I've always had the impression that Colorado was a good program who's fallen on hard times since Gary Barnett left in 2005. But if you look at their record through the years you'll see they have historically been mediocre, with their glory years coming between 1989 through the 2005. I guess since I started following college football in the mid-80s (right before CU had their best seasons) my impression of the Buffaloes was they were a good program who had some great seasons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Colorado_Buffaloes_football_seasons

With as strong as the Pac-12 looks, I don't see Colorado breaking out of their funk for years to come.