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The One and Only Positive from Embree Regime

BuffNut99

Club Member
Club Member
In 2010, CU had a decision to make in hiring it's next HC. The AD got burned in 2005 looking outside the box and making a "home run hire" in D2 Danny. As if Hawk's W-L failure wasn't enough, it also included a complete shunning of CU's traditions, something that WE ALL found inexcusable and something we probably attributed part of his failure to. "Gee, if he had only studied what made CU successful in the past, he would have won lots more games. Go with what worked before, you don't need to recreate the wheel," we all said. So CU makes a decision to hire all CU guys, and Embree and Co. embark on the Great Experiment. It fails.

Hypothetical Situation: CU goes outside the family yet again in 2010 (which many of you are wishing had happened, especially in hindsight). The AD still needs to hire on the cheap (we had no money in 2010) and goes for an obscure up and coming home run hire. We'll call him Hawkins 2.0. Now, we might have gotten lucky with a young coordinator turning into a solid HC, but my sense is that we would have screwed up this hypothetical hire as well and we'd be roughly where we are now, probably with a few more wins. But the CU fan base is incensed. Hawkins 2.0 can't win, can't recruit, and is neglecting CU tradition. We are calling for his ouster, and the camp who wants a CU Buffs For Life hire is at a fever pitch.

Let's say that the AD makes the call to fire Hawkins 2.0 in 2013. The next decision is easy. The CU AD hires Jon Embree in 2013, and we all know how that ends, but it doesn't end until 2015 or 2016.

The one and only positive from the (real) Embree Regime - we know how the Great Experiment ends, we don't need to repeat it, and we can move on from it in 2012 or 2013 as opposed to having to wait until 2015 or 2016.
 
we have a rock on the way to the outdoor practice field and painted one wall :thumbsup:
 
This logic assumes that every coach we hire is going to be a failure.....which if true, and same guys making the decisions if/when Embree is fired, we're still ****ed no matter what going forward anyways
 
We hired Jon Embree - when we could have gone for Hawkins 2.0 Brady Hoke.


Really glad we didnt make that mistake.
 
We hired Jon Embree - when we could have gone for Hawkins 2.0 Brady Hoke.


Really glad we didnt make that mistake.

Nah, pretty clear Hoke was honed in on getting the Michigan job. I think he would have waited it out another year if necessary.

But your point remains. CU fans want to win, but put ridiculous limitations on the coaching searches. Just find the best guy and it usually works out.
 
How was hiring Hawkins 'looking outside the box'? He was at the top of most hiring lists at the time, and frankly I was surprised he wanted to come to CU.
 
Nah, pretty clear Hoke was honed in on getting the Michigan job. I think he would have waited it out another year if necessary.

But your point remains. CU fans want to win, but put ridiculous limitations on the coaching searches. Just find the best guy and it usually works out.

Maybe, but what about Rich Rod instead?
 
The only positive I see is that I hate Hawkins less. Getting rid of that hate makes me a better person. I don't hate Embree. I never will. So that hatred isn't getting replaced right now. To me, this is a business decision. Someone was hired. He failed. Move on.
 
I agree with this logic. At the time we hired Embree, I said even if he ends up failing I think the timing was right to bring in a Colorado guy to undo the damage that Hawk had done to the program's reputation.

Of course, the huge flaw I now see in the logic with the benefit of hindsight is that Buff loyalists would have all come back in droves if we would have hired a winner. We didn't need a former Buff to bring back donors. We needed a winner. We didn't need to win over disgruntled CU fans with a loyalist as badly as we needed to win over undecided high school recruits.

The other unintended consequence I hadn't considered is what might happen if Embree failed as badly as Hawkins. I didn't think Embree would be so hopelessly overmatched, and completely underestimated the long-term damage to the CU brand. Now I feel like we have the worst of both worlds with a program/brand that badly needed stability and instead got more inexperience and mismanagement. It's going to be bad for a long time.
 
I agree with this logic. At the time we hired Embree, I said even if he ends up failing I think the timing was right to bring in a Colorado guy to undo the damage that Hawk had done to the program's reputation.

Of course, the huge flaw I now see in the logic with the benefit of hindsight is that Buff loyalists would have all come back in droves if we would have hired a winner. We didn't need a former Buff to bring back donors. We needed a winner. We didn't need to win over disgruntled CU fans with a loyalist as badly as we needed to win over undecided high school recruits.

The other unintended consequence I hadn't considered is what might happen if Embree failed as badly as Hawkins. I didn't think Embree would be so hopelessly overmatched, and completely underestimated the long-term damage to the CU brand. Now I feel like we have the worst of both worlds with a program/brand that badly needed stability and instead got more inexperience and mismanagement. It's going to be bad for a long time.


Unfortunately, they hired a Colorado guy and got nothing in the way of donations out of it.
 
Unfortunately, they hired a Colorado guy and got nothing in the way of donations out of it.

You surprised? All the big talk was from the group that couldn't raise 15 grand to help out Salaam by meeting the reserve on the auction for his Heisman ring. Ended up selling for under $9k. I'm not sure who ended up buying it.
 
You surprised? All the big talk was from the group that couldn't raise 15 grand to help out Salaam by meeting the reserve on the auction for his Heisman ring. Ended up selling for under $9k. I'm not sure who ended up buying it.


Not really. I've been saying for a while that CU fans don't donate.

Which makes the decision to keep Embree all the more perplexing. It's not like there's a bunch of money that's going to be withheld if Embree gets fired.
 
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