It is indeed a new era and it is hard to
keep up with what is really going on with MacInytre, the Athletic Department and
their plans. And of course a lot of questions remain unanswered for the
impatient. There is nothing of much specificity in the assistant or recruiting
world, but the football program is finally trying to keep in sight of the Pac-12
Joneses.
The
Board of Regents was hard at work approving things yesterday, throwing money
around like confetti at a New Year’s Eve party.
Mike MacIntyre’s five year, ten million dollar contract was made
official. It also has up to $300,000 in
academic and other off the field incentives he can earn on top of his $2M
salary, plus ton of bonuses for success including: $25,000 for seven wins, $25K
more for the 8th win, $200K for a bowl game, which becomes a quarter
million if it’s a BCS Bowl, $100K for
playing in the Pac-12 championship and $750,000 if CU pulls off a National
Championship. I hope he earns a lot of
money over the next five years!
The
board also officially approved his $400,000 buyout from San Jose State, then
approved the buyout clause in his contract, so he chose to leave he would owe:
starting at $2.3M next year and going down a few hundred thousand each season
to a flat $1,000,000 in 2017.
However, he can leave without any penalty if the
renovation plans for the Operations Center (meeting rooms, office space,
possibly an Indoor practice facility, if you and I donate enough-more on that
below) are not complete by Dec. 1 2013, or have the design bid awarded by Dec.
1, 2014.
Recruiting: There is still no real word on if anyone
is leaving, although this should come out soon.
Nor has there been anything concrete about new recruits, from San Jose
State’s commits or elsewhere.
There
is no reason to believe that most of the 12 verbals won’t still come to
Boulder. Only Devin Ross is a question
mark, and he has been wavering for awhile.
Denver South RB Philip Lindsay has professed his allegiance and
solidified his commitment to CU, as has QB Sefo Liufau and others. There have been positive tweets, if not
re-pledges from at least WR Elijah Dunston, OT Sam Kronshrage, OG Colin Sutton,
OT Jonathon Huckins.
In
addition to the earlier announcement near the end of the season that the
Athletic Department would be committing more $ to recruiting, they have also
announced a restructuring of the group and have created three new positions (I
guess replacing the one “Recruiting Coordinator”): Director of Recruiting,
Director of Academics and (this is probably what puts the program back on top)
a Football Equipment Manager. Not sure where this leaves Darian Hagan or anyone
else currently on staff in that group.
Assistant
Coaches: The Board
of Regents did approve at least $2.6 million for the assistant coaching pool, which
is more than the entire staff, including
Embree, made last year. As he is
deciding who his LB coach will be, I hope MacIntyre has seen the uproar from
Cal faithful when new coach Sonny Dykes cleaned house and let beloved, longtime
Bear RB coach Ron Gould go.
Also
from the Cal files, former CU grad assistant and DB coach Ashley Ambrose was also let go and could be an intriguing addition here
as he is familiar with the school and a few of the players, and definitely with
recruiting in the Pac-12.
Facilities, amenities, support: The Board of Regents also approved $1.5M
to be used immediately on improvements to the Dal Ward center, including
meeting space and office for new staffers (see above). Now don’t get me wrong, the
announcement is great for the program, but what a shitty slap in the face to
Embree, who gave more than his heart
and soul to this university and they have treated him horribly. So…
…where
the &@$# was this cash last year, or the year before?! Did they suddenly get a $1.5M donation
specifically for the Dal Ward? Not to mention all the coaching dollars, and the
plans to continue expansion. They are
still paying off the Barnett loan, Hawkins and now Embree, but BOOM, we’ve got
a million and a half for the Dal Ward and more to boot! The Pac-12 money has
been on the future books for awhile if that is what they are using for seed
money.
However,
as we all know, there is no actual money for this, even though it is still
stipulated in MacIntyre’s contract that the plan must be done by next December,
and the contract bid must be signed by December 1, 2014. This is going to once
again being put back on us, the
everyday Buffs fans and donors, because Mike Bohnhead has not been able to fulfill
the most important part of his job, namely raising
the money. Instead, the his best move was to lie, break promises and fire a
coach, in order to use the “splash” of hiring (your third or fourth choice?) a
new coach to beg for money. The Indoor
Facility is entirely based on if they can raise the cash, otherwise they will
have to submit plans next December without it.
Instead of seeking out and building relationships with large sum donors,
by giving reasons as to why people should give and why they should believe the
money will be spent wisely, the entire administration is just pointing fingers
at general donors and saying, “Well, we anted up, overpaid, and over-committed
so it’s up to you if you really care…”
Outside
my season tickets (I will maintain those at the same level though after briefly
considering dropping down to cheap endzone seats), they will not getting one
more dime from me. This fact is
reinforced by the fact that whenever the CU Foundation seats in our section are
actually filled, the occupants more often than not are wearing the opposing
team’s colors, do not really appear to know anything about football and
certainly won’t be making some large donation to the university (10 members of
the “South Metro Chamber of Commerce”-that is who the big donors that the
foundation invited to the Utah game, seriously?). On top of that, they are up
and down in their seats constantly, at least until they are inevitably upgraded
to Club level or a suite. Meanwhile, my
seat neighbors and I in 216-17 continue to pay our seat taxes and for csu
tickets year in and year out (well, except for hawkins’ last year), supporting
the program, and watching this crap all around us. And we can expect three to four phone calls a
year from a poor student asking for more money for a university that is so
poorly run in this area.
It’s
no wonder a group of former Buffs, specifically Alfred Williams, Joel Klatt and
Charles Johnson among others, are still trashing Mike Bohn, the Athletic
Department and are still calling for a complete upheaval of the program. It is creating quite a controversy among Buff
faithful between this group of mostly diehard former players (most of whom are
associated with Embree’s foundation Buffs4Life) and the “let’s just move on,
shoulder to shoulder and support the program”. [Here is Mile High Sports’ Eric Goodman’s
perspective: http://milehighsports.com/2012/12/12/goodman-buffs4life-need-to-get-a-clue/
]
While
I sympathize with the former group and agree with them in ideology, there is
really nothing to be done, Bohnhead is not going anywhere, MacIntyre is the
coach, and the latter group is basically right (even if they are Boulder blind
to a few facts in front of them).
I am still a Buff, let’s get to spring ball
and see what we’ve got. Go Buffs!
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