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having taken a couple days to reflect...

Liver

modded mod
Club Member
Junta Member
i offer the following thoughts on the State of The Buffaloes, as of mid-season and sitting at an inauspicious 4-4:

1. special teams are truly a disaster and have cost us dearly this year and in prior years in the hawkins era. the staff clearly does not make special teams a priority and it shows. virtually every game, there is a huge error in st. this cannot be laid solely at the feet of inexperience and execution. when your team is consistently blowing it over a period of 3 seasons in a particular facet of the game, you have a coaching problem.

2. the combination of injuries, youth, and lack of senior leadership are killing the Buffs on offense. we could have a world-class staff and our team would still be struggling this year. the Buffs have simply played too many young and inexperienced guys on offense to expect any consistent results, particularly when many of these young and inexperienced guys were not expected to even contribute this year. it is one thing when you are playing a bunch of 5 star frosh (see 'bama). it is another entirely when you are playing guys who really needed a year or more of seasoning to be ready. our offensive woes at this point are probably unavoidable.

3. even considering point 2 above, we have no offensive philosophy whatsoever. the staff doesn't seem to have any consistent idea of what it wants to do. they don't seem to have an overarching plan for what the Buff offense should look like. it is all ad-hoc planning. you need a PLAN. what is your team going to try to do, every game? and, our playcalling and game day adjustments reflect the lack of a plan and philosophy. there appears to be no rhythm or feel for it. what kind of a team are we? are we a running team? a power team? a spread team? what? i have no idea. if you have a PLAN, then you can go out and get guys who fit your plan and will execute on your philosophy.

4. the Buffs are far, far behind in the increasingly tough big 12 and appear to be headed backward at this point in the season. CU is not a good football team right now. the offense is nearly as bad as 2006 (and 2006 was the worst Buff season in terms of the quality of the performance since the FAIRBANKS era). in the north, mizzery showed the whole world that they are on another planet talent-wise from CU. ku is much better than CU (altho still a reasonably weak team). the fuskers and kjsu are not much better or worse than CU. that leaves only lowly isu as a north team that CU can confidently claim to be better than right now. in the south, texas and ou are on another planet. osu is way better. tech would probably kill the Buffs too. atm has actually showed some life and baylor is improving. even if you credit the Buffs as being better than atm and baylor, then that places the Buffs as like the 7th or 8th best team in the big 12. this is a big fall off from even the last dark days of barnett.

5. the team basically quit about 3 minutes into the mizzery game. this is a very troubling sign. the defense drastically underperformed and i attribute it to the failure of team unity. yeah, there were some bone-headed coachign decisions defensively, but, when the team's morale fails, a season is basically over. it happened in 2006 and it is happening again this year. expecting them to go down to atm and win is a big ask. they have to believe they can win, even against what appears to be a beatable opponent. i don't know if the team has the confidence to do it.

so, halfway thru 08, that is where we are, imho. the season could still be saved. but, if we have any reasonable hope of the program turning itself around and starting to actually matter in the world of college football again, it needs to happen now. a loss to atm and you can basically hit the "season over" button, i fear. and, that will make recruiting and a program recovery under hawk significantly more difficult. the staff needs a bowl game to maintain credibility and support. atm must be defeated to have a reasonable shot at a bowl. a loss and i think the team may very well fall apart completely.

sorry to be a downer...

hoping for the best as always, and i will support the program thru thick and thin. but, i am increasingly skeptical about this staff's chance of getting it done.

GO BUFFS!
 
overall a very good analysis....I don't think you could emphasize enough the importance of this weekends game....a win is a MUST

You also can't emphasize enough how badly the season has been destroyed because of the injury situation...and although it can get to sound like a broken record and is difficult to admit to it, the injuries are the #1 reason things are looking a little bit down
 
Liver, watching the game this weekend I thought about your post regarding Coach Mac's contract renewal during his 1-10 season and how that was a huge vote of confidence for him from the administration which really helped him on the recruiting trail. You also said that you felt Hawk essentially got the same thing this year from Bohn and crew although you hoped his situation was not a dire as Mac's was. On Saturday, watching the way we played, seeing so clearly how far we are from where we want to be, I got the distinct feeling we are in as bad shape as the Buffs were during that 1-10 season. We may not have that record but we played and looked like a 1-10 team. More importantly, the feel of the team, the spirit, the morale was 1-10.

