went to the CU spring game yesterday

[King Crimson]

i know no one really cares but, i tell you this: Darrell Scott will have a good year but he's no Adrian Peterson. not even close. I'm not even sure Scott is the best back at CU. Brian Lockridge has got the quicks to the corner and Demetrius Sumler is 4-5 yards up the middle (and can block).

Cody Hawkins will be the starter for CU, yet again. Tyler Hanson sucks. he's got wheels, but can't throw a lick. lot of talk about how great the OL is, i didn't see it. i saw QB's on the run.

you win 7-8 games with Cody and an untypically weak OOC, max.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

From what I read, Scott was a better punter than running back.

Edit: Maybe I should change my sig...

[SoCalTrjn]

From what I have heard about USCs Trojan Huddle yesterday... The QBs did not look sharp, the RBs kept putting the ball on the ground, Ausberry still has a case of the dropsies, the best big reciever for USC may be a white guy, Taylor Mays is still a total freak of nature and the either the O line is going to struggle mightily next year or the defensive front 7 are just going to be fast and awesome again.

[Van]

SoCalTrjn, I heard yesterday on ESPN that Barkley is now the solid #2 (with a bullet), with Corp now the solid #1. Mustain is now below Barkley.

You hearing the same thing?

[SoCalTrjn]

yeah, thats been the rumors out at SC. Mustain has been at #3 but I think some of that may just be that Bates and Morton know what they have with Mustain and are trying to get the kids more reps with the first team. What I have heard is that Mustain just isnt as much of a leader as Corp and Barkley are, Id like to see the kid do well but from what I heard about yesterday, he just wasnt going downfield as much and was under throwing some of the out patterns..

[Vito Corleone]

The Mack Brown curse lives on in Scott and Mustang :D

So far the only two to break the curse were Peterson and Tommie Harris

Here is a partial list of guys that spurned Texas and either went on to do nothing or were such malcontents that Texas just dodged a major bullet

Ryan Perrilloux
fred Rouse
Matel Bennett (he is a 1st round NFL draft pick and had a decent college career but he did end up at A&M so that is punishment enough)
D Scott
Mustang
Bomar
DaBryan Blanton
Ofa Mohetau
Jorrie Adams
Alonzo Dotson
Xavier Lawson-Kennedy
DeMarcus Granger
Emmanuel Moody
Xavier Lee
Lynn Katoa

[Van]

Vito, you want a list of people who spurned Texas and then went on to have H.O.F. college careers?

It would include every single player who didn't go to Texas, who had a H.O.F. career. I can pretty much guaran-damn-tee you that Mack wanted Reggie Bush and Tim Tebow. He also wanted Joe McKnight and Beanie Wells.

He would've given his left nut to get Matt Barkley, or Brian Cushing...or Darren McFadden.

The list is endless, of people Mack wanted, but didn't get.

[Vito Corleone]

Vito, you want a list of people who spurned Texas and then went on to have H.O.F. college careers?

It would include every single player who didn't go to Texas, who had a H.O.F. career. I can pretty much guaran-damn-tee you that Mack wanted Reggie Bush and Tim Tebow. He also wanted Joe McKnight and Beanie Wells.

He would've given his left nut to get Matt Barkley, or Brian Cushing...or Darren McFadden.

The list is endless, of people Mack wanted, but didn't get.

We did recruit Bush but he didn't spurn Texas like those guys listed did. Why would Texas want Matt Barkley when we got Garrett Gilbert? Texas didn't recruit Cushing or McFadden.

The list is guys who talked shit about Texas or flat out screwed with Texas in the recruiting process. Notice I didn't mention guys like Damon Williams, who also was recruited by Texas but chose Arkansas.

The point of that list is they are guys that Texas recruited and showed big interest in Texas but either they made a few remarks about Texas or they lied to the Texas coaches or they just flat out played Texas in some way.

It has become known as the curse of Mack Brown because when those things happen it tends to backfire on the recruit.

