The 2001 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...

during the

2001 NCAA Division I-A football season The 2001 NCAA Division I-A football season was the first college football season of the 21st century. It ended with the University of Miami winning the national title for the fifth time. The Hurricanes were led by Larry Coker, who was in his ...

. The team played their home games at

Folsom Field Folsom Field is an outdoor college football stadium located on the campus of the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. It is the home field of the Colorado Buffaloes of the Big 12 Conference. Opened in 1924, the horseshoe-shaped s ...

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

. They participated in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

in the North Division. They were coached by head coach

Gary Barnett Gary Lee Barnett (born May 23, 1946) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Fort Lewis College (1982–1983), Northwestern University (1992–1998), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999–2005) ...

. Colorado won the

Big 12 Championship Game The Big 12 Championship Game is a college football game held by the Big 12 Conference between the best and the second-best Big 12 team. The game was played each year since the conference's formation in 1996 until 2010 and returned during the 201 ...

for the first time and secured its first

BCS BCS may refer to: American football * Bowl Championship Series, a system that selected matchups for major college football bowl games between 1998 and 2013 * BCS conferences, the six FBS conferences with automatic major bowl bids under that sys ...

bowl berth. Colorado has not won the Big 12 since.

Schedule

Note: Colorado was scheduled to play at

Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

on September 15 but the game was canceled due to the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

Rankings

Game summaries

Fresno State

*Source
Box score

vs. No. 24 Colorado State

San Jose State

*Source
Box score

Kansas

*Source
Box score

at No. 12 Kansas State

*Source
Box score

No. 25 Texas A&M Aggies

Playing as a ranked team and clinging to a 3-point lead in the final minute of play, the Buffs forced a fumble and returned it for a touchdown to close out a win over a second straight ranked opponent.

at No. 9 Texas

*Source
Box score

at Oklahoma State

*Source
Box score

Missouri

at Iowa State

*Source
Box score

No. 2 Nebraska

vs. No. 3 Texas (Big 12 Championship Game)

*Source
Big 12 game summary

vs. No. 2 Oregon (Fiesta Bowl)

Roster

Awards and honors

Daniel Graham Daniel Lawrence Graham (born November 16, 1978) is an American former professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Colorado Buffaloes, earning recognition as a cons ...

, TE –

John Mackey Award The John Mackey Award is presented annually to college football's most outstanding tight end. Established in 2000 by the Nassau County Sports Commission, the award is given annually to the tight end who best exemplifies the play, sportsmanship, ac ...

, Consensus First-team All-American *

Andre Gurode Andre Bernard Gurode (; born March 6, 1978) is an American football coach and former player who is the assistant offensive line coach for the Colorado Buffaloes of the Big XII (NCAA). He played as a center and guard in the National Football L ...

, G – Consensus First-team All-American *

– Big 12 Coach of the Year

References

{{Big 12 Conference football champions

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

Colorado Buffaloes football seasons Big 12 Conference football champion seasons

Colorado Buffaloes football The Colorado Buffaloes football program represents the University of Colorado Boulder in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level, and is a member of the Big 12 Conference. The team was a charter member of the Big 12 before leaving to jo ...