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What are the problems with this team?
- Thread starter L. Jeffe
- Start date
After reading many opinions then listening to McChesney, the consensus seems to be:
- Embree is in over his head
- Bohn listened to boosters and admin instead of hiring the guy he wanted (I'm hearing Calhoun)
- Brown is completely incompetent
- The seniors don't care and have given up, if they ever cared or tried in the first place
- The university is cheap and won't make the investments necessary for a 21st century program
Others will almost certainly disagree, but that's my summary.
- Embree is in over his head
- Bohn listened to boosters and admin instead of hiring the guy he wanted (I'm hearing Calhoun)
- Brown is completely incompetent
- The seniors don't care and have given up, if they ever cared or tried in the first place
- The university is cheap and won't make the investments necessary for a 21st century program
Others will almost certainly disagree, but that's my summary.
CVilleBuff
Well-Known Member
-- Virtually across the board, we have coaches inept for such a daunting rebuilding task. This is what happens when you have a career TE coach as your HC, an RB coach as your OC, a DB coach as your DC, a donut salesman as your WR coach and so on.
-- We're soft. Extremely soft. No resolve. No pride. Embree has tried to change that, but it obviously hasn't worked
-- Yes, we lack talent. But nowhere near to the degree such a start like this can be rationalized
-- We are rotten to the core. Admin and everything.
-- We're soft. Extremely soft. No resolve. No pride. Embree has tried to change that, but it obviously hasn't worked
-- Yes, we lack talent. But nowhere near to the degree such a start like this can be rationalized
-- We are rotten to the core. Admin and everything.
Welcome L Jeffe.
--I'd add young to that list as well. We have far too few Junior and Seniors. However, youth and inexperience don't come close the justifying how much this team has regressed and quit. This is on a underqualified and possibly disfunctional coaching staff.
Disagree. You have to have something to manage it.
jcatcher
Club Member
I think the team is mentally frail. They make one mistake and they can't get over it. There are too many guys on the field who were in high school a few months ago. The seniors, who should be the ones holding the team together, don't show leadership. Almost all of the seniors have spent a lot of time in their careers on the sidelines due to injury and I don't think any of them are playing for a chance to get drafted.
Remember that this team had double-digit leads in the first two games before breaking down mentally. A muffed punt (by a freshman) right before the half vs. CSU, and what looked like a blowout in the making vs. Sacramento State turned on a third and eight conversion after the 14-0 lead. I don't know about you guys, but all it took for me to give up hope on Saturday was one play. Orms makes a great play for a three yard loss, only for another freshman to get goaded into a 15 yard retaliation penalty. They don't have anyone who can stop the snowball once it starts rolling.
Remember that this team had double-digit leads in the first two games before breaking down mentally. A muffed punt (by a freshman) right before the half vs. CSU, and what looked like a blowout in the making vs. Sacramento State turned on a third and eight conversion after the 14-0 lead. I don't know about you guys, but all it took for me to give up hope on Saturday was one play. Orms makes a great play for a three yard loss, only for another freshman to get goaded into a 15 yard retaliation penalty. They don't have anyone who can stop the snowball once it starts rolling.
Yep. We're literally awful in every respect. Talent sucks, coaching sucks, attitude sucks. I mean, if you can think of a component to football, we're bad at it.
you forgot that we have BAD FANS. --------------->YOU
However, we are good at punting.
I hear the punter can punt with BOTH FEET.
Hawkins tore this program to the ground and stomped on it.
The easiest issue to see is the talent issue. In his final years Hawkins recruited to many guys who simply don't belong on a FBS roster and can't compete. His recruiting rankings were deceptive because he got a number of guys who were highly ranked but most were available because they had other flaws (academic, character, injury, etc.) that mean that they are long gone leaving a roster very thin on jr. and sr. contributors.
Bigger issue left by Hawkins was the attitude issue. Under his "leadership" the team learned how to lose and how to accept losing. They got to a point mentally and emotionally where they expected to lose and found ways to do it.
Embree, or any other coach who would have taken over this job, faced the dual challenge of increasing the talent level to a competitive leves and more importantly replacing the ingrained losing attitude with that of a winning team. He faced a team without upperclass leaders to push and challenge the younger players to perform and do the work needed to perform.
