Most of the optimism here is based on a new head coach (who won't touch the ball) and spring ball (where the QBs couldn't be touched.) While trashing JE for selecting Webb as "the best practice player" AllBuffs has now anointed a QB based on spring practice and ignored actual game results. Can any of our QBs get the ball to P Rich in game conditions with players lost from what was a porous OL? Did anyone watch the games last year? I really hope we improve significantly this year, but I'm sticking with what my eyes showed me last year and ignoring the hype. While I'm impressed with M2 so far, this is going to take some time and the first few games will be rough. To drink kool-aid now is just to set yourself up for a big fall. I hope I'm wrong, but I see us losing to both the lambs and Central Arkansas.
Most of the optimism here is based on a new head coach (who won't touch the ball) and spring ball (where the QBs couldn't be touched.) While trashing JE for selecting Webb as "the best practice player" AllBuffs has now anointed a QB based on spring practice and ignored actual game results. Can any of our QBs get the ball to P Rich in game conditions with players lost from what was a porous OL? Did anyone watch the games last year? I really hope we improve significantly this year, but I'm sticking with what my eyes showed me last year and ignoring the hype. While I'm impressed with M2 so far, this is going to take some time and the first few games will be rough. To drink kool-aid now is just to set yourself up for a big fall. I hope I'm wrong, but I see us losing to both the lambs and Central Arkansas.
Most of the optimism here is based on a new head coach (who won't touch the ball) and spring ball (where the QBs couldn't be touched.) While trashing JE for selecting Webb as "the best practice player" AllBuffs has now anointed a QB based on spring practice and ignored actual game results. Can any of our QBs get the ball to P Rich in game conditions with players lost from what was a porous OL? Did anyone watch the games last year? I really hope we improve significantly this year, but I'm sticking with what my eyes showed me last year and ignoring the hype. While I'm impressed with M2 so far, this is going to take some time and the first few games will be rough. To drink kool-aid now is just to set yourself up for a big fall. I hope I'm wrong, but I see us losing to both the lambs and Central Arkansas.
Most of the optimism comes from the fact that we had no business losing to the Lambs last year and there's no reason this year. We don't have freshman starting across the board this year either and we have more talent. Way to ignore CSU's issues as well while only talking about our issues. How are they going to cover PRich? Our starting OL will be just fine, especially in an offense where the QB doesn't hold the ball long and we have a OC who was runner up for QB coach of the year and set records at SJSU in his first and only year.
Plus, MM knows what to expect from CSU.
I think 3option's concerns about the QB position are completely valid. Without definitive answers at that position, nothing else on offense really matters. I think the offense will look much better this year, but it is hardly a certainty.
CSU has no reason to fear this game, just like every other team on our schedule. That is half the battle right there.
I will gladly be eating crow if it turns out otherwise and will publicly do so, but sorry sunshine pumpers, I'm going to be saying I told you so come Monday Sept 2nd. I actually used to be the same way, where I could find the silver lining and always make a case for winning, but then I got wiser.
This is simply based on the state of our program, along with the fact that this is MM and staff's first game with our players. There is always a steep learning curve in game 1. Tini mentions that even Embree beat CSU his first year, but that was because he had 2 previous games to get acclimated with his staff and players. MM doesn't have that luxury.
We're gonna lose.
I like how you only focus on our issues. Anyway, if Embree can almost beat them despite his coaching blunders and lack of ability to be a head coach then I don't see why we shouldn't expect a coach who turned SJSU into a top 25 team, had them playing hard for all four quarters against Alabama in his first game, and has been considered the next superstar in coaching by one of the all time greats to be able to beat CSU in his first game, whom he smacked by 20 last year with less talent than we have.
Only focusing on our issues? You are only focusing on the positives.
We WERE the WORST team in college football last year!! By a mile! We weren't kind of bad, or mediocre, we were history making horrific. We ranked dead last in all of college football in offense AND defense. We are at rock bottom right now in almost every possible way as a program. Seriously, are you ****ing blind?
CSU sucks ass, but they also are in year 2 with their staff and were starting to show some improvement last year by winning 3 of their last 5. You can spin it any way you want, but any time a program ends the season on a positive note, it is going to give them momentum and confidence.
