If we Coloradoans can be justifiably critical of Elway as a GM, we can certainly be justifiably critical of Hagan as a coach.
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Colorado Buffaloes v Texas Longhorns - Alamo Bowl, 29 Dec, 7pm MT - GAME THREAD
- Thread starter Jens1893
- Start date
Emotional ties are still different in college athletics. John Elway is a gazillionaire working for a professional franchise. Him receiving criticism for the Broncos’ sucking is not comparable even though both have gotten extended leashes.
This thread is crazy. Step back from the ledge.
Vegas predicted 1.5 wins for the Buffs this year. We finished the regular season with 1 loss and played a national power in a fairly high profile bowl game. If I didn't know any better I'd assume I was reading a post mortem on Embree's 2012 season.
On top of that it appears we have a coach who is a great leader, dedicated to the program, and someone who has a higher floor than expected. Additionally, we may have found our QB of the future.
2020 sucked. I didn't think I would get to see the Buffs play once. To see them win 4 straight to start the year blew away my expectations. It was a lot of fun.
Vegas predicted 1.5 wins for the Buffs this year. We finished the regular season with 1 loss and played a national power in a fairly high profile bowl game. If I didn't know any better I'd assume I was reading a post mortem on Embree's 2012 season.
On top of that it appears we have a coach who is a great leader, dedicated to the program, and someone who has a higher floor than expected. Additionally, we may have found our QB of the future.
2020 sucked. I didn't think I would get to see the Buffs play once. To see them win 4 straight to start the year blew away my expectations. It was a lot of fun.
Dorrell post game was pissed off. I know that means nothing to most of you, but the past few coaching staffs have always played it off as the team still playing hard. Dorrell never mentioned that and was very clear CU has a lot of work to do along with himself. He obviously saw the talent discrepancy between the two programs and will hopefully light a fire under recruiting.
The concern for me is that it appears we were fortunate to have had an abbreviated season with some unexpected bye weeks built in. Last year we started 3-1 and finished 5-7. The year before we started 5-0 and finished 5-7. The year before that we started 3-0 and finished 5-7.
Was this a magical season where we outperformed all expectations, or another season where years of poor recruiting and lack of depth began to show as the season went on and one or two injuries to key players made this look like a completely different team?
I’m happy we made a good bowl game. I’m happy for some of the individual successes from guys like Broussard, Noyer, and Landman. I’m excited at the potential in guys like Lewis and Gonzalez. And I’m impressed with how KD handled the team this season and had them ready to play - how many programs didn’t have to cancel a single game due to COVID? Impressive. But this did feel like another 5-7 type team by the end.
But let's also be honest. In a normal season these 4 wins might have been our total as well. This team has some serious deficiencies and the latest recruiting class did absolutely nothing to help that. To say next year will be even better is looking at things through rose colored glasses. With the exception of DBs, WRs and RBs, we will likely be worse not better.
pcbuff
Well-Known Member
You are what you recruit. Texas is always a top 25 recruit school. Colorado is a 35 to 65 ranked program. It takes something special to overcome the reality of that disparity.
This season caught me totally by surprise. The younger athletes getting bowl practices will pay dividends. This team out performed my expectations. Now the coaching staff needs to keep momentum and recruit in the top third of the PAC with the momentum they’ve established.
This season caught me totally by surprise. The younger athletes getting bowl practices will pay dividends. This team out performed my expectations. Now the coaching staff needs to keep momentum and recruit in the top third of the PAC with the momentum they’ve established.
Obviously, so many things would be different had this been a real season with no opt outs or COVID issues, but going through the original schedule, this was probably a 6-6 or 7-5 team, assuming the same outcomes in the games we actually played (Ws over UA, UCLA and Stanford and L against Utah). They would have beat CSU and Fresno State and then probably Washington State and a toss up vs ASU? Losses to aTm, Oregon, USC, Washington.
How could you tell?
Mostly by his comments
It's really not uncommon for backup QBs to come in and provide a spark and make plays. It typically changes everything about what the offense does, tendencies that the defense has prepped for, and generally just seeing someone with a different skill set. Thompson was also a 4* dual threat QB recruit.
I agree the abbreviated season helped us but I still don't think it's the same as the last 3 years. We didn't have the easy non-conference to beat up on this year. There were no CSUs and Nebraskas for us beat up on to pad our record. That was 3 solid in conference wins and the only non-con was done on 1 days notice.
I completely agree with you that our lack of depth caught up to us this year. No doubt.
But here's why I believe this season was a bit different than years past, as far as trajectory. To address our fast starts in the years you mentioned-
2017
The 3-1 start was due to wins over a bad CSU team, TX ST, and Northern Colorado.
2018
A bad CSU team, New Hampshire, ****ty Nebraska, a very bad UCLA squad, and a good win against ASU to start the season.
