§ There were still 2500+ tickets available and its going to be another gorgeous afternoon in Boulder so come on out and cheer on our Buffaloes!
§ The biggest question of the morning: Which of the 120+ (I am NOT exaggerating!) uniform combinations will the Ducks roll out for their first Pac-12 visit to Folsom Field (and first since 1987)?
§ Injury update: There are 20 total players listed on the injury report including: CB Jason Espinoza who is questionable with a concussion, S Will Harlos still out with a hammie, Arthur Jaffee questionable with sprained knee. However, that does not include S Ray Polk, who is playing through a fractured sternum (really?!), a concussion and a wrist that will need surgery, but is not listed. Nor does it include a few other defensive players who are sucking it up and playing through their injuries.
- It looks like CB Travis Sandersfeld could actually play. They could use any boost in the secondary.
§ Ethan Adkins tweaked his knee pretty hard at Stanford-we thought they were just giving TFr Paulay Asiata a few snaps. Adkins didn’t practice all week (although he was never listed) and still played relatively well at Washington.
§ For Oregon it looks like QB Darron Thomas will start but give way to backup Bryan Bennett. It is highly unlikely that stud RB LaMichael James will play, but his backups Jr. Kenjon Barner and TFr De’Anthony Thomas are also very talented.
§ Starting WR Lavasier Tuinei illustrated Quack Nation’s cockiness when he insinuated that their fourth-string, redshirt freshman could start at quarterback and Oregon could still beat Colorado on Saturday, "It doesn't matter who we start. We'll still win." I dare them to try!
§ Can we at least take a little solace in the fact that CU played UW even in the second half (even though there were a lot of backups playing all over)? Our young players should get a lot of playing time this week, possibly even early before game is out of hand, and certainly in the second half when it is.
§ They have announced nothing on who and how they are compensating for the loss of Rippy-is it just TFr Brady Daigh (pronounced “Day”) stepping in, do they shift a couple of guys over and play more experienced guys, or do they rotate as much as they can based on matchup and opportunity to sub?
§ One blogger suggested that Greg Brown could rotate in a lot of different young, unknown players and bring weird blitzes with them from different spots. We will need to do something because Oregon lines up-snaps the ball-do it again-and score on “long” drives that are regularly less than two-minutes. In order to simulate how quickly the Oregon offense lines up for the next play, the scout team ran two huddles this week so that the next one could line up as soon as the previous play was done.
§ Oregon’s defense is not very well publicized because of their offensive counterparts. They do not have great stats necessarily, but do not need to be spectacular because of the above again; plus, they are actually on the field quite a bit since the offense scores so quickly. As usual we will need to play an almost perfect game offensively to keep us in the game and the Duck offense off the field as much as possible.
§ Tony Jones will take the spotlight with Rodney Stewart out. The Ducks will likely stack the box and send many after him and Tyler. CU may take some shots deep to see if Cliff Harris has sampled the local wares yet. They should also be able to find out if Jones executes the screen and swings passes as well as Speedy. We will see how much faith they have in Josh Ford and if they indeed burn the redshirt of Malcolm Creer. If they do the latter I will be very excited to see what he does over the next 6 weeks, but bummed if he does well that they didn’t do it earlier.
§ Another call for some multiple TE sets and chances with Kyle Slavin and DeVaughn Thorton to be on the field together, maybe even with Deehan in a 3TE. At this point they need to mix it up and take some chances. Let’s see how creative EB gets.
§ Scary film study look into Oregon’s option and how it spreads the defense by Bob Bell: http://www.ralphiereport.com/2011/10/20/2499784/colorado-buffaloes-oregon-ducks-film-review
§ Interesting quote and choice of words by Tyler Hansen while talking about the state and direction of the program: "Coach Embree is trying to lay that foundation and build for the future. He's got to do what he's got to do. Every decision made is for the betterment of the program. Kicking players off the team is sending a message." (Italicized words are my emphasis.) Notice that Tyler didn’t say “suspending players”.
§ Go Buffs!
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