To say the cupboard was bare at the University of Colorado when Bill McCartney arrived in Boulder doesn't quite do justice to the sorry state of the football program in 1982.
Between 1979 and 1981 the Buffaloes won all of seven games. There was little confidence in the idea of a quick turnaround and interest in the program was waning, with the average attendance at Folsom Field reaching a 16-year low in 1981. The need to replenish the enthusiasm surrounding the Buffaloes program was as essential to the success McCartney envisioned as replenishing the level of talent on the roster.