This job would have been tough for almost any coach coming in. The obstacles were huge. Embree has in my opinion raised the talent level significantly. That talent is still very young and even though better you can still question if it is good enough.
The bigger issue was that of what was going on in the heads of the players. At the end of last year it looked as if this team had turned a corner. Despite a season with a lot of losing and in some cases complete missmatches on the field they didn't quit. Instead they won 2 out of the last 3 and appeared to be set to start this season on a winning note.
Optimism now gone. They managed to lose the game against CSU despite a solid lead. They also got dominated in that game on the LOS by a team that had some more experience but was not nearly as talented with one exception. They failed to adjust, they failed to raise their game, and they failed to win a game that should have been in the win column. Fast forward one week and they then lose to and FCS team with middle level FCS talent, again they led, and again there is no excuse to lose it but they did.
This week was more than a loss. This was a team that put on their pads and walked on the field but didn't show up from the opening KO. 69-14 and it wasn't that close.
Embree and staff had a very difficult job changing the mental state of this team. The Fresno game shows that they have failed. It also shows that the players have tuned them out and are not listening. I cannot remember ever seeing a team that had tuned out a coaching staff to this level that ever came back to listen to them and win. In my mind, and I like Embree and the staff and wanted them to succeed, it is now over. The window has closed and it is only a matter of when they get replaced, not if they can come back.
I do think that the next coach will have a tough time as well but not as tough as Embree inherited. At least he will have some solid young prospects, maybe he will be further removed from the Hawkins approach and will find it easier to change attitudes.
With that I am still concerned because this team is so bad right now. I also worry because even in programs with more administrative support and resources a high percentage of coaching hires fail. Look at how many coaches Bama went through after the Bear, look at the struggles to find coaches at OU, at RichRod's failure at Michigan, etc. I do know that the guy we have has failed and it is time to move on, let's hope we find our guy in the next one.
#2 in the nation in number of punts and total yards covered in those punts! Unfortunately, we are #29 in average yards per punt...
#29? Not bad. I take back what I said.
I wish we were #29 at something else. Our offense would be a juggernaut if it was ranked 29th in something positive.
Yeah, but can he punt with both feet at the same time?
When you are talking about the kind of kids that SC or LSU is recruiting they are ready to play. They are also in an environment with a bunch of other top quality upperclassment to provide them with guidance and direction.
For the typical HS kid the step up from HS to FBS level football is huge. Players are 3-4 years older, they are bigger, faster, stronger, more skilled and better prepared. Kids who could dominate a HS game on sheer physical talent are suddenly behind the guys they are lining up against.
In an environment like CU has without the upperclass leadership and with young players who may be good but are not special the adjustment is very difficult.
BuffaloChuck
Member
I think an empty "leadership" would be one thing. Seeing upperclassmen quit and accept quitting, that's leadership in the absolutely wrong direction. "He's getting away with it, Coach - why can't I?"
That's the leadership issue.
It still goes back to a coaching staff that goes from letting them get away with it and now it's acceptable behavior. License To Quit.
There's a huge chance that Embree & Co have never encountered this before in their lives. They were never given that license, nor do they understand it's origins OR RECOGNIZE IT. Now... Sac State can drive on a Defense that's still on the field, but can't decide if Quitting Now or Relaxing For A Play Or Two is better.
That's the leadership issue.
It still goes back to a coaching staff that goes from letting them get away with it and now it's acceptable behavior. License To Quit.
There's a huge chance that Embree & Co have never encountered this before in their lives. They were never given that license, nor do they understand it's origins OR RECOGNIZE IT. Now... Sac State can drive on a Defense that's still on the field, but can't decide if Quitting Now or Relaxing For A Play Or Two is better.
"We didn't tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking."
We're the 76 Bucs, but Embree isn't as funny as John McKay.
We're the 76 Bucs, but Embree isn't as funny as John McKay.
Embree
Brown
EB
Marshall
Bohn
Distefano
Benson
Brown
EB
Marshall
Bohn
Distefano
Benson
SINKRATZ
PhD in Analogy
This is the first question in our HC interview.
Here is a pretty goog breakdown from "the other site". I tend to agree with most of it....
