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!

Coach Summers is the Answer

Agree or disagree with the OP, it is good that Summers and the D are taking heat. They should be on the hot seat. I’d imagine they are on HCMT’s.
 
I agree that the D needs to get better, and I think they will.
After the game a few players talked about CSU doing some things we didnt expect. Adjustments to that was made at the half and we got better.
The nubs only scored 2 touchdowns on offense, only had 276 yards on total offense and turned the ball over 3 times against South Alabama.
The nubs were beat in every category except turnovers.
The nubs are overrated just as we knew they were and we will kick their ass this weekend.
 
Some issues though are or should be fixable. We had some badly blown coverages. The first TD had Abrams alone on two receivers, he tried to call for help and nobody adjusted. We either should have had someone fill immediately or called a time out

Friday night we didn't have to call a single time-out due to confusion

I agree with most of your post, but these two things you mentioned sure seem like a stark contradiction.
 
New defense and only 3 starters the same as last year's opener. Average offense in college football is 27 points and CU gave up 31.

I expected a better performance, but that's mostly because I'm not objective about the Buffs the same way I would have been about another program and the same basic facts.
 
What concerns me about the defense is the talent deficit, which the new staff does not really seem to be correcting.
Agreed. Especially on the defensive line. They were slow and weak and didnt seem to have any pass rushing moves other than running straight into the offensive line then getting pushed backwards... thats not an issue you can brush off with "they were thinking too much" or "it was the first game"
 
Agreed. Especially on the defensive line. They were slow and weak and didnt seem to have any pass rushing moves other than running straight into the offensive line then getting pushed backwards... thats not an issue you can brush off with "they were thinking too much" or "it was the first game"
Late in the game, they ran some stunts out of the four front. The JVD strip was off a stunt and blitz. I suspect we will see more Saturday.
 
You guys set the bar high. I went into this game scarred about the O line and running back. I am pleasantly surprised at how they handled a poor team. In the first half, our defense angered me. In the second half athletes made plays. Perfect first game. We covered and have a ton of real issues for the coaches to bust ass on. It’s not like we lost to Montana State, or gave up a big lead to Kansas or Oregon State. Last I checked we don’t have one of the coaches kids starting. Baby steps in the right direction!
 
I also get the impression this staff doesn't just blow smoke about it like most - They are truly going to play the kid that gives us the best chance to win.
 
to which coach should get fired before the season is over. It takes real "chops" to turn a mediocre defense with some talent into a defense that is reminiscent of Embree-vs-Fresno St -level-of-incompetence.

Coach Tucker said-- we thought in jest-- that he didn't want to make Luckett worse after switching to DB. Apparently, HCMT wasn't joking. Almost to a man, the defense was worse than last year.

The argument that this is a new coaching staff with a new scheme does not obviate Summer's responsibility to adequately diagnose, evaluate, prepare, and strategize with the current roster.

The fact that the LB coach said this week that the LB's needed at least a few more weeks to understand the defense was not understatement or coach speak. He must have anticipated the impending disaster.

For the moment, let's put aside the missed assignments and wrong alignments (such as one DB covering two WR's). I can understand that happening once in a first game. I cannot understand that happening almost every series until the fourth quarter.

It's obviously a poor scheme and personnel decisions to have ILBs like Van Diest and Landman attempting to cover RB's in space.

It's equally bad to play a soft zone coverage (with DB's 12 yards from the line of scrimmage) on third and five--especially when the opponents have been playing pitch and catch for an entire half.

At what point does a veteran DC say (after not forcing a single punt for 3 quarters) that we are going to abandon some complicated 77 cut scheme, and just play man against a less athletic and less talented team?

From what I saw, the defense didn't improve until well into the fourth quarter when CSU became one-dimensional from score pressure.

How in the world is CU going to be able to stop a skilled team with multiple threats beyond a single WR and RB and one-dimensional QB?

I fear Barnett is right that the failure in scheme and coaching cannot be fixed in a week or two. And if that's the case, this is looking like a 3 win season despite NFL talent at a number of spots.

Moreover, I think trading Drake for Brumbaugh was a significant and inexplicable downgrade in both coaching and recruiting. I hope Tucker doesn't wait two years to make coaching changes. I think there is enough evidence now to say Summers isn't the answer (or is the answer to which coach needs to be fired)

It would have been a better. saner, decision to take last year's defense and build on it, rather than start from scratch--with the same personnel. I don't see Summers recovering to make this even a mediocre defense. I hope I'm wrong.

After an objective argument has been made, let the personal attacks begin:
It'll be Summers or Brumbaugh.
 
I agree with most of your post, but these two things you mentioned sure seem like a stark contradiction.
It is a contradiction and one that needs to be dealt with.

The positive is that the coaches were getting the players on the field that they wanted early. They were getting the calls in that they wanted. The level of organization was very positive.

