Things will be OK...trust me...

[RuffBuff]

I don't know why, therefore I can't give any specifics...but CU football is on the right track. Embree was the right hire and in (2) years CU will be climbing their way back. Next year will be a struggle, but an improvement over this season.The season after that, however, will be a bowl season, probably 7 wins. They will be relevant again. Trust me. It is nothing more than a gut feeling, but it hit me like a ton of bricks this morning.

Stay with this team, these players, these coaches and continue to show up and support this program. Send your donation checks for facility upgrades. Cheer them on, knowing it will be better and they are on the right track.

We can reevalutate this post in 2+ years to see how ON/off it is, but I think we will be pleasantly surprised.



NO I haven't been drinking.

 

[JimmyBuff]

NO I haven't been drinking.

U sure?

 

[RuffBuff]

U sure?

Well, I'm drinking a smoothie....strawberry, blueberry, peach, spinach, tomato, carrot, flaxseed, protein mix, oj and almond milk....does that count?

 

[JimmyBuff]

I love the optimism but at this point I think its pretty tough to say what direction the program is going in. This season was ten times worse than what I thought and I had us finishing 4-9.

 

[dio]

I love the optimism but at this point I think its pretty tough to say what direction the program is going in. This season was ten times worse than what I thought and I had us finishing 4-9.

Did you think we would lose 16 starters and upwards of 25 players to injury? I sure didn't

 

[DBT]

Haters gunna hate. Lovers gunna love.

 

[BuffWarHog]

This is sort of challenge, but also because I can't honestly think of one...but:

Has there ever been a coach who has taken over such a crappy team and pulled out a winning season as a first year head coach?
(USC was 19-18 from 98-2000 and when Pete Carroll took over in 2001, they still had a losing record...and they were nowhere near as bad as CU is right now).

 

[Quattro]

Did you think we would lose 16 starters and upwards of 25 players to injury? I sure didn't

He also thinks GB is the worst DC in the history of the sport and injuries have nothing to do with this defense.

 

[Quattro]

This is sort of challenge, but also because I can't honestly think of one...but:

Has there ever been a coach who has taken over such a crappy team and pulled out a winning season as a first year head coach?
(USC was 19-18 from 98-2000 and when Pete Carroll took over in 2001, they still had a losing record...and they were nowhere near as bad as CU is right now).

Franklin at Vandy is looking like he could. I'm not sure how he's doing it because Vandy has been bad bad bad.

 

[SBG]

Franklin at Vandy is looking like he could. I'm not sure how he's doing it because Vandy has been bad bad bad.

Great academic school in a conference with HUGE revenues. Gee was president there too. They may not be the next LSU, but they shouldn't be a doormat. Could nationally recruit top, smart players and be more competitive than they have been selling the degree and the SEC. Just need a good coach and they could be a semi consistent bowl team with upsets sprinkled here and there.

 

[Dark Bohner]

I tend to agree with you Ruff. I am not a sky is falling guy like many here. We all know that horrific damage was done to this program when Hawk was retained for the 5th year. Yet many choose to ignore that reality. We are now seeing the consequences that Embree is dealing with. This team was also given a horrific schedule and insane injury situation.

Bottom line is I would much rather have a rough 1st season while building a solid foundation as opposed to those coaches that have those fool's gold first seasons then fizzle later. I think Embree will recruit well and build the right way. I am hoping for improvement next year into the 4 win(more is absolutely welcome, but being realistic) realm, and hopefully competing for a bowl the following year, and starting to compete for division and conference titles beyond that.

 

[absinthe]

I'd be feeling more comfortable if we hadnt **** the bed in 2 very winnable home games. A Jim Harbaugh coached team would have won those games.

 

[MtnBuff]

It may not happen as fast as you state but it will happen.

We have coaches who aren't idiots and are willing to do the work needed to make this happen. They also have some history as recruiters and while we don't have many "wow" guys committed we have a bunch of guys who are at least PAC 12 talent level. They will be replacing a number of guys who are WAC talent level. We are getting beat this year on a position by position basis because the guys we have just aren't good enough.

