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The state of the CU athletic department

sackman

Hates the Counting Crows.
Club Member
From a W-L perspective, we suck. Our football, men's basketball, and women's basketball team are all below average. I don't think anybody has to look too hard to see where we need improvement. But for the sake of a good discussion, I'll throw some thoughts out there...

Football is the engine that runs the department, and some wins are needed there, and soon. Anything less than 8-4 next season would be a huge disappointment for me, and I suspect for Mike Bohn as well.

Men's basketball - ugh. Sorry, but we're terrible right now. It shouldn't take this long to turn around a basketball team. I'm all for patience, but getting blown out by TCU and losing at home to Montana State doesn't inspire confidence.

Women's basketball - Big UGH. I know very few people really care, but we've gone from a perennial sweet sixteen contender to last in the conference.

Others - Skiing continues to do well. Our Men's Track Team is Big 12 champions :woot:, cross country competes at the highest level, women's soccer made the conference championship and was ranked most of the year. Volleyball seems to have slipped a little recently, that team should be better than it is. Golf & Tennis - who cares?
 
I'll add that it seems that we're still several years away from bringing back baseball, wrestling, swimming, diving, etc. I suspect the top of the department (football, men's basketball) will have to start generating more money to even start contemplating the return of those sports.

Where does Mike Bohn go from here?
 
Go to cubuffs.com and click on the video of Mike Bohn getting interviewed on FSN. Paraphrasing, he said that we aren't where we want to be, pretty much across the board (all programs), but we know that and we're working to get there.

Mike Bohn has been a God send for this program. He's done a great deal already and I trust him to make the right decisons to get us back where we belong.
 
Mike Bohn has been a God send for this program. He's done a great deal already and I trust him to make the right decisons to get us back where we belong.

From a PR and fundraising perspective I totally agree. Mike Bohn has taken this athletic department out of the dark ages. There's only so much he can do from a marketing perspective to get people in the seats. There has to be success on the field/court in order for the department to take that next step. So far, that's alluded him.

I'm really questioning the choice of McConnell-Miller at this point. As I recall, she never did anything all that spectacular at Tulsa, and then came here and has done... nothing all that spectacular. At least with Bzdelik and Hawkins, we had some past successes to hang our hat on. Perhaps Women's basketball is such a low priority that Bohn doesn't feel like he needs to get a great coach in there. Or, maybe at the time of the hire, he wasn't able to really get the coach he wanted, and had to settle (we actually know this to be the case, as the N Ill coach first accepted the job, then turned it down a day later). Colorado has very good high school girls basketball players. It shouldn't be that difficult to field a competitive team here.
 
From a PR and fundraising perspective I totally agree. Mike Bohn has taken this athletic department out of the dark ages. There's only so much he can do from a marketing perspective to get people in the seats. There has to be success on the field/court in order for the department to take that next step. So far, that's alluded him.

I'm really questioning the choice of McConnell-Miller at this point. As I recall, she never did anything all that spectacular at Tulsa, and then came here and has done... nothing all that spectacular. At least with Bzdelik and Hawkins, we had some past successes to hang our hat on. Perhaps Women's basketball is such a low priority that Bohn doesn't feel like he needs to get a great coach in there. Or, maybe at the time of the hire, he wasn't able to really get the coach he wanted, and had to settle (we actually know this to be the case, as the N Ill coach first accepted the job, then turned it down a day later). Colorado has very good high school girls basketball players. It shouldn't be that difficult to field a competitive team here.

I think Ceal Barry proved that, she probably does not get the credit she deserves for her success year-in and year-out.
 
The good news (?) for basketball is that it's possible to turnaround a team very quickly. With only 5 guys on the floor, getting a few great players (aka Chauncey Billups) can have a huge impact.
 
When CU Athletics show more improvement on the field of play then fan support will be on the up-swing, which will result in a much improved cash flow situation. I know this sounds like it is coming from "Mr. Obvious", but College Athletics is much like successful businesses with desireable producs or services to sell.

CU can do it and are making many of the right moves to achieve its goals.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
It is worth underscoring the accomplishments of the CU runners who won the B12 Track and Field championship in the spring, sent several runners to the Olympic trials, and ultimately to Beijing. Jenny Barringer set a US record in the 3000m steeplechase. What Mark Whetmore has done for the AD and the school is a true display of excellence.

I'd hate to see the football record diminish the superlative efforts of the track and field and cross country program.

