Colorado Football: Shit or Get off the Pot in 2016 QUICKIE

NOTE/CAVEAT: This may be the wrong time to put something down online, but I am not a recruit or looking to get hired and if Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential Candidate can say whatever he feels like, I might as well be able to!

STORY
The loss of Davis Webb is a blow to the program no matter how you slice it or dice it with your Ginsu knife.  The simple fact is the program had Sheriron Jones and Davis Webb committed as Buffs and have lost both in one off-season.  Sheriron Jones loss can be made up for with a stud QB commit for the 2017 class, but Davis Webb loss hurts immediately.

Why does it hurt?  First, Davis Webb has beat a Pac 12 bowl team, something NO ONE on the CU teams roster has done.  While Webb's numbers show a quarterback that has also made mistakes with the football, he provided a dynamic this team needed, confidence and a gunslinger background.  Sefo Liufau is not 100% coming back from an awful Lisfranc injury that is known to make players never the same again, i.e. see the end of Champ Bailey's career or Peyton Manning having no zip behind the ball with a bum arm and not enough drive off his foot.  The Buffs lost a back-up quarterback in Cade Apsay and have the same cast returning.  Jordan Gehrke is not a Pac 12 level QB and most likely wouldn't even start at Northern Colorado.  Steven Montez still needs to grow into his body and his spring game showed me a quarterback not ready to play at Pac 12 level speed quite yet.

Even if Sefo is healthy, there are two huge issues depending on Sefo:
1.  Can his body stay healthy another full season since he has no quarterback that looks ready to play at Pac 12 level?
2.  Is Sefo good enough to double his 2 Win Pac 12 total in one season in order to get the Buffs to a bowl game?

That last answer regardless has to be YES or else the Buffs are looking at yet another head coaching shake-up.  Look, I love Mike MacIntyre.  He is a man of staunch FAITH and has helped bring a more positive environment to the football program and been able to run the program better than the previous two staffs and really cared about these young men.  BUT... Mike MacIntyre HAS to start getting Wins.  It's simple.  This isn't youth football where you are just trying to make the team learn basics and improve, the only improvement and overriding factor in college athletics, especially at the FBS level is wins and making bowl games.  The Buffs have 1 bowl game and 10 consecutive losing seasons over their last decade of football.  That shit doesn't get it done for any Power 5 team, especially a team that has a tradition of wining.  Rick George didn't hire Mike MacIntyre but the fact he didn't fire him after a 2-10 campaign and 2-25 Pac 12 record last year shows you that he has a belief that Mike MacIntyre can right the ship and be the answer.  But a belief ends quickly if it is proven false repeatedly and after four years as the Buffs head man after 2016, there is one simple measuring stick Rick George will have, did the Buffs make a bowl game?!  Even then, that may or may not be enough.

The truth is the Buffs are a better team, but no matter how much a pretty picture is tried to be painted that Sefo hasn't been the problem, the long droughts of inept play or boneheaded mistakes have kept the team from scoring enough to win in the Pac 12.  Washington State fans didn't give a shit their defense gave up an exorbitant amount of points because when it came down to it they had the offense to go toe to toe and answer every shot their opponent threw.  The Buffs have to have the same in 2016 and that means either improved play by Sefo or another quarterback.

Mike MacIntyre has no option, he must do what it takes to win now because the honeymoon ended the second CU lost to Utah to complete the 2015 season, it's time to shit or get off the pot.

104.3 The Fan Continues Downward Spiral: Where's Sandy Clough? Welcome to Altitude 950!

It has been over a month since Sandy Clough was on-air for 104.3 The Fan in Denver.  Since then, "filling in" for Sandy has become a regular theme.  Fans of Sandy Clough have been clamoring for his return or at the very least an update on his status.  The simple answer to Where in the World is Sandy Clough.  From what I have gathered is the station itself is not sharing what is going on and may not know exactly what is going on themselves.  It appears Clough's departure is equal to a song opening for one of his segments and has left both Sandy Clough fans and his stations co-workers "In The Dark"

The vagueness of his departure has led many to speculate on what is going on from illness to rehab to even my own bad jokes of Clough being brought back eventually but like Bernie of the 80s movies Weekend at Bernie's:

While Clough has regularly been known to not be my cup of tea, the simple fact is I respect Sandy's knowledge and true hard work and old school approach to the profession.  Clough's knowledge is lacking in the Denver Sports Radio and his diverse sports abilities are missed when his own station has taken the approach to focus all efforts on the Broncos coverage.  The Fan had the opportunity to present a solid short term replacement in the likes of a young Sandy Clough type protégé in Ryan Edwards and bring back his counterpart in Shawn Drotar and/or James Gomez but instead brought in the cackling hen voice of Charles Johnson.  I love CJ as a Buff but he just isn't very entertaining.  I will say Clough didn't have to work with Brandon Stokley for a week while at the Final 4 and realized how much better his show was without him and he can't stomach the thought of having to share the radio with such an imbecile.  The Fan could simply say Sandy Clough has taken a temporary leave of absence and they are unsure of his return but hope to have him back as soon as possible.

