Fresno State (1-1) seems to be at one end of the spectrum each week.

The Bulldogs have gone from being favorites against a Football Championship Subdivision program to 35-point underdogs against a fast-paced Oregon team.

On Saturday against the young Colorado Buffaloes, Fresno State returns to being a favorite again””this time by 14 points.

Colorado (0-2), a former Bowl Championship Series powerhouse that captured the 1990 national title, is coming off a 30-28 loss to Sacramento State, an FCS program.

“Everyone’s looking at their game last weekend and think that that’s who they are,” defensive coordinator Nick Toth said.

“That’s not who they are. They’re a really good Pac-12 football team. They are a BCS football team that has BCS football players. They’re in the second year of their staff, so they’ve recruited for their system for two years now. We got our hands full with a physical team that wants to run the ball.”

The Buffaloes offense””seven points short of having the opportunity to be 2-0””seemed to find solidity in their running game behind fullback-turned-tailback Christian Powell, who rushed for 147 yards on 28 carries and three scores Saturday.

“Coming out of high school he did some stuff as a running back,” Colorado coach Jon Embree said in a teleconference. “We felt he was a guy we needed to give a look at in the tailback position. I thought he did very well.”

Colorado is a young team that started four freshmen on defense””three in the secondary. The Buffaloes lost 28 seniors to graduation last year. Colorado’s depth chart lists three seniors as starters.

Embree said quarterback Jordan Webb, a junior transfer from Kansas, remains the starter for Saturday at Bulldog Stadium. Embree said sophomore Connor Wood will receive playing time as well.

The Bulldogs are coming off a 42-25 loss against No. 4 Oregon in a game where their special teams resorted to kicking four field goals. The defense held the Ducks to 148 total yards in the second half after allowing 383 yards in the first.

“It’s unfortunate that it took us 30 minutes to play the type of ball that we should play,” Toth said. “I liked our energy level a lot better. I think the bright lights bothered us to start out.

Fresno State offensive coordinator Dave Schramm said, “We have to continue to get better in the red zone. We have to continue to get better on third downs. Those were the key elements of the game.”

The Buffaloes defense presents a sense of familiarity to Schramm. Listed as running a 3-4 defense, though known to occasionally run an even front on the defensive line, the Buffaloes run a similar base formation to what Schramm’s offense practiced against during fall camp.

Last season, when Schramm was Utah’s offensive coordinator, Colorado knocked the Utes out of contention for a conference championship in the final game of the season.

“They’re very good up front,” Schramm said. “We had a chance last year at Utah to play for the Pac-12 Championship and these guys knocked us off in the last game of the season.

“We have a tremendous amount of respect for Colorado. They have (players as good) as anybody in that league.”

Colorado’s 17-14 win at Utah last season snapped a losing streak on the road that spanned to the 2007 season and withstood two head coaching tenures.

“It’s our first road game,” Embree said. “We ended a four-year road-losing streak last year. We’d like to try to build on that and start developing the right mindset that we need to play on the road.”

Colorado’s game against Fresno State is its last non-league matchup before it enters conference play in a hyper-competitive Pac-12 South home to three nationally ranked teams.

Coach Tim DeRuyter expects Colorado’s recent loss to fuel a team searching for its first win.

“Just because A is better than B on one day and B is better than C, A doesn’t equal greater than C,” DeRuyter said. “The corollary concept doesn’t work.”

“We’re expecting a team that’s going to have a backed-into-the-corner mentality. We expect a big-time challenge.”