We will eventually have a different attitude. Hawk left this teams almost welcoming losing. Embree and staff despise losing and will not tolerate it over time. The change over of the roster will have a big part in this as well. We will also have a focus. After changing offenses more often than we changed socks over the last few years the players will have a chance to know who we are and what they are supposed to do.

We also won't have this years schedule again. We will always have to play our PAC schedule and it will be tough but we won't have 13 straight games without a bye week and include multiple AQ teams OOC like we did this year in Cal and Ohio State along with a trip to the islands. Instead in the future we have some bye weeks and some schools that will allow us to build and develop players in game situations without getting our teeth kicked in.

We also won't have virtually our entire defensive backfield injured or suspended at the same time along with our best LB and top RB, WR, and QB at the same time and starting OL players out. All this in a year in which we had virtually no depth to start with.

 

[MtnBuff]

I'd be feeling more comfortable if we hadnt **** the bed in 2 very winnable home games. A Jim Harbaugh coached team would have won those games.

Harbough didn't exactly kill them his first year at Stanford. He did a lot better than we are but also had exponentally more talent, which may apply to virtually every first year coach in the country over the past few years.

 

[SBG]

I'd be feeling more comfortable if we hadnt **** the bed in 2 very winnable home games. A Jim Harbaugh coached team would have won those games.

Jim Harbough was an nfl qb for many years and his brother is one of the best in the league defensively. When he was hired at Stanford a lot of people were questioning the hire. Embree has never been a hc or oc/dc at any level. his growing pains may take us more time than Stanford, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a vision and the leadership to build a good program. If or when coaches leave or must be fired we will see if he has what it takes to do the right thing and also hire a replacemnt. Mac had a great coaching tree and every good coach does too.

 

[absinthe]

Harbough didn't exactly kill thme his first year at Stanford. He did a lot better than we are but also had exponentally more talent, which may apply to virtually every first year coach in the country over the past few years.

No they didnt have exponentially more talent than we do, they sucked complete ass, and hadnt had a decent recruiting class in half a decade. Hell Harbuagh's early classes looked worse than Hawk's on paper. He took a team that was 1-11 with no appreciable talent upgrade to speak of at any position and who was replacing Trent Edwards at QB and promptly went went 4-8 followed by 5-7 upsetting USC in the process.

Right now I am not sure i see a better team than we had under coach cabral.

 

[MtnBuff]

No they didnt have exponentially more talent than we do, they sucked complete ass, and hadnt had a decent recruiting class in half a decade. Hell Harbuagh's early classes looked worse than Hawk's on paper. He took a team that was 1-11 with no appreciable talent upgrade to speak of at any position and who was replacing Trent Edwards at QB and promptly went went 4-8 followed by 5-7 upsetting USC in the process.

Right now I am not sure i see a better team than we had under coach cabral.

He had bad PAC talent, we have bad WAC talent.

I can understand the frustration, I feel it myself. At the same time I see changes happening that haven't hit the scoreboard yet but that will help us in the future. Not going to repeat about the injuries and schedule but those have a lot to do with our problems.

 

[Dark Bohner]

No they didnt have exponentially more talent than we do, they sucked complete ass, and hadnt had a decent recruiting class in half a decade. Hell Harbuagh's early classes looked worse than Hawk's on paper. He took a team that was 1-11 with no appreciable talent upgrade to speak of at any position and who was replacing Trent Edwards at QB and promptly went went 4-8 followed by 5-7 upsetting USC in the process.

Right now I am not sure i see a better team than we had under coach cabral.

No **** Sherlock. Cabral had 3 NFL players on his roster, including two 1st rounders as well as an all timer in Scotty Mcknight and a relatively healthy squad. Jesus people, like I just said the 5th year Hawkins was given did IMMENSE damage to this program and you can't keep ignoring that.