The Fan's mistakes don't stop there with 104.3 The Fan now wasting an hour of their time replaying Stink and Evans.  That is now four hours of sports show replay that The Fan puts on-air between that and the replay of The Drivel, I mean Drive.  It is lazy and shows a complete disregard for their fans.  If anyone can stomach listening to the same thing twice in one day, then they are simply void of the necessary brain cells to function in life and not a surprise that they have  been brainwashed by some subliminal message 104.3 The Fan puts on-air.

I won't rehash it too much, but The Fan put together a great line-up and diversity in their programming that presented hope that even with 105.5 FM ESPN going off-air and The Fan's sister station 1600 AM absorbing ESPN that The Fan would become strong, instead since March all I have seen is one bad mistake after another from canning their two diverse shows (Shawn Drotar and Ryan Edwards and their Fan Late Night 2.0 with James Gomez and Joshua Dover) to leaving fans and employees in the dark on what is going on with Clough.

All these changes have pushed a lot of listeners to turn back time and return to The Fan's old station 950 AM and tune into the month old Altitude Sports Radio.  Altitude Sports Radio came on with a bang starting their first show on opening day and have hit the ground running. 

I have been impressed with their pairings.  The stars are no doubt Vic Lombardi and Nate Kreckman, but the entire cast is actually a very solid one put together by Will Petersen and James Merillatt and their balancing act of running two radio stations. 

6-7 am: Joshua Dover bats lead off.  His show is mostly a scoreboard recap and while I have shouted from the mountain tops about my love for Dover's sports radio abilities, I feel like this format holds him back from being his best.  I would prefer he be allowed to freestyle and do what he does best.

7-10 am: Tom Helmer and Scott Hastings with Lauren Gardner.  Honestly, Lauren has made this show more entertaining.  I initially thought three voices and a female I  have heard/seen very little from was a bad choice but Lauren adds another dimension to the show I like.  It is vast discussion of topics you will get on this show and some may just be Ditch Date Prom Guy for an hour, but you will at least get a laugh in.  I tend to flip the dial to here when my main show Morning Mayhem with Cello Romano & Danny Williams is on commercial or lacking their own focus. 

10-1 pm Rich Eisen national: I can't get into it.  I like Eisen a lot but it is a 3 hour tour of trying to find what I want to listen to between the very talented and undervalued Sports Guy Mike show.  His work is strong and sorry but Cecil Lammey is meant for specific times of the year, football season and the weeks leading up to it with some occasional draft talk.  This constant breakdown of positions is scout talk and while I love scout talk, it doesn't make for the most entertaining May sports discussions.

1-4 pm Vic and Kyle with Vic Lombardi and Kyle Keefe.  Kyle Keefe needs to grow on people but I have been waiting for this pairing since Keefe's Horace Rhemy impersonations were unearthed when Vic was on The Fan.  These two are the spinoff of Vic and Gary like Van Halen was when they switched to Sammy Hager from David Lee Roth.  These two are great and allow me to fill an hour of emptiness from 1-2.  From 2-4 pm they battle the dial with the late day breakfast of champions in The Big Show with Benny Bash, Benjamin Allbright and Kent "Toast" Erickson. 

4-7 pm: Nate Kreckman and Tom Nalen.  By far the best option for a drive home and when taking that early evening bathroom break, these two are the best Denver has to offer.  The only time my dial wanders is during commercial break.  Simply put, if you are too lazy to give the show more than 5 minutes, you are most likely listening to replay radio on 104.3 The Fan and wasting brain cells.

So I have been asked, do I hate 104.3 The Fan?   No,  but in fact their best talent are their producers and fill-in host Ryan Edwards.  Their on-air talent is the weakest in the Denver sports market right now.  At every time slot The Fan has live radio their is a better option or TWO better options for the listener.  Ask more from your radio than sticking with what has been around the longest or what is on currently on top.  With that reasoning, we should all tune in to Drew Soicher and think Woody Paige and Mark Kiszla are the best sports guys in the business.  We all know that the only people that think that are those 3 people and Big Al & D-Mac listeners.