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Inaction is not an option
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The September schedule next fall sets up well for Colorado.
At least on paper.
The Buffs open the 2018 campaign against Colorado State in Denver. The Rams finished the regular season 7-5, but those seven wins came against teams which went 1-11, 2-9, 3-9, 6-6 (Utah State), 3-9, 3-9 and 2-11.
After the Rocky Mountain Showdown, the next four 2018 opponents for Colorado:
— A team which went 4-8 in 2017, and fired its head coach;
— An FCS team;
— A team which went 6-6 in 2017, and fired its head coach; and
— A team which went 7-5 in 2017, and fired its head coach.
Theoretically, you would have to say that Colorado has a very good chance at a fast start to the 2018 season.
Fill in the names of the opponents, though, and many Buff fans will wince, and wonder if a 1-4 start is in the offing.
— Game One: Colorado has beaten Colorado State three straight times, but this game is never, ever a given.
— Game Two: The 4-8 team the Buffs will face is Nebraska, with the game to be played in Lincoln. The Cornhuskers fired their coach, Mike Riley, after a season in which the Cornhuskers lost six of their last seven games, lost more games than any Nebraska team in half a century, lost their last four home games, and gave up 50 or more points in each of its last three games.
Yet the Cornhuskers will be favored over the Buffs as optimism has returned to Lincoln, as Nebraska has hired its former quarterback, Scott Frost, fresh off of leading Central Florida from 0-12 to 12-0 in two seasons.
— Game Three: The home opener, against an FCS team. The opponent, though, is not a mediocre Big Sky Conference team (like Northern Colorado). Instead, the Buffs will face New Hampshire, a team which has made the FCS playoffs 14 straight years. Saturday, the Wildcats went on the road to knock off the No. 4 seed in the playoffs, Central Arkansas, to advance to the FCS quarter-finals
— Game Four: The Pac-12 opener, against UCLA, which fired Jim Mora. The game will be on a Friday night, and will attract national attention … but not because the Buffs will be 3-0 and looking to avenge a tough loss to the Bruins in the Rose Bowl last fall. Rather, the game will attract national attention because it will be the first Pac-12 conference game for Chip Kelly as the coach of the Bruins.
— Game Five: A home game against Arizona State, which fired Todd Graham. A third straight home game, against a team which the Buffs handled the last time the teams played in Boulder, 40-16, looks like a winnable game. The Sun Devils, though, also has reason for optimism heading into the 2018 season, picking up a new head coach of its own, with Todd Graham being replaced (presumably) by Herm Edwards.
All of CU’s first three Power-Five conference opponents in 2018 will take the field with a new head coach … with all of the attendant uncertainties which come with a new coaching staff.
Yet all three of those fan bases are more optimistic about their upcoming season than CU fans are about theirs.
Now, this is not a recommendation that Colorado fire Mike MacIntyre. You are not going to release a coach one season after he was named National Coach-of-the-Year.
But inaction is not an option.
After watching the Buffs limp into the off-season with a humbling 34-13 loss to Utah, MacIntyre was not fire-and-brimstone, promising immediate changes to correct the Buffs’ listing ship.
Instead, MacIntyre was just the opposite.
“I’ll look at it,” said MacIntyre when asked about adjusting CU’s approach. “I learned it from Bill Parcells not to say anything emotion in the moment, I’ll look at it over the next few weeks, a little over Christmas time, I’ll look at it and make decisions from there”.
So, while other schools are making wholesale changes, giving their fan bases at least some hope to cling to … Colorado is standing pat until after the Recruiting Class of 2018 has been signed (Signing Day, if you weren’t aware, has been moved up from February to December 20th).
What was that definition of insanity again? … doing the same things over and over again, yet expecting different results?
I’ve spent the last week in a funk. It wasn’t as if we couldn’t see the writing on the wall after the Arizona State debacle. A 5-4 record turned to 5-5, then inevitably 5-6 and 5-7 after losses to USC and Utah.
Still, the listless performance by the Buffs stung, and I’ve spent the last week trying to remember when I felt like this before …
— The early 1980’s? No. Even the 1-10 seasons didn’t have this feel. The first time I was witness to CU posting a winning season was my second year of law school, six years into my college career. We were used to seeing the Buffs find new and ingenious ways to lose;
— 1997? Close. After all, the numbers are almost identical to what we just went through. The Buffs in 1996 won ten games, then went 5-6 the following fall. Still, as bad as the 1997 season was for fans, it was the first losing season for CU since 1984, and the Buff Nation expected the team to bounce back (which they did, going 8-4 in 1998);
— 2006? Nope. Even though the Buffs went 2-10 (in embarrassing fashion) that year, squandering the momentum of four Big 12 division titles in five seasons, there was the feeling that Dan Hawkins would turn things around quickly (after all, he had won 50 games in five seasons at Boise State), and the Buffs did make it to a bowl game in 2007.
