STANFORD, Calif. -- Mike MacIntyre couldn't contain his excitement, even for the duration of his brief postgame interview on live television.

"I want to go celebrate!" the Colorado coach exclaimed mid-question.

He then bolted out of the camera frame and sprinted to the corner of Stanford Stadium, where the Buffaloes' traveling fans celebrated a type of victory that they hadn't experienced in nearly a decade.

Colorado's 10-5 win over Stanford made the Buffs bowl eligible for the first time since 2007. The first step in MacIntyre's painstaking rebuilding process -- he inherited a program in shambles that went 2-25 in Pac-12 play over his first three seasons -- was finally finished.

"I had all the seniors in the locker room stand up -- all of the guys who could have left when everybody was saying that Colorado is terrible," MacIntyre said. "I told them, 'We rose from the ashes.'"

Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre blew off some celebratory steam after being Stanford on Saturday. Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports

And no postgame interview could delay the hard-earned party on the back end of that resurrection. When MacIntyre reached the jubilation in the corner of the field, he darted in between the big bodies of his players singing Colorado's fight song in unison with the fans, hugging whoever he bounced into.

Then MacIntyre found Sefo Liufau off near the side of the mayhem. Coach and quarterback shared an embrace and a heartfelt talk.

With the Buffs' offense struggling to finish drives, MacIntyre and Liufau had engaged in a heated exchange on the Colorado sideline in between the third and fourth quarters.

"Coach and I were yelling at each other," Liufau said.

MacIntyre said it was a method to energize his quarterback.

"I'm gonna do anything I can to get him going," he said. "He knows my heart is there with him. I want the best for him with everything we've been through."

That's what made this postgame reconciliation -- in the midst of Colorado's wild celebration -- all the more special. Liufau, a senior, has developed as MacIntyre's starting quarterback throughout the entirety of the coach's tenure, so the two finally added a moment of shared triumph to their bond. The connection had been solidified through three traumatic years of losing, but now the strength of it finally shone through on the other end of the fire.

"If you have a great relationship and it goes really deep, then you can do those kinds of things," MacIntyre said. "Sefo understands that, and so do I."

With bowl eligibility out of the way, 6-2 Colorado can now turn attention to its next goal: a Pac-12 South championship. This time, the Buffs will be armed with the camaraderie that they built while fighting what was a gut-wrenching battle in their turnaround effort. The Buffs had lost 10 games by a possession or less during MacIntyre's rebuilding process, including two in double overtime.

But failure, if approached constructively, can build mettle -- and Colorado's ugly win over Stanford was a celebration of that.

"We've established what we call 'Colorado football,'" said Phillip Lindsay, the Buffs' jubilant running back. "'Colorado football' is a saying. It's you being gritty. It's you being a dog. It's you having that swag. At the end of the day, you play 'Colorado football.' You make plays and win. And that's what it's all about."

EDITOR'S PICKS Week 8 Power Rankings

No. 4 Washington travels to No. 17 Utah in the Pac-12's marquee game. However, let's reserve this week's highest praise for Colorado.

Lindsay's contribution to that identity Saturday featured 135 rushing yards on 10.9 yards per carry. He consistently exploded through Stanford's defense while the Buffs smothered the Cardinal's struggling offense on the other side: Colorado's defense is actually leading the Pac-12 in yardage allowed. The Buffs have allowed only 308 yards per game, and their allowance of 4.6 yards per play is tied with Washington for the league lead.

"We're playing a lot faster because our confidence is up," defensive back Tedric Thompson said. "So now we're playing downhill, and it's made a huge difference."

The Buffs now enter a bye week. Following that, they close the regular season with three home games and a road trip to Arizona. Colorado controls its own destiny in that Pac-12 South race, so its next goal -- which MacIntyre firmly bought into after a productive team meeting this past May -- is well within reach.

"I knew we could make a run at the Pac-12 title," he said. "Nobody in the world believed me except for my wife. I don't think all of the players in the room believed me when I said that, but now they truly do. If you don't believe, you can't achieve."

The Buffs are fully on board now. They're having a boatload of fun with this whole winning thing. That much was clear in the joyous postgame on-field mayhem at Stanford, and again during the team's impromptu stop at In-Out-Burger on the way to the airport.

MacIntyre's grand plan, though, says that Colorado is only at milestone No. 1.

"Winning 6 games -- that's cute," Lindsay said. "But we need to move on and move forward. We have a lot more to accomplish."