Somebody give me a simple history lesson of the history of CU Football, I'm talking in the modern era. I don't care about what you did in the 40s. Who's all been your coaches, what types of systems did they run, were they any good, what were your good times, what were your bad times, etc...
Thanks,
Dusty
I'll give it a crack...I have really only been following the Buffs since 1987, so anything before that will be short.
Pre-Mac period
1970's the Buffs were a solid team, Bobby Anderson, a couple of O bowls, then had some recruiting problems/sanctions, tried to resurrect by bringing in Chuck Fairbanks and everything went to crap. Enter Mac.
MacCartney. Came in in 1984 I believe. Began recruiting like the freakin' recruiting madman he was. Ran the Bone for a while, went to a hybrid I-Bone around '88 and won the Big 8 '89, '90 and '91. Shared MNC in '90, had some great teams but had an attack of conscience because of family problems he felt were brought on by his bing away all the time. Handed the reins over to Slick Rick. Mac thought either Bob Simmons, his first choice, should have gotten the job. Others thought Eloit Uzelac, still others GB, but he had just started at NU and wasn't ready to jump.
Slick. Did well while Mac's talent and discipline were still here. Over tiem, he turned the team into a finesse throw first run third type of outfit which included smallish RB's. Went to the Aloha bowl in his last year saying he would not be looking around while he was probably already playing footsie with the UW AD. Bolted on an important recruiting weekend pretty much screwing up that year's class, and allowing recruits to raid the AD equuipment room which resulted in later sanctions for CU. Thanks Rick.
GB. Was supposedly the second choice as Gary Kubiak had all but agreed to the job. Kubes pulled out, enter GB. GB's dream job. Promised RTD. Got decent results first year, but teams always seemed to start slow. 2000 class was a top ranked bunch, but 2000 was a 3-8 disaster. 2001 he rang the bell, Big 12 championship, BCS appearance, with a nice mix of Rick and GB recruited talent. 2002, good year, but lost Bienimy and Embree, the best recruiters on staff. 2003 shifted to more of a WCO look. DC V. Okruch took over when co-DC fell ill. D began to falter. Crappy finish, no bowl, lost to frickin' Baylor. 2004 the scandal that wasn't begins to rear it's ugly head. CU competitve in Big 12 N, but beginning to get blown out by ranked teams. 2005 more of the same, GB keeps the team competitve, but the damage is done. Losses to ISU, NU and a monumental shellacking by UT seal his fate.
Hawk...work in progress.
Hope that helps.