No. For me the correct answer is 2009.
That Thanksgiving weekend, the Buffs were coming to the end of a putrid 3-9 campaign, a season which included a nationally televised debacle – a 54-38 road loss to Toledo – played before a “hostile” crowd of 20,082. Buff fans were enduring a tough November, but were enduring the pain bravely, as we knew that we were seeing the end of the Dan Hawkins experiment.
Like Cornhusker fans this November, it was just a matter of getting through the season, waiting for inevitable news of the firing of the head coach, and moving on to the next coach with renewed optimism.
Instead, we were told that Dan Hawkins, 16-32 at CU, at the time the only coach in the history of the school to post four consecutive losing seasons, would be retained.
“Dan is our coach,” said athletic director Mike Bohn. “We will continue to have candid, constructive discussions with each other … We recognize the importance of continuity to reach our desired competitive results. We have made progress on many fronts, but fully realize the importance of improvement and growth of the program in all areas.”
It was a gut shot.
Not only was Dan Hawkins going to be around for Year Five, but we knew nine months before the 2010 season began that it would be a wasted year.
Sure enough, the Buffs were 3-6 the following fall when Hawkins was let go. Losers of five straight when Hawkins was fired, the Dan Hawkins era ended in early November when the Buffs blew a 28-point fourth quarter lead in falling to lowly Kansas, 52-45.
Keeping the status quo at the end of the 2009 season not only meant a lost season in 2010, it hurt the Recruiting Classes of 2010 and 2011, pushing the program even further down the rat hole.
I am in a funk this December … because the end of the 2017 season feels like the end of the 2009 season.
Again, I am not advocating the firing of Mike MacIntyre.
But changes need to be made.
It is way above my paygrade to know what those changes should be, but it is easy to make suggestions:
— Offensive coordinators: Whether its the coaches, the personalities, or the system … it ain’t working. The candidate most Buff fans have for firing is co-offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren. The Buff offense is predictable and stagnant.
The other co-offensive coordinator, Darren Chiaverini, though, should also be subject to scrutiny. He is largely given a pass by Buff fans as he is a CU alumnus, has only been in Boulder two years, and is arguably CU’s best recruiter. Chiaverini, however, does have the title of co-offensive coordinator, and it is not without significance that one of the most disappointing units on the team this fall – the “Blackout Boyz” at wide receiver – are coached by Chiaverini;
— Offensive line coach Klayton Adams. Another under-performing unit. Adams – and his head coach – bragged about this unit in August, claiming it to be the best in MacIntyre’s five years in Boulder. The line did produce a back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher in Phillip Lindsay the past two seasons, but many Buff fans would argue that Lindsay’s yards are as much a result of Lindsay’s talent and heart as anything manufactured by the line. The sacks surrendered, the penalties, the obvious lack of cohesion … this unit was a mess in 2017;
— Defensive coaches. It’s hard to argue for adjustments in the coaching staff when three of the four coaches are new. Only defensive line Jim Jeffcoat returned from last season, and yes, eight starters from last year’s team graduated. Still, if you want to argue for the release of new defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot, there are numbers (109th in total defense; 75th in scoring defense) to back you up.
At the end of the day, however, it’s too late to blame the revered Jim Leavitt for not recruiting decent replacements for the players he had been given. We have to deal with what remains in Boulder. And what remains on defense at Colorado, if you read “Recruiting Trail – Defense” … is a dumpster fire.
—
The Buffs were a bad team in 2017. There was a clear lack of leadership in the locker room. The offense was a frustration; the defense was pushed around.
What makes this December so bleak for the Buff Nation, though, is that there are no indications from the CU hierarchy that there are any significant plans being made to make 2018 any different or better than was 2017.
In Lincoln a week ago, the proud Cornhusker fans watched their team turn a 14-14 halftime tie against Iowa in the finale into a humbling 56-14 defeat. It was a dismal end to a dismal season … yet this morning Nebraska fans are gleeful, excited about the possibilities of what Scott Frost brings to the table.
In Westwood, the Bruin faithful are ecstatic. Instead of bemoaning the loss of quarterback Josh Rosen to the NFL, and the mediocrity which such a loss might bring to the program, UCLA fans can’t wait for the 2018 season – and the Chip Kelly era – to begin.
There is no such enthusiasm in Boulder.
There needs to be.
With little indication that the Recruiting Class of 2018, to be signed in just a few short weeks, will set the world on fire, the CU administration is telling the world that they have a pat hand, and are willing to stand with what they have in place.
That’s not going to work.
Fans can argue over what steps need to be taken, but we can all agree on one point:
Inaction is not an option.
Stuart
Continue reading...
