Finally...a Wide Receivers Coach at least

Finally, something new to report! Troy Walters has accepted the WR coach position and announced himself on twitter. Walters come from NC State, where he has coached receivers this year, after two seasons at Texas A&M.  As a player at Stanford he was the 1999 Biletnikoff Award before going on to play eight years in the NFL.  He actually got his coaching start in 2009 as offensive coordinator in charge of QBs and WRs at lower division Indiana St.  He comes with a generally good coaching resume, but nothing spectacular (Bobby Kennedy for instance was considered a pretty big grab from Texas at the time) coming from a program that fired its entire coaching staff.  He inherits a pretty strong group actually with a very hungry P-Rich, both Gerald an Jeffrey Thomas (I haven’t heard anything otherwise about the grey shirt), Nelson Spruce, some pretty good possibilities in recruiting prospects.  Maybe he can teach Tyler McCulloch to go up and fight for a contested ball.

Quick Recap update: Basically, we have known that these six coaches were making the jump from San Jose to Boulder, long before CU’s big announcement (which was yet again in the middle of a basketball game?): DC Kent Baer, OC Brian Lindgren, O-line Gary Bernardi, TEs Klayton Adams, DBs Charles Clark, D-line Jim Jeffcoat. Walters is the seventh member, meaning there are two more to be named. However, it is still unclear why it is taking so long to name the rest of the staff.  He had originally said he would announce his entire staff on 

January 2^nd, then the 3^rd, and then it was only these six.  That signals problems to me, getting turned down by candidates and not getting you r first choices for RB or Special Teams.  At least WR has been filled, although not with a “splashy” name.

Is Andy LaRussa, who had originally been rumored to be a seventh SJSU coach moving to Boulder, the man in waiting if they can’t get anyone better?  He coached corners and special teams and was expected to help with at least the ST in Boulder.  Maybe all the nepotism talk about him having married Bernardi’s daughter either got to him, MacIntyre or the Bohnhead got worried it would be more bad press.

I am curious what all the coaches are actually being paid, knowing that there is a $2.6 million pool for their salaries, but also realizing that their combined experience so far does not warrant getting anywhere near all of that enormous sum (that would be an average of almost $300,000 for each of the nine coaches if they used it all).

Dave Forman will be the new strength and conditioning coach for Football.  He comes with high praise, not just from MacIntyre, but here’s what SJSU junior linebacker Keith Smith had to day about Forman and the transformation he made to the team: "It's very noticeable. We were just as big and strong as Stanford was.” (SJSU narrowly lost to Stanford 20-17 early in the season.)

Recruiting: All the new coaches hit the recruiting trail but no word as to where or with whom.

CU did receive its first verbal commitment since MacIntyre took over.  Markeis Reed (Napa, CA) is a two or three star prospect, who has played DE and FB, but could end up as LB or even TE down the road.  He is planning on enrolling immediately, but he could definitely use some bulk to his frame, so we will see if he is ready right away to play in August.

Go Buffs!