I honestly don't think we will win another game this season. They are shell-shocked and probably won't resurface from the fog they are in until they get to Stinkoln and by then it will be to late to try for a post season.

PS You are dead on about special teams. We look like high schoolers out there. Time for some changes to the coaching staff.
 
I wish I could be as eloquent or as analytical as you all are. After 4 days since the game all I still have to say is "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!"
 
I agree but can I add that there is an analogy here that seems to fit.

Blaming youth and inexperience for the Buffs problems is like blaming the sub-prime mortgage folks for the current, entire financial crisis (i.e. liquidity).

Yeah the youth and inexperience of the team is partially to blame but like the financial markets we're finding out this is more symptomatic rather then problematic.

Just like I find it incredulous that Greenspan failed to take into consideration the greed factor in banking and Wall Street in his strategy making role. I find it equally amazing that the people responsible for this youth and inexperience debacle didn't take into consideration that we would be in this situation based on depth at position when they got here. To compound things they continue to rotate players hoping a magical formation occurs if they continually mix the "ingredients".

The sad thing is we saw the beginning of this with the Montana State game. What transpired before and during that game is scarily analogous to what we find now. Very few set players at their respective positions on offense, an almost childish/schizophrenic game plan and calling, a bewilderment as to how to make adjustments during the game and having the team look sloppily prepared and even lost on some plays. Sound familiar. It should. That could have easily described the Mizzou game.

Hawk I think is playing his role accordingly by setting the right tone for the program, but that staff configuration he relies on needs to be blown up after this year.
 
i offer the following thoughts on the State of The Buffaloes, as of mid-season and sitting at an inauspicious 4-4:

1. special teams are truly a disaster and have cost us dearly this year and in prior years in the hawkins era. the staff clearly does not make special teams a priority and it shows. virtually every game, there is a huge error in st. this cannot be laid solely at the feet of inexperience and execution. when your team is consistently blowing it over a period of 3 seasons in a particular facet of the game, you have a coaching problem.

2. the combination of injuries, youth, and lack of senior leadership are killing the Buffs on offense. we could have a world-class staff and our team would still be struggling this year. the Buffs have simply played too many young and inexperienced guys on offense to expect any consistent results, particularly when many of these young and inexperienced guys were not expected to even contribute this year. it is one thing when you are playing a bunch of 5 star frosh (see 'bama). it is another entirely when you are playing guys who really needed a year or more of seasoning to be ready. our offensive woes at this point are probably unavoidable.

3. even considering point 2 above, we have no offensive philosophy whatsoever. the staff doesn't seem to have any consistent idea of what it wants to do. they don't seem to have an overarching plan for what the Buff offense should look like. it is all ad-hoc planning. you need a PLAN. what is your team going to try to do, every game? and, our playcalling and game day adjustments reflect the lack of a plan and philosophy. there appears to be no rhythm or feel for it. what kind of a team are we? are we a running team? a power team? a spread team? what? i have no idea. if you have a PLAN, then you can go out and get guys who fit your plan and will execute on your philosophy.

4. the Buffs are far, far behind in the increasingly tough big 12 and appear to be headed backward at this point in the season. CU is not a good football team right now. the offense is nearly as bad as 2006 (and 2006 was the worst Buff season in terms of the quality of the performance since the FAIRBANKS era). in the north, mizzery showed the whole world that they are on another planet talent-wise from CU. ku is much better than CU (altho still a reasonably weak team). the fuskers and kjsu are not much better or worse than CU. that leaves only lowly isu as a north team that CU can confidently claim to be better than right now. in the south, texas and ou are on another planet. osu is way better. tech would probably kill the Buffs too. atm has actually showed some life and baylor is improving. even if you credit the Buffs as being better than atm and baylor, then that places the Buffs as like the 7th or 8th best team in the big 12. this is a big fall off from even the last dark days of barnett.

