Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)
For the first time in a little more than a year, the Colorado football program genuinely had something to celebrate.
Yet if coach Mike MacIntyre hopes to remain in Boulder for the duration of the contract extension he signed last summer, it's time for the inroads the Buffaloes have made on the recruiting trail to start paying dividends on the field.
For coaches like MacIntyre, the move to an early signing period for football — it began Wednesday morning and continues through Friday night — was a boon. With no bowl game to prepare for MacIntyre and his staff were ready for the challenge of fortifying last year's recruiting class, generally considered the best in Boulder in at least a decade, with a group considered by and large to be an equal in terms of talent and potential.