On a broader scale, CU had rennovated the locker room, put up the practice bubble, and launched a capital project for new volley ball and basketball facilities. The sell-out of the luxory boxes didn't hurt either.

No doubt, though, that Hawkin's losses to Mizzou, UT and A&M has been a buzz kill. Combine the sub par performance on the field with a recession and it makes fundraising needed to compete and carry over momentum all the harder against the B12 elite.

If there is a silver lining, it's that CU doesn't appear to be in a bidding war against the likes of Tennessee, Washington, Auburn, or other schools for the services of Hawkins.
 
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It is worth underscoring the accomplishments of the CU runners who won the B12 Track and Field championship in the spring, sent several runners to the Olympic trials, and ultimately to Beijing. Jenny Barringer set a US record in the 3000m steeplechase. What Mark Whetmore has done for the AD and the school is a true display of excellence.

I'd hate to see the football record diminish the superlative efforts of the track and field and cross country program.

On a broader scale, CU had rennovated the locker room, put up the practice bubble, and launched a capital project for new volley ball and basketball facilities. The sell-out of the luxory boxes didn't hurt either.

No doubt, though, that Hawkin's losses to Mizzou, UT and A&M has been a buzz kill. Combine the sub par performance on the field with a recession and it makes fundraising needed to compete and carry over momentum all the harder against the B12 elite.

If there is a silver lining, it's that CU doesn't appear to be in a bidding war against the likes of Tennessee, Washington, Auburn, or other schools for the services of Hawkins.

Uh, are you kidding - he hasn't done anything yet at CU, and Boise State hasn't missed a step without him. At Boise State it's "like who needs him".
If he gets canned by CU, his next job will be as an assistant.
 
From a W-L perspective, we suck. Our football, men's basketball, and women's basketball team are all below average. I don't think anybody has to look too hard to see where we need improvement. But for the sake of a good discussion, I'll throw some thoughts out there...

Football is the engine that runs the department, and some wins are needed there, and soon. Anything less than 8-4 next season would be a huge disappointment for me, and I suspect for Mike Bohn as well.

I think things are going well. I never expected a quick turnaround here. Our depth, or lack of, is exposing us right now. Call it whatever you want, but this year was the worst in CU history with all the injuries we had.

Bottom line though is CU has to go bowling next season. I hope we can have a bowl game sewn up before the kNU game.

Men's basketball - ugh. Sorry, but we're terrible right now. It shouldn't take this long to turn around a basketball team. I'm all for patience, but getting blown out by TCU and losing at home to Montana State doesn't inspire confidence.

Things are going good with the MBB program. We are in desperate need of a big man to get some rebounds. The 6-11 aussie can't get here soon enough. I think this'll be a tough year no doubt. But I think Buzz will have this team on track in a couple of years.

I thought you didn't care about BB sackman?

Women's basketball - Big UGH. I know very few people really care, but we've gone from a perennial sweet sixteen contender to last in the conference.

I am not a big fan of KMM. But hopefully we can turn it around. It's not easy to replace a player like Jackie McFarland.

Others - Skiing continues to do well. Our Men's Track Team is Big 12 champions :woot:, cross country competes at the highest level, women's soccer made the conference championship and was ranked most of the year. Volleyball seems to have slipped a little recently, that team should be better than it is. Golf & Tennis - who cares?

:woot: Go Ski team! :woot:
 
lol on your silver lining. I hadn't thought before about the personal importance 2009 is to Dan's career. Right now, none of the big teams would want to hire a HC who has the record of the first 3 years that Hawk has..

We are just watchers, without a lot invested except fan satisfaction, and bragging rights........but unless Hawk puts up 10 wins or so in 2009..he will never be a hot coaching commodity..even then, people will expect a 3 year max turnaround in a program..Davis, Saban,...don't expect Auburn or Tenn to give the new coach a long honeymoon like Weis is getting at ND.

But, that's all right with me if Hawk settles in Boulder and brings consistent competitive teams to play..and maybe wins an average of 8/yr..and at least half of the bowl games.
 
[/SIZE]
Uh, are you kidding - he hasn't done anything yet at CU, and Boise State hasn't missed a step without him. At Boise State it's "like who needs him".
If he gets canned by CU, his next job will be as an assistant.

lol on your silver lining. I hadn't thought before about the personal importance 2009 is to Dan's career. Right now, none of the big teams would want to hire a HC who has the record of the first 3 years that Hawk has..