5. the team basically quit about 3 minutes into the mizzery game. this is a very troubling sign. the defense drastically underperformed and i attribute it to the failure of team unity. yeah, there were some bone-headed coachign decisions defensively, but, when the team's morale fails, a season is basically over. it happened in 2006 and it is happening again this year. expecting them to go down to atm and win is a big ask. they have to believe they can win, even against what appears to be a beatable opponent. i don't know if the team has the confidence to do it.

so, halfway thru 08, that is where we are, imho. the season could still be saved. but, if we have any reasonable hope of the program turning itself around and starting to actually matter in the world of college football again, it needs to happen now. a loss to atm and you can basically hit the "season over" button, i fear. and, that will make recruiting and a program recovery under hawk significantly more difficult. the staff needs a bowl game to maintain credibility and support. atm must be defeated to have a reasonable shot at a bowl. a loss and i think the team may very well fall apart completely.

sorry to be a downer...

hoping for the best as always, and i will support the program thru thick and thin. but, i am increasingly skeptical about this staff's chance of getting it done.

GO BUFFS!

Your points 1 and 3 are the most glaring holes to me. On point 3 it almost appears to me the coaching staff thinks that scheming will carry the day. On offense there has been no identity at all. Other teams have their base offense and work off of that, it appears the Buffs have no base offense - just line up in the shot gun. I thought they were going to try to increase the tempo this year but it is not happening.
 
DH might be good for the program, but he needs to surround himself with better asst. coaches. Inexperienced or youthful (or worse both) assistants are not the answer for success.

DH era = CHuck Fairbanks era; unless some coaching changes are maide at the ST and OC positions.
 
DH era = CHuck Fairbanks era; unless some coaching changes are maide at the ST and OC positions.

Don't even joke about that, man. This institution still hasn't recovered from the scortched earth left behind by upChuck Fairbanks.
 
DH might be good for the program, but he needs to surround himself with better asst. coaches. Inexperienced or youthful (or worse both) assistants are not the answer for success.

DH era = CHuck Fairbanks era; unless some coaching changes are maide at the ST and OC positions.

Why Fairbanks and not Coach Mac? I'm curious why you go to one, but don't consider a parallel with the other.

For the record, Coach Mac was a terrible game day coach, but a great recruiter and motivator.
 
Why Fairbanks and not Coach Mac? I'm curious why you go to one, but don't consider a parallel with the other.

For the record, Coach Mac was a terrible game day coach, but a great recruiter and motivator.

Agreed, but the difference is that Mac realized he had neither the experience nor the talent to compete so he changed his offense accordingly for ball control and positive yardage until a point where he did have the talent. He also surrounded himself with great asst like Barnett, DiNardo, Neuheisal, and others who all became head coaches at other major programs. Besides, Cabral, neither of these asst coaches are wanted by major programs (BCS schools) regardless of what the papers say. DH may be a good motivator and recruiter but he needs to make the offense fit the current reality of players and surround himself with good coaches.
 
Agreed, but the difference is that Mac realized he had neither the experience nor the talent to compete so he changed his offense accordingly for ball control and positive yardage until a point where he did have the talent. He also surrounded himself with great asst like Barnett, DiNardo, Neuheisal, and others who all became head coaches at other major programs. Besides, Cabral, neither of these asst coaches are wanted by major programs (BCS schools) regardless of what the papers say. DH may be a good motivator and recruiter but he needs to make the offense fit the current reality of players and surround himself with good coaches.

He made the change you're referring to in his 4th year here. And he'll be the first to tell you it was a desperation move. A desperation move that worked out, but it was a desperation move. Mark Hatcher was a wide receiver.
 
Agreed, but the difference is that Mac realized he had neither the experience nor the talent to compete so he changed his offense accordingly for ball control and positive yardage until a point where he did have the talent. He also surrounded himself with great asst like Barnett, DiNardo, Neuheisal, and others who all became head coaches at other major programs. Besides, Cabral, neither of these asst coaches are wanted by major programs (BCS schools) regardless of what the papers say. DH may be a good motivator and recruiter but he needs to make the offense fit the current reality of players and surround himself with good coaches.

Buffwings,

Let's take a quick look at Coach Mac's third season as a head coach at CU (which, as a point of reference where Coach Hawk is now):

--Overall record 1-10.

--NEVER scored more than 27 points in a game! The 1984 Buffs additionally failed to score more than 17 points in seven of their games. I'm not sure where this adaptive offense you speak so highly of was in season three.

--Lost to Missouri 52-7. Granted, not as badly as Hawk and our boys lost to Mizzou this season...BUT...Mizzou's record was 3-7-1 that season. They were a very bad team.

