A drab sky resembling the silvery scales of a fish hovered over the thousands of fans tailgating before they hoped to watch the game to change the losing streak Colorado has against Oregon.

Zealous fans permeated the space with deafening noises, shouting words of encouragement in spite of the rain.

“I believe that we will win, I believe that we will win,” screamed fans over and over.

The screaming transformed into a song—the CU Fight Song.

“Shoulder to shoulder, we will fight, fight, fight, fight, fight,” spectators sang.

Despite the dreary weather, I still had a pleasant view of the Colorado natives, students, and alumni flooding into Folsom Field. The people in the stands went from resembling gold and black polka dots to a giant black and gold clump. Due to a sudden downpour of rain, the enormous cluster filling the stadium wilted like spinach drowned in too much dressing. Even through the uncomfortable minutes of anticipation, the love and passion of the fans kept them in the stands. The stadium immediately went from thousands to none, but not because of a lack of confidence in CU, but because there was a lightning delay. I waited in the field house for a half hour, and then I was allowed to return to the stadium. To my surprise, all of the fans returned to support their home team and witness whatever CU had to bring to the field. For a second time, the crowd was evacuated from the stadium, and yet again, the full crowd returned.

The game began, and for the first time in a while, I felt proud to be cheering for CU. Halftime came, and the scoreboard flashed a tied score. After returning from halftime, CU fell apart fast. Oregon gathered 21 points within the first half of the third quarter. The rest of the third quarter no more points were scored for either side, but in the start of the fourth quarter, CU pulled through and scored a touchdown, but, unfortunately, the Buffs needed more than a touchdown to win.

I grew up a college football fan, and my love for the CU football team had a place in my heart up until about four years ago, the year that CU lost its talent.

Through the years of CU’s bad play, I continued to attend all the games because I believe that when you find your football team, it becomes an important part of your life’s unique and individual culture.

When I would tell my friends I couldn’t hang out on the weekends because I was going to a CU game, I received many answers that I wished were untrue.

“Why are you going to the CU game? CU is so bad. It’s not even fun to go because they suck so much,” my friends would tell me.

At the time, I agreed with them, for they were absolutely right. It is very agitating to watch your favorite football team fumble every ball.

But today, when I do receive comments similar to those, I have an argument in defense of CU.

In the end, CU lost to Oregon 41-24, but even though they lost, I know that they are improving. Throughout CU football’s previous seasons, the team has continuously lost to Oregon. In 2011, they lost 45-2; in 2012, 70-14; in 2013, 57-16; and during the 2014 season, 44-10.

The gap of the scores narrowed from a range of 56 points to a 17-point difference, and even with the 17-point gap, the fans were stronger than ever. It seems that the trend with CU fans is a turn up of people when the Buffs are perceived as a competent team and an absence of people to an incompetent team. No matter the score, their fans would prefer to watch a good game of football where CU plays well, versus a game where the Buffs win and they play poorly.

Last year at the UCLA vs. CU game, it was a nearly tied game, but due to an incompetent team, the show up of the fans was quite discouraging. Even though it was a close game, the stadium was nearly empty. Last year CU’s football team was truly horrible, and therefore, there was a decrease in fans at all the games because of their lack of confidence in the team. And this year, although CU is still not perfect, the team is definitely improving, and consequently, the fans are attending more games to support their team.

In defense of CU, I truly believe that in time, the Colorado Buffaloes will once again be a national title winning football team if their improvements continue.