Cabral lettered three seasons for Colorado at linebacker from 1975 to 1977 under Coach Bill Mallory, as he was a captain and played a big role on The Buffaloes' Big Eight champion team in 1976. He led Colorado with 13 tackles (12 solo) in the 1977 Orange Bowl against Ohio State. As a senior, he was honored as the Big Eight Conference's player of the week for a monster 25 tackles in a CU 27-21 win over Stanford and shared the team's Sure Tackler Award with Mark Haynes. That 25-tackle game included 13 solo stops and is still tied for the fourth most in a single game in Colorado team history.