As the sun set over the Flatirons and the lights flickered on at Folsom Field, you could tell the Devils were in trouble. While the calendar may have said mid-October, for the guys warming up in black and gold, it might as well have been the Super Bowl. They had that look in their eye as their cleats churned up the freshly-cut grass while they sprinted back and forth between the 20 and the goalline. These guys understood that tonight, in front of the largest Boulder crowd in half a decade, they had to lay it all out on the line.

After months and months of training, early mornings in the gym, late nights reviewing their form, their golden opportunity had finally arrived. Every man, woman, and child were on their feet as Buff Nation bellowed in unison… 3… 2… 1!

25 exhilarating seconds later, the challenge had been met head-on, the door had quite literally been shut, and there was a country western chest bump party in the end zone. Mission accomplished...Ralphie was back in her trailer.

These black and gold clad, laser-focused students warming up on the field in the waning moments before kickoff were not the team captains, not the back-ups, not even the practice squad - these were Ralphie’s Handlers.

Ralphie’s Run is a gameday tradition that distinguishes Colorado football. Five minutes before kickoff at Folsom Field, the Buffs are led into battle by their real, live buffalo mascot, Ralphie, who sprints down the length of one sideline before cutting across the field and turning for home along the other sideline, running all the way back to her trailer beside the endzone.

While Ralphie’s sprint from the corral to her trailer is the highlight of the pregame festivities, if you get the chance to make the trip to Folsom Field, I highly encourage you to make sure to head in a solid 15-20 minutes before kickoff to see Ralphie’s handlers warm-up. It is hilarious to watch guys in jeans with custom-made belt buckles the size of Texas repeatedly line-up and blast off the line as if they’re getting ready to race Usain Bolt. While I have deep admiration (maybe even a little jealousy) for anyone who voluntarily runs alongside a 1,200-pound beast for the sake of tradition and I have no doubt that being one of Ralphie’s handlers is a difficult task that requires remarkable dedication and a distinguished set of skills (the handlers even have their very own “Strength and Conditioning” Coach), it is impossible to watch grown men and women in jeans, cleats, and cowboy hats so heartily prepare for a 25-second run without chuckling aloud.

Now, did Ralphie’s valiant run have any effect on the outcome of the game? No. None whatsoever. Even if Chip the Buffalo (the fake-life mascot) was leading the team onto the field while mounted on a moped (would be very “on trend” for the conference), the Buffs were going to have their way with the Sun Devils at the best Boulder homecoming since Real Housewives became a thing.

The Fieldhouse

Folsom Field is a pretty magnificent spot for college football. For years, Folsom Field was known for its incredible backdrop, with the Flatirons rising just beyond the sightlines of the field and for being one of the last on-campus stadiums in America to serve beer. Now? It still has the sightlines and after an almost 20-year hiatus, the beer is back. While there may be a lack of concrete proof that the return of alcohol sales to the stadium has played an instrumental role in the Rise, it’s hard to brush it aside as a mere coincidence when looking at the Buffs record during the Folsom prohibition period (which included 1 conference championship, 11 losing seasons, and a period where the Buffs won their division 3 out of 4 years, so that they could go to the Big XII championship game and score 13 points COMBINED over the 3 championship appearances).

While the return of alcohol sales is helping turn Folsom Field into a frightening place for opponents to visit once again, the problem is that the beer is only sold in one location, the Fieldhouse. The Fieldhouse is a great place to chant the fight song along with the cheerleaders before the game and I’m sure it’s a nice place to defrost at halftime during the chilly November showdowns, but if you’re not a fan of the “3 day-old buttered popcorn” air freshener, you may have a hard time putting up with Fieldhouse’s putrid air long enough to finish your Coors Light. However, I may have been the only one that noticed this, as halfway through the 3rd quarter, the place was packed like a can of sardines while fans finished their drinks and watched the game on TVs that were a good 5 seconds behind the live action a mere 200 yards away. I’m taking this as a sign that some Buffs fans are still re-learning how much fun the live game is when you have a hard-nose team like Coach Mac has built.

Rules for when Gatorade showers are appropriate:

When you beat your rival - It doesn’t matter whether both teams are undefeated or winless, you beat your rival, you get the gatorade shower.
When you win a championship - You win your conference, you win the natty, heck, you win the Idaho Potatoes bowl, go ahead, you’re the champs of something, let it rain.
When you’re unranked and you beat a top 5 team - Top 5. Not top 10. Too many pretenders move in and out of the Top 10, Top 5 teams are usually for real, and if they're not, well hey, that's not your fault for celebrating the big victory in style.

That's it. Those are the 3 times it's appropriate. Now, none of these situations applied when Mike MacIntyre was doused shortly after Colorado hung 40 on ASU to bring home what Coach Mac himself called a "breakthrough win" for the program. However, we may be willing to make an exception in this case because of a few factors:

1. The Buffs had been 0-7 against ASU, a division rival, and the smallest defeat was still by 2 TDs. They absolutely have to get that monkey off their back.

2. It was homecoming at a school where homecoming actually means something. Truth of the matter is that not all homecomings are created equal. There are a lot of places where alumni stay pretty local and homecoming just isn't a big deal. Colorado sends a lot of grads off to California and Chicago and New York, and homecoming indeed means a trip back.

3. In the previous 3 years, Coach Mac's Buffs had won a grand total 2 Pac-12 games total. The win over ASU, put the Buffs at 3-1 in the Pac and tied for first place. It's hard to imagine a lot of places in the Pac-12 (or really anywhere in college football) where a coach could get 2 conference wins in 3 years and still have the full support of a school and fanbase, but for whatever reason, CU decided to believe in the foundation that was being built. And midway through year 4, it's clear that when Coach Mac was calling it a "breakthrough game," he wasn't just talking about for this season.

In honor of this combination of factors, we are willing to deem an additional time when the gatorade shower is appropriate:

When you realize "The Rise" is real. There is no mistaking it now, the Buffs are back.