Welcome!

Teacher by day, Buff fanatic by night, and, actually throughout the school day also. I was raised in Boulder during the dark Chuck Fairbanks years by two University of Michigan alums. I knew "Go Blue!" long before "Go Buffs!", but when a relatively unknown defensive coordinator was hired to lead the Buffs, my interest was slightly piqued. By the time I reached high school Bill McCartney was building a solid foundation with homegrown talent like Jon Embree and I remember the day in 1986 when Boulder celebrated the win over Nebraska. In college I sold beer, watched Coach Mac win a championship, Rashaan Salaam win a Heisman and I was hooked forever. When Jon Embree was hired, I renewed my season tickets and hit the practice rail. I wrote up a few things for some relatives, forwarded them to a few friends, and then made it a blog. Now I find writing about my Buffies is fun, more informative and therapy! I'll post a few times a week during the season, less in the offseason, with news, musings and links. Go Buffs!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Spring is about to be sprung


It’s been awhile, but not much has happened in Buff Nation.  However, here’s a little preview of spring practices which open this week, as well as a few other items of note.

Spring Practices begin this week on Thursday, March 7th and will be open to the public.  Here is the tentative spring schedule (15 total days of spring practices, mostly set for afternoon):
Thursday, March 7             First practice, in pads
Friday, March 8                   Practice
         Saturday, March 9             Junior Day
Tuesday, March 12              Practice
         Wednesday, March 13        Pro timing day
Thursday, March 14            Practice
Friday, March 15                  Practice
Tuesday, March 19              Practice
Thursday, March 21            Practice
Friday, March 22                 Practice
                                Spring Break
Tuesday, April 2                   Practice
Thursday, April 4                 Practice
Friday, April 5                        Practice
Tuesday, April 9                    Practice
Thursday, April 11               Practice
Saturday, April 13                Spring Game, 12 noon, televised on Pac-12 Network
Monday, April 15                   Final practice

Defensive Coordinator Kent Baer, who has coached all over the country, will start slow in spring practice to make sure his players know exactly what is expected of them. He will be working with basically the same group of coaches from San Jose State last year so they all know what is expected of each other.  They will have two guys, Charles Clark and Andy LaRussa, coaching the secondary, which is very talented but very young.  Here’s Kyle Ringo’s article: http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-college-sports/ci_22692840/football-kent-baer-ready-rebuild-cu-buffs-defense?source=rss

As I had thought previously, rising sophomores Marques Mosley, Yuri Wright and Kenneth Crawley all confirmed separately that they did not get a lot of one-on-one coaching from Greg Brown last year as he was swimming in running the entire defense. Here’s Ringo’s article on the renewed emphasis on coaching the DBs: http://www.buffzone.com/football/ci_22675171/football-cu-buffs-secondary-set-new-coaching-style

Offensively the Buffs have to find a lot of starters, with only P-Rich and maybe two o-linemen who can count on having starting jobs.  They are installing a completely new approach with a new staff and everyone will get their shot, at least in the first half of practices.  Like the QB position, coaches will let everyone get some reps over the first 6 practices before spring break.  Over break they will look over the tape and narrow down to the mostly two-deep, who will get the majority of the reps in the second half and the scrimmage.

We still don’t know who the two (?) Buffs MacIntyre referenced who may not play at all in 2013 due to concussions.  We may get an indication of who they are when we see who is not suited up at the first practices.

Coaches will run “position” groups on and off the field to keep players physically fresh and more players involved in the game.  This strategy is employed by Boise St. among others (hawkins tried this some also).  This will definitely be apparent in the WR ranks, some with the RBs and TEs, certainly the defensive line, possibly the linebackers, maybe the nickel package to some extent.

Position changes: Coaches have made no secret of the fact that they will try guys at a variety of positions and there are already rumors of numerous such switches before the players even take the field. 

One such case is DD Goodson, who has played RB and a little DB, will now try to line up as a wide receiver.  I have always thought that Vincent Hobbs was better suited as a big receiver than as a TE.

FB Clay Norgard announced right when MacInytre came on that he would be moving back to his more natural position as a LB/DE.  Many “tweener” guys like him may be auditioned both as outside linebackers and defensive ends, while the bigger guys make get looks outside as ends as well as inside as defensive tackles. 

I am not sure if anyone is classified yet as a corner or safety, just as defensive backs. A few of them could even see some time on offense at RB or WR, and vice versa. 

I’ll predict that there will be at least one starter who is not currently listed at the position he will lead.

Other Buff Notes:
We have the first incident of the MikeMac era with Samson Kafovalu getting arrested “on charges of threatening bodily injury, trespassing, consumption of alcohol by a minor and use of fighting words” after trying to force his way into a party and threatening a bouncer while knocking over a small brick wall, although he was allowed to leave the scene.  How harsh will the new coach be on the true sophomore who played a decent amount last year?  Will he set an example or let this be a slap on the wrist?  Here is the most in depth report on the incident: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1548531-colorados-samson-kafovalu-destroys-brick-wall-after-being-denied-from-party

Here’s a new interview with Coach MacIntyre.  Gotta give the guy props for confidence when talking about continuity with his staff: “When my current coordinators move on to head coaching jobs, we'll use the same terminology after they leave. I feel that's really important.”  I also like how he preaches about being aggressive on defense, coaching to bat down balls as well as cause and recover fumbles. http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/2/27/4032824/colorado-football-mike-macintyre-interview

Natalie Meisler also did a piece on MacIntyre for the Buff Club Magazine Stampede.  His former players said you definitely don’t want to miss class and you had better be early and paying attention, or there will be consequences in practice.  He expects his players to be well dressed, five minutes early, sitting up front and he sends around staffers to check up on everyone.

Interesting analysis of the Buffs (albeit a little depressing) with a new “system”: http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/54114/can-colorado-turn-it-around

David Bahktiari had a solid NFL combine (fast for linemen 5.1 40 time among other stats) and seems pleased with his choice to go into the draft.  He is willing to play anywhere on the line and different teams may be looking at him for tackle guard or even center, although he has never really snapped the ball before.

TE Nick Kasa found himself getting a lot of national attention, not for anything he did, but for what he was asked at the NFL combine, namely: “Do you like girls?”  Stay classy most successful and powerful sports league in the world.
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