphie’s backyard. Even if two-way star Travis Hunter isn’t 100%, the future NFL draft pick is still 30-40% better than anybody in green and gold. Vandy transfer Will Sheppard is 6-foot-3 with high 4.4-ish wheels and the catch radius of a glider. LaJohntay Wester, formerly of FAU, is a Jimmy Horn Jr. clone.
“I know who they are,” Baldwin, who retired from coaching a few years ago, said of NDSU. “I don’t know who the heck CU is with all the changes they’ve made.
“Last year, talk was cheap and the actions on the field (meant more). (The Buffs) weren’t a very physical football team. Everybody says (CU is) much better on the offensive line. If that’s the case, with that quarterback (Shedeur Sanders) and those wide receivers, it could be very dynamic for them.”
Assuming he’s got time, mind you. As Baldwin and Hansley learned the hard way, when it comes to the Bison and big stages, assume at your peril.
Originally Published:
DENVER (KDVR) — With the mild winter and warm start to spring, beekeepers are seeing swarms earlier in the year and expect the season to be longer than usual.
Gregg McMahan is a dispatcher for the Colorado Swarm Hotline. It’s usually his job to send a beekeeper to collect a swarm when someone calls, but on Sunday afternoon, he decided to handle one himself.
“Nice little swarm,” McMahan said. “It’s tricky, though, because it’s hanging on a fence.”
A warm winter and spring mean swarm season has begun four weeks early.
“Never seen it like this ever,” McMahan said.
This call is to a house on Denver’s east side. When McMahan arrived, he saw a swarm had taken up residence on the fence.
“Absolutely typical, it is on the small side,” McMahan said.
He got to work, first luring them into a box when he spotted a good sign.
“See all these girls, they got their butts up, they’re fanning their wings. That’s telling us the queens in here,” McMahan said.
With the queen in hand, the rest began to follow her into the box.
McMahan said two years ago, he had 400 calls like this. Last year, only 100, the Swarm Hotline was as unpredictable as the weather, which has caused bee activity earlier in the year than ever.
“It makes it hard on the bees, you know? Two days ago, I’m collecting swarms in the snow,” McMahan said.
Rescuing them is integral to Colorado’s ecosystem. McMahan hopes people give a beekeeper a call instead of spraying them or harming them in any other way.
“They do a phenomenal amount of pollination within this state. Not only our native flowers but all the other flowers that people bring in,” McMahan said.
Slowly but surely, the swarm left the fence and moved into the box. McMahan loaded them into his truck to deliver them to their new home.
“Westminster to the Stanley Lake Wildlife Refuge, so these girls will have lakefront property tonight,” he said.
As he wrapped up, McMahan’s phone was buzzing more than the bees. Just another call to start a swarm season, he thinks, could be a long one.
“This year I’m already 20 swarms deep, so I’m expecting way more than 100 this year,” McMahan said.
To have a bee swarm removed for free from your property anywhere statewide, the Swarm Hotline number is 1-844-SPY-BEES.
For the first time in the team’s history, Altitude Sports is broadcasting Denver Nuggets home games in Spanish. Kroenke Sports and Entertainment announced it has contracted a team to broadcast its games in Spanish for the playoffs.
“I think that is what the public wanted,” said Ivan De La Garza, producer for the broadcast team.
A team of three people, two commentators and a producer, sit in a press box at the top of Ball Arena. Their commentary is then synced with the traditional Altitude broadcast video and shared on the Altitude Plus application.
“With the Nuggets winning in the last five years, there is a tremendous amount of following from Latino people trying to listen to and watch the games in Spanish,” said Andres Casas, color commentator for the broadcast.
Casas said he strives to bring the same energy fans get during soccer broadcasts into the basketball broadcasts.
“That excitement that gets you. We want people to feel they are at the game,” Casas said.
“It has been so amazing to be a part of the Spanish broadcast for the Nuggets. I have been a fan of the Nuggets for my whole life,” said Jena Garcia, play-by-play commentator.
Garcia said it has been a dream come true to help bring this broadcast to her community.
“I’ve always desired to hear a Spanish broadcast, just as a fan. To be a part of it is just incredible,” Garcia said.
Those working in the broadcast said they are honored to help expand the reach of the Nuggets and sports in accessing diverse communities.
“We love sports. We are passionate, we are loud. We like to get together and enjoy sports,” De La Garza said.
“The Nuggets have a huge following, especially on the Spanish side. So, it is great for them to be able to listen to what is going on, game by game, especially into the playoffs,” Casas said.
“It is just another step of access that they are getting to be a fan of basketball,” Garcia said.
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