Colorado Wins Its Eighth in Row, Hopes to Meet Irish in Orange Bowl

Pack the swim suits and suntan lotion. It might not be official, but to a man the Colorado football team has no doubt where it will be spending the New Year’s holiday.

And the Buffaloes want top-ranked Notre Dame to join them.

Fourth-ranked Colorado got a school-record four touchdown passes from Darian Hagan in its eighth consecutive victory, gaining at least a share of the Big Eight title with a 41-22 romp over Oklahoma State on Saturday.

The victory seems to assure the Buffaloes, 9-1-1 overall and 6-0 in the conference, will go to the Orange Bowl for the second consecutive year.

Nebraska could tie Colorado for the Big Eight title if the Cornhuskers beat Oklahoma in their last game and if Colorado loses to Kansas State. But Orange Bowl officials already have indicated they would choose Colorado in the event of a tie, because the Buffaloes beat Nebraska, 27-12, last week.

With the triumph over Oklahoma State (3-7, 1-5), Colorado became the first team other than Oklahoma and Nebraska to win back-to-back Big Eight titles.

“Going to the Orange Bowl is a tremendous accomplishment for us,” Coach Bill McCartney said. “I don’t care who we play. Notre Dame would be great. Miami would be great, too.

“If Notre Dame is ranked No. 1, then obviously we’d like to play them. If Notre Dame ducks us, I think we’d get Miami, and they’ve won, I think, 26 in a row down there. That would be quite challenging.”

Hagan said this year’s Orange Bowl berth “feels better (than last year’s). Last year, we kind of steamrollered to it. This year has been an uphill battle.”

Asked if Notre Dame, which beat the Buffaloes, 21-6, in last year’s Orange Bowl, might opt for a different bowl matchup this year, Hagan said, “If they’re smart, they will. We match up well against them.”

Tailback Eric Bieniemy, who rushed for 148 yards and a third-quarter touchdown, said, “It would be nice to play Notre Dame, but we’re only thinking of Kansas State next week.”

McCartney said Colorado was able to capitalize on Oklahoma State’s gambling defense and came through with some big pass plays.

“They were coming after us on every play, leaving single coverage on the receivers,” McCartney said. “And (wide receiver Mike) Pritchard was making the plays. He and Rocket (Notre Dame’s Raghib Ismail) are probably the nation’s two best big-play men.”

Pritchard caught six passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns.

Oklahoma State Coach Pat Jones said his team was aware of the risks of playing man-to-man coverage. “We knew Hagan had a good arm,” Jones said. “Man-to-man is hit or miss. You hope, obviously, to get to him enough. We got a couple of interceptions off of him, but he hurt us. That’s a very talented team. We would have had to play really spotless football to have a legitimate chance to win.”

Hagan had never before thrown more than two touchdown passes in a game. His four Saturday included 28- and 34-yarders to Pritchard. Five players shared the former Colorado record of three touchdown passes in a game.

Stunned by Kenny Ford’s 43-yard scoring pass play to Curtis Mayfield late in the first quarter which drew Oklahoma State into a 7-7 tie, Colorado scored 31 consecutive points.

Hagan passed 28 yards to Pritchard for the go-ahead score early in the second quarter. After a field goal just before the half, the Buffaloes pushed across three touchdowns in a span of less than four minutes in the third quarter to lead, 38-7.

Bieniemy, the nation’s leading rusher, improved on his school-record rushing total and now has 1,513 yards.