I'm not saying there's a direct parallel between Coach Hawk and Coach Mac, because they're very different people in very different circumstances. But, I can only imagine your state-of-mind in Coach Mac's third season if you'd been a fan back in those days!

I'd additionally like to disagree with another point you've asserted frequently on this board. You like to point out that Coach Hawk was a great coach in the WAC, but doesn't have Big XII credentials. I'd argue, that in several of his years at Boise State, Coach Hawkins' Broncos would have handily defeated the Buffs. Several of those years where I might suggest the Broncos match up well, the Buffs were Big XII North Champs. I think Coach Hawk can compete in this conference.

Just sayin'
 
For the record. I agree, that Mac isnt DH or vice versa, and that during that time, people were very much in the frame of mind that several fans are right now, including myself. Although, I am NOT calling for DH's head I do think he needs a more experienced and innovative staff in at least 2 positions. I agree that DH was very successful and many coaches are able to make that jump successfully to the next level AND many coaches do NOT. Some here do believe DH can succeed here and that's great, I and several others are not convinced. (at least not without some changes). I believe Mac had a better staff, ofcourse hindight is 20/20. I respect other people's opinions in thinking that DH is the second coming of Mac or will get us back to where Mac had us, I do not.

Most of all, I really do want to be wrong about DH. Why? because I WANT the program to succeed. I dont want to start all over again with another coach, HOWEVER, I am not convinced about this coach. DH lost me after the KU game and I will remain skeptical until we see some progress and at least show up for the games. I dont think it will be this year. I'm not sure it will even be next year. People 2 yrs ago were saying that 2009 is our year. Many have already lowered their expectations and now believe 2010 or even 2011 is our year. Some have that kind of patience, some do not. I do not. I think after 3 yrs the team should show some progress. I dont believe he has shown much on the field.

I'm not delusional and expect to win the Big XII next year, but I do expect to compete for the North and then the conference within 4 yrs. I'm happy with at least 7 or 8 wins some years, 9 wins some years and once and while 10+ wins.

After said all that, I will be the first one to eat crow if DH has a winning season this year.
 
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and I am still stuck with FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

:yeahthat: I'm still pissed. It's hard going to work, with Bama, TU, KU, UF, UGA, and even BYU and Boise St alumni wearing their fangear who just smile and give me that "sucks to be you" look when I wear mine. I wear my fangear everyday in some form or fashion, and fly my CU flag proudly here in SEC country and I will ALWAYS be a Buff fan whether we're 0-12 or 12-0.

However, we cant even say we almost had that one, or it was a close game, or we were in it in the 4th qtr. This season has been very disappointing.
 
Sucks to be you then buffwings. I wear my CU gear because I love the university, not because I love the football team. I just happen to love football and CU has a team that you can see on TV every week. You really must have some inferiority complex if you think other people give you a "sucks to be you" look when you wear your gear. Most people don't give a crap about someone else's team unless they are either playing them that week or it's a rival school.

I go to work with a lot of people that went to UT, UF, aTm and other schools around the nation and people just usually ask how the team is doing, if even that, and we talk about CFB all the time. A lot of people weren't even aware of the Mizzou blowout this week too.

OH NOES THE SEC CHAMP FAN SAYS CU SUX!11!!1!
 
:yeahthat: I'm still pissed. It's hard going to work, with Bama, TU, KU, UF, UGA, and even BYU and Boise St alumni wearing their fangear who just smile and give me that "sucks to be you" look when I wear mine. I wear my fangear everyday in some form or fashion, and fly my CU flag proudly here in SEC country and I will ALWAYS be a Buff fan whether we're 0-12 or 12-0.

:congrats:

That's what I like to hear!!
 
Sucks to be you then buffwings. I wear my CU gear because I love the university, not because I love the football team. I just happen to love football and CU has a team that you can see on TV every week. !

Yeah, yeah, whatever. After we graduate people dont care what major you had, what your grades were or even if your school has a top engineering school unless someone is hiring you. People you work with can relate to you based on the connection you and they still have the school. The easiest connection most people feel is through their sports teams. Guys hang out and drink beer, and BBQ and talk about FOOTBALL not their universities programs.

I love CU, but we dont chat about the academics we talk about how we see the school represented on TV; through the freakin games. It is a source of pride, even though its a rather simplistic way of looking at the school, but it is what it is and people do look to their school teams' to represent their alma mater.

Thanks for playing, though.
 
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