What's new
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

Getting to know Colorado

RSSBot

News Junkie
By Ted Miller and David Ubben

Colorado is new to the Pac-12 but old to the Big 12, so it makes sense to check in with Big 12 blogger David Ubben to get his take on the state of the Buffaloes as they welcome new coach Jon Embree.

Just who are these Buffaloes? What are their strengths and weaknesses and how will they fit into the Pac-12, specifically the Pac-12 South?

We went looking for insights and Ubben obliged.

Ted Miller: Well, David you -- and the Big 12 -- have to say goodbye to Colorado, with the Buffaloes looking to their future out West in the Pac-12. First of all, give Pac-12 fans a CliffsNotes description of the state of the program. Things haven’t gone so well in Boulder lately. Why?

David Ubben: Colorado is certainly in rebuilding mode as they kick off a new start under coach Jon Embree after firing Dan Hawkins in the middle of the 2010 season. They bring back two stars in quarterback Tyler Hansen and running back Rodney Stewart. But fitting those guys into Embree's new system and greatly improving from their 5-7 record seems like asking a lot.

Hawkins came to Boulder promising big things but never delivered. As for why it didn't go well? Any number of reasons. One that angered fans is Hawkins' tendency to play less talented players who knew the system well over more talented players that maybe didn't have as solid of a grasp of what they wanted to do on the field. Embree has said he'll do essentially the opposite, so I guess that's a start in the eyes of fans.

TM: OK, let’s look forward then. Tell Pac-12 folks about Embree, his new staff and the talent the Buffaloes have returning. What are strengths and what are question marks heading into the 2011 season?

DU: He's stocked his coaching staff with quite a few Buffaloes, but most of the names would be more recognizable as players. The biggest name is his offensive coordinator, former Buffs great Eric Bieniemy, who spent the past few years coaching Adrian Peterson as the running backs coach at the Minnesota Vikings. They also swiped Bobby Kennedy, a Boulder native, from Texas to coach receivers.

Last year, they ran the ball pretty well, and Stewart is back. He's a small, shifty back that seems way, way underrated. He rushed for more than 1,300 yards last year, and the only Big 12 backs who had more were Daniel Thomas and Kendall Hunter, who should be drafted this year. They lose tackle Nate Solder, another first-round pick, but Ryan Miller is back, and he's an all-conference level guard.

The big question for them next season will be if their defense can stop the pass -- which my sources tell me, is pretty important in the Pac-12. Maybe not as important as in the Big 12, but still necessary for big success. Both corners from last year, Jalil Brown and Jimmy Smith, should be drafted. They weren't great at stopping the pass last year (9th in the Big 12) so it's hard to see them being better at it next year.

TM: OK. Good stuff. Let’s wind it up. How would you have projected them in the Big 12 next fall? And do you have any feeling for how they might do in the new Pac-12 South?

DU: They definitely looked like a team in the bottom third of the Big 12 next year, and it seems like it'll be tough for them to finish in the top half of the Pac-12 South in 2011.

Right now, it's just about being competitive and maybe stealing a game or two that people didn't think they'd win. If that happens enough, a bowl game isn't out of the question. We don't have any idea what to expect out of an Embree-coached team, and that could be a good or a bad thing. We won't know for sure until next year, but if Embree can bottle up whatever Colorado had inside of them the way they played down the stretch last season after Hawkins was fired, it could be a real surprise 2011 for the Buffs.

Originally posted by ESPN.com - Pac-10 Blog
Click here to view the article.
 
Actually a pretty fair and objective article/ eval of the program but not anything really deep
 
Can't say I disagree with what he's saying there. It will be a struggle for us to be in the top half of the conference next year. No question.
 
Speedy and Miller get some love. not exactly an unabashed endorsement of the JE hire, though.

Any national or conference sports columnist would be nuts to herald the Embree hire as a brilliant move by CU. He's unproven as a head coach and he does not have a marquee name. The only reasonable position at this point is "wait and see."
 
So I dump the ESPN Big-12 Ubben feed and the first real story out of the PAC-12 feed features.... David Ubben. Lovely.
 
Any national or conference sports columnist would be nuts to herald the Embree hire as a brilliant move by CU. He's unproven as a head coach and he does not have a marquee name. The only reasonable position at this point is "wait and see."

that was my opinion from the get-go. i'm won over so far, but i didn't like the hire when it happened. who else is trying to hire Jon Embree as their HC? no one. but, i like the way we pulled a recruiting class together and the nostalgia angle is hard to fight on an emotional way. as you say, until we see W's it's hard to know. Hawkins had to go....that much we know.

So I dump the ESPN Big-12 Ubben feed and the first real story out of the PAC-12 feed features.... David Ubben. Lovely.


i don't know why people hate on Ubben so much here. he did a decent job. much better than Tim "where's Mack's ballsack" Griffin.
 
i don't know why people hate on Ubben so much here. he did a decent job. much better than Tim "where's Mack's ballsack" Griffin.

Agreed. I can't really think of much he has written that I don't agree with. So he doesn't fawn over the buffs. He shouldn't we suck at present.
 
that was my opinion from the get-go. i'm won over so far, but i didn't like the hire when it happened. who else is trying to hire Jon Embree as their HC? no one. but, i like the way we pulled a recruiting class together and the nostalgia angle is hard to fight on an emotional way. as you say, until we see W's it's hard to know. Hawkins had to go....that much we know.




i don't know why people hate on Ubben so much here. he did a decent job. much better than Tim "where's Mack's ballsack" Griffin.

Is it my imagination or has "Ubben is all right" replaced "that gold looks kinda green" as your Allbuffs obsession?
 
i've posted about Ubben maybe 3 times. the green-gold is real. gold helmet/piss champagne pants is a classic Hawk era thing. Tim Griffen was a Texas homer.

i don't understand why you are riding me about this again?
 
20110210__11dcsbuf_200.jpg
 
i've posted about Ubben maybe 3 times. the green-gold is real. gold helmet/piss champagne pants is a classic Hawk era thing. Tim Griffen was a Texas homer.

i don't understand why you are riding me about this again?

I spot themes--it's what I do. You should relax, mister.
 
<div><embed style='display:inline;' quality='high' wmode='transparent' id='FlashDiv' FlashVars='songId=28306355&pid=-2960062065441778208' AllowScriptAccess='always' src='http://www.myspace.com/music/song-embed?songid=28306355&getSwf=true' width='400' height='77'/><p>Find more artists like <a target='_blank' href='http://www.myspace.com/mrmistermusic'>Mr Mister</a> at <a target='_blank' href='http://www.myspace.com/music'> Myspace Music </a></p></div>
 
Back
Top