Not much about this season makes sense to Colorado head coach Gary Barnett.

Expected to compete for a New Year’s Day bowl game, the Buffaloes are now trying to hang onto tenuous hopes for a winning season, and any bowl.

The 3-3 Buffaloes, ranked No. 17 in the pre-season coaches poll, face another stiff test this week at Iowa State, a team Barnett sees as a reverse image of his squad.

“They’re doing just the opposite [of what we’ve done],” Barnett said in a press conference Monday. “They’re a team whose expectations weren’t so high, at least nationally.”

Barnett cites chronically uneven play as the main reason for the Buffaloes’ woes thus far.

“We’ve been a team of inconsistencies,” Barnett said. “It’s very puzzling; it’s disappointing.”

Colorado’s lofty pre-season aspirations were quashed early by their despised intra-state rival, Colorado State, 41-14.

The ensuing five games have left Barnett scratching his head from week-to-week. One week’s strengths are the next week’s weaknesses and vice versa, Barnett said.

“We’re 3-3, and everybody had high expectations that it’d be different,” Barnett said. “It’s not, so we’ve gotta live with that and change it.”

Last week’s lackluster effort against enigmatic Texas Tech, which Colorado lost 31-10, did not help allay Barnett’s concerns about the mental toughness and preparedness of his team.

“We had breakdowns on special teams, we had breakdowns on offense, breakdowns on defense,” Barnett said. “I didn’t see it coming.”

Colorado also lavished gifts on the Red Raiders, fumbling four times and tossing two interceptions.

Which brings the Buffaloes to this week’s tilt against Big 12 upstart Iowa State, a team the Buffs haven’t lost to since 1983.

This year’s Cyclone team is an improvement on previous squads, Barnett said.

“They’ve [ISU] played with a lot of confidence,” Barnett said. “To go in and get a road win like they did against Missouri, and to play Kansas State the way they played Kansas State shows that.”

While every week raises more and more questions for Colorado, ISU seems to be answering theirs, Barnett said.

“This is a team [ISU] that every week is garnering more confidence,” Barnett said. “It’s really a tough challenge for us.”

Coupling Iowa State’s Big 12-leading rushing attack with Colorado’s cellar-dwelling Big 12 rushing defense, the Cyclones should look to run early and often. The entire Cyclone offense — not just Darren Davis — worries Barnett.

“This will really test our mettle,” Barnett said, refusing to call Saturday’s contest a “crossroads” game. “This will really test what we are as a team, so I’m anxious to see how we handle it. We’ve got a lot of work to do, obviously.”

Offensively, the Buffaloes are guided by senior quarterback Mike Moschetti, who has accumulated more than 1500 passing yards in six games and has thrown and rushed for a combined 12 touchdowns.

Sophomore tailback Cortlen Johnson has rushed for 458 yards, averages 4.8 yards per carry and has scored six touchdowns.

Colorado has a full stable of elusive wideouts led by senior Marcus Stiggers has 24 receptions, 3 touchdowns and an average of 17.2 yards per catch.

Defensive leader junior Ben Kelly (corner back) is also a dangerous return man with track speed. Kelly has crossed paydirt four times, and many in Boulder are calling for Barnett to use him more on offense.

“People don’t understand what making a move like this does,” Barnett said, rejecting overtures to get Kelly more involved. “It creates more problems than it helps. You just don’t understand how delicate the chemistry on a football team is.”

For the Cyclones, this Saturday provides another opportunity to showcase their improvement. So far, there have been glimmers of brilliance, but no complete package.

The Buffaloes enter the game favored by two points and realize — “crossroads” or not — that their season’s hopes hinge precariously on the outcome of Saturday’s game.

“If we win this game, we’ll keep alive the goals that we set,” Barnett said. “If we don’t, it’s not that those [goals] are dead, but it makes it much more difficult.”