 

[boydbuff]

I tend to be the eternal optimist but I also agree that Embree can do this and is the right man for the job. When the going gets tough at CU for Embree and EB, they are not going to look for other pastures. They will not quit until they pull this off (or get fired which would not be supported by most alumni unless we keep playing this way through 2015!). Their reputation for world-class recruiting is unquestioned. We all know that is one of the biggest difference makers in this sport. Despite only having a few weeks to recruit last year we are using 15 of our freshmen (of course says something about the rest of the team too). We have had so many injuries and maybe unlike other first year coaches, EMbree inherited a team used to losing and far from the culture and offense they planned to run.

So my point is noone should judge our coaches based on this year's performance as that is quite unfair to them. Plus if some of our players get healthy I think we can pull off at least one signature win this year that can create some momentum for next year-we already have a way better recruiting class at this time of year than we had under Hawk. And when was the last time we had 3 NFL-style QBs on the roster (Connor, Shane, Nick)?

 

[absinthe]

He had bad PAC talent, we have bad WAC talent.

I can understand the frustration, I feel it myself. At the same time I see changes happening that haven't hit the scoreboard yet but that will help us in the future. Not going to repeat about the injuries and schedule but those have a lot to do with our problems.

We are about to go 1-12 with no conf wins, last year we won a couple conf games and went 5-7. They went 1-11 with 1 conf win over UW and lost to San Jose ST the year before harbaugh, the year after they upset #2USC went 4-8 (despite the loss of a SR QB) and won 3 Conf Games.

Having seen what we have do you see the least sign we could go 4-8 next year?

 

[SBG]

No they didnt have exponentially more talent than we do, they sucked complete ass, and hadnt had a decent recruiting class in half a decade. Hell Harbuagh's early classes looked worse than Hawk's on paper. He took a team that was 1-11 with no appreciable talent upgrade to speak of at any position and who was replacing Trent Edwards at QB and promptly went went 4-8 followed by 5-7 upsetting USC in the process.

Right now I am not sure i see a better team than we had under coach cabral.

He is doing great things with the Niners too. Not really fair to make the harbough comparison at this point. The guy is one of a hundred coaches to ascend the ranks as fast as he had. That's incredibly rare.

I do wonder how much Embree is in charge of game planning. Harbough is known to have a clear vision and manages the schemes with his coordinators and gets his players to play tough for him. That's a very tall order for any coach.

 

[absinthe]

No **** Sherlock. Cabral had 3 NFL players on his roster, including two 1st rounders as well as an all timer in Scotty Mcknight and a relatively healthy squad. Jesus people, like I just said the 5th year Hawkins was given did IMMENSE damage to this program and you can't keep ignoring that.

We were more healthy than we are this year but we finished the season with a mash unit for a secondary (again) and a back up QB, and several other injuries. More to the Point Standford lost comparably important amounts of talent from a 1-11 team and got better

 

[absinthe]

I should be clear it is not that I've decided that Embree is the wrong guy for us, just that at the moment the early returns dont look good.

 

[SINKRATZ]

I tend to be the eternal optimist but I also agree that Embree can do this and is the right man for the job. When the going gets tough at CU for Embree and EB, they are not going to look for other pastures. They will not quit until they pull this off (or get fired which would not be supported by most alumni unless we keep playing this way through 2015!). Their reputation for world-class recruiting is unquestioned. We all know that is one of the biggest difference makers in this sport. Despite only having a few weeks to recruit last year we are using 15 of our freshmen (of course says something about the rest of the team too). We have had so many injuries and maybe unlike other first year coaches, EMbree inherited a team used to losing and far from the culture and offense they planned to run.

So my point is noone should judge our coaches based on this year's performance as that is quite unfair to them. Plus if some of our players get healthy I think we can pull off at least one signature win this year that can create some momentum for next year-we already have a way better recruiting class at this time of year than we had under Hawk. And when was the last time we had 3 NFL-style QBs on the roster (Connor, Shane, Nick)?

