The saga of incoming TE Connor Center (who was the last to report) is even more interesting than just the fact he hadn’t played organized football since middle school. It turns out he became motivated partially because of the death of a friend who had tried really hard to get him to go out for football. He even gave up his senior season of baseball. He is an athletic beast at 6’8 250, runs a 4.6 in the 40 and he “didn’t drop anything” when he held a workout with a former Akron quarterback throwing to him. On top of that, he is a coach’s dream because is an open book and a clean slate to work with and he has yet to learn any bad habits. Definitely a player to watch down the road. http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Loss-drives-player-to-unthinkable-heights-4617825.php#page-1
Recruiting 2014: The Buffs picked up their fifth verbal commitment of the cycle, with all five having received three stars from someone. Rick Gamboa is a big-hitting three-star inside LB from Chaminade/West Hills, CA (same school as frosh WR Elijah Dunston). He was rated one of the top five LB prospects from California and the West Region and also had offers from Idaho and UTEP with interest from many others like Oregon, Washington, and UCLA.
Gamboa joins QB Cade Aspay (Canyon Country, CA), DB/WR Chance Waz (Pflugerville/Hendrickson, TX), LB Grant Watanabe (San Antonio) and OT Oliver Miller (Longmont/Silver Creek).
If you are on twitter, follow any of the coaches
(@TroyWalters is the consensus best follow) and when you see a solitary “#CUin14”
it means that the Buffs have received a new verbal commitment (although they
cannot officially comment). Of course,
you could also follow me @unicodavidsmith and I retweet most of the interesting
Buff info, as well as other football stuff, some poker and other random things
my niece tweets out.
FYI- Besides the Washington Huskies and Steve
Sarkisian tweeting some form of “woof”
when they get a new verbal commitment, Miami (FL) uses “#WelcomeToTheU”, Texas
A&M “YESSIR”, Kentucky and Ole Miss both use “Yahtzee!”, while Texas Tech and
nebraska tweet “Boooom!”, NC State sends out something about “the red light”
(that one is interesting), while Butch Jones at Tennessee (who requires his
coaches to tweet) will add a brick to a wall next to their National Championship
trophy and then tweet a picture of it to symbolize a new brick being added to
the program (yeah, really feeling like we missed out there).
Summer workouts: CB Greg Henderson
reports that the defensive secondary is working hard and making strides. They gained a lot of experience last year and
are now working against a much better receiving corps in practice and, as is the
case in so many areas, it can’t be worse than last year.With the freshmen reporting, the whole team is together and working out. Kyle McCall of The (Daily) Camera put a recap of the 2013 class: http://www.buffzone.com/ci_23544825/afternoon-drive-cu-footballs-2013-recruiting-class-lands?source=rss_viewed
Paul Richardson tweeted: “Our freshman WRs are gonna shake things up in Fall camp. Yea, I said it! All the returning WRs are ready for the competition! #GoBuffs”
Preseason honors, previews and prognostications: Jeremy Fowler of cbssports.com gave an in depth look at how far the program has fallen, but gives a taste of that positive outlook that head coach Mike MacIntyre is trying to instill in the team and fan base. QB Connor Wood was as open as anyone has been talking about the team discord during last season’s abysmal run, with offense and defense calling each other out and coaches seemingly not in control of it all. That all is supposedly gone now, but I wonder with the voting for captains spread so wide that they had to name six instead of traditional four. Here’s the piece: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/jeremy-fowler/22498021/with-macintyre-hire-colorado-football-tries-to-heal-once-again
BoulderDevil gives a positive perspective
that Mike MacIntyre can parallel what Jim Harbaugh did at Stanford, taking an
even worse offensive 1-11 Cardinal team to 8 wins and a bowl in three years,
similar to what MacIntyre did at San Jose State. http://buffwatch.blogspot.com/
June is the time to dream big while following recruiting hype.
An interesting prediction from “zonazealots.com”
who follow suit and say CU is the obvious choice for last in the Pac-12 South,
but then go on to actually predict a 4-8 record, one of the only places to do
so (a few have said “three or four” but haven’t seen anyone but real homers
think 4 is realistic).
ESPN bloggers gave each conference “Future Power
Rankings” based on their thoughts about teams’ prospects over the next three
years and CU was not surprisingly last in the Pac-12. Utah was 11th, but another
analysis of the Utes was that they may need 30 years to catch up to Pac-12
teams overall in athletics and they will need to funnel a lot of their effort
and dollars to their other sports. However, if WSU (10th) falls,
they will plummet really hard under Pirate Leach.
Then, the bloggers also asked readers to send
their own power rankings in and published many of them. Not surprisingly still, CU was usually last
and never higher than 10th, and I can’t really argue with that until
Mac and the boys prove differently.
RB Christian Powell is getting a lot of love and mentions in preseason articles. His size (6’0, 240 lbs.) and freshman production (691 yards, 7 TDs) were very intriguing last season as a freshman, and he is the frontrunner for the starting job, along with Sr. Tony Jones. Powell was listed 23rd among the ‘best of the rest’ in their top 20 Pac-12 “Heisman Contenders” article. However, remember that last year was his first ever being more than a fullback who only occasionally carried the ball in high school, and it took a toll on him with numerous injuries, including a concussion which lingered well beyond the season. Regardless, I believe both Powell and the speedier Jones will share the bulk of the touches no matter what, with a bunch of younger guys fighting for the scraps.
