COMMENTARY : Why Must Buffaloes Think They Can Fly?

Two books you won’t be seeing on the New York Times’ bestseller list:

Eric Bieniemy’s Handy Guide to Home Safety.

Air Colorado: Better Football Through Incompletions, Interceptions, One-Hoppers to the Tight End and Other New Variations on the Forward Pass.

On a late August afternoon at Anaheim Stadium Sunday, the entire University of Colorado football team and coaching staff went to summer school, learning that some great ideas are destined to remain just that.

Colorado Coach Bill McCartney keeps saying he wants to pass more this season. Why, no one at the Big A Sunday could really be sure. As evidenced throughout the Buffaloes’ disappointing 31-31 tie with Tennessee in the first Disneyland Pigskin Classic, when you have a quarterback who throws like Darian Hagan and an offensive line that blocks like Colorado’s, your offense should best concentrate on three simple maneuvers.

Run.

Run.

Run.

Just pick out a tailback, plug in a name and watch him go. Anybody can qualify. Normally, the assignment belongs to Bieniemy, an All-American with Heisman hopes and, luckily, no aspirations for fireman. Bieniemy had to sit this game out after refusing to run interference for a team of firefighters outside a blaze at his parents’ home in West Covina. When the fire squad brought out the axes to chop through the Bieniemys’ front door, Eric tried to physically stop them, an incident that led to a one-game suspension by McCartney.

A wide receiver named Mike Pritchard filled in for Bieniemy, making his first appearance at tailback since 1987.

Pritchard rushed for 217 yards, the most by a Tennessee opponent since Alabama’s Bobby Humphries also netted 217 against the Volunteers in a 1986 game.

Pritchard ran for two touchdowns. One covered 55 yards. The other went for 78.

Pritchard averaged almost 11 yards a carry and, as a team, Colorado amassed 368 yards on the ground.

Yet, the Buffaloes came out throwing.

Hagan passed five times during Colorado’s first three possessions. Two of them were intercepted. By halftime, Hagan’s interception total was up to three--meaning Tennessee had caught more of his passes than Colorado had.

Hagan’s first-half statistics: 10 attempts, two completions, 24 yards.

He finished the afternoon with five completions in 19 tries for 68 yards, prompting McCartney to comment, “Hagan experienced a lot of frustration today. He is capable of throwing much better than that.”

McCartney, however, didn’t stick around too long to find out. Finally, he returned to the run in the second half. Pritchard took the ball and ran with it--all the way to a 31-17 fourth-quarter Colorado lead.

The game was tied, 10-10, before Pritchard broke loose for 55 yards early in the third quarter. And Tennessee was within 24-17 when Pritchard fielded Hagan’s best pass of the game--a falling, left-handed, overhead lateral--and carried it 78 yards for another score.

Pritchard also fumbled three times, including his first carry of the game, but, hey, this isn’t his job. He was the Colorado tailback for the day--and 217 yards or no, he is moving to wingback next week.

“Eric Bieniemy is our tailback,” McCartney said. “He’s going to get a lot of carries and he’s going to get a lot of yards. He’s one of the great backs in the country.”

Pritchard claims he doesn’t mind.

“I stepped in today,” Pritchard said. “I did an adequate job, but (Bieniemy) is our tailback and that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Adequate?

Well, yes, Pritchard insisted. Remember those three fumbles?

“I don’t think I played that great,” he said. “In the first half, my mistakes cost us. We could’ve been in great field position; instead, Tennessee had great field position. And in the second half, the offensive line was making truck-sized holes for me.”

His 78-yard scoring sprint, he insisted, was the sole product of Hagan’s option handiwork. “That’s just the magic of Darian Hagan,” Pritchard said. “You don’t see any other quarterbacks who can make a pitch like that.”

It was a special kind of play. Hagan took the snap and rolled to right, breaking inside and drawing the defense with him. Hagan was hit and as he began to fall, he twisted and looked toward the sideline, where his left-handed toss found Pritchard all alone and in midsprint.

If only his right-handed throws were as accurate.

“Darian is ambi-, ambi- . . . he can throw with both hands,” Pritchard said with a laugh. “He actually turned around and threw it back. It had some velocity on it.”

Pritchard shook his head.

“Darian is Mr. Magic,” he said again. “That’s why you always want to stay with him on the pitch phase. You never know when the ball might come.”

You could say the same thing about Hagan on the pass phase, but that would be a cheap shot. At wingback, Pritchard attempts to catch passes from Hagan. Last year he caught 12 of them. He says he prefers it that way.

“I’m going back to wingback. That’s the way it’s going to be and the way I want it to be,” he says. “I like wingback better. I feel more comfortable there. It’s a big play position.”

It’s also riskier that way.

At Colorado, the surest way to get your hands on the football is by way of the handoff.