Jon Embree at Colorado

[King Crimson]

i know CU is not on anyone's "give a shit" list right now....but, it's interesting to me since i live in Boulder and T1B is not just homerish BS like the CU boards where "the Mac" thing is back and blah blah blah. bleeds black and gold, etc. knows what it takes to win, etc. CU will never lose another game. people forget Mac was routinely criticized for being a crappy game day coach. great motivator, crap adjustments. fair or not, the guy was not bullet-proof around here even with top 5 recruiting classes and 10 win seasons. until now.

Embree is saying and doing all the right things. i thought it was a budget, nostalgia for McCartney hire at first....but, he's put together a good staff. they might have some real playmakers on O. CU has a brutal schedule and if this team is .500 they've really done something. i think they'll be giving it up on D more than jon's windows XP porn rig. they lose two db's the the NFL draft off a crap team. but, people are saying the DL is gonna surprise and if 4/5 star type guys like Jon Major (can stay healthy, local kid who chose CU over OU) and Nick Kasa (local kid who decommited from Florida to CU)....they might have some LB play, too.

don't get me wrong, there IS a lot nostalgia going on but it's good. Colorado is a top 25 type all-time type program in total wins and % and they've had success even before McCartney. Hawkins whole "i'm reinventing the wheel" nonsense may have distracted the Buffs from their real heritage. getting in touch with their roots.....hopefully, this isn't a John Blake or Mike Shula type nostalgia.

I think this year will be tough in terms of W's for CU and the they lose a lot for 2012....but, Embree has impressed so far.

[The Seer]

IF Embree does deliver, it will be from the sleeper position. He did NOTHING to impress as an asst here - other than bringing his kid in as an average wideout. Then again, Neuheisel hasn't hit too many bullseyes in the asst coach dept lately. We're just glad to have CU in the division as a breather game....as many probably view us at this point.

[King Crimson]

IF Embree does deliver, it will be from the sleeper position. He did NOTHING to impress as an asst here - other than bringing his kid in as an average wideout. Then again, Neuheisel hasn't hit too many bullseyes in the asst coach dept lately. We're just glad to have CU in the division as a breather game.

like you, i'm not a huge believer in the Dorrell-Neuheisel thing. Embree was passed over at CU and UCLA for OC by his own guys--Barnett and Dorrell. not exactly a ringing endorsement for a HC hire.

[Bizzarofelice]

~insert references for Tonight Show animal handlers and former British Prime Ministers~

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Sorry it took me a minute to chime in on this. I'm in the great state of Montana sans wifi. I think Embree is saying all the right things and I love that he's more of a hardass, but I'm staying cautiously optimistic until I see them on the field. Like KC said, the schedule is absolutely brutal this year, even with the turmoil at tOSU. Going 7-6 would be borderline miraculous, but with three winnable games to start the season, I'm just hoping for a few lucky bounces that could build confidence and momentum heading into the Horseshoe.

Not sure what the rule is for bowl eligibility with a 13-game season. Is it just six wins or do you need to be above .500? I could maybe see them going 6-7 if the cards fall their way. Speedy is a legit gamebreaker at RB and I think Hansen will be a decent dual-threat QB now that the job is unquestionably his. He's got a solid WR corp to throw to, but as KC mentioned, the defense, and especially the secondary, is the biggest question mark. I'm really just hoping they can win they few games they're supposed to (arguably only 2), pull an upset or two along the way and look respectable in the games they lose.

[King Crimson]

hey mike, next time you've got a case of beer and a couple hours to kill, you might like this:

1993 CU v. Texas, in it's entirety.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOjasMz2CnU

[Danimal]

I'd still have leaned towards somebody proven as a HC or coordinator but Embree does seem like a good guy that has made solid hires. I just hope folks are patient with him. The team has a nightmare sched in front of them, they should be improved but it likely won't show on their record. 2012 looks more forgiving.

