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!
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!