Sunday Morsels Jan. 13

Spring Practice: The most important news of the weekend: Spring practice begins March 7, which means it is only 53 days away!  The schedule is 8 practices before spring break, 5 more after break before April 13 Spring Game.  All practices will be open, even during the season!  MacInytre might close off the end of some practices when installing specific pieces of game plans.  He will ask fans, reporters and bloggers not to report too much on the internet, 

so I will be careful what I write (yeah right as if anyone from the Dept. reads this).

The 15th and final spring practice will take place after the spring game in order to go over the film, work on mistakes and give specific direction as to how they can run player-led drills during the summer, since coaches won’t be able to have contact with players until fall practices begin.  I freaking love this idea and approach and am surprised that so few schools do this.

Recruiting: Coach MacIntyre said he plans on signing about 17 players this cycle, with 13 verbal commitments heading into this weekend.  He has honored all offers from previous staff, saying that many are indeed getting a lot of late attention from other schools.

Five prospects were scheduled to take their official visits to CU this weekend; four reportedly attended the men’s basketball game vs. UCLA.  Four were previous verbal commitments: Denver South’s RB Philip Lindsay (solid commit), Columbine’s John Lisella (also solidly committed), CA WR Bryce Bobo (still feeling things out with new staff) and OL Gunnar Graham (not sure how he feels, or how much he will ever help).  The fifth was DE Timothy Coleman, a csu commit from Mullen who is an intriguing case as he only played a small amount of defense this year before tearing up his knee (he had only played offensive line in the past). 

Next weekend January 18-19 is the big weekend with more than a dozen recruits lined up for a visit.  More on them later this week.

Former greyshirt WR Peyton Williams will enroll at Texas Tech and be immediately eligible to play since he never suited up or officially took scholarship here (just like LB Gilliam from SJSU to CU, Kisima Jagne to ASU).

Not having last two coaches in place shouldn’t have a major impact on recruiting since only 7 coaches can be on the road at a time anyway.

Other Program Notes: MacIntyre believes all current players are sticking it out, at least for now, ready for the spring semester.  A few had talked to him about transferring, but all agreed to go through spring practices first.  I would expect to lose a few at that point when the roster and depth chart start to shake out.

He also said that the fourth year juniors, who were scheduled to exit the program upon graduation this spring, are being allowed to return to the team and continue as fifth year seniors.  WRs DaVaughn Thorton and Jarrod Darden, two of the biggest underachievers in the combined Embree/hawkins era, will give it one more shot, although K/P Zach Grossnickle passed at the option and has moved on.  I am not sure I like this idea as the two returning guys have both been terrible busts, wasting scholarships that could be used on players who actually contribute.  Maybe MacIntyre, Lindgren and Walters can motivate them, but I am not holding my breath.

According to Kyle Ringo of the Camera, “He (MacIntyre) said it’s possible he could hire one assistant who would be entirely responsible for special teams and no other position.” (my emphasis)  It would seem to me that he should know if he wants someone dedicated to ST or not by this point.  I actually really like the idea of having one coach preparing and coaching all aspects of the unit, allowing for kicking and punting “coaching” to happen throughout practice, rather than having each coach take a part, like punt return or kickoff coverage, to be accountable for, and only “coaching” up when it is the period for ST work; with this approach, ST will never be an important aspect of their game.  Frank Beamer at Va Tech has always coached ST himself as the HC, which shows the players how important it is and makes everyone want to play it.

Now, MacIntyre is saying he would like to have the staff completed by next week.  Still not holding my breath.  How much further will it continue to be pushed back?  Has the Bohnhead encouraged this approach?  Maybe we should have held a pool on how long it would take.

By the way, I asked Alfred Williams on twitter what he thought of the quiet announcement about no CU staffers being retained and his response: “I told ya.”

John Henderson of the Denver Post did an article much like the one on Mile High Sports last week, focusing on MacInytre’s “Four F’s”- can you name them?  Don’t worry, if not, we will all have them etched in our brain as we grow sick of hearing them soon enough. http://www.denverpost.com/cu/ci_22362943/mike-macintyre-has-four-point-plan-rebuild-cu

MacIntyre has met with every player and plans to have a team meeting Sunday, followed by meetings with position coaches, except of course the RBs, who still don’t have a coach named.  He will also put them in “family” groups, mixed by position, age, race and talent, to build relationships within team and across the team,; these “families” will work together, including community service, hold each other accountable (one messes up they all run), and support each other in every way.  He also likes to have close knit coaching staff as well.

In-season practices will held in the AM, instead of the late afternoon, so I will not be making too many of those.

MacInytre also wants to implement a “Walk of Champions” on game day, with players walking to stadium/Dal Ward/ locker room through a throng of fans.  First red flag: this was also a hawk idea that he tried with mild success; the walk across a few parking lots wasn’t that exciting and there is just not a great natural place to set this up. CU fans are too busy tailgating to be bothered moving anyway.  Even the path the band takes wouldn’t make sense for the players.  However, if he does get it going, I will be first in line!

Go Buffs!