[King Crimson]

I'd still have leaned towards somebody proven as a HC or coordinator but Embree does seem like a good guy that has made solid hires. I just hope folks are patient with him. The team has a nightmare sched in front of them, they should be improved but it likely won't show on their record. 2012 looks more forgiving.

all true. however, the Buffs lose a lot of seniors this year. However less brutal the 2012 schedule is, the more CU loses. insofar as it's possible to say, Hawkins always complained about his team being young (but it was never his fault, even when he had all his recruits) and the Boise model was to RS guys and have jrs, srs and 5th year srs playing. the '11 Buffs are kind of that team at the skill positions and upfront. the QB position was badly managed by Hawkins (more than just the whole Cody thing, the staff fell on their sword in year one by playing Bernard Jackson and pushing out Brian White, transfers, burning Tyler Hansen's RS twice)....so that will be an issue. to his credit, Embree did land a QB commit from California....4 star guy, almost Elite 11 (whatever that means).

point being: year 3 i think is when we can expect to see whether Embree is the guy. CU fans need to see a team that is competitive, doesn't beat itself (Hawkins), isn't a clusterfuck of special teams and field position football (Hawkins)...and gets better as the year goes on. playing the new Pac schedule and the back to the past McCartney euphoria gives Embree a bit of a pass this year....but they need to show better it the ways i've said above. CU fan is one step from kill. they want to believe....but, Hawkins really bruised them.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

"Bruised" is putting it lightly. Pre-Hawk, we were a Top 20 all-time team. I think there's a misconception that CU has been "down" since Mac left. Neuweasel and Barnett weren't A-list coaches, and they both had their obvious flaws, but they both also had a modicum of success at CU. Slick Rick had a couple 10-win seasons and actually left with a better winning percentage than Mac. Barnett was up and down, but he did have them within a couple hundredths of a percentage point of playing for an MNC back in '01.

After a five-year free-fall under Hawkins -- bookended by the two most embarrassing losses in school history -- we're looking up at fucking Arkansas. If I was a Husker fan or a Rams fan, that fuckhead would be my hero. I'm not old enough to remember much from the Fairbanks era, but at least they had the common sense to axe him before he did too much damage. Hawkins might very well be the worst thing that has ever happened to the University of Colorado. Bruised? I'm fucking scarred, man.

[Cuda]

Not to defend Hawkins, but he only damaged the football program. Fairbanks nearly killed the entire Athetic Department.

Also, McCartney wasn't an imidiate savior. He was on the verge of being fired until he switched to the wishbone.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Not to defend Hawkins, but he only damaged the football program. Fairbanks nearly killed the entire Athetic Department.

Also, McCartney wasn't an imidiate savior. He was on the verge of being fired until he switched to the wishbone.

Like I said, my memory's hazy at best of that era. I was born in '73, so I'd have been 6-8 years old. I certainly remember them playing in those hideous UCLA-knockoff unis, but I lived in Nebraska at the time, and CU was just another one of the Little 6 bottom-feeders to the Husker faithful back then. They didn't merit much coverage in the Beatrice Daily Sun, so I was oblivious to how bad Fairbanks was, other than seeing them get shellacked at Memorial Stadium in '81 to the tune of 59-0.

I don't doubt he was as bad as his reputation, but at least he was gone in 3 years. I still can't believe Hawkins lasted almost five. When Bohn made the announcement before the CU/NU game in '09 that he'd be retained for another year, I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. One of the great things about college football (and any sport, really) is that no matter how bad things get, "there's always next year." Hope springs eternal, and all that nonsense. But to have that hope ripped away before the current season had even ended was just devastating. I wouldn't even wish that on Huskerfan...

[Cuda]

A story in the paper the other day said Bohn was due for a big raise and a contract extension.

Don't Do It.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Too late. They approved it last week...

http://www.buffzone.com/cu-news/ci_1865 ... ffzone.com

[King Crimson]

the story i've gleaned after almost 15 years in Boulder and a decade at CU....is that Fairbanks basically fell on his sword and was boozing pretty hard at CU. he had taken the then always awful Patriots to the playoffs and went to the owner to get a raise and the owner told him to FO. Chuck felt miffed and took the CU job to prove a point about mailing it in as the underappreciated guy....who was also sliding into the bottle (they say). the guy did win at OU and with the Pats in the nfl....then all of a sudden he sucks. sad story, really.

anyway, Cuda and Mike, you guys will be proud to know that the swimming lane dividers at the Rec Center have only in the last month been switched to new black and gold....whereas before (in my decade of swimming at CU)....were power blue and yellow. faded, but still the powder blue. just 25 years later. change comes slow at CU.