Inaction is not an option
—
The September schedule next fall sets up well for Colorado.
At least on paper.
The Buffs open the 2018 campaign against Colorado State in Denver. The Rams finished the regular season 7-5, but those seven wins came against teams which went 1-11, 2-9, 3-9, 6-6 (Utah State), 3-9, 3-9 and 2-11.
After the Rocky Mountain Showdown, the next four 2018 opponents for Colorado:
— A team which went 4-8 in 2017, and fired its head coach;
— An FCS team;
— A team which went 6-6 in 2017, and fired its head coach; and
— A team which went 7-5 in 2017, and fired its head coach.
Theoretically, you would have to say that Colorado has a very good chance at a fast start to the 2018 season.
Fill in the names of the opponents, though, and many Buff fans will wince, and wonder if a 1-4 start is in the offing.
— Game One: Colorado has beaten Colorado State three straight times, but this game is never, ever a given.
— Game Two: The 4-8 team the Buffs will face is Nebraska, with the game to be played in Lincoln. The Cornhuskers fired their coach, Mike Riley, after a season in which the Cornhuskers lost six of their last seven games, lost more games than any Nebraska team in half a century, lost their last four home games, and gave up 50 or more points in each of its last three games.
Yet the Cornhuskers will be favored over the Buffs as optimism has returned to Lincoln, as Nebraska has hired its former quarterback, Scott Frost, fresh off of leading Central Florida from 0-12 to 12-0 in two seasons.
— Game Three: The home opener, against an FCS team. The opponent, though, is not a mediocre Big Sky Conference team (like Northern Colorado). Instead, the Buffs will face New Hampshire, a team which has made the FCS playoffs 14 straight years. Saturday, the Wildcats went on the road to knock off the No. 4 seed in the playoffs, Central Arkansas, to advance to the FCS quarter-finals
— Game Four: The Pac-12 opener, against UCLA, which fired Jim Mora. The game will be on a Friday night, and will attract national attention … but not because the Buffs will be 3-0 and looking to avenge a tough loss to the Bruins in the Rose Bowl last fall. Rather, the game will attract national attention because it will be the first Pac-12 conference game for Chip Kelly as the coach of the Bruins.
— Game Five: A home game against Arizona State, which fired Todd Graham. A third straight home game, against a team which the Buffs handled the last time the teams played in Boulder, 40-16, looks like a winnable game. The Sun Devils, though, also has reason for optimism heading into the 2018 season, picking up a new head coach of its own, with Todd Graham being replaced (presumably) by Herm Edwards.
All of CU’s first three Power-Five conference opponents in 2018 will take the field with a new head coach … with all of the attendant uncertainties which come with a new coaching staff.
Yet all three of those fan bases are more optimistic about their upcoming season than CU fans are about theirs.
Now, this is not a recommendation that Colorado fire Mike MacIntyre. You are not going to release a coach one season after he was named National Coach-of-the-Year.
But inaction is not an option.
After watching the Buffs limp into the off-season with a humbling 34-13 loss to Utah, MacIntyre was not fire-and-brimstone, promising immediate changes to correct the Buffs’ listing ship.
Instead, MacIntyre was just the opposite.
“I’ll look at it,” said MacIntyre when asked about adjusting CU’s approach. “I learned it from Bill Parcells not to say anything emotion in the moment, I’ll look at it over the next few weeks, a little over Christmas time, I’ll look at it and make decisions from there”.
So, while other schools are making wholesale changes, giving their fan bases at least some hope to cling to … Colorado is standing pat until after the Recruiting Class of 2018 has been signed (Signing Day, if you weren’t aware, has been moved up from February to December 20th).
What was that definition of insanity again? … doing the same things over and over again, yet expecting different results?
I’ve spent the last week in a funk. It wasn’t as if we couldn’t see the writing on the wall after the Arizona State debacle. A 5-4 record turned to 5-5, then inevitably 5-6 and 5-7 after losses to USC and Utah.
Still, the listless performance by the Buffs stung, and I’ve spent the last week trying to remember when I felt like this before …
— The early 1980’s? No. Even the 1-10 seasons didn’t have this feel. The first time I was witness to CU posting a winning season was my second year of law school, six years into my college career. We were used to seeing the Buffs find new and ingenious ways to lose;
— 1997? Close. After all, the numbers are almost identical to what we just went through. The Buffs in 1996 won ten games, then went 5-6 the following fall. Still, as bad as the 1997 season was for fans, it was the first losing season for CU since 1984, and the Buff Nation expected the team to bounce back (which they did, going 8-4 in 1998);
— 2006? Nope. Even though the Buffs went 2-10 (in embarrassing fashion) that year, squandering the momentum of four Big 12 division titles in five seasons, there was the feeling that Dan Hawkins would turn things around quickly (after all, he had won 50 games in five seasons at Boise State), and the Buffs did make it to a bowl game in 2007.