Mass Confusion
That's the only fitting description for what I witnessed sat night. I
was sitting 50 yard line, 3 rows back, heard and saw everything.
-it's the coaches. if you don't believe it, you're in denial. these
kids are massively confused in all facets of the game. mcghee,
kennedy, brown, embree, all of them scream their heads off at the team
on the sidelines, and the players look like they speak an entirely
different language. after the screaming, it's exasperation. as in, "I
give up, you don't get it". embree is the biggest offender of this
tactic. he'll trudge off and sulk away throughout the game.
-brown looks totally lost. almost as if he started coaching these guys
5 min before kickoff.
-they don't know how to coach college! it's obvious. all that nfl
knowledge doesn't translate to coaching college players. the idea of
simplifying isn't sinking in to this staff. on offense, the line and
the qb have no clue what play to run almost every play. they stare at
the sidelines and rarely got a play off with less than 5 sec on the
clock. there's boards, hand signals, no huddle, plays at the line of
scrimmage, looking back at the sidelines, everyone is panicked and
yelling, no one is one the same page. no one is prepared! its mass
confusion on the sidelines.
-stop with the "who would win with our team" crap. there are a ton of
athletes on both sides of the ball. certainly as many as fresno. but
we play like we're dyslexic and have no strategy or football
instincts. too much thinking going on. too much "technique", not
enough common sense football.
offense
-webb is bad, no other way to say it. consistently doesn't see open
guys downfield and tends to run into traffic. when he forces it, it's
6pts for the defense. on the sidelines, he's not a "light a fire under
the team" guy. more of a whisper into one guys ear type. couldn't wait
for him to be benched. flat out don't like his game or persona. odd
note, he spits quite a bit on the sidelines.
-wood is better, in that he can read downfield, but made bad decisions
that got picked. neither qb exuded confidence, but wood was excited
for the opportunity. it has to be hard to run this offense, unless
you're stafford or brady. wood got some seriously bad play calls from
the coaches. why run a bootleg right with one reciever on the right,
who happens to be quadruple teamed blanketed, with the 3 other wrs on
the other side of the field wondering why they weren't thrown the
ball? wtf! that's bad play calling.
-hirshman looked the best, which says a lot since he only threw it
three times. he is animated on the sidelines, more than the other two.
his deep ball to ebner was real nice. a cannon for an arm. I'd start
him next game for sure, even though I'm not sure what he really brings
other than passion. odd note, he usually is the one to pick up the
phone from bienemy, which was ringing off the hook all game.
-the idea of calling an qb audible is so far from our capabilities you
can forget it this year or ever with this staff. we will go into a
play knowing its a disaster, but won't call audibles. wood tried to
alert the ol numerous times of impending disaster, but they're not on
the same page either.
-nembot is a beast! seriously, our best ol. munyer is atrocious.
easily the worst. saw him immediately double team help and let a guy
blow right by him to the qb. lewis gets too much pt. seems to be a hot
head without the production. no one else on ol stood out. we're very
predictable so i cant put it all on the ol. cotner has huge arms, so
does richter. mustoe and irwin look the part. we need 10 nembots.
these ol are so poorly coached they're out of the snap and look like
theyre possessed by some hindu ritual dance technique, where they pop
up and start defending people that aren't there, but they're staying
true to the play call. ugh! what is that? what team does that?
-our wrs are managed terribly. why are we 30 yards downfield every
play? coaching! if Webb/wood/hirshman have 5 sec before their swarmed,
why not have them run shorter routes? wtf. other teams kill us with
short slant routes, and we have to run 10 sec routes, I don't get it.
-wrs all seemed ok, but McCullough is hit or miss with his hands. not
enough thomas. should be out there every play. was on the sidelines
way too much, same with Thornton. no quick slants to canty or Thomas =
failure.
-kasa is not a te. I don't know what he is, but he's not a te. te in
general is a non factor on offense. Hobbs looks legit, slavin has good
hands.
-powell is good. no one else looks legit. ford looked the fastest
actually. everyone else seemed to run right into traffic, no football
smarts.
defense
-smith and orms. they were targeted all game. all game! throw it over
the middle and it's a td. I like bell. mosley shows the most emotion
on the sidelines. Vigo makes too many errors. crawley and wright get
hit with too many flags but the effort and skill are apparent. but we
can't play orms and smith and expect to win. and they're out there all
the time. bad coaching decisions. have to try someone else. anyone!
you don't give up that much yardage and say "let's look at the tape".
you can play backup wrs and get better production from our safeties.
