To be clear, I view last year as the entire season, not the outcome of one game. CU easily worked CSU last year, no arguments about it. The score didn't adequately reflect how we were never really even in the game. I was crushed, not just that we lost but how we looked. I feared the season to be over before it started. I thought myself a psychic when the next week we lost to Tulsa in horrendous fashion, passing for like 100 yards. However, we definitely progressed as the season wore on, something I haven't seen from CSU in a while - for example, we used to get worse under Fairchild. The team that hung with Washington State, regardless of them fumbling us the win, wasn't the same team who CU blew out to start the season. I'm not pulling a Boyle and asking for a do over, but I am thinking if we can be more like that team at the end of the season then we have a shot at being ok.
Also, contrary to the belief of some posters here the CU game isn't every CSU fan's whole season. It's a big game, a chance against a P5 and in-state school, and a school I would call a rival. It's big, I'm excited for it, but it isn't the whole season and doesn't make the year (2009 was not a good year for CSU). What would make the year is getting to a bowl game, and what would really make the year is to win the Mountain division (unlikely). In my mind our games with Boise State (which I'll be going to) and Utah State are just as big and important.
Truthfully, I think it was easier to claim that this game was our whole season back when it really meant something to beat CU. Please don't take that the wrong way, CSU can use every bit of positive publicity that beating any P5 team comes with, but winning this game isn't going to bring a ton of attention, glory, or props to CSU like it did back in the late 90s/early 00s.