Exactly. If Hawk were a hot commodity, Bohn might be facing the prospect of getting a replacement. So his crappy record atleast provides continuity. :lol:
 
5-7 is crappy...8-4, with an occasional 10-2 year, and a B12 title is pretty darn good. I would sign up for that.

I don't see the present situation changing much as long as the B12 remains configured as it is....Hawkins and staff will not be bottom feeders in the conference..but the talent disparity is too much to expect repeated conference titles....imo...hey, I'd love to be wrong.
 
I think Disappointment is the main word that comes to my mind on the state of the CU athletic department:

1. I am disappointed as hell that our football team finished w/o a bowl game this year. People have mentioned that we beat TT & played Alabama so closely. Yet those 2 teams improved immensely this year and we turned out to be a disappointment. Granted because of all the variables (injuries, inelegibilities, other excuses wah wah) I'm not losing hope. But I definately agree anything less than 8-4 next year and I'm gonna flip a lid.

2. I'm disappointed with how the MBB team has started the year. Granted, I wasn't expecting much from them but I thought that Bzdelik was bringing in some talented guys that could at least keep pace with TCU or Mont. St. Losses like that are downright embarrassing. I'm also not really sold that Bzdelik's style of play & Princeton offense could ever succeed in the physical as all hell Big 12. We need some bruisers more than we need shooters.

3. Women's BB. Another huge disappointment as it seems that they have good talent come in but it hasn't equated to jack yet. In an all out honesty though, of the 3 major sports the Womens run in the NIT last year is about the best thing we've had going for us in 3-4 years. How disappointing is that???
 
.... How disappointing is that???

VERY. For a team that was a regular in the NCAA tournament and a frequent Sweet 16 team, making the NIT as the #9 team in the Big 12 is not that much of an accomplishment.

And you're right ... if that's the best that a fan of FB or BB at CU can look forward to, we have a serious, serious problem.
 
7 stages of being a BUFF fan this year.

shock-> FSU
denial -> UT
numbness -> KU
fear -> MIZZOU
anger -> A&M
depression -> OSU
understanding -> NU
acceptance & moving on -> Offseason
 
...but unless Hawk puts up 10 wins or so in 2009..he will never be a hot coaching commodity..even then, people will expect a 3 year max turnaround in a program..Davis, Saban,...don't expect Auburn or Tenn to give the new coach a long honeymoon like Weis is getting at ND.

Sorry, but those AD's out there that are brighter than a burned-out lightbulb look at what you are using for starting material and then look at progress. At UW, they would have had more patience if they could show "some" progress. ND has gone backwards, and he's still there. Hawk's upper classes were talentless, there hadn't been a QB or O-Linemen recruited in several years, and everything from the facilitites to the strength program was in disarray. Tenn and Auburn have had consistently good if not great recruiting every year. Fullmer couldn't get it done as a coach. It's another perfect opportunity for a good coach to step in and improve next year and be top 10 the year after (ala Saban). The players are there. Most people know that CU was struggling to outrecruit Baylor in the middle part of this decade....

I'll tell you right now that if Hawk takes this team to bowls the next two years and get's this team into the top-15 in 2010, his name will start coming up. Plenty of AD's know how bad this program was post-scandal, even if most of our fans haven't a clue.
 
From a PR and fundraising perspective I totally agree. Mike Bohn has taken this athletic department out of the dark ages. There's only so much he can do from a marketing perspective to get people in the seats. There has to be success on the field/court in order for the department to take that next step. So far, that's alluded him.

I'm really questioning the choice of McConnell-Miller at this point. As I recall, she never did anything all that spectacular at Tulsa, and then came here and has done... nothing all that spectacular. At least with Bzdelik and Hawkins, we had some past successes to hang our hat on. Perhaps Women's basketball is such a low priority that Bohn doesn't feel like he needs to get a great coach in there. Or, maybe at the time of the hire, he wasn't able to really get the coach he wanted, and had to settle (we actually know this to be the case, as the N Ill coach first accepted the job, then turned it down a day later). Colorado has very good high school girls basketball players. It shouldn't be that difficult to field a competitive team here.


you mean....they let girls play basketball now? :thumbsup:
 
I'll tell you right now that if Hawk takes this team to bowls the next two years and get's this team into the top-15 in 2010, his name will start coming up. Plenty of AD's know how bad this program was post-scandal, even if most of our fans haven't a clue.

Luckily, we have you here to keep us straight.
 
From a W-L perspective, we suck. Our football, men's basketball, and women's basketball team are all below average. I don't think anybody has to look too hard to see where we need improvement. But for the sake of a good discussion, I'll throw some thoughts out there...

