Saturday, December 11
Colorado seeks 5th straight bowl win
Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. -- A pair of teams trying to rebuild will tee it up in the Insight.com Bowl.

	Gary Barnett led Colorado to a bowl game in his first season as head coach.

Boston College (8-3) accepted an invitation to play in the game Saturday during a telephone conference call from the Eagles' football awards banquet.

Colorado (6-5) was announced last week as the Big 12's representative to the Dec. 31 contest.

"It doesn't matter who we play," Boston College coach Tom O'Brien said. "We are excited to be in this situation. Three years ago we were on the front pages of all major newspapers for all the wrong reasons, and three years later we were on the front pages before playing Virginia Tech for all the right reasons. We are excited."

The Eagles have been on the rebound since a point- shaving probe rocked the program three years ago. After a pair of 4-7 seasons, the Big East Conference school became bowl-eligible again, and the trip to Tucson is its reward.

The Eagles finished their season with a 38-14 loss to national championship contender Virginia Tech on Nov. 26, snapping a three-game run in which they defeated Syracuse, West Virginia and Notre Dame.

"This is a huge step," O'Brien said. "Three years ago we had the gambling situation. There was talk about town that maybe Boston College shouldn't be playing football at this level.

"What we had to prove here is that we could win in order to recruit and to play at the high level in the Big East Conference. This is a huge step in that direction."

Colorado concluded the season winning three of five games. The losses came to Kansas State and Nebraska. The Buffaloes overcame a 27-point deficit to send its game with the Cornhuskers into overtime before losing 33-30.

"The first part of the season was like driving a stick shift car and the last part has been like driving an automatic transmission," first-year Colorado coach Gary Barnett said.

The Buffaloes started out slowly, but came up with wins over Iowa State, Oklahoma and Baylor to turn the corner on the season.

Colorado will put its nation's longest active bowl-winning streak of five games on the line in Arizona Stadium.

"I think that's a great matchup," Barnett said. "They are a ranked team and they've had a great year."

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