[Van]

We did recruit Bush but he didn't spurn Texas like those guys listed did.

How convenient. The guys you didn't get, they didn't spurn you, except for the ones who didn't do well, later.

You bet your ass you wanted Reggie, and you bet your ass he spurned you, the second he signed.

Why would Texas want Matt Barkley when we got Garrett Gilbert?

Oh, maybe because Barkley is ranked higher, and it's always a good idea to have the best pro style QB in the nation, rather than letting someone else have him.

Texas didn't recruit Cushing or McFadden.

Right. Because Texas knew they'd already been spurned. It's not like they would've have loved to have McFadden and Cushing be interested in them.

The list is guys who talked shit about Texas or flat out screwed with Texas in the recruiting process.

Practically every guy OU or LSU ever signed directly spurned Texas in order to do so. Most of them likely talked some shit too, at some point.

The "Mack Curse" is just a Texas Fan concoction, designed to make themselves feel better.

[Vito Corleone]

We did recruit Bush but he didn't spurn Texas like those guys listed did.

How convenient. The guys you didn't get, they didn't spurn you, except for the ones who didn't do well, later.

You bet your ass you wanted Reggie, and you bet your ass he spurned you, the second he signed.

Why would Texas want Matt Barkley when we got Garrett Gilbert?

Oh, maybe because Barkley is ranked higher, and it's always a good idea to have the best pro style QB in the nation, rather than letting someone else have him.

Texas didn't recruit Cushing or McFadden.

Right. Because Texas knew they'd already been spurned. It's not like they would've have loved to have McFadden and Cushing be interested in them.

The list is guys who talked shit about Texas or flat out screwed with Texas in the recruiting process.

Practically every guy OU or LSU ever signed directly spurned Texas in order to do so. Most of them likely talked some shit too, at some point.

The "Mack Curse" is just a Texas Fan concoction, designed to make themselves feel better.

It's not about a guy picking someone over Texas it's about how the kids conduct themselves, some act like asshats others handle their recruitment with class. I guess you werent around for perrloser and his little act. Not only was he telling the Texas coaches he was committed but behind their backs he was recruiting Texas recruits to LSU. And in the last minute he comes out and tells the world he was committed to LSU the whole time. That is the type of shit I'm talking about. Not that Reggie Bush decided to go to USC over Texas. Fred Rouse wasn't a problem he was just a bullet we dodged, it wasn't that we didn't want him it's more of how he turned out.

And hell no I would not take Matt Barkley over Garrett Gilbert, Barkley didn't do shit his senior year, while Gilbert was the High School player of the year and threw for over 5000 yards and 50+ TDs with 5 ints. He completely rewrote the Texas record books, he is from Austin and plays the exact same offense that Texas plays. Barkley might be better, we will have to wait and see, but no way I take him over Gilbert right now.

And if you look at the list of guys that Texas OU and LSU go after, Texas wins the majority of the recruiting battles so the few that do chose OU and LSU don't make the list unless they go public with talking shit like McFarland did. Notice I didn't mention Russell Shepard on that list, he chose LSU over Texas but he didn't act like an ass to do it. The curse is about those who acted like asses in the process, not because someone chose one school over another.

Damn did mtool steal your password?

[King Crimson]

DaBryan Blanton

Blanton was a two-time NCAA 60M champ. he may have quit football, but only in order to pursue a pretty successful track and field career. finished 2nd at the Milrose games last year. there's good money in T&F in Europe.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Vito,
I know I cracked on Scott myself earlier in this thread, but considering the kid is only going to be a true soph next season, don't you think it might be just a tad premature to add him to that list? He might not have had a Peterson-esque freshman campaign, but only a handful of freshmen do, 5-star blue chips or not. The verdict is certainly still out, but he might actually play well if he has an O-line that can block for him. Let's at least give him a couple more years before we officially declare him a bust...

[Vito Corleone]

Did Mack Brown go after Matthew Stafford or Greg McElroy?