Do I think MM is a good coach and that he can right the ship at Colorado? Yes. Will he smack around the lambs starting next year? Very likely. Will he win his very first game with the reigning worst team in college football against a confident team that focuses every inch of their existence on winning this game? Nope.
Only focusing on our issues? You are only focusing on the positives. (1)
We WERE the WORST team in college football last year!! By a mile! We weren't kind of bad, or mediocre, we were history making horrific. We ranked dead last in all of college football in offense AND defense. We are at rock bottom right now in almost every possible way as a program. Seriously, are you ****ing blind? (2)
CSU sucks ass, but they also are in year 2 with their staff and were starting to show some improvement last year by winning 3 of their last 5. You can spin it any way you want, but any time a program ends the season on a positive note, it is going to give them momentum and confidence. (3)
Do I think MM is a good coach and that he can right the ship at Colorado? Yes. Will he smack around the lambs starting next year? Very likely. Will he win his very first game with the reigning worst team in college football against a confident team that focuses every inch of their existence on winning this game? Nope.
I mean considering our former staff couldn't stop a slant route against a FCS team last year maybe. I think it's too high, more like 60-40 coaching/talent, although the talent issue doesn't hold up when compared to CSU IMO.You don't go 1-11, finish at the bottom of most statistical categories, and look completely overmatched in most games without it being both coaching and talent. You seriously think coaching accounted for 75%+ of our issues last year?
Most of the optimism here is based on a new head coach (who won't touch the ball) and spring ball (where the QBs couldn't be touched.) While trashing JE for selecting Webb as "the best practice player" AllBuffs has now anointed a QB based on spring practice and ignored actual game results. Can any of our QBs get the ball to P Rich in game conditions with players lost from what was a porous OL? Did anyone watch the games last year? I really hope we improve significantly this year, but I'm sticking with what my eyes showed me last year and ignoring the hype. While I'm impressed with M2 so far, this is going to take some time and the first few games will be rough. To drink kool-aid now is just to set yourself up for a big fall. I hope I'm wrong, but I see us losing to both the lambs and Central Arkansas.
We are all pulling crap out of our asses at this point and wasting time debating what might or might not happen in game 1. I don't think anyone really knows.You don't go 1-11, finish at the bottom of most statistical categories, and look completely overmatched in most games without it being both coaching and talent. You seriously think coaching accounted for 75%+ of our issues last year?
You are not convincing me that using aggregated class rankings is not a reasonable way of estimating on-field performance or comparing teams. Sure we had attrition, sure we had injuries-but all teams have attrition and injuries. Some teams had fewer weaknesses say in their receiving core but then maybe had more in LBs, etc.The major flaw in your argument is not looking at the attrition in those classes. The youth along the DL was mostly out of Embree's control and we paid dearly for it. Expecting several true freshmen to hold up there is wishful thinking. The secondary's youth should have been better managed, but a couple true freshmen playing a lot of snaps was inevitable. On the other side of the ball, the WR group was just not very talented. You can rag on the scheme for days (with good reason), but a lot coaching staffs would struggle in the passing game with that group. A lot. The RB group outside of Powell was below average as well. Talent matters.
1. Um no I'm not. I have openly ackowledge that there are concerns at QB, big concerns if anyone on our OL gets injured, and about the LBs and S play. Lucky for us, Grayson is a bad passer and has no deep threat to go to. CSU has their running game but that's it.
2. Yes I understand that, there is a reason why Embree and everyone was fired. Yet despite that, we lost to CSU 22-17 despite not being able to score from the half yard line and sending out a returner who had never returned a punt before which lead to a fumble and CSU scoring a TD with 0:26 left to cut the lead to 14-9 instead of 14-3. Even with how bad our previous staff was their dumbasses nearly found a way to beat the Lambs. So yet even when we had the worst staff in America we were firmly in control of the game up until Goodson was sent out for no good reason.
3. You do know who they beat right? New Mexico (#114 in the F/+ rankings, 1-11), Us (#124 in the F/+ rankings, 1-11), Hawai'i (#121 in the F/+ rankings, 3-9), and UNLV (#103 in the F/+ rankings, 2-11) so four teams with a combined record of 7-42. Yeah, I'm really concerned about who they beat last year with that elite list of teams. I also doubt something that happened eight months ago is going to hold much weight with the players.
