More Summer Grazing

The offseason summer tidbits continue to trickle in as we eagerly await the start of camp a little more than a month away.

2013 Recruiting

§  The total number of verbal commitments has grown to 12 recruits, well ahead of previous years’ pace. 

§  The newest member of the 2013 class is 2/3-star OT Gunnar Graham (Kentfield, CA).  He is a little under the radar as he has only played a year of offense, but has the size, speed and “motor” the coaching staff likes.

§  Although none of the new guys have been “big name” 4 or 5-star national prospects, the class is shaping up nicely and filling out the roster with some depth. Both Scout and Rivals have them ranked #48 in the country.  They have commits from a QB, RB, TE, 2 WR, 5 OL, 1 s, 1 LB.  Even with the huge class they are bringing in this year, they could still use a couple of DL and CBs, and will likely want to sign a couple more LBs and even another OL.

§  The Buffs are going after many of the biggest names, often offering earlier than other schools, but still not able to compete with USC, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA or Michigan once they do offer.

§  And now add Washington back to that list as they just had a huge week, jumping to #15 after receiving eight verbals in one day over the weekend from a lot of highly recruited Pac-12 prospects, including one that CU had offered-DL Elijah Qualls (Petaluma, CA).

§  3-star North Hollywood, CA 6’-5”, 280-pound OL Thomas Oser put CU in good company when he said, "If you told me two years ago that I would have scholarship offers from schools like Colorado, Vanderbilt, Oregon and Stanford, I would have laughed in your face.”

§  The last nationally recruited prospect from the state Colorado (#4 in the state), Ralston Valley’s OT Dan Skipper, announced he has verbally committed to Tennessee.

§  From the REALLY?! Dept: We have heard of numerous 2014 offers and even commitments but 2016 prospect rising freshman 6-3, 220 lb. DE Rahshaun Smith (Towson, MD) has already received TWO scholarship offers (BC and Maryland).

Roster talk

§  BuffsScoop.com posted this interview on NetBuffs.com with TE/Special Teams Coach JD Brookhart: http://www.netbuffs.com/message_board/football/2012/July/2/725264.php

§  The highlights of the interview:

  -Brookhart definitely expects the special teams units to be much better this season and wants more starters, the team’s best athletes and players, playing more on special teams in general.  However, he also said that he expects to see a minimum of 12 true freshmen playing on special teams, including at least 3 DBs, some DL and TE, FB Cristian Powell;

-WR Gerald Thomas could very well be one of the returners, as well as DBs Jeffrey Hall, Marques Mosely, Kenneth Crawley, RB Donta Abron;

-He expects the unit to be generally more aggressive, going after punts, attempting some fakes, trying to influence field position, hopefully averaging net punting in the 40 yard range, adapting to the new kickoff rules and average starting field position out past 25.

-Brookhart also has big hopes for his TEs but is definitely cautiously optimistic, knowing that Nick Kasa is a great athlete, but not yet a great TE, and that his frosh, like Austin Ray, Sean Irwin and Vincent Hobbs, will all likely need to contribute but are still freshmen.

-While he admitted that the Buffs need to take back the state in terms of recruits, he also said that “even though many kids have left the state over the years, the facts are that a lot of those kids haven't done very well.”

§  Finally, after being rumored for months, it just might be almost official, as former Kansas QB transfer Jordan Webb confirmed that he is indeed coming to Boulder to meet with school officials and expects to be officially admitted this week.  He will two years of eligibility left, will be by far the most experienced QB on the roster (although it was leading weak Kansas team) and definitely expects a shot at the starting job. 

 -Supposed frontrunner for the QB job Connor Wood said of the addition and QB competition: “Obviously it increases the competition and increases the dynamic of how we're going to do into fall, in terms of reps and that sort of thing.  As I said in the offseason, as you bring in good players and better players, obviously it encourages competition because no one's spot is sealed. You've got to embrace it. You can't be threatened by it or put off by it. You've got to embrace it and think it's going to be good for the team."

§  DE Kisima Jagne will likely go a Junior College and/or WR Peyton Williams could still be a greyshirt candidate, although nothing has been announced on either front. The Buffs do need to have a third member of the 28-recruit to somehow delay enrollment in addition to DE Derek McCartney and OG Gerald Kough, to be at the 25 member class limit. 

Other Program Notes

§  CU added a home game vs. Grambling St. to complete the 2015 schedule and announced an away game at Michigan for 2016, which would be the “extra” 12^th game allowed because of the @Hawaii game that year, in addition to a $1.45 million payday and national TV and Midwestern (i.e. Chicago area alumni) exposure..  It is not known if a home game will be reciprocated 2017 with the Pac12-Big10 conference thingy, but Utah and Oregon St. also have future dates lined up with Michigan, who is either taking the so-called “alliance” seriously or just see good value in scheduling Pac-12 “lower” echelon teams that would still look pretty good in the eyes of pollsters and committee voters.

§  Jon Embree has stated that freshmen will not being doing any interviews until at least September.  This will keep Yuri Wright from having to answer questions about his Twitter posts last spring, allow Shane Dillon to focus on the quarterback competition as well as let the other 20 or so frosh who will be playing concentrate on getting acclimated to college life and football.

§  The Athletic Department hired former Charlotte Hornets executive Matt Biggers as its newly added “Chief Marketing Officer” to increase ticket sales and program exposure, especially with football.

§  The football program had its 2^nd straight year of posting its highest APR score ever. Let’s hope that players like Cordary Allen were academically on track before leaving.  Any players who finish their degree early certainly don’t hurt and we will still have to see how many are able to do that as Embree hopes some current juniors can.

§  The CSU game has been moved back to Saturday, Sept. 2 at 2:00 and will be televised by FOX.

§  Sr. LB Doug Rippy and Jr. 2^nd-team All-Pac-12 LT David Bahktiari will accompany Jon Embree and be interviewed first at the Pac-12 Media Day on July 24.

§  CU finished 57^th in the NCAA Director’s Cup (won by Stanford).  The Buffs have the minimum 16 sanctioned sports teams competing in order to qualify.

§  The new video boards appear to be coming along nicely (see AllBuffs.com for photo updates: http://www.allbuffs.com/content.php/1-University-of-Colorado-Sports-News ).  The South end is basically complete, as are some field level boards, and now the North end is being rebuilt on top of the Dal Ward Center.

§  New turf is also being installed at the practice fields before camp opens in August.

§  Any other news on the “major” renovation plans that have been drawn up but not approved or funded, may be farther off than Mike Bohn might have led us to believe previously.  Chancellor Phil DiStefano was not very optimistic when he talked about the project.  Although Embree and Co. are showing the drawings to recruiting prospects, I doubt that there is any chance that those recruits would ever see any of the plans come to fruition without a huge private donation.

§  Interesting perspective on the state of the entire CU Athletic Department and its leadership: http://www.allbuffs.com/content.php/1418-An-open-letter-to-the-CU-community