The negative is that the players didn't seem comfortable yet with making their adjustments. On the play in question the offense made a simple shift. It looked like the DBs recognized the shift but looked at each other expecting the other guy to cover the shift, nobody did.

Bobo did a great job of taking advantage of our players overreacting to plays and killed us on misdirection. He also got us taking false steps using play action and clearing patterns.

The problems I saw don't look like coaching problems. As the defense gets more time in the defense and more comfortable they will be able to do less thinking and play more quickly.
 
I agree that the D needs to get better, and I think they will.
After the game a few players talked about CSU doing some things we didnt expect. Adjustments to that was made at the half and we got better.
The nubs only scored 2 touchdowns on offense, only had 276 yards on total offense and turned the ball over 3 times against South Alabama.
The nubs were beat in every category except turnovers.
The nubs are overrated just as we knew they were and we will kick their ass this weekend.

Defense was still struggling a lot in second half. Main difference was turnovers. But csu missed a WIDE open long touchdown pass on one drive. On another drive they were at the edge of the redzone and had to settle for a field goal because the center snapped ball 20 yards over the quarterbacks head on second down.

On the sack fumble, that wasnt so much a good play by the buffs as it was a terrible play by the runningback for straight up not blocking the guy that he was supposed to. CSU was still moving the ball at will the entire second half when they werent shooting themselves in the foot
 
Defense was still struggling a lot in second half. Main difference was turnovers. But csu missed a WIDE open long touchdown pass on one drive. On another drive they were at the edge of the redzone and had to settle for a field goal because the center snapped ball 20 yards over the quarterbacks head on second down.

On the sack fumble, that wasnt so much a good play by the buffs as it was a terrible play by the runningback for straight up not blocking the guy that he was supposed to. CSU was still moving the ball at will the entire second half when they werent shooting themselves in the foot
Yes. Let's hope CSU's offense is just really good this year combined with game one communication and fundamental issues on CU's part.
 
For a lot of the game on D we had a base package of the 2 OLB's (Falo & Wells) in. No Star. On passing downs we'd go to nickel (Miller in, Mekhi to db5) but left Wells and Falo in to generate a pass rush leaving Landman & Van Diest exposed. That needs to be corrected. I didn't see Tchangham or Callier in so hopefully they can breakout a pass rush vs. nubz martinez.

Wells in particular had a crappy game where he did not set the edge and lost contain outside for large running plays. That needs to be corrected.

When the ILB's were exposed vs CSU RB's on passes to the flats was usually the result of a WR rub where Landman would go over the pick (slowly) and lose his angle of pursuit. That needs to be corrected. Generally I think we'd be better off if Taylor were playing instead of Falo and use him to cover the RB flairs.

Missed tackles and failure to wrap-up needs to be corrected.

As for Cornerback play, I saw Abrams get lit up the most, by far. I watched him cover P12 WR's last year and do a pretty good job. Game 1 anomaly? We'll see.

I thought Sami played well for his 1st game in forever and was pleased he did not get blown off the ball. Remember Javier Edwards 1st game? Big difference.

On a really positive note, the double H-back set where Fontenot scored from several times is awesome. You let the 5 OL block mano y mano without any pulls or traps and have better athletes (Harris & Russell) do the moving in space to the point of attack. Gonna be killer for play-action down the road too. Plus that formation can dictate single coverage on 1 of our WR's. LaViska gonna get a few long ones out of that.
 
I was also puzzled by the 2 ILBs staying in for nickel (all but dime in fact). I expected to see the Taylor in most of our plays, and in fact, he played sparingly. I also agree with Wells assessment. He took some poor angles early in the game.

Nubs have a true frosh RB/WR who they utilize just like CSU utilized #21. Very quick and tough to get a piece of in the open field. We will need to better utilize angles, the sideline etc to get him bottled up.
 
I tried looking but is there a full game log of snaps played and such that typically comes out from the CU SID?
 
I was also puzzled by the 2 ILBs staying in for nickel (all but dime in fact). I expected to see the Taylor in most of our plays, and in fact, he played sparingly. I also agree with Wells assessment. He took some poor angles early in the game.

Nubs have a true frosh RB/WR who they utilize just like CSU utilized #21. Very quick and tough to get a piece of in the open field. We will need to better utilize angles, the sideline etc to get him bottled up.

Im a big fan of taylor and was disappointed he wasnt in the game more. Hopefully he gets utilized more next week, we definitely need more speed in the linebacker corp
 
Yes. Let's hope CSU's offense is just really good this year combined with game one communication and fundamental issues on CU's part.
Bobo isn't a great coach but he has been around for a long time and knows how to take advantage of a defense in it's first game in a new system with a new coach.

Also fair to say that CSU, even when not motivated by it being their big rivalry game is a much better opponent than South Alabama presented for the Nubs.

