If the University of Denver does not play football, can its athletic department truly be an American success story? “We are always going to be somewhat of an outlier, and that’s OK,” DU athletic director Peg Bradley-Doppes says. “We are comfortable in our own skin.” Pioneers are not sheep. They blaze a trail, rather than follow a path to success so well-traveled it’s full of potholes. That’s why at the intersection of Buchtel and South University, Denver has built a men’s lacrosse dynasty, with coach Bill Tierney and his Pioneers off to New England this weekend in pursuit of their second national title in three years.