How big a blow is this week?

[Sexton Hardcastle]

All this stuff about having five recruits and a 4* QB is window dressing. It's a distraction from the real issue here. I could put up with losing a guy here or there - that happens. It's part of the game. But there are some players you simply must land. Thurston is one of those players. Losing him is the cause of my concern. I've said it before and I'll say it again - you don't go from being "in the lead" to not even being mentioned in the top three in a span of four months without something happening. Somebody screwed up, big time. Whether we stopped recruiting him, thinking he was already commited, or whether we told him we were going in a different direction and didn't want him, or whether our sales pitch just sucked to high heaven, I don't know. Whatever it was, we need to figure it out and correct the problem. Then we need to be calling the Thurston household and doing everything we can to flip him.

A BlueChip QB is "window dressing"? :huh:

I was actually impressed with the class Embree was able to manage back in February. Let's wait and see where we're at recruiting-wise at the end of the season. Then we can bust out the pitchforks and torches. :smile2:

 

[Burrito]

A BlueChip QB is "window dressing"? :huh:

I was actually impressed with the class Embree was able to manage back in February. Let's wait and see where we're at recruiting-wise at the end of the season. Then we can bust out the pitchforks and torches. :smile2:

More window dressing, please.

 

[Duff Man]

I think I am somewhere in the middle between most of you and then sacky on the other side. Losing Thurston (and not being in his top three at that) after losing Callahan out of state is a big blow. Either one of those guys could have been the foundation for a terrific offensive line class. Now I think the Thurston ship has pretty much sailed, but I think Callahan is still in play, but remember we only have until December to get him in the fold. Also, even though there are many months until February, we still need to be getting more verbals at this juncture going forward and we are going to need to land some kids before the season starts if we want this class to be a success because several of our early offers will be deciding in that timeframe. Flipping several kids from verbal commitments is not nearly as easy as it sounds.

I still maintain the expectations for this class should be top 30-35. Just as important, our coaches need to be laying groundwork for the 2013 class. Chris Fox needs to be priority, getting him up to Boulder for some unofficial visits in the fall would go a long way. Bobby Kennedy needs to be hitting DFW very hard in the fall because more than half of the Texas top 100 will commit before the summer starts.

Take a look around the Pac-12 and tell me we can afford another sub-par class.

 

[Quattro]

I'm really not liking that Michigan offer for Chris Fox.

 

[bigbang]

Wow, man, calm down. I am not accusing you being the first to chant "Fire Embree". I understand, you just think losing Thurston is a bigger deal than I do. That's all.

For the record, for CO to have three top 40 OT's and CU whiffs on all three, is a concern. But there may be a perfectly plausible explanation that has nothing to do with Embo and staff, I am willing to let it play out.

I don't know how you can conclusively say "This should not have happened" when you don't know all the facts. For all we know Thurston has a smokin' hot GF who is a niblet. There could be a 100 reasons why he wants to go live that hellhole that we know nothing about.....

I am not the biggest fan of Colorado HS football. But i must say Thurston, Baylis are very good players, not really that high on Calahan. Losing Baylis and Thurston is big, but it is not over, we can still make a run with OV scheduled for both players. And if we don't get them, it is not the end of the world, a lot of talented OL from Cali and Texas still looking for schools. For example Jordan Roos, not highly ranked but if you watch him, you see a monster that can dominate the line of scrimage.

 

[White_Rabbit]

I think it's pretty bad news because there simply isn't many other good OT recruits out there for us. I mean, take a gander at our board of prospects for tackle, then factor in that most of those guys are either pure right tackles, or even more likely, guard prospects. Thurston was a legit LT prospect, incredible agility for his size, very technically sound. Now if we can get Cyburt, that will alleviate some of my concerns, but we very well could lose him too.

Another thing that sucks is that the west was loaded this year with OL prospects. Loaded and we're not looking good for landing any of the top 30 or so of them? Yikes.

That said, it's not even close to over. We will find more prospects that are good. Embree will land some big time players along with a lot of solid players. We will probably even flip some guys that we don't seem to be able to flip right now. I have a lot of confidence in Embree and the staff in their ability to identify talent. We offered a boatload of kids this cycle first and I'd say the vast majority of them eventually had a bunch of BCS offers. They can find talent, and one would hope they can develop it.

 

[Idot Buff]

I think Ke$ha will know if this blows....think about it....:nod:

 

[SBG]

As much as we hate the fuskers I can see the appeal to an 18 year old recruit. Sure it's a ****hole and the academics aren't top notch, but they are committed to fielding a top program with great facilities, great fan support and great tradition in a new conference that is more prestigious than the Pac12 (tradition wise, anyway). It's not like we lost him to Iowa St. The fact that we were not in his top 3 is a concern though. But do we even know how much we were after him? We have good tradition, are situated in one of the best locations in the country, have good fan support, but we haven't shown a major commitment to winning like the bugeaters.

Have Embree and EB ever managed the entirety of recruiting before? We know they can recruit. That's not the question. It's having a large scale plan to get it done.

