CU football player has rare chance to play his former team

When the Georgia Bulldogs visit Folsom Field this Saturday, it will mark the second time in history that a Southeastern Conference team has marched on to the stadium’s storied turf. In fact, the game will present several historic storylines. At half time, the 1990 Colorado football team will be honored for winning the school’s lone football national championship, a feat Buffs’ fans first celebrated twenty years ago.

Additionally, in what has become an annual trend for select home games, fans will adorn black attire in an attempt to “blackout” Folsom Field. For one current CU football player, however, it will mark a chance to face his former team.

Makiri Pugh left the University of Georgia football program in April following a shakeup in the coaching staff that made him doubt his future as a Bulldog. With the encouragement of a childhood mentor, Pugh struck up a relationship with CU Defensive Backs’ Coach Ashley Ambrose, who convinced him that Colorado was a team that was headed in the right direction.

“I really liked what I saw out here, and I liked the direction the program was headed in,” Pugh said. That was enough for the 20-year-old junior cornerback, who enrolled at the university and reported to the team prior to the start of fall camp in August.

While Colorado has amassed a 2-1 record heading into this weekend’s matchup, Georgia (1-3), who is generally among the national powers, has stumbled out of the gates. The Bulldogs have lost each of their last three games, all in conference play.

Due to an NCAA rule that restricts players from playing a season after transferring from one school to another, Pugh must watch Saturday’s game from the sidelines. Nevertheless, he says he looks forward to welcoming some his friends to Boulder.

"I hope I can get out there during warm-ups and talk to them a little bit,” Pugh said. “It will be good to see them, but when the game starts, its time to strap it up and put friendships aside.”

Even though he enjoys his new home in Boulder, Pugh said there are some things he misses about attending school in Athens, Georgia. “It was closer to home in Georgia,” he said. “It is like three and a half hours from North Carolina, and here it’s like 25 hours away.”

Colorado is set to join the Pacific 10 Conference in 2011, which will make scheduling SEC opponents early in the season more difficult. Given Colorado’s history of hosting those teams, it is unlikely that Pugh, who will only have two years of eligibility remaining after this season, will have the opportunity to play host to Georgia again.

If the Buffs can manage to secure a win this weekend, they will edge closer to an elusive bowl bid, and Makiri Pugh will forever remember the day he beat his former squad.