I feel really good about McElroy (I know he had committed to Texas Tech at one point) this coming season. Gonna be a much better QB than Bama has had in a loooong while.

yes and no,

It was pretty well known that Stafford was signed sealed and delivered to Georgia since his Soph year in HS, his dad and Mark Richt were college roommates or something. Texas was going after 3 other guys that year Mustang, Sherrod Harris, and Jevan Snead. Sherrod was an early commitment to Texas and Stafford made and early commitment to Georgia and Snead made an early commitment to Florida.

Texas was really working Mustang until something happened between Texas and Mustang's mother and Coach, my guess is his coach was getting the gig with Arkansas but they dropped Texas in a harsh manner. At the same time Florida kept recruiting Teebow and this pissed off Snead's dad, so he repopened contact with Texas and eventually he switched his commitment from Florida to Texas.

I personally don't remember Texas offering McElroy, but Texas usually doesn't make a lot of offers.

As of right now Texas has thrown out 30 offers and from those they have 21 commitments and have stopped recruiting about 3 or 4 other guys who just happen to be big time prospects. The only guys left that Texas is still recruiting hard right now are: Lache Seastrunk, Darius White, Jake Matthews, Jackson Jeffcoat, Jordan Hicks (loan out of state guy they are still recruiting), and Corey Nelson.

At one point they were recruiting Trovon Reed but rivals is reporting in recent interviews with him that Texas is no longer recruiting him. Texas is still recruiting 3 other guys but has basically told them that if player X doesn't sign with Texas we will get back to you. Those guys are: Demarco Cobbs, Deandrew White, and Evan Washington. Two of those 3 are national top 100 guys, while Washington is a national top 250 guy.

Interesting tidbit is that 5-star RB Trent Richardson from California has told rivals in interviews how much he loves Texas and wishes they would contact him, and as of yet Texas hasn't even sent him a letter. Lots of Texas fans are pissed about this but my guess is the Texas coaches are putting all their eggs into getting Lache Seastrunk or just holding off until next season where there are 3 runningbacks in Texas back yard that are 5-star worthy.

[Van]

Lache Seastrunk

[Vito Corleone]

You do realize that all the recruiting services have him ranked as the #1 runningback in the country?

Rivals has him as the #2 overall prospect

BTW USC is recruiting him pretty hard as well. As of right now I would say that it is between USC and LSU for his services with Texas a distant third. The only thing we have going for us is he lives about 30 minutes from the 40 Acres (Texas campus).

[Van]

Vito, I'm merely shocked at and laughing at dude's name. 'Da fuck does a name like that happen??

[Vito Corleone]

Vito, I'm merely shocked at and laughing at dude's name. 'Da fuck does a name like that happen??

Ok then, I've seen the guys name since his soph year so the name thing wore off on me last year. But I can understand where your coming from.

[King Crimson]

More Buffs news: with former OC Mark Helfrich going to Oregon to be the QB coach and wear the OC tag but probably not call the plays....there's a lot of speculation in Boulder that the lateral move was a congenial parting of ways between Hawkins and Helfrich. The timing of this is really weird. I've been beating on Helfrich since day 1 on CU boards as my troll and predicting at T1B many times that Hawkins would need to seriously need to re-consider his small time coordinators if he wanted to more than climb Machu Pichu on CU's dime.

the promotion of WR coach Eric Kiesau to OC is interesting and really there were no other options at this point. What i don't get is how this translates automatically into the "smashmash"/kill the spread offense that CU fans seem think to think it means. another OC learns on the job with the Dan Hawkins "Boise Playbook" proving to be a myth. who's offense is it? what offense is it?

does it have an identity? CU fans think they will run the ball at will. If Cody can only throw to 60% of the field, there's a lot of stacking the box teams can do. it's hard to just line up and pound the ball at people these days. not only that: it takes a long time to score that way and you D has to get stops. if spread team X is scoring in 3 minute drives or 65 yards after the catch on the slant....and you are down 17.....those 8 minutes drives start to work against you if you can't get stops.