 

[White_Rabbit]

EB was recruiting coordinator at UCLA for a bit, not sure how long.

 

[buffaholic]

In my opinion, you can rebuild a program without 4 star and highly recruited guys if you can do two things:

1. get good interior guys that can be coached up. Lots and lots of guys "grow into themselves" in college. Very difficult to project most linemen. Bahktiari vs. Ryan Miller. Miller was a 5-star because he was 300 pounds of muscle, physically dominating, and ready to go. No projection required. Bahktiari had those great feet, but looked like a tight end. Lots of projection required.

2. Find a couple skill athletes that can make a difference. We all have seen what P-Rich did as a freshman. A lot of 4-star kids at skill positions don't work out like that, but a lot do. It's hard to teach speed, athleticism, leaping ability, etc. You need a couple to make a difference, especially on the outside at WR and a QB to go with it.

A lot of good solid RBs, DBs, etc can be coached up. It's the "freak athlete" with a good QB who can take us to a top 25 ranking, if and only if, we get superb coaching from each of the position coaches, S&C coaches, supreme effort, and a general toughness .

Stanford rebuilt with all of the above coaching, toughness, and a great QB. They are now getting their share of 4-stars. But they built to this point by taking a bunch of guys who couldn't win and made them better.

Embree and staff will do this. Make them better. Get some guys to emerge. Create competition. And maybe get lucky on a guy or two.

 

[leftybuff]

It's amazing to me that when Embree does something (or doesn't, in this case), it's a wait and see attitude. When Hawk did (or didn't) do something, he was fair game.

Is it only because Embree is new that he's not held to a higher standard?

Even though I suspected a turd in the punchbowl, I supported D II until the ISU game in '09. TUrns out it was WAYYY longer than he should have gotten from me. The KU game in '08 (remember the retreat to the safety?) was when I really began to wonder if CU hadn't gotten duped by D II. CU did get duped, but being a Buff fan through and through, I really wanted them to succeed even if Simple Dan was leading the charge.

Embo is getting no more of a free pass than GB or D II got early on. Everyone is, I hope, excited about someone competent on the sideline. Time will tell if we have our Buff colored glasses on, but if I may be so bold, you might be having a bit of a D II hangover.

 

[buffs04]

I expect that will make a huge difference one way or the other. As it stands, we have unproven coaches at a program that hasn't done **** since current prospects were 12 years old. If we can prove that this is a program on the rise and that Embo & staff are getting it done, the perception changes to a program on the rise.

Frankly, it would have been easier for early recruiting results if we had hired a nationally known coach (like Hawkins was - highest winning % in the nation when he came here) or a coordinator from an elite program (such as McElwain at Alabama). I don't believe that would have been the best move for the program in the long term since we had to re-connect to our winning tradition before we could move forward, but the early returns would have likely been better on the recruiting trail.

When it's all said and done, I still expect a Top 35 recruiting class as a minimum standard for this class. Mark that, because I promise to stick by it and hold Ebree and staff accountable.

We had to reconnect with our winning tradition? Why? Why did we "need" to look backwards instead of forward? Why does it matter if the guy coaching here played here or not? It is too early to judge, but I really would like to hear the argument for why "we had to reconnect to our winning tradition". Hawkins being clueless and in over his head did not necessitate CU hiring CU people.

 

[somebody]

We had to reconnect with our winning tradition? Why? Why did we "need" to look backwards instead of forward? Why does it matter if the guy coaching here played here or not? It is too early to judge, but I really would like to hear the argument for why "we had to reconnect to our winning tradition". Hawkins being clueless and in over his head did not necessitate CU hiring CU people.

I agree. Although I like reconnecting because it reminds me of good days, it's not the only way to turn around the program and in fact, has yet to be proven that it even works. It does however provide a basis for instant passion amongst fans and the for the team.

 

[Sexton Hardcastle]

We had to reconnect with our winning tradition? Why? Why did we "need" to look backwards instead of forward? Why does it matter if the guy coaching here played here or not? It is too early to judge, but I really would like to hear the argument for why "we had to reconnect to our winning tradition". Hawkins being clueless and in over his head did not necessitate CU hiring CU people.

I agree. Although I like reconnecting because it reminds me of good days, it's not the only way to turn around the program and in fact, has yet to be proven that it even works. It does however provide a basis for instant passion amongst fans and the for the team.

It's just something to feed the fans.

 

[Buffnik]

We had to reconnect with our winning tradition? Why? Why did we "need" to look backwards instead of forward? Why does it matter if the guy coaching here played here or not? It is too early to judge, but I really would like to hear the argument for why "we had to reconnect to our winning tradition". Hawkins being clueless and in over his head did not necessitate CU hiring CU people.

Imagine if this was Notre Dame and the previous coach had removed the "Play Like a Champion" sign and painted over "Touchdown Jesus". That's the stuff that was going on at CU under Dan Hawkins. Embree's job is more than just coaching a football team and recruiting players. He has to fix the entire culture of the program. I had no idea how bad it was, but the more I hear the more I feel confident that we got the right man to fix this.

 

[White_Rabbit]

Not a great start to this week..