| | | |
Friday, December 13, 2002
No. 5 Kansas State at Colorado
Associated Press
BOULDER, Colo. -- Bobby Pesavento gets his second straight
start at quarterback when Colorado entertains No. 5 Kansas State on
Saturday. Please excuse him, however, if he keeps glancing over his
shoulder.
Pesavento, a junior-college transfer, earned the starting job
after two solid appearances in relief of Zac Colvin.
But on an 0-3 team, few jobs are safe, and suddenly a highly
recruited freshman is being thrown into the quarterback mix.
In practices the last two weeks, Craig Ochs has taken about the
same number of practice reps as Pesavento and Colvin. Ochs doesn't
want to redshirt, and coach Gary Barnett is determined to get him
some quality playing time on Saturday.
"I think you want to play him earlier in the game rather than
later," Barnett said. "Maybe ideally you play him for a drive in
the second quarter at a point in the game where you can see what he
can do but the game doesn't ride on his performance in that drive.
"You'd see where he is with the offense and go from there. It's
a good way to gauge where he is. You can do only so much in
practice. Until he gets in a game and you see how he reacts to
different things, that's when you really find out what you have."
Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said the Buffs "want to get
Craig in the mix like Michigan did with Drew Henson and Texas did
with Chris Simms last year -- give them opportunities to make them
better players down the road."
"It looks like a series for now," Ochs said. "They'll
evaluate how I did and make a determination from there (about more
playing time)."
Ochs feels he knows the offense and is excited about the
opportunity, even if it does come against the No. 1 defense in the
country. Kansas State is surrendering a per-game average of only
184 yards.
Pesavento hopes he doesn't get lost in the shuffle. He has
completed 60 percent of his passes for 477 yards with three
touchdowns and no interceptions. In his only other start, he
completed 15 of 27 passes for 174 yards and a touchdown but was
sacked six times in a 17-14 loss to Washington two weeks ago.
Colorado was idle last week.
"I've been working on making my reads and getting rid of the
ball faster," Pesavento said. "If I can do that Saturday, we'll
have a great chance to win."
Kansas State (4-0) presents a formidable challenge, but the
Buffaloes have faced that quality of competition already this
season. After bowing to in-state rival Colorado State, the Buffs
fell to Southern California, now ranked No. 7, and to Washington,
now No. 6, by identical 17-14 counts.
Colorado's three opponents so far have a combined record of 8-1,
and the Buffs have lost those three games by a total of only 10
points.
On the other hand, it can be argued that K-State hasn't been
tested. The Wildcats' first four opponents - Iowa, Louisiana Tech,
Ball State and North Texas -- have a combined record of 1-15.
Barnett says watching film of recent KSU games can be hazardous
to your health.
"You've got to be careful," he said, "because they're so
dominant that you can get caught up in how good they've been every
week and it can paralyze you a little bit.
"Regardless of what anybody says about their schedule, when you
absolutely annihilate everybody you play - no matter who it is -
that means you're operating at a very high level. We've tried to
look for any little weaknesses we might find, and that's
difficult."
Asked if his team's trip to Boulder had all the earmarks of a
potential ambush, Kansas State coach Bill Snyder said, "We view
Colorado as an extremely difficult place to play and an extremely
difficult football team, so it's not an ambush. They're such a fine
football team. We know it's going to be a hard-fought game. If they
win, it will be because they're a better team on that day."
Colorado hasn't laid many traps for the Wildcats in recent
years. After dominating the series 11-0-1 from 1985-96, the Buffs
have dropped the last three meetings, including 20-14 last year in
Manhattan.
It's the Big XII opener for both teams.
| | | |
|
|
