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What changed since last week?

SJBuff

SJBuff

Club Member
I've been thinking about this since the game ended yesterday. For everyone who had a bunch of excuses as to why the team was doing so bad this season I have some questions for you.

Between last week and this week:
Did the team suddenly get more experience? - no
Did some of the players get turned into upper classmen? - no
Did the talent level go up? - no
Did we learn how to play mistake free football? - no

All the excuses of a young inexperienced team, so few seniors, bad recruiting, blah blah blah were not really the problem. Do those things still need to be fixed? - Yes. But they don't need to be fixed in order to play well because the Buffs played well yesterday.

What did change? The team finally started playing with heart. They finally started playing like buffaloes.

I don't know if it was having EB on the sidelines or the talks that JE had with each player last week or if some players within the team decided to step up and become leaders (maybe it was all of that) but the team finally played with passion and heart and, to me, it was an entirely different team out there.

The kind of play we saw yesterday was where I expected us to start this season. I thought all last year was about learning to play with heart and this year would be about getting more proficient at playing football. Had we played the first three games like we did yesterday we would be a 3-1 or 4-0 team right now.

Now JE needs to show us that yesterday wasn't a flash in the pan. If they play with the same heart for the rest of the year I don't care what our W/L record is I will be 100% behind JE. If the team slips back into quitting mode, I think JE needs to go. The ability to motivate players is the first skill every HC needs to have.
 
I wouldn't say what changed since last week. I'd say what changed since the first 3 quarters. First 3 quarters was the same old **** we've been seeing all season. Absolutely horrible play calling, even the commentators were talking about how predictable we were. Then all of a sudden, we stopped giving 20 yard cushions on third and short and started being smart on offense. I don't know why it changed, but I think it was mostly the playcalling
 
DrunkPanda said:
I wouldn't say what changed since last week. I'd say what changed since the first 3 quarters. First 3 quarters was the same old **** we've been seeing all season. Absolutely horrible play calling, even the commentators were talking about how predictable we were. Then all of a sudden, we stopped giving 20 yard cushions on third and short and started being smart on offense. I don't know why it changed, but I think it was mostly the playcalling
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I hadn't thought of that. Could be.
 
I think part of the credit needs to go to the slew of lists coming from bloggers and sports sites that called CU the worst team in college football. Our play in the trenches looked angrier than it had been the other 3 games.
 
DrunkPanda said:
I wouldn't say what changed since last week. I'd say what changed since the first 3 quarters. First 3 quarters was the same old **** we've been seeing all season. Absolutely horrible play calling, even the commentators were talking about how predictable we were. Then all of a sudden, we stopped giving 20 yard cushions on third and short and started being smart on offense. I don't know why it changed, but I think it was mostly the playcalling
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Playcalling on both sides of the field. Leach "Swung his Sword" and cut off his own d#%k !! Hilarious.
 
The sideline was 1000x more animated than I've seen in in several years. Whichever unit that was on the field was getting fire from the units on the sideline, and I think it had everything to do with the outcome of the game. EB has to get a ton of credit for injecting that.
 
Leach did a signature Leach move with about 8 minutes to go in the game that allowed us to get back into the game. Up 31-14 with a 4th and 3 at the 17 he decided to go for it instead of relying on his steady field goal kicker to push the lead to 34-13. His aggressive play calling dooms them as often as not. I was also pissed at Embree for doing the same thing earlier in the game. Get the 3 points and move on.
 
As bad as the first half was, not being out of the game helped a lot. The big plays to Kasa and Jones also electrified the team.
 
What changed? The biggest thing that changed is that we played a Mike Leach team. :lol:
 
Don't underestimate the 1 on 1 meetings. When Mac used those, and it wasn't often, it was powerful. It is one thing to hold a group accountable, but when you sit across the desk and look in your head coach's eyes and shake his hand in commitment it is hard to shirk responsibilities.
 
The CBs all looked better. They are giving an insane cushion, but even as the game went on they settled in. I think they are going to improve every week. They'll give up some big plays no doubt, but I think soon were going to see flashes of their talent.
 
FlaBuff said:
Don't underestimate the 1 on 1 meetings. When Mac used those, and it wasn't often, it was powerful. It is one thing to hold a group accountable, but when you sit across the desk and look in your head coach's eyes and shake his hand in commitment it is hard to shirk responsibilities.
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Yes. One other thing I see that Mac and Embo have in common is the very real and deep love they have for their players. I bet that really came through in the 1:1's.

I can see that really motivating the players too. Their HC is under attack in the media and clinging onto his job by his fingernails because of how they played on the field and in their 1:1 Embo's message to them is I love you and I got your back. I'd run through a wall...
 
FlaBuff said:
Don't underestimate the 1 on 1 meetings. When Mac used those, and it wasn't often, it was powerful. It is one thing to hold a group accountable, but when you sit across the desk and look in your head coach's eyes and shake his hand in commitment it is hard to shirk responsibilities.
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Yes.
 