2019
CSU, a very bad Nebraska team, decent win against ASU
2020
Jumped right into conference play and beat a much improved UCLA team, a good Stanford team, and a very sound SDSU team on 2-days notice. Hell, if Landman doesn't get hurt, we might have gone into last night undefeated and put up a much better fight against the Longhorns.
I'm not saying this team would have run the table in a regular year, but to me this team looked a lot better on the field than what we have marched out in years prior.
Did I say next year would be even better? Can you show me where I mentioned that?
Maybe, we did play San Diego State. UCLA and Stanford looked like completely different teams later in the season. Credit to KD for having us prepared when the games were played, but do we beat either of those teams today? We also avoided USC, Washington, and Oregon so we had about the easiest conference schedule we could have asked for.
Good, I'm glad he was pissed. Wish we'd see more of it.
He was asked if he thought the season was a success and was very clear that it was not because of how it ended. I liked hearing that.
MM and Tucker were complete opposites in that regard at the end of the season.
I hate the argument that we were somehow lucky to beat Stanford and UCLA. It's lazy and a loser mentality.
We faced Stanford with their starting QB. After we beat them they went undefeated for the rest of the season. So the argument is that they somehow became a completely different team the week after playing us?
Same with UCLA? We shut Felton down (for the most part), other teams could not. That was the difference in that game.
Where did I say we were lucky? We beat them. But CU’s achilles heel for years is that we deteriorate rapidly over the course of the season due to years of poor recruiting and lack of depth and even our good seasons end with a whimper. Play UCLA or Stanford or ASU or USC or Washington today and how do you think that turns out for us?
Again, I agree the lack of depth is a problem and we need to address it by recruiting better.
I'm just not a fan of creating hypotheticals to try and discredit the job the coaches did this year. They had our team punching above their talent level moreso than in years past.
I’m not discrediting the job the coaches did, in fact I think I’ve been pretty complimentary. But I am trying to take a realistic look at how good this team really was this year. Did we really punch above our talent or was this another 5-7 type team that benefitted from not playing a full season? I’m not sure.
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
This team was probably my favorite part of what was a really ****ty year. Really enjoyed watching Broussard's season, and I'm really intrigued by Lewis after last night and have been with Gonzalez all year. I think an Alamo Bowl appearance was great-but we played a really good football team last night.
This year was fun, but there's work to be done. I liked the tone Dorrell took after the game-2 losses after a 4-0 start show we still have depth issues. Need to keep building on what the depth we have and that depth needs to keep improving. 2021 will be a good barometer for where we really are with UNC as the opener and then 11 power 5 opponents in a row.
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I listened to that and you are correct. He was not happy.
GB’s post game take was interesting. He began by saying something to the effect of, “I don’t know why CU decided to play this game with so many teams opting out” then changed his tone to “this was good for CU because it shows them where they are.” I’m paraphrasing of course. He was very complimentary of Lewis.
Agree to disagree. If you’re a professional adult, getting paid well to do a job, you’re open to scrutiny.
You misunderstand what I’m saying. I never said that Hagan is exempt from criticism. I am saying that, given the emotion attached to decision making in college athletics, people view critiques between FO folks in the pros vs program legend ACs differently.
FlatironsBuff
Well-Known Member
Really was same type of team. We don’t take UCLA and Stanford if it isn’t early games for them I think. They seemed to get better as season went on, we regressed (with Noyer hurt). We avoided USC, Oregon etc. Season and skipped teams made us look bettter than we were. But that’s ok. Hopefully lights a fire to get better depth and build a steady staff, not constant change and dead coaches coaching because we can’t do what we needed to do and fire them one to two years earlier. I hope KD has a fire gnawing at his belly this off season. We need a coach that losing like that upsets him. It’s about time.
Edit: Think we would have been a 5-7, 6-6 team. But how we would get there was different. Was a much better coached team this year. Depth is still a huge issue. Think getting Stanford and UCLA early helped us (and Stanford QB not getting to practice the two weeks leading up to our game).
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We were a hugely better team this season than last.
The team did regress over the year but I think that regression can be directly related to our injury accumulation and our massive lack of P5 level depth. We have finally reached a point where our starters belong on the field against legitimate P5 teams but when we go to second team and beyond guys the drop off is dramatic and too big for our other players to overcome.
Healthy we would have been underdogs to Texas talent. With the numbers of key players missing we did well to compete on individual plays.
Missing starting safeties, maybe the best run stopping LB in the country, nose tackle and a pro prospect DE. Then to the offense.
I’m confused...when we were lucky to beat the trees and ****la because we caught them early, we’re we not also early in the year with a newer than new coach, a quarterback whose only meaningful snaps had happened on defense, and a running back that every single one of us had written off? We beat them. End of story.
