Another school year is closing, and it's appropriate to look at the state of the athletic department as a whole while looking at the individual sports that make up the department:
Football - needs work. A lot of work. The suck-hole created by DII Danny is deeper than we feared. It took an entire year just to beat the puss out of the football players. They finally showed up at the last game of the year. We can only hope that they continue to make that kind of progress. They have a long, long way to go, but progress does appear to be made. Grade: D
Women's Volleyball - Needs a lot of work. A once very solid squad looked terrible last year. The move to the Pac probably impacts this particular sport more than any other. In the Big 12, there was Nebraska and a bunch of other schools that might be OK. In the Pac 12, there's 4 teams that are just as good as Nebraska, and another 4 teams that are just a step below (my guess). The new practice facility should help, but they have a lot of work ahead of them. Grade: D-
Women's Soccer - Fired the coach. That's not good, usually. They should be better than they were this year. Grade: C (They were the first CU squad to win a Pac 12 conference game).
Men's Cross Country: I don't know a damn thing about this, but I know we won the Pac 12. Grade: A
Women's Cross Country: Ditto. Grade: A
Skiing: Finished 3rd in the country as defending national champs. A bit of a let down, but when you're at the top, the only way to go is down (skiing metaphor/pun intended). They didn't go down much. Grade: A
Women's Basketball: Started out great, then ran into a very tough Pac 12 schedule. Managed to hold their own in a tough conference. Lappe is recruiting like a woman possessed. Second year into the NIT. Grade: B
Men's Basketball: Dude, second round of the NCAA and Pac 12 champions. Nuff' said. Grade: A (would give a grade higher than A if I could.)
Track: Well, again, I don't know much about this, but I'm pretty sure we did OK in the Pac 12 championships, and have a few folks who won individual championships. Probably could be a little better, but we're at a distinct disadvantage against schools like Oregon. Grade: B
Women's Tennis: Hell if I know. They never get much attention. I suspect if they were really good, I'd hear about them. Grade: C
Women's Golf: First trip to the NCAA tournament ever. Beat Baylor in the regionals. Finished strong at the regionals. Won a couple tournaments this year. Very strong field. Grade: A (based on beating Baylor. That gets you an automatic "A")
Intangible Athletic Department stuff: Bohn continues to be a champion for CU athletics. He'll go anywhere, anytime to talk about the Buffs. Taking the 50 kids to the Pac 12 championships was a stroke of genius. I don't know if it was his idea, but I give him a ton of credit for doing it. That's a game changing move right there. We'll see other schools copying us. Any time you do that, you are doing well. The Lappe and Boyle hires are looking very strong. There's a lot of smoke about some major facilities upgrades on the horizon. Attendance is up. Revenues are strong. The standing of the department in the community is strong. For the not-so-good stuff: Parking at basketball games is a nightmare. The CU/CSU game in Denver is a disaster, and he has no answer for how to fix it. The ticket office still has a lot of hits and misses. You never know whether the person answering the phone will have the first idea of how to take care of your question. Grade: B+.
Overall GPA: 2.8. Improve football and volleyball and we'll make the Dean's list.
Apologies for placing this in the football forum. Mods can feel free to move elsewhere if they desire. I put it here for the simple reason that football drives the entire department.
Football - needs work. A lot of work. The suck-hole created by DII Danny is deeper than we feared. It took an entire year just to beat the puss out of the football players. They finally showed up at the last game of the year. We can only hope that they continue to make that kind of progress. They have a long, long way to go, but progress does appear to be made. Grade: D
Women's Volleyball - Needs a lot of work. A once very solid squad looked terrible last year. The move to the Pac probably impacts this particular sport more than any other. In the Big 12, there was Nebraska and a bunch of other schools that might be OK. In the Pac 12, there's 4 teams that are just as good as Nebraska, and another 4 teams that are just a step below (my guess). The new practice facility should help, but they have a lot of work ahead of them. Grade: D-
Women's Soccer - Fired the coach. That's not good, usually. They should be better than they were this year. Grade: C (They were the first CU squad to win a Pac 12 conference game).
Men's Cross Country: I don't know a damn thing about this, but I know we won the Pac 12. Grade: A
Women's Cross Country: Ditto. Grade: A
Skiing: Finished 3rd in the country as defending national champs. A bit of a let down, but when you're at the top, the only way to go is down (skiing metaphor/pun intended). They didn't go down much. Grade: A
Women's Basketball: Started out great, then ran into a very tough Pac 12 schedule. Managed to hold their own in a tough conference. Lappe is recruiting like a woman possessed. Second year into the NIT. Grade: B
Men's Basketball: Dude, second round of the NCAA and Pac 12 champions. Nuff' said. Grade: A (would give a grade higher than A if I could.)
Track: Well, again, I don't know much about this, but I'm pretty sure we did OK in the Pac 12 championships, and have a few folks who won individual championships. Probably could be a little better, but we're at a distinct disadvantage against schools like Oregon. Grade: B
Women's Tennis: Hell if I know. They never get much attention. I suspect if they were really good, I'd hear about them. Grade: C
Women's Golf: First trip to the NCAA tournament ever. Beat Baylor in the regionals. Finished strong at the regionals. Won a couple tournaments this year. Very strong field. Grade: A (based on beating Baylor. That gets you an automatic "A")
Intangible Athletic Department stuff: Bohn continues to be a champion for CU athletics. He'll go anywhere, anytime to talk about the Buffs. Taking the 50 kids to the Pac 12 championships was a stroke of genius. I don't know if it was his idea, but I give him a ton of credit for doing it. That's a game changing move right there. We'll see other schools copying us. Any time you do that, you are doing well. The Lappe and Boyle hires are looking very strong. There's a lot of smoke about some major facilities upgrades on the horizon. Attendance is up. Revenues are strong. The standing of the department in the community is strong. For the not-so-good stuff: Parking at basketball games is a nightmare. The CU/CSU game in Denver is a disaster, and he has no answer for how to fix it. The ticket office still has a lot of hits and misses. You never know whether the person answering the phone will have the first idea of how to take care of your question. Grade: B+.
Overall GPA: 2.8. Improve football and volleyball and we'll make the Dean's list.
Apologies for placing this in the football forum. Mods can feel free to move elsewhere if they desire. I put it here for the simple reason that football drives the entire department.
