The University of Colorado Football Program is coming off it's seventh consecutive losing season which is the longest in school history. In those seven years, the Buffs have only been to a bowl game once, during the 2007 season. The Buffs longest drought without a bowl was from 1978 to 1984, from the end of Bill Mallory era through the ugly sky blue Fairbanks era and two seasons of rebuilding under Bill McCartney. In the seven year window, the Buffs from 78-84 had roughly a 27% win percentage. The Buffs of the past seven only slightly better winning at roughly a 29% clip. Either way, you slice it the past seven years have been as brutal as it can get in today's power conferences for a program that was always at least respectable to watch from the turnaround in 1985 until Gary Barnett's departure near the end of the 2005 season.
Respectability; that is something that was wiped away as a Buff fan and for the football program last year. It started with Dan Hawkins not being the right guy to come from a smaller conference to a bigger conference. Hawkins flaws were plenty. He did not seem to be a good game day coach. His recruiting was pedestrian. Few players seemed to improve greatly over their time at CU (Nate Solder may be the exception; Ryan Miller was proof positive since he seemed to stay the same or regress over his career). He had all this coach speak but lacked coaching ability. Last, he set the program years back by allowing his son to play Big XII football when he was Mountain West or less talent.
Colorado paid for this until Jon Embree took over starting in 2011 but the effects of Hawkins could still be felt showing in the way the Buffs played last year. The Buffs lacked a quarterback and leader that could make the difference and bring a team together in 2012. They were missing much more than that as well; Embree was forced to play a secondary filled with freshman last year and fill in holes at other places with his 2012 recruiting class. Many of those men regressed as the season went, taking beatings from the pass happy Pac 12 conference offenses. While Embree seemed to recruit some solid young talent in his second recruiting class, the 2013 class did not look promising with very few recruits showing the interest they had the previous year under Embree. The Buffs had the largest point differential in major college football. They looked inept on both sides of the football. Yes, the talent to compete wasn't there but losses to CSU and Sacramento State exposed a staff that was overmatched as well. CU had more talent than both teams but lost close games because the other team was coached better and made the adjustments needed to win the game. The regular weekly blowouts that came throughout the season (other than against Washington State and Utah