-blacken has to be ashamed and should resign. we got manhandled by
less athletic guys. absolutely pushed around on all fronts. please
quit.
-our lbs can't tackle. we dance on defense. we can see the guy with
the ball, get close enough to tackle him, then dance around him till
he gets an extra 5-10 yards. major is not a good tackler, but he makes
a decent play here and there. he's over-hyped. Webb is solid.
-washington is not an lb with those tackling skills. maybe he's a
safety, not sure.
-this is all to say, they have NO football instincts. they're thinking
too much. that's coaching. again, you need a certain type if coach to
train college players. this staff is terrible at it. I bet the
beamers, bowdens, sabens of the world know how to coach and teach non-
professional athletes. can embree figure it out? sure, but it will be
years from now, but not anytime soon. you give embree the alabama
team, and they lose every game. they are that bad at preparing a team.
i don't have a rivals or buffscoop subscription, so re-post there if
you want. i drove 7 hours total on saturday to get an up-close view of
the team. i believed in embree before the game. after, i saw the
problem up close and it's without question coaching.
Props to SF at NB....
Mass Confusion
That's the only fitting description for what I witnessed sat night. I
was sitting 50 yard line, 3 rows back, heard and saw everything.
-it's the coaches. if you don't believe it, you're in denial. these
kids are massively confused in all facets of the game. mcghee,
kennedy, brown, embree, all of them scream their heads off at the team
on the sidelines, and the players look like they speak an entirely
different language. after the screaming, it's exasperation. as in, "I
give up, you don't get it". embree is the biggest offender of this
tactic. he'll trudge off and sulk away throughout the game.
-brown looks totally lost. almost as if he started coaching these guys
5 min before kickoff.
-they don't know how to coach college! it's obvious. all that nfl
knowledge doesn't translate to coaching college players. the idea of
simplifying isn't sinking in to this staff. on offense, the line and
the qb have no clue what play to run almost every play. they stare at
the sidelines and rarely got a play off with less than 5 sec on the
clock. there's boards, hand signals, no huddle, plays at the line of
scrimmage, looking back at the sidelines, everyone is panicked and
yelling, no one is one the same page. no one is prepared! its mass
confusion on the sidelines.
-stop with the "who would win with our team" crap. there are a ton of
athletes on both sides of the ball. certainly as many as fresno. but
we play like we're dyslexic and have no strategy or football
instincts. too much thinking going on. too much "technique", not
enough common sense football.
offense
-webb is bad, no other way to say it. consistently doesn't see open
guys downfield and tends to run into traffic. when he forces it, it's
6pts for the defense. on the sidelines, he's not a "light a fire under
the team" guy. more of a whisper into one guys ear type. couldn't wait
for him to be benched. flat out don't like his game or persona. odd
note, he spits quite a bit on the sidelines.
-wood is better, in that he can read downfield, but made bad decisions
that got picked. neither qb exuded confidence, but wood was excited
for the opportunity. it has to be hard to run this offense, unless
you're stafford or brady. wood got some seriously bad play calls from
the coaches. why run a bootleg right with one reciever on the right,
who happens to be quadruple teamed blanketed, with the 3 other wrs on
the other side of the field wondering why they weren't thrown the
ball? wtf! that's bad play calling.
-hirshman looked the best, which says a lot since he only threw it
three times. he is animated on the sidelines, more than the other two.
his deep ball to ebner was real nice. a cannon for an arm. I'd start
him next game for sure, even though I'm not sure what he really brings
other than passion. odd note, he usually is the one to pick up the
phone from bienemy, which was ringing off the hook all game.
-the idea of calling an qb audible is so far from our capabilities you
can forget it this year or ever with this staff. we will go into a
play knowing its a disaster, but won't call audibles. wood tried to
alert the ol numerous times of impending disaster, but they're not on
the same page either.
