Arizona football will try to get back on track and stay in the Pac-12 Conference South championship chase on Saturday against Colorado in the 100th anniversary of  the UA’s first Homecoming.

The No. 19/21 Wildcats (6-2, 3-2 Pac-12) host the Buffaloes (2-7, 0-6) on Saturday at 6 p.m. on the Pac-12 Networks in its annual Homecoming game.

While the Buffaloes have only won four Pac-12 games ever, they have battled and lost close this year, such as when they went 40-37 in double overtime to UCLA. Arizona is licking its wounds from a 17-7 loss last week to the Bruins.

“As coaches, we get to watch different film, because we get to see their schemes and their plays,” UA football head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “We can see if their team has had bad luck, and that is what happened with them. Their numbers are pretty much equal to ours in a lot of respects, and they are playing really hard.”

Colorado has lost three of its Pac-12 games by a combined 11 points. It lost 38-23 to Washington last week but led until the end of the third quarter.

“They are moving the football as well as anyone in the conference, and they are playing really hard,” Rodriguez said. “They have the right attitude, and the next step for them is to win some of those close games. Our guys have a lot of respect for them.”

CU has lost 17 games in a row to ranked teams, 22 consecutive on the road. It has lost nine Pac-12 games in a row and 10 on the road.

Homecoming team
As a team that went 4-8 and 1-8 in the Pac-12 in 2013, 1-11 and 1-8 in 2012 and 3-10 and 2-7 in 2011, the Buffaloes are familiar with Homecoming games.

This week is the third Homecoming game in four weeks that the Buffaloes have partaken in. They lost 58-26 in USC’s Homecoming game, and the aforementioned UCLA loss was the Buffaloes’, too.

CU rallied from down 31-14 to force overtime against the Bruins.

In 2012, Arizona played Colorado on Homecoming, and former UA running back Ka’Deem Carey ran for a Pac-12-record 366 yards in Arizona’s 56-31 win.

The mile high club
One of CU’s traditions was the 4/20 smoke out, but that was snuffed out this year.

Over 10,000 people have come to the school’s campus in the past to smoke marijuana on April 20, but the campus was closed off this year.

Colorado has a real Buffalo mascot named Ralphie IV that runs out on the field before the first and second halves of games.

Colorado’s colors are silver and gold to symbolize the “mineral riches of Colorado,” but he team wears black to contrast the gold.

CU’s famous alumni include ESPN’s Chris Fowler, South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

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