Football is the engine that runs the department, and some wins are needed there, and soon. Anything less than 8-4 next season would be a huge disappointment for me, and I suspect for Mike Bohn as well.

After looking closely at their '09 schedule, I think you are right, ANYTHING less then 8-4 would be a disappointment in the 4th year of someones coaching tenure. Based on our favorable home schedule and with some good offense offsetting a rookie defense I think we should be going 9-3. I expect to see us beat WVU but lose to Texas, Okie Lite and probably a senior laden Kansas team. We should compete for the North.
 
I thought you didn't care about BB sackman?

It's not that I don't care about basketball. I don't like basketball. I do care if it does well and I want to see the team succeed. I want to see the CEC filled to capacity on a regular basis. That's good for the school. It's good for the department, and it's good for the community.

Mike Bohn has been here for what, 5 years? The on-field/court production has arguably gotten worse in that time span. I don't necessarily blame him, as it's not his job to make those teams perform better. It is his job to put the right people in place to allow him to run a profitable department. I think it's killing him to see how poorly the basketball programs are performing. I trust his judgement as to the best course of action, but only to a point. We need to start seeing better results in the "name" programs.
 
From a PR and fundraising perspective I totally agree. Mike Bohn has taken this athletic department out of the dark ages. There's only so much he can do from a marketing perspective to get people in the seats. There has to be success on the field/court in order for the department to take that next step. So far, that's alluded him.

I'm really questioning the choice of McConnell-Miller at this point. As I recall, she never did anything all that spectacular at Tulsa, and then came here and has done... nothing all that spectacular. At least with Bzdelik and Hawkins, we had some past successes to hang our hat on. Perhaps Women's basketball is such a low priority that Bohn doesn't feel like he needs to get a great coach in there. Or, maybe at the time of the hire, he wasn't able to really get the coach he wanted, and had to settle (we actually know this to be the case, as the N Ill coach first accepted the job, then turned it down a day later). Colorado has very good high school girls basketball players. It shouldn't be that difficult to field a competitive team here.

On the hiring of the women's Basketball Coach - actually the search for the New WBB coach started before Bohn was hired. Jack Lengyel formed a seach committee to find a new coach. Kevin Borseth from University of Wisconsin-Green Bay was offered the job and accepted. Him and his wife flew out to Colorado for him to be announced as the WBB HC. In the interim Bohn had been hired as the AD at CU and started a few days before Borseth was to be announced. The morning of the press conference, Bohn had a meeting with Borseth for about an hour - when the meeting was finished Borseth said he was not accepting the CU job for family reasons.

Bohn then went out and hired KMAC, he did not consider any of the candidates that the previous search committee had focused on including the Gonzaga and Temple coaches, both of whom had better resumes than KMAC. Borseth is now at Michigan.

I have to question what Bohn wants in a coach...
 
On the hiring of the women's Basketball Coach - actually the search for the New WBB coach started before Bohn was hired. Jack Lengyel formed a seach committee to find a new coach. Kevin Borseth from University of Wisconsin-Green Bay was offered the job and accepted. Him and his wife flew out to Colorado for him to be announced as the WBB HC. In the interim Bohn had been hired as the AD at CU and started a few days before Borseth was to be announced. The morning of the press conference, Bohn had a meeting with Borseth for about an hour - when the meeting was finished Borseth said he was not accepting the CU job for family reasons.

Bohn then went out and hired KMAC, he did not consider any of the candidates that the previous search committee had focused on including the Gonzaga and Temple coaches, both of whom had better resumes than KMAC. Borseth is now at Michigan.

I have to question what Bohn wants in a coach...


Thank you for remembering the details of the KMac hiring. For some reason I had N Ill on my mind, but you're right, it was the W-GB coach. I didn't know all of the rest of those details, either.

As for what Bohn wants in a coach, I think I know some of it. He wants somebody who will be good in the community. Somebody who will present a positive face for the department, and somebody who will be visible. Those are his major needs. On field/court success is secondary to those requirements. When he got here, none of the coaches he had possessed any of those qualities. To her credit, KMac shows up at every athletic department function, she's always at the Buff Club events, and is very accessible.
 
Thank you for remembering the details of the KMac hiring. For some reason I had N Ill on my mind, but you're right, it was the W-GB coach. I didn't know all of the rest of those details, either.