Mike Leach teams have had a hell of a lot more success than CU has had since the end of the Barnett era; there is very little room to attack him on his overall record from the perspective of a CU fan.

Things that were different this week:
We played well in the 4th quarter
We had some big plays
We were clutch

Things that were not different this week:
We had a close game against a really bad team (CSU, Sac. State)
We played a really bad team (CSU, Sac. State)

Beating a conference opponent on the road is great. I don't think the team looked great, though; we looked pretty terrible the first three quarters. I will go ahead and piss on the parade, I suppose, and suggest that we didn't play much better. WSU sucks just like CSU and Sac. State suck. We just happened to win this time.

Winning is great. Pulling out a W in tight games is what separates successful teams from teams who play scared to lose or even scared to win; this game represents major progress on that front. I do not think, however, that our team looked particularly impressive.
 
When some CU fans talk about how great Leach would be in Boulder, it's definitely appropriate to talk about his faults.
 
Driving the ball down the field with just under 3 minutes to go, with the game on the line, on the road and squeaking out the last second td for a WIN...is going to do wonders for all those young BUFFS psyche.

GO BUFFS!! GO BEAT ucla!!

one game at a time
 
A lot of things can change in a week. Yes the players did gain a lot of experience in one week. They experienced a brutal beatdown at Fresno and they know it was because they lost hope and confidence in each other and themselves. Most of the freshmen had never experienced anything like that. They played like a team for the first time this year.

The whole CB cushion thing was way overblown (and I never saw a 20 yard cushion). The philosophy when defending Mike Leach's offense is to keep the play in front of you and come up and smack them when they catch the ball. When you start playing two close to the LOS they will start getting receivers open using pick plays - let them do all their crossing in front of you.
 
CVilleBuff said:
Do i really need to provide the evidence to the contrary of the "Leach produces 10 win seasons" myth for the 58th time?
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Don't really care about 10 win seasons right now. He had the 3rd best winning percentage in the Big 12 when he was there going 47-33 and went to 10 straight bowl games. Right now, I'd kill for that success. Yeah he has his faults and benefited from a piss easy OOC but he's 88-47 with a .652 winning percentage which is more than we've had for a while.

I also never said anything about Leach and 10 win seasons but carry on...
 
Creatini said:
Don't really care about 10 win seasons right now. He had the 3rd best winning percentage in the Big 12 when he was there going 47-33 and went to 10 straight bowl games. Right now, I'd kill for that success. Yeah he has his faults and benefited from a piss easy OOC but he's 88-47 with a .652 winning percentage which is more than we've had for a while.

I also never said anything about Leach and 10 win seasons but carry on...
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He also had the benefit of 4 automatic OOC wins against Southeast Louisiana, along with Baylor being downright horrendous, Okie Lite and aTm being mediocre at best, and nearly the entire North Division sucking ass. He also BARELY did any better than Spike Dykes did before him. Add in that he doesn't recruit, and he's going to be in trouble in Pullman unless something changes. You can't get by in Pullman with what you can in Lubbock. Talented leftovers don't just fall into your lap in Pullman. He didn't do an in-home visit to a recruit for his last 5 seasons in Lubbock, and his main approach when recruits visited campus was showing them a card trick. That's not going to work in Pullman. He either changes, or he falls.

There's a lot more to success than just thinking his offense is sexy, 'tini.

but carry on...
 
Whose talking about Pullman? I'm talking about him and Boulder. It won't happen so I guess it's a moot point but I realize there's more than just his offense, and I realize he had a easy OOC but anyone who thinks he's a bad coach is insane. He also did better than Dykes. Dykes went to 7 bowls in 13 years. Leach went to 10 in 10 and Dykes had a .546 winning percentage.
 
Creatini said:
Whose talking about Pullman? I'm talking about him and Boulder. It won't happen so I guess it's a moot point but I realize there's more than just his offense, and I realize he had a easy OOC but anyone who thinks he's a bad coach is insane. He also did better than Dykes. Dykes went to 7 bowls in 13 years. Leach went to 10 in 10 and Dykes had a .546 winning percentage.
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Who's talking about Pullman? Me. Because that's where he's the coach. You're right, he's never going to coach here so I'm not even sure what you're even trying to imply.

Oh, and going for it on 4th down inside the 20 while up 17 in the 4th quarter is bad coaching. Bad coaching lost WSU that game. And your bowl game assessment between Leach and Dykes is not apples to apples because there used to actually be a normal number of bowl games where 6 and 7 wins wasn't a guarantee for a bowl, before things went XTREME and every mediocre team landed in a bowl in the 2000s. He's not a "bad" coach, but he's certainly not a great one either. Extremely overrated.
 
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