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Colorado Head Football Coach


On December 5th 2010 The University of Colorado announced Jon Embree as our 24th full time head coach: press release. Many of us know Jon as a former CU great and a member of Bill McCartney's first recruiting class, and as the son of former Denver Bronco, John Embree. Jon grew up here in Colorado and against what many would call better logic gave up the opportunity to star in college at a nationally prominent program and instead decided to sign with CU and help to rebuild a program that had been torn apart by the tumultuous and ultimately futile Chuck Fairbanks years. Coach Embree as he is now known returns once again to help us rebuild, this time after an equally futile experiment with Dan Hawkins.

Family life:
Jon Embree is a graduate of CU with a degree in Communications in 1988. Embree is married to the former Natalyn Grubb, and the couple still has one child at home, daughter Hannah (14). They have raised two football-playing sons, who, in keeping with the CU family theme, are playing for two former Buff coaches. The eldest, Taylor Embree, is a junior wide receiver at UCLA, where Neuheisel is head coach (he has 117 career receptions for 1,548 yards and two touchdowns), while Connor Embree redshirted as a freshman receiver at UNLV under head coach Bobby Hauck, who was an assistant at Colorado under Neuheisel. Jon Embree was on coaching staffs with both Neuheisel (five seasons) and Hauck (four).

Jon Embree the player:
Cherry Creek - Jon was one of the top in-state prospects coming out of Cherry Creek his senior year.
The University of Colorado - He lettered four seasons (1983-86) as a tight end, winning the Lee Willard award for outstanding freshman, and securing All Big 8 honors as a Sophomore. He ended his career in the top five in both career receptions (80) and yards (1,116) along with scoring five touchdowns. He won CU's Lee Willard Award in 1983 as the coaches selected him the team's most outstanding freshman. His 1,116 yards rank as the second most by a tight end in CU history, while his 80 catches ranks in the top five among all ends.
Rams - 6th round draft pick in 1987 played two years for the Rams, starting 13 games totals before an elbow injury ended his career.



Early Coaching Career:
CU - Jon Embreee started his college coaching career as a volunteer on Bill McCartney's in 1991 staff. Embree coached the tight ends his first two seasons at CU, before moving to defense to work with the ends in the first year of Rick Neuheisel's tenure as head coach in 1995. He returned to coaching tight ends under head coach Gary Barnett in 1999. In January of 2001, Embree took charge of the wide receiver position and also coordinated the practice routine for the placekickers. He left Colorado tied for seventh all-time in most seasons served as a full-time assistant coach at the university, and he was one of only nine to have assisted for 10 or more years through Buff history. Embree played a pivotal role in many of CU's outstanding recruiting successes over the years.
UCLA - Embree served as assistant head coach/tight ends and passing game coordinator and assistant head coach (2004-05) as well as wide receivers (2003) at UCLA where he continued his early career recruiting successes.

Professional Coaching Career:
2006-2008 Kansas City Chiefs - TightEnds Coach. While in Kansas City, Coach Embree worked with All-Pro tight end Tony Gonzalez, during what was one of the more impressive three year runs in the NFL Tony made the Pro Bowl each year during Embree’s tenure. In 2007, Gonzalez led all NFL tight ends with 99 catches for 1,172 yards, accounting for 38.6 percent of the club’s receiving yards and 37.3 percent of the club’s receptions that season.
2009 Redskins - Jon spent the 2009 season in Washington DC under Mike Shanahan as TightEnds coach.

2011 Colorado football Season: 3 Wins - 10 Losses
As expected the first season under Coach Embree was a tough one. Coach inherited a program with a broken culture, the toughest schedule in the country; and a team that had suffered from years of Coach Hawkins twinkle in the eye recruiting. Working most of the season to simply bring back the pride and toughness of his players resulted in some predictable attrition and an ugly win-loss record. Some light at the end of the tunnel appeared over the last 3 games where the Buffaloes managed a record of 2-1 and got their first road win in over 4 years.


Notable Players position coached or recruited:
Daniel Graham - First team all American, Mackey award winner
Marcedes Lewis - First Team all american, Mackey award winner
Tony Gonzalez - Three time Pro-bowler under Jon while at K.C.
Christian Fauria - Two time Super Bowl Champ, All-Big 12, All -American
Tyler Brayton
Andre Gurode - 5 time Pro-Bowler, All-Pro, All-Big 12
Victor Rogers
Cedric Cormier
Justin Bannan
Mark Fenton
Sean Tufts
Hannibal Navies
Donald Strickland
Damen Wheeler
Rashidi Barnes
Ben Kelly - Super Bowl Champ


Non-Allbuffs.com Sources:
Redskins Bio
Wikipedia
UCLA Bio
Official Pres Release