Happy
50th Anniversary
to long-time Buff
faithful, season ticket holders for almost that long, who have rarely missed a
home game in over forty years of Folsom Field Tailgates, road warriors to
support their Buffs at least once a year…
Judy and Bob Dippo!
A
few Colorado football notes to pass the time in between the weekend’s
festivities:
CU Recruiting: RB Michael Adkins became the 17th
verbal for MacIntyre, committing to CU over Air Force. He is a two-star running back who was being
recruited at SJSU as well. The team will
have something like 10 scholarship RBs now so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if
a couple of them switch positions between now and August. Next Wednesday is signing day and MacIntyre
will host the CU Recruiting Luncheon the following day, which will also serve
as Macintyre’s grand introduction to the CU faithful. [I am at a conference in Denver that day and
was trying to sneak in a quick lunch trip across town but it will be too far.]
While
this 2013 recruiting class is not star-studded or eye-opening in any way, it is
stocking the roster with lots of lower rated prospects with potential,
increasing team speed and includes many versatile players that could end up at
more than one spot or even on with side of the ball. Ironically, this is almost the exact same
thing we heard from Embree in his first season.
Tom Kensler of the Denver Post wrote that the group could be a “pleasant
sureprise” just as the first classes of Barnett, Hawkins and Embree were when
they took over late in the cycle. Only time
will tell. The class currently consists
of 17 players, mostly two and three star players, and could end up with 1 or 2 more.
Coveted
three-star prospect CB Chidobe Awuzie must have had a great visit from Leach
(hasn’t anyone warned him about the shed?) or has gotten a new offer as Adam M.
of Rivals tweeted that Awuzie said he had a “busy and confusing week”. I have no idea what that means since I am too
cheap to subscribe and see if Adam has any further inside info.
Still
no word either from S Tedric Thompson, who was reportedly deciding between the
Buffs and Minnesota.
The
Denver Post has an article on QB recruit Sefo Liufau. He says part of the
reason he chose CU is because of the heritage of a star Samoan QB-Sal Aunese;
his son, TC McCartney, who was a grad assistant last year, helped host Liufau. http://www.denverpost.com/cu/ci_22469809/cu-buffs-recruit-sefo-liufau-could-ignite-offense
ESPN
still has S Kyle Trammel listed as a Buff verbal, even though I believe he
dropped out of school and has been off the recruiting radar for awhile.
Other Program Notes: CUBuff.com
lists the coaching staff and has Klayton Adams in charge of both running backs
and tight ends. It was originally thought he would focus on TEs only and
someone would be hired for RBs, however, with the TE a much smaller part of
this offense, it probably doesn’t make sense to have both. The open positions are for the
secondary/corners and special teams.
There
are actually a few holdovers on the staff as at least three of the graduate
assistants: TC McCartney, Jeff Smart and Chapelle Brown are still on board. Darian Hagan is listed as “Director of Player
Development” and there are still a few other familiar names on the admin staff,
although they are revamping the department, adding positions and moving people around
still.
Dave
Forman is not the new “Strength and Conditioning Coach” at CU, he will be
called…”The Director of Sports Performance” instead. The title is trending and he says “it better
reflects the all-encompassing aspects of performance and what we’re trying to
do. We’re more than just running around and lifting heavy weights. There are
the aspects of recovery, there’s crossover with what the athletic training
staff does – and not just in a rehab setting but in reconditioning, where maybe
you’re out of rehab but not quite full-go, there’s a whole spectrum of function
there.” He will actually head the entire
CU team, with all other sports reporting to him. It sounds like he will be emphasizing
functional strength that can translate directly to game situations, rather than
raw strength and big numbers (very similar to Blacken). He has also focused on general conditioning
and health to keep players on the field and limit number of injuries and “player
games” lost. He kept two from the former
staff, Steve Englehart and Troy Ramsey, and brought Kerry Johnson from Duke as well
as Isaiah Castilleja, who previously volunteered at CU to get his start.
Players
found this quote from Merlin Olsen in their lockers: “You can take the best
team and the worst team and line them up and you will find very little physical
difference. You will find emotional difference. The winning team has a
dedication, it will have a core group of leaders who set the standards and they
will not accept defeat.” Their winter
workout schedule has them lifting weights in two groups M-W-F and running as a
whole group T-TH.
Here’s what Kevin Gemmell answered in his Pac-12 chat when Bill from Denver asked…“Time for a token CU question..... Can you say something nice about the Buffs?” KG: “Best mascot entrance in college football -- hands down. But in all seriousness, I like the young QBs, I like the move to the pistol and I like that the coaching staff -- though they are new -- has worked together for a few years. The Embree crew was still learning to work together. I think four wins next year is realistic and a bowl game in three years makes sense.” I don’t know if I can stomach two more years without a bowl?! So ready for a road trip!
Gemmell and another poster wondered how the Buffs will sign so many players (17 plus 4 greyshirts who cannot count back to last year) with so few players leaving. My only guess is they are counting on at least some attrition after spring ball.
Don’t
read the following if you can’t handle pain as Colorado show up on the low end
of even the highs, especially in the team category, surprisingly not as much as
I expected on the players post:
Go
Buffs!
The question is: But do any of them have fake girlfriends that we should know about?
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