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CSU players not interested in trash talk ahead of Showdown with CU

When University of Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre told a room full of boosters two weeks ago that his team was “getting ready to kick someone’s ass up north,” you can guarantee the folks in Fort Collins heard it loud and clear.

Like any rivalry game, the Rocky Mountain Showdown has its fair share of trash talk. In 2002, CSU quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt said the Buffs were the “sorriest No. 6 team I’ve ever seen,” referencing CU’s ranking in a national poll. That of course was after the Rams pulled off a stunning 19-14 upset, with Van Pelt’s celebratory spike of the ball off CU defender Rod Snead’s helmet on a touchdown run.”

Van Pelt continued, “I live in the face of doubters, and so does my whole team. [Colorado] has four times the amount of money we have. They have everything. You know what, we've got guys with heart.”

The trash talk even extends to the basketball floor, where CU standout Spencer Dinwiddie took exception to the Rams rushing the court in 2011 after upsetting the Buffs. “You just kind of see when the little brother beats the big brother once, then they are going to be happy, they are going to rush the court,” Dinwiddie said before the 2012 matchup. “When we win tomorrow night, I don’t think our fans are going to do that.”

Though it may not have the national fanfare of the Iron Bowl, or the history of Michigan-Ohio State, the Rocky Mountain Showdown stirs up plenty of bad blood between the two flagship universities in the state of Colorado.


CSU safety Jake Schlager was the only one who used the term “hate” when referencing the animosity between the two schools, but say the words Rocky Mountain Showdown to any player on either side, especially the ones from Colorado, and their faces tend to light up a little bit more. These players may not hate each other, but they love to dislike one another.

Despite MacIntyre’s words, players and coaches from CSU insist that they are more interested in what happens between the lines than all of the talk that happens before the game.

Head coach Mike Bobo made the most “controversial” comment from the CSU side when he told reporters Monday, “I heard they (CU) didn't really care about playing us too much. They really acted like they cared when they won the game.”

Bobo touched on what has become a prevailing topic of conversation around the rivalry — whether this game means more to the Rams than it does the Buffs. Talk to five CU supporters and they’ll say the Rocky Mountain Showdown isn’t even a rivalry game because of the overall record (63-22-2). Then take the opinions of five CSU fans and you’ll get a completely different story about the rivalry and how only the recent history of the game matters (CU leads the series 10-7 since the 1999 season).

Junior offensive tackle Zack Golditch, who hails from Aurora, doesn’t buy the idea that this game means any more or any less to either team.

“We know that they think it’s not the biggest game of the year for them because we’re not a Power Five school,” Golditch said. “But we’ve stood toe-to-toe with those guys ever since I first went to a game during my senior year of high school. Every single year we go toe-to-toe. Power Five, Mountain West, it doesn’t matter. Football is football.”

Schlager, who was born in Colorado before moving to Nebraska in grade school, grew up with two reasons to dislike CU as a fan of both the Rams and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He admits that as a kid he was a fan of both the Buffs and Rams, but after moving to the Cornhusker State in 1st grade, his allegiance to Boulder faded away very quickly.

“The hatred and rivalry that Nebraska had for CU is comparable to how CSU feels about them, too,” Schlager said. “I remember growing up and listening to games on the radio and watching the Showdown, and this is a game I look forward to every year.”

But don’t think you’ll get Schlager to do any trash talking. He says he’ll let his play do the talking.

“Everyone’s going to talk, everyone’s going to ramble on,” Schlager said after hearing of MacIntyre’s comments. “But come game time, that opening kickoff, that first play, that’s where all the talking gets done. That’s where everything settled. Stay humble because you don’t know what each day will bring you.”

GoldandGreenNews.com Digital Producer Keegan Pope can be reached at keegan.pope21@gmail.com and on Twitter @ByKeeganPope.

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