BOULDER • Talk about a culture shock.

Tommy Brown was a part of three national championship games at Alabama, a memory that “still gives me chills,” he told me Saturday. Now he’s a big ol’ offensive lineman for the CU Buffs, who haven’t won a bowl game in 18 years. Tommy transferred from Earth to Mars.

Twice on “The Hill,” he’s been stopped by Buffs fans. Back at Alabama, even little kids knew his name, and Brown was just a backup: “I was like, ‘Why is that little kid coming up to me?’”

“(At CU) I was surprised I even got recognized,” Brown told me inside the Dal Ward Center next to Folsom Field.

Likewise, CU football is unrecognizable from when we were young. Hope I’m wrong, because few sports things compare to fall Saturdays below the Flatirons: four wins for the ’22 Buffs would be an upset. Four wins is the prayer.

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The Buffs remain the great disappearing act in our state’s college football landscape. CU is Moses, wandering the desert for what’s felt like 40 years. Air Force has all the goods to win at least 10 games for the third time in four seasons. Colorado State has that new-coach smell with Jay Norvell.

Then there’s CU, where losing and losing big has become the norm. Since 2000, CU has the most losses among Pac-12 programs, sixth-most losses among Power Five programs. The Buffs are down there with Vanderbilt, Illinois, Kansas, Indiana. Where’s the buzz? Where’s the hope? 

“Colorado hasn’t been relevant in a while,” Buffs coach Karl Dorrell said Saturday, honestly.

Wish I had better news to report from CU’s media day. Here, how’s this? Folsom Field looks downright spectacular. I almost grabbed a 6-iron and pretended it was Augusta. Give those groundskeepers a raise. Oh, it’s turf? Shoot.

Never mind.

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The easy target, as it always is in Boulder, is the coach. They are hired to be fired. But Dorrell is coach No. 5 since Gary Barnett had the Buffs cooking with gas, and Dorrell has found it as hard to gain traction and win games here as all the others. Hate to say it, but Bill McCartney isn’t walking through that door. And if he is, it’s probably to pack his bags for Michigan State.

“Our focus is gaining respect, being competitive, becoming relevant,” Dorrell said.

The first place you look for a potential turnaround is the schedule. Well, here’s the scoop with the schedule: When Mel Tucker skipped town, coaches who were linked to the CU job told me the schedule was a drawback, not a draw.

The schedule is a bear. This schedule will mark the first time since 2011 the Buffs will play two road games outside conference play — at TCU, at Minnesota. Throw in a road game at Air Force, which is better than and will beat CU, and that’s too much, too soon. After that, the Buffs must face the four teams predicted to finish at the top of the Pac-12 — Utah, Oregon, USC and UCLA. Of the bottom four teams, only Cal is on the Buffs’ schedule.

Sheesh. Wish I had better news of a potential turnaround, but the schedule isn’t good news.

“My expectation is that we’ll be in a bowl game in December or January,” AD Rick George said last month at a golf tournament in Erie.

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So why is a lineman who played at mighty Alabama now playing at CU? Two words: playing time. Brown, who goes 330 pounds (not counting a perfect mullet), could not crack the offensive line rotation for the Tide. Having completed his undergrad degree, Brown left Bama to focus on football at Colorado: “School is kind of secondary for me at this point.”

“Don’t tell my mom I said that,” he joked.

“My aspirations are the NFL. You’ve seen in the drafts — you can get drafted (from) anywhere. So that’s why I left Alabama,” Brown said. “I knew I needed film. I just needed a season’s worth, maybe two seasons’ worth of film.”

Playing time at CU is available. Winning would be an upset.