[Vito Corleone]

When CU hired Hawkins, at the time I believed this was a genius hire and they would soon be back atop the Big 12 north, now it is looking more and more like when Texas hired Johnnie MacII. I'm really not sure where he is going with this team and he seems to want to stick with his game plan almost to a fault.

How much more time is Colorado going to give him before he pulls they pull the plug?

[King Crimson]

When CU hired Hawkins, at the time I believed this was a genius hire and they would soon be back atop the Big 12 north, now it is looking more and more like when Texas hired Johnnie MacII. I'm really not sure where he is going with this team and he seems to want to stick with his game plan almost to a fault.

How much more time is Colorado going to give him before he pulls they pull the plug?

i agree. CU was hiring in a year where they were the first and (IIRC) only BCS team to be hiring in the coaching market. and Hawkins was the hot guy. I thought it was the proverbial "home run" hire. the 2-10 year was really a ice bath around here. Hawk came in talking about outcoaching everybody. and his staff were guys who were two laps ahead of the field and breaking the curve with the "Boise Playbook" (a phrase you heard out of Hawk's mouth every time you stuck a mic in his mug) which has turned out to be a bald lie (they've changed offenses every season). and they sucked, Year 1, losing to D-1AA Montana State in Boulder. who lost to Kearney State (NE) the next week.

now, the official sentiment is that he had to "total re-build" and (Hawks tired phrase) remake the "culture" around CU football after the Barnett late era "scandal".

i think Hawkins might still succeed but it's gonna take some square one type stuff. there's some talent on the roster, but the excuses are over. he's got to win 7 games to seem viable IMO....and they have the schedule to do it, getting North "heavies" MU, KU, and NU all at home and a less than brutal, typical CU OOC. everyone is tired of the anecdotes and cute Zen quotes. CU fans are mostly delusional in their estimation of their place in the universe, but it's a proud legit program with success before McCartney so the masses are tired of the coach-speak.

CU's AD can't afford to fire and re-hire, they need Hawkins to succeed. CU basketball is one of the biggest money drains in D-1. even when they were a middle of the pack Big XII team (and sometimes pretty good)....they lost money hand over fist. I go to more CU hoops game than 99% of CU fans.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

i think Hawkins might still succeed but it's gonna take some square one type stuff. there's some talent on the roster, but the excuses are over. he's got to win 7 games to seem viable IMO....and they have the schedule to do it, getting North "heavies" MU, KU, and NU all at home and a less than brutal, typical CU OOC. everyone is tired of the anecdotes and cute Zen quotes. CU fans are mostly delusional in their estimation of their place in the universe, but it's a proud legit program with success before McCartney so the masses are tired of the coach-speak.

Sounds like the sentiments in Boulder mirror my own, although I would set the bar at eight wins this season (counting a potential bowl game). Anything less than that and it's time to move on.

I still think Hawk might succeed, too, but I'm admittedly an eternal optimist when it comes to CU football. Hell, I wasn't even necessarily ready to give up on Barnett. Hawk has had some recruiting success, but the product on the field has ranged from average to godawful. So far Hawkins is 13-24 overall and 1-2 against Nebraska. In two games against FCS schools, he's been outscored 43-41. His whole "yantra plus mantra equals tantra" shtick makes Neuheisel seem downright edgy in comparison.

This is one of the more favorable schedules in recent memory. If the Buffs don't beat Nebraska and win at least eight games, I can't see any way that I would be in favor of bringing him back for a 5th year. Actually, seven wins might be the worst possible scenario, because it could be the bare minimum standard for the University to retain him. You've got to figure that anything less than six and he's gone for sure. Eight or more and we're all on board. But seven... ugh. That's just treading water. I'll go on the record right now: I'd rather see CU go 1-11 than 7-6 this year.

[Cornhusker]

Not trying to flame here but didn't the Little Dutch Boy already predict 10 wins this fall whilst flapping his gums?
Thought I heard a radio hack throwin' that out there.
I would assume he's planning on keeping his kid on the sideline if he really believes that.