Lots of June news...

The firing of the bohnhead has dominated the news.  President Bruce Benson and Chancellor Phil DiStefano have bungled this process as badly as they (with the bohner) handled the Embree firing and the Butch Jones courting.  CU administration just looks plain stupid as they say the university yet again makes a vague statement that they will “double donations” by 2018 (RTD or “Athletics 2010” anyone?) just like that.  The new AD will be important in changing the attitude and culture around the entire campus, or the Buffs will linger in the lower tier of the Pac-12 in football and in general for a long time. BoulderDevil did a pretty thorough piece on the CU leadership, of lack thereof anyway: http://buffwatch.blogspot.com/2013/06/in-defense-of-mike-bohn-cus-leadership.html 

In the meantime a few items have run across the wire…

Roster Moves: Perhaps the most important announcement yet of the Mike MacIntyre era was that TE Vincent Hobbs would indeed be returning to the team this Fall.  His father is out of the hospital and doing better and Hobbs is back on campus working with the team.  Hobbs is a very athletic TE and could wreak havoc in this offense.  It would have been a very thin position without him.

Also returning to the team and working out in June, now in good standing after a difficult spring, is WR Gerald Thomas. His re-addition makes the WR corps deeper than it has been in years.

Defensive lineman De’Jon Wilson is also back on campus and working out with the team.  Wilson was the star of the scout team last year while he redshirted and much was expected of him this season, but he found himself in some type of predicament that kept him from participating much in the spring.  He could play almost anywhere on the line.

Coming as no surprise though, RB Davien Payne is the one player who is not returning to the team.  He was suspended for academics during the spring and had a “lot to do” to get back with the team. 

Incoming recruit OL Sam Kroshrage sent out a racist tweet after a playoff baseball game last week in Texas.  He claims that someone else sent the text from his phone during a party and has apologized profusely.  MacIntyre said this is a teachable moment for kids and he is considering banning twitter use among players if problems persist (remember that Yuri Wright also got into some twitter trouble last spring which led to him committing to CU instead of Michigan or others).

Captains: The team voted for captains at the end of spring ball but “eight or nine guys”, including a “couple of juniors,” got lots of love from teammates in the open vote.  MacIntyre said he could end up going with some type of rotation but that players will vote from the list of 8 or 9 and the team should know who their four or five captains are for 2014 by June 19.

Recruiting 2014: The Buffs have received two verbal commits so far-LB Grant Watanabe (TX) and OT Oliver Miller (Longmont-Silver Creek) so far, which is still good enough national rankings of 70 (Rivals) and 75 (Scout), which is actually ahead of Oregon St. (only 1 commit) so that the team is not last in the conference!

The Buffs hosted their first camp of the summer and reportedly offer a bunch of other guys and are getting some national attention.

Previews and preseason honors: At this time of year magazines and websites are all putting out rankings and lists.  In searching for CU information, I find it easiest to scroll down and start from the bottom of the page.  The Sporting News was the latest to jump on the Buffs last in the South bandwagon and commented that MacIntyre “may need all five years” of his contract to turn the program around. However, P Darragh O’Neill was the only Buff to make their all-Pac-12 team.

Lindy’s seems to like MacIntyre, rating him as a top five hire.  However, he gives the Buffs a 93^rd national ranking, last in the conference. 

He also gave O’Neill the nod as 1^st team Pac-12 punter and P-Rich as 2^nd team receiver, but surprises many with the addition of CB Yuri Wright on the 2^nd team also-if that one comes to fruition, the defense will have had a stellar year.  RB Christian Powell made his 3^rd team Pac-12 list.

Jack Follman of PacificTakes.com has started his series ranking the top twelve Pac-12 players at each position.  So far, Buffs are not clogging the top of the lists.  Christian Powell is 9^th among RBs: (Although) “Powell's future as a feature back isn't set in stone…with no other major options emerging, it's likely that he will carry the full load for Colorado again in 2013. Also, at 6'0 240, he is far and away the best big back in the conference right now.

Connor Wood was listed as “others considered”, not even making the top 12 QBs, with Oregon St. and USC both placing two QBs on the list.

Ted Miller of the ESPN Pac-12 blog did a piece ranking each team’s top offensive trio at QB-RB-WR (or TE), and of course the Buffs, even with P-Rich (with Wood and Powell), were ranked dead last, although he did say they are “better than you think”.

Not a single Buff made any of Phil Steele’s top four Preseason All-American teams.

Steele did however, name Darragh O’Neill as his first team punter on his Preseason All Pac-12 team, as well as including WR Paul Richardson on the second team (in a receiver-rich conference), DE Chidera Uzo-Diribe on his fourth team and S Marques Mosley as third team kick returner.

Steele also has a “stock market indicator” where he ranks the percentage (based on what I have no idea) probability that the team will have more wins than the previous year.  The Buffs only rate a “3” giving them, in Steele’s mind anyway, only a 75% chance of pulling out more than last year’s one win.

In addition to the obvious recognition of P-Rich, and the widespread love for Darragh O’Neill, one other positive mention was Chidera Uzo-Diribe being named by the Pac-12 blog as one of the most likely players to get double digit sacks this year.

Other Notes: Larry Scott announced that the Pac-12 will take the lead with the NCAA and will limit contact in practices to reduce the risk of injuries.  Some are worried that this will give the Pac-12 a competitive disadvantage if everyone else doesn’t follow suit.  MacIntyre said the Buffs will only go full speed with hitting and tackling once a week during the season and the conference will likely limit teams to two per week, so the Buffs won’t be affected there.  However, if they put further limits on spring contact, it might affect what the staff can do.  Currently teams are allowed 7 tackling practices over 15 total over 35 days. CU and many others split their 15 total and 7 tackling before and after spring break to give players ample recovery time.

Ivan Maisel spoke with Big 1o blogger Adam Rittenberg on his podcast and while talking about Gordon Gee and Ohio St. he mentioned that a university president was a just a fundraiser with a fancy title; Ivan responded that the true fancy title fundraiser is an Athletic Director (and there was no reference to CU at all, not even with Gee’s past connection).

Pac-12 revenue numbers are coming out.  Jon Wilner calculates that the conference will receive almost $253 million this year (from its television contract, bowls and NCAA distributions), which works out to each team getting ~$21 million of that each (except Utah, which will still receive a partial share this year).  That would almost pay off the debt the Athletic Department has!

The Pac-12 Networks were also profitable, although we don’t know by how much, and the speculation is that the conference will roll those profits into the network to improve and expand (up to 750 events total from 550).

Lastly, I am embarrassed, ashamed and disgusted that the Buffs are a 3.5 underdog to the lambies (not surprisingly all Pac-12 opponents are at least 20 point favorites, except Utah which was not listed).  Stuart has more intestinal fortitude than I do and did a piece on the rocky mountain “rivalry”: http://www.cuatthegame.com/2013/rethinking-csu/