Not going to say that MT overlooked CSU in any way but we can also expect that he didn't come close to showing his full defensive playbook. I expect to see a much better performance from the CU defense on Saturday.
 
I haven't been able to rewatch the game so I may have missed some things, but..

On the OP's main question about Summers, we don't know yet. He has a solid pedigree so I think more than 1 game is needed to fully form an opinion.

That said, the defense was pretty garbage, saved only by their ability to cause turnovers. Causing turnovers is the great equalizer so if they're able to do this with consistency, that's a really good thing. If they just got lucky, we could be in for a long season. They looked confused, out of position, slow to react, and couldn't tackle well to make up for it. Very little pass rush from what should be a decent DL and OLBs.

There were several questionable hires in my mind on this defense so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Bumbro seems straight up bad so far, I was holding out to see what he offered coaching wise and one game in and I'm definitely not sold. Please stop letting him fly to Mississippi on recruiting trips. LBs just looked awful, but we know Landman is a good player so I'm putting that on the coaches and/or scheme. That being said, coaches don't get juked out of their shoes and miss tackles so LBs need to play better. Tillman was a projection hire and seems to be a zero on the recruiting front so far, so he better bring it in the corner department. Kind of a tough spot for him because I don't know he has a lot to work with. Safeties actually looked surprisingly good so kudos to MT/Summers for having them ready and causing turnovers.
 
I haven't been able to rewatch the game so I may have missed some things, but..

On the OP's main question about Summers, we don't know yet. He has a solid pedigree so I think more than 1 game is needed to fully form an opinion.

That said, the defense was pretty garbage, saved only by their ability to cause turnovers. Causing turnovers is the great equalizer so if they're able to do this with consistency, that's a really good thing. If they just got lucky, we could be in for a long season. They looked confused, out of position, slow to react, and couldn't tackle well to make up for it. Very little pass rush from what should be a decent DL and OLBs.

There were several questionable hires in my mind on this defense so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Bumbro seems straight up bad so far, I was holding out to see what he offered coaching wise and one game in and I'm definitely not sold. Please stop letting him fly to Mississippi on recruiting trips. LBs just looked awful, but we know Landman is a good player so I'm putting that on the coaches and/or scheme. That being said, coaches don't get juked out of their shoes and miss tackles so LBs need to play better. Tillman was a projection hire and seems to be a zero on the recruiting front so far, so he better bring it in the corner department. Kind of a tough spot for him because I don't know he has a lot to work with. Safeties actually looked surprisingly good so kudos to MT/Summers for having them ready and causing turnovers.
Look at the youth on this team, the D has a total of something like 52 games started. I was suprised at how well the D line played, I thought when they would rotate a freshman in they would do it one at a time. Nope and the second unit much better than I could have dreamed. Are they Utah good, no not close yet. I to had some questions about the staff like most did, Friday answered a lot of questions and most were positive answers. I think you may end up being more pleased where this D ends up by the end of the year. If the team was mostly a jr and sr team I would agree with you, let them grow up on the field at least a few games before bailing on them
 
Look at the youth on this team, the D has a total of something like 52 games started. I was suprised at how well the D line played, I thought when they would rotate a freshman in they would do it one at a time. Nope and the second unit much better than I could have dreamed. Are they Utah good, no not close yet. I to had some questions about the staff like most did, Friday answered a lot of questions and most were positive answers. I think you may end up being more pleased where this D ends up by the end of the year. If the team was mostly a jr and sr team I would agree with you, let them grow up on the field at least a few games before bailing on them

What questions did you have that were answered?

And where did you get that I'm bailing on them? I was referring to Summers specifically, but I'd say that goes to the entire unit, assistants, etc. We need to see more than 1 game to form a strong opinion.
 
Watching the replay, I don’t think you can totally put it on Summers. Guys were in position but were either slow to react or made poor decisions.

On csu’s first drive they had a big gain when Landman took a bad route to the running back coming out of the backfield. Nate had to sort of dodge the WR which forced him inside and the RB went by him.

On the TD Abrams was left alone on 2 receivers. It looks like Maddox was supposed to shift over but somehow either didn’t see what was happening or didn’t know what to do. I think in that situation the CB takes the short route while the safety picks up the deep one. Abrams must’ve known Maddox was lost and tried to take the deep route and got beat.

On their second TD drive we just were too slow to react on several of their big plays. Especially JVD just didn’t pick up his guy fast enough. Either that or they would be out of position.

On their third Wells and JVD got sucked inside while the RB went outside. That is what happened on two long runs including the TD run.

Almost every LB and DB made mistakes like those at one point or another. I’m not so sure we can fix those things in one week.
 
Didn't start till the previous game had ended

Haha appreciate it, but I was talking about a statistical log. It gives like every stat you want to find. Snaps played, offensive grades, special teams points etc etc.
 
Back
Top