2005 Colorado Buffaloes football team The 2005 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the University of Colorado at Boulder in the 2005 NCAA Division I - A football season . The previous year ' s team won the Big 12 North Conference . That marked the third Big 12 North championship for the Buffaloes in four years . The team had expectations to improve on their winning and appeared to be on the right track with a 7 – 2 record to being the season . But in the end , head coach Gary Barnett had his contract bought out and Colorado suffered four straight losses including an embarrassing 70 – 3 loss to Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game . They finished the season 7 – 6 . In the 2005 Champs Sports Bowl against Clemson , Mike Hankwitz acted as interim head coach , even though Dan Hawkins had been hired as the new head coach . Hawkins coached his final game with Boise State in the game the day after Colorado played . Pre - season . Colorado had plenty of returning players ( they graduated only 11 seniors , returned 50 letterman and 17 starters ) and were ranked in the Top 25 in 4 pre - season polls . They were also picked to win the Big 12 North in 9 rankings . QB Joel Klatt had a solid lock on his starting position . But there was uncertainty of who would be the starting RB , through TB Lawrence Vickers had the inside chance and main competition from Hugh Charles . The shining part of the team was Special Teams , with kicker Mason Crosby and punter John Torp . Other notable returners on offense were tight ends Joe Klopfenstein and Quinn Sypniewski , wide receiver Evan Judge , and most of the offensive line : Brian Daniels , Jr . ; Mark Fenton , Clint O ’ Neal and Gary Moore . Defense was also solid with few key losses and most returning : ( line ) James Garee , Alex Ligon , Vaka Manupuna ; ( linebackers ) Thaddaeus Washington , Jordon Dizon , Akarika Dawn , Brian Iwuh ; ( backs ) Terrence Wheatley , Lorenzo Sims , Tyrone Henderson , Dominique Brooks . Season summary . Although Colorado won the Big 12 North , they " back - doored " their way in because they lost their two final conference games and needed Iowa State to lose their final game in order to win . Iowa State missed a field goal in OT and thus , Colorado won the Big 12 Conference North Division Title . In the Big 12 Conference Title game , Joel Klatt suffered a concussion and was taken to a hospital . His career at Colorado was then over , as he sat out the bowl game . The key game of the season was Colorado ' s game against Iowa State . Colorado was leading the game into the fourth quarter , but gave up two touchdowns late in the game to go on and lose . It seemed their spirit was broken as they never pulled it together after that and were never really in any game they played afterwards . They also ended up setting the school records for most penalties in a season with 123 ( since 1996 ) and most penalty yards in a season with 1084 yards . They were the most penalized team in NCAA Division I - A and 116th ( of 117 teams ) in penalty yards per game with 83 . 38 ( Texas Tech was 117th with 83 . 42 ) . They had 35 flags thrown in the last four games of the season which helped with their downfall . Penalties often came at bad times to stop a drive or assist an opponent ' s drive just when they needed it . Roster . S = Scholarship ; WO = Walk - On ; # / # — clock as of 2005 season , i . e . , 3 / 2 : three years available to play two in eligibility . # L = indicates number of letters earned through 2004 ; HS = high school ; JC = junior college transfer ; RS = freshman redshirt in 2004 ; TR = transfer ; VR = varsity reserve performer .