PacificTakes’ Jack Follman ranked Pac-12 offensive linemen with Stanford dominating the list (as well as UCLA, Oregon and Oregon State) but with CU’s probable starting guard (not sure which side yet and it could still be at center) Daniel Munyer coming in at number eleven. “Munyer is a bright spot on a Colorado line that has been relatively ineffective, especially in pass protection, but Munyer is a good run blocker who helped open up holes for Christian Powell and he earned honorable mention All-Pac-12 last season.” No mention of Jack Harris, who has gotten some decent pub at tackle, nor anyone else from Colorado.
Phil Steele’s magazine is out with gobs of information, including statistical analysis/predictions on yards and points scored and given up. Although he predicts that CU will close their gap between points scored and given up by two touchdowns, they will still average two touchdown losses and give up the most overall yards in the conference.
The morons at AddictedToQuack (Oregon) did a Pac-12 receivers preview writing of Colorado that “there isn't much reason to expect them to come out of the bottom quarter of the league” while completely failing to mention Paul Richardson in any way?! I doubt that he will be that big of surprise to the actual quackers when they visit Boulder.
John Henderson of the Denver Post gave a decent synopsis of the preview mags and CU (without giving off hardly any of his anti-Buff bias): http://blogs.denverpost.com/colleges/2013/06/24/football-magazines-not-kind-to-colorado-but-give-p-darragh-oneill-some-props/27638/
Bill Connelly did extensive previews on all Pac-12 teams and Colorado’s is by no means sugar-coated. http://www.sbnation.com/2013/6/27/4456388/colorado-buffaloes-football-2013-schedule-roster-preview/in/4234737
No matter how bad a team is, how hard its
schedule is, or how unrealistic it may be, all teams and fan bases are shooting
for, hoping for, praying for at least 6-6 and the all-important bowl game (and
accompanying 15 practices). How could you not?
JazzyUte of BlockU put it best for his Utes, but
it certainly applies to the Buffs and many others as well: “I know most (Utah in the post, but
insert CU or other pathetic school of choice here) fans expect a
bowl game and that alone would probably make 2013 a successful season - even if that bowl game comes on the
heels of a 6-6 season and takes us to New Mexico.” (my emphasis)
By the way, the team is talking confidently
again and at least QB Connor Wood is openly talking the six wins and a bowl
game. P-Rich also claimed that as the
goal earlier in the spring.
Other Buff Notes: The AD search committee met for the first time with Chancellor distephano briefing them. Their two main code words afterwards were “patience” (meaning nothing will actually happen for a long time) and “confidentiality” (which means nothing about the candidates’ privacy but that they aren’t going to tell us jack shit until the deal is done, or someone leaks something).
I find it interesting that Offensive Coordinator
Brian Lindgren does not have one of
CU’s six multi-year contracts (MacIntyre and DC Kent Baer do, as well as the
volleyball coach (seriously folks?!), both head basketball coaches and the AD
will) even though he is a young, up and coming offensive mind, the kind of guy
schools are tabbing for their head coaching slots. MacIntyre, as of December 1, when it will be
official that the school has raised nowhere close to the promised $50 million
to get the facilities upgrade started, will be able to leave without any buyout
or penalty if, and more likely when, a better school and offer comes around
(many people are already betting on Vanderbilt where his father coached).
Baer’s contract figures were released and they
are very similar to Bienemy’s: $250,000 base + $200,000 in supplement (camps
and others things) + courtesy car + country club membership and $2500 worth of
Nike apparel (does he get a gift card or does he go to the warehouse on a
shopping spree for this?).
Former CU kicker and punter Zach Grossnickle,
who was one of a few players told by Embree not to bother coming back his 5th
year of eligibility, has found a home for next season at Washington. As he did in Boulder, Grossnickle will
practice a lot, provide depth, take classes (although they are graduate level
now, and even better if he actually scammed another year of scholarship here)
and not really get to play. (Note: Grossnickle was the starting punter his redshirt
freshman year under hawkins, but was then promptly beat out by a guy who had
never really played organized football or punted before.)
Basketball Shoutouts: Congrats to Andre Roberson for getting drafted number 26 in the first round of the NBA draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder and earning a guaranteed contract with a championship contender! It’s a great place for him to play his game, rebounding and defense to contribute on a great team, without being expected to score.
Also props to Spencer Dinwiddie for earning one of 12 spots, from a group of 26, to represent the USA at the upcoming World University Games. Time to showcase for the world and NBA scouts.
SIGH:
It’s sad to remember that entering the 2005 Independence Bowl, Nick Saban and
Alabama had an identical 6-6 record to the Buffs. Unfortunately, while that moment
was rock bottom for Bama who went on to win the game and start their run back
to 3 championships in four years, it was actually a mini-peak for a Buffs
program that has only regressed since then and has not been able to turn the
trend around. May this be the year! Go Buffs!
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