No. For me the correct answer is 2009.
That Thanksgiving weekend, the Buffs were coming to the end of a putrid 3-9 campaign, a season which included a nationally televised debacle – a 54-38 road loss to Toledo – played before a “hostile” crowd of 20,082. Buff fans were enduring a tough November, but were enduring the pain bravely, as we knew that we were seeing the end of the Dan Hawkins experiment.
Like Cornhusker fans this November, it was just a matter of getting through the season, waiting for inevitable news of the firing of the head coach, and moving on to the next coach with renewed optimism.
Instead, we were told that Dan Hawkins, 16-32 at CU, at the time the only coach in the history of the school to post four consecutive losing seasons, would be retained.
“Dan is our coach,” said athletic director Mike Bohn. “We will continue to have candid, constructive discussions with each other … We recognize the importance of continuity to reach our desired competitive results. We have made progress on many fronts, but fully realize the importance of improvement and growth of the program in all areas.”
It was a gut shot.
Not only was Dan Hawkins going to be around for Year Five, but we knew nine months before the 2010 season began that it would be a wasted year.
Sure enough, the Buffs were 3-6 the following fall when Hawkins was let go. Losers of five straight when Hawkins was fired, the Dan Hawkins era ended in early November when the Buffs blew a 28-point fourth quarter lead in falling to lowly Kansas, 52-45.
Keeping the status quo at the end of the 2009 season not only meant a lost season in 2010, it hurt the Recruiting Classes of 2010 and 2011, pushing the program even further down the rat hole.
I am in a funk this December … because the end of the 2017 season feels like the end of the 2009 season.
Again, I am not advocating the firing of Mike MacIntyre.
But changes need to be made.
It is way above my paygrade to know what those changes should be, but it is easy to make suggestions:
— Offensive coordinators: Whether its the coaches, the personalities, or the system … it ain’t working. The candidate most Buff fans have for firing is co-offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren. The Buff offense is predictable and stagnant.
The other co-offensive coordinator, Darren Chiaverini, though, should also be subject to scrutiny. He is largely given a pass by Buff fans as he is a CU alumnus, has only been in Boulder two years, and is arguably CU’s best recruiter. Chiaverini, however, does have the title of co-offensive coordinator, and it is not without significance that one of the most disappointing units on the team this fall – the “Blackout Boyz” at wide receiver – are coached by Chiaverini;
— Offensive line coach Klayton Adams. Another under-performing unit. Adams – and his head coach – bragged about this unit in August, claiming it to be the best in MacIntyre’s five years in Boulder. The line did produce a back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher in Phillip Lindsay the past two seasons, but many Buff fans would argue that Lindsay’s yards are as much a result of Lindsay’s talent and heart as anything manufactured by the line. The sacks surrendered, the penalties, the obvious lack of cohesion … this unit was a mess in 2017;
— Defensive coaches. It’s hard to argue for adjustments in the coaching staff when three of the four coaches are new. Only defensive line Jim Jeffcoat returned from last season, and yes, eight starters from last year’s team graduated. Still, if you want to argue for the release of new defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot, there are numbers (109th in total defense; 75th in scoring defense) to back you up.
At the end of the day, however, it’s too late to blame the revered Jim Leavitt for not recruiting decent replacements for the players he had been given. We have to deal with what remains in Boulder. And what remains on defense at Colorado, if you read “Recruiting Trail – Defense” … is a dumpster fire.
—
The Buffs were a bad team in 2017. There was a clear lack of leadership in the locker room. The offense was a frustration; the defense was pushed around.
What makes this December so bleak for the Buff Nation, though, is that there are no indications from the CU hierarchy that there are any significant plans being made to make 2018 any different or better than was 2017.
In Lincoln a week ago, the proud Cornhusker fans watched their team turn a 14-14 halftime tie against Iowa in the finale into a humbling 56-14 defeat. It was a dismal end to a dismal season … yet this morning Nebraska fans are gleeful, excited about the possibilities of what Scott Frost brings to the table.
In Westwood, the Bruin faithful are ecstatic. Instead of bemoaning the loss of quarterback Josh Rosen to the NFL, and the mediocrity which such a loss might bring to the program, UCLA fans can’t wait for the 2018 season – and the Chip Kelly era – to begin.
There is no such enthusiasm in Boulder.
There needs to be.
With little indication that the Recruiting Class of 2018, to be signed in just a few short weeks, will set the world on fire, the CU administration is telling the world that they have a pat hand, and are willing to stand with what they have in place.
That’s not going to work.
Fans can argue over what steps need to be taken, but we can all agree on one point:
Inaction is not an option.
Stuart
Continue reading...