-nembot is a beast! seriously, our best ol. munyer is atrocious.
easily the worst. saw him immediately double team help and let a guy
blow right by him to the qb. lewis gets too much pt. seems to be a hot
head without the production. no one else on ol stood out. we're very
predictable so i cant put it all on the ol. cotner has huge arms, so
does richter. mustoe and irwin look the part. we need 10 nembots.
these ol are so poorly coached they're out of the snap and look like
theyre possessed by some hindu ritual dance technique, where they pop
up and start defending people that aren't there, but they're staying
true to the play call. ugh! what is that? what team does that?
-our wrs are managed terribly. why are we 30 yards downfield every
play? coaching! if Webb/wood/hirshman have 5 sec before their swarmed,
why not have them run shorter routes? wtf. other teams kill us with
short slant routes, and we have to run 10 sec routes, I don't get it.
-wrs all seemed ok, but McCullough is hit or miss with his hands. not
enough thomas. should be out there every play. was on the sidelines
way too much, same with Thornton. no quick slants to canty or Thomas =
failure.
-kasa is not a te. I don't know what he is, but he's not a te. te in
general is a non factor on offense. Hobbs looks legit, slavin has good
hands.
-powell is good. no one else looks legit. ford looked the fastest
actually. everyone else seemed to run right into traffic, no football
smarts.
defense
-smith and orms. they were targeted all game. all game! throw it over
the middle and it's a td. I like bell. mosley shows the most emotion
on the sidelines. Vigo makes too many errors. crawley and wright get
hit with too many flags but the effort and skill are apparent. but we
can't play orms and smith and expect to win. and they're out there all
the time. bad coaching decisions. have to try someone else. anyone!
you don't give up that much yardage and say "let's look at the tape".
you can play backup wrs and get better production from our safeties.
-blacken has to be ashamed and should resign. we got manhandled by
less athletic guys. absolutely pushed around on all fronts. please
quit.
-our lbs can't tackle. we dance on defense. we can see the guy with
the ball, get close enough to tackle him, then dance around him till
he gets an extra 5-10 yards. major is not a good tackler, but he makes
a decent play here and there. he's over-hyped. Webb is solid.
-washington is not an lb with those tackling skills. maybe he's a
safety, not sure.
-this is all to say, they have NO football instincts. they're thinking
too much. that's coaching. again, you need a certain type if coach to
train college players. this staff is terrible at it. I bet the
beamers, bowdens, sabens of the world know how to coach and teach non-
professional athletes. can embree figure it out? sure, but it will be
years from now, but not anytime soon. you give embree the alabama
team, and they lose every game. they are that bad at preparing a team.
i don't have a rivals or buffscoop subscription, so re-post there if
you want. i drove 7 hours total on saturday to get an up-close view of
the team. i believed in embree before the game. after, i saw the
problem up close and it's without question coaching.
Props to SF at NB....
I don't know exactly what the problems are, but realistically they are going to take a long long time to fix. I hate to say this but the '10s might be an awful decade for Colorado football (not like the aughts were much better), hopefully the '20s will be the decade of Buffalo dominance.
fervorfactor
Active Member
Since this is supposed to be a return to Buff tradition, and the tradition for this team so far has been this team's coaches, maybe it's time to rally the former players. Call in Kordell, Alfred, Matt, Mac etal (don't think Carruth can make it) before the UCLA game and have a little talk with this team that they aren't playing for themselves alone, that they are playing for the tradition of THE University of Colorado and the men who have invested their lives and sweat in the past to establish this tradition. If Buffs4Life backed the Embree hire, demand them to put some skin in.
The problem is talk won't do any good. All we have heard for years under Hawkins, and now Embree is talk. These kids are too young to really get the significance of the people you are mentioning. Time to get a coach who can shut the **** up and coach.
I guess I disagree. We have competitive talent. Good coaching will make all the difference. We won't become champs, but good coaching would have won the first 2 games for sure, maybe the third as well. These guys have to go.
Walter White
Member
Extend Hawk and then double down on the mistake by replacing him with a totally unorthodox hire for both HC and OC. That double whammy has crushed the program.
But it's always fixable with the right guy. Happens all the time. Just need to get to the right guy(s) asap. The longer you wait, the deeper the hole.
But it's always fixable with the right guy. Happens all the time. Just need to get to the right guy(s) asap. The longer you wait, the deeper the hole.