I'm all for giving them some time, but that is way too generous - if we're playing like this by 2013 he'll be gone and so will Bohn. The Embree hire had a lot of alumni support, but it was far from unanimous and I would argue that had he not brought Bieniemy on board he would have been a difficult sell to the alumni.

 

[Quattro]

We are about to go 1-12 with no conf wins, last year we won a couple conf games and went 5-7. They went 1-11 with 1 conf win over UW and lost to San Jose ST the year before harbaugh, the year after they upset #2USC went 4-8 (despite the loss of a SR QB) and won 3 Conf Games.

Having seen what we have do you see the least sign we could go 4-8 next year?

Uh yes. Much easier schedule, a bye week, more than 5 home games, etc. We should be 2-1 at worst heading into conference play and will be able to get at least 2 wins the rest of the year. And we should be much healthier.

 

[Duff Man]

Good thread. Would read again.

 

[MtnBuff]

We are about to go 1-12 with no conf wins, last year we won a couple conf games and went 5-7. They went 1-11 with 1 conf win over UW and lost to San Jose ST the year before harbaugh, the year after they upset #2USC went 4-8 (despite the loss of a SR QB) and won 3 Conf Games.

Having seen what we have do you see the least sign we could go 4-8 next year?

Not going to compare Embree to Harbaugh. He is a proven quality coach. At the same time he wasn't waiting outside Bohn's office to take this job. I don't know who you think we could have hired that would have done a better job than what we have.

As to 4-8 next year, I am not going to go as far as to say that but 3-4 wins would be at least a reasonable expectation. We will have a much easier schedule OOC, a bye week, and I would assume some healthy DBs.

We still aren't going to compete with the top teams in the conference but given anything resembling healthy DBs we would have won the Wazzuo game this year. Perkins should never have been in the game with his physical issues but we had no choice. Not even Harbaugh could turn Espy and B-Lock along with a crippled Perkins and a hurt Polk into a winning defensive backfield.

 

[absinthe]

Not going to compare Embree to Harbaugh. He is a proven quality coach. At the same time he wasn't waiting outside Bohn's office to take this job. I don't know who you think we could have hired that would have done a better job than what we have.

As to 4-8 next year, I am not going to go as far as to say that but 3-4 wins would be at least a reasonable expectation. We will have a much easier schedule OOC, a bye week, and I would assume some healthy DBs.

We still aren't going to compete with the top teams in the conference but given anything resembling healthy DBs we would have won the Wazzuo game this year. Perkins should never have been in the game with his physical issues but we had no choice. Not even Harbaugh could turn Espy and B-Lock along with a crippled Perkins and a hurt Polk into a winning defensive backfield.

You are right he couldnt heal those kids but I can bet you we wouldnt be seeing the army of dumb-ass penalties, the seeming lack of fight, and the special-teams mess. We lost both Wazzou and Cal on late game antics that can be excused if we look at just the plays that cost us the game, but if you look at how we got there? you have to have some questions. It never should have been in question.

Embree has fire and his guys have picked a little of that up but they cant see to get out of thier own way, look at polk how many more times is he going to take an assinine personal foul? or the O-line penalties.

 

[Duff Man]

You are right he couldnt heal those kids but I can bet you we wouldnt be seeing the army of dumb-ass penalties, the seeming lack of fight, and the special-teams mess. We lost both Wazzou and Cal on late game antics that can be excused if we look at just the plays that cost us the game, but if you look at how we got there? you have to have some questions. It never should have been in question.

Embree has fire and his guys have picked a little of that up but they cant see to get out of thier own way, look at polk how many more times is he going to take an assinine personal foul? or the O-line penalties.

All Hawk's fault IMO. Embree cannot be blamed for anything.

 

[MtnBuff]

All Hawk's fault IMO. Embree cannot be blamed for anything.

This is a lot of Hawk hangover. I have seen a step up in toughness this year but it isn't instant, give it time.

I don't know if you meant to have a sarcasm font but your statement is actually very true.