As for what Bohn wants in a coach, I think I know some of it. He wants somebody who will be good in the community. Somebody who will present a positive face for the department, and somebody who will be visible. Those are his major needs. On field/court success is secondary to those requirements. When he got here, none of the coaches he had possessed any of those qualities. To her credit, KMac shows up at every athletic department function, she's always at the Buff Club events, and is very accessible.

I guess that I would put winning a little hired in importance, attendance at CEC would reflect some of that. I know many did not like Barnett but I found that he attended a lot of functions in the Metro Denver area not only Buff related ones and he would always be accessible to people who wanted to talk to him. Patton was definitely a little different but I did not find him to be a bad guy, he did not miss too many golf events.

Ceal Barry said something interesting one time, she felt that WBB had changed and that male coaches had a distinct advantage in recruiting because the decisions for recruits were being heavily influenced by the fathers in the households.
 
My sincere thoughts are thought CU hired an athletic director with a history of hiring losing coaches - this is not an insult, it is a fact - who happens to be a good PR guy, so he has been fully embraced, despite his pretty poor track record. I think Dan Hawkins is in a bit over his head. The program he left has been more successful since he left under the head coaching of his former OC. CU has struggled mightily and the outlook continue to gets pushed out two years. I see a common sentiment among CU fans now that 6 wins in 2009 is OK, if not great, and that we should never expect more than 7 wins a season with an occasional 8 win season, or 9 wins if the stars align.

This isn't what was advertised when Dan Hawkins was hired. While most of us weren't stupid enough to believe the promises of "national championships within three years" (lol), I expected the football team to be better by year three - maybe much better. Instead, it's worse. GB haters say what you want - and I do believe it was time for him to move on - but I sincerely doubt he ever had a three-season stretch even remotely bad as this one. His last season at CU produced a winning team, regardless of the implosion at the end of the season.

Regardless of those of you who said they expected five years to rebuild from the outset - which is a flat out lie for most fans, by the way, the overwhelming sentiment on all boards for all buff fans after the Hawkins hire was 2 years of mediocrity then a launch into another stratosphere - this program doesn't appear headed in the right direction for me.

We have had a coach for three years and we still have no *IDEA* what the offense is supposed to be. It's not a power running game, it's NOT a spread, we don't air it out, we don't run a WCO, we barely use the tight ends, we don't run multiple backs on the field at the same time even when RB appears to be our most talented position, our QB can't run, we don't use misdirection or trick plays in any sort of effective manner, we don't exploit mismatches when there occasionally are some, our only deep-threat, impact player at wideout sits on the bench for the overwhelming majority of games, we throw 7 yard outs on 3rd and 18, etc, etc. There is no offensive identity. There is no scheme. There is no continuity, and there is no building on anything week-to-week.

I am of the opinion that the bar has thoroughly been lowered and no one really expects CU to return to a power in the Big 12 anymore. I see and talk to people and the prevailing desire/hope seems to be 7 wins a year, and maybe a win in the Independence Bowl every other year. Taking a back seat to Missouri, or Kansas, or whatever flash-in-the-pan B12N team of the year is OK - it's ok to lose to them by 58 points even!

I know the players don't feel this way. I'm sure the coaches don't. But that's the message that gets communicated sometimes. Do we need the coaches to go into meltdown mode after losses or bad plays? No. But there is a middle ground.

The fact that, in year three, we still have NO coherent scheme concerns me. Not only is the scheme not coherent, but no one even knows what it is. The strengths of this team, traditionally, have been LBs, TEs, and the running game. The LBs this year were not up to the usual standard of excellence. The TEs weren't even used much at all. There was no continued commitment to the running game, even when it was all we had to go on.

Regarding the Hoops team -- well, that's a mess. That can be turned around with one good player, but it's going to be an immense challenge for Bz. to get that kind of blue chip, top tier player to come to CU unless he is from Denver.

It's just really disappointing to look at our athletic department and see the two main sports that people are really passionate about to be in their current state. Losing to Montana State in football AND basketball [seriously, this is absolutely ridiculous. It astounds me more and more every time it crosses my mind], losing to Baylor, losing to CSU, losing to ISU, finishing near the bottom in both sports.

I just don't understand how some fans seem to be OK with this.
 
I'm not going to read all that buffs04 but a history of hiring losing coaches? come on. Bzdelik was highly successful at Air Force and Hawkins averaged what...9-10 wins a year at Boise. They may be having trouble here but it's because of the messes Patton and Barnett left them
 
His hires have well under a .500 record at the schools he hires them at - I think that would qualify for some speculation that they might be bad hires, don't you?
 
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