And FYI, CSU finished #119 in the F/+ rankings, man I'm intimidated by them! You will not convince me they will win this game this year. Last season we had true freshman starting all over the board, nearly everyone will be back and have another year of experience with a coach who has coached under a HoF NFL coach. Average coaching wins this game by a touchdown.
So if CSU doubles PRich, who are they going to plug in the middle to stop Powell (who was also playing RB for the first time last season)? If they clog the middle, who is going to be able to cover PRich? PRich opens this whole game open for CU, something CSU can't say. If SJSU can go out and play hard for four quarters while they are getting smacked around by the #1 team in the nation in MM's first game then this team can sure as hell go out and beat the Lambs.
Again you are not convincing me, because now you want to look at specific position groups and compare to others within our conference. Our receivers were bad last year in general, but our QBs also played appallingly and our OC had never been more than a RB coach and was completely out of his league. Would our receivers have played better under better coaching with better QB play (spurned on by better coaching?) Hell ya!I'm not even trying to defend the coaching, it was awful. I'm merely pointing out that attrition at certain positions (DL, WR, DB, RB) killed us last year. If you can find another PAC-12 team with a worse WR group than the 2012 Buffs, I would love to see it. Also, while I agree the LBs underachieved last season, that was not a "great" unit on paper.
You are using what we call Hawkins logic. Some of your points have merit, but you are basing some them on wishful thinking.
1 and 2 I can live with, but to point 3 again, you have to start somewhere as a new coaching staff at a bottom level program. Jim McElwain and CSU did exactly what a building program has to do in the beginning, which is win the games you should win and continue improving throughout that first year. They did that to close the season and now have a very real thing called momentum. If I was a lamb fan, I would absolutely have reason to be cautiously optimistic. The question now is if they can take the next step.
As for stopping Powell and PRich. They aren't All Americans, although they are very promising. Good coaches can gameplan to minimize their impact. CSU won't likely be standing their with their thumbs up their asses while PRich and Powell run by.
Where your Hawk logic comes in, is when you try to parallel us with SJSU. We all fell into that exact same trap with Hawk and Boise State. We projected Boise's success onto what would happen with Colorado. We all know how that turned out. MM may very well be a great coach and mentored under Bill Parcells, but improvement doesn't just happen overnight, and while we all love to poke fun at McElwain, he does come from an exceptional college coaching tree himself.
Fine we'll take out the last class despite the fact many of them played which makes their ranking somewhat relevant. Taking the 3 prior classes only into consideration, we should have ranked 63rd best team, ie. 61 places better than we finished. Happy now?I am not remotely implying the talent was bad enough to be the worst team in college football. I am saying expecting a team to match a 56th aggregate recruiting ranking over four years, with the highest ranking class in that time period being true freshmen, is pretty stupid. A lot of youth with a severe lack of depth pretty much cripples a football team, terrible coaching just compounds it.
I think you are entirely missing my point. I asked if you could come up with a worse WR group in the conference and all you can say is they were bad at times. I am trying to drive home the point it was a bad group (some due to inexperience) before PRich got hurt. After that, it was worse. The skill position players in the PAC-12 matter. A lot. Coaching only goes so far. And I will even point out that Embree/Bieniemy struck out far too often in recruiting at the skill positions as well.
I am not remotely implying the talent was bad enough to be the worst team in college football. I am saying expecting a team to match a 56th aggregate recruiting ranking over four years, with the highest ranking class in that time period being true freshmen, is pretty stupid. A lot of youth with a severe lack of depth pretty much cripples a football team, terrible coaching just compounds it.
Fine we'll take out the last class despite the fact many of them played which makes their ranking somewhat relevant. Taking the 3 prior classes only into consideration, we should have ranked 63rd best team, ie. 61 places better than we finished. Happy now?
The difference is Hawk came....and the good coaches stayed with the true brains of the football staff in Boise. MM, he brought almost everyone with him. So it lies within reason that he can replicate his success at SJSU here at CU. I just think it will take a bit longer than three years due to the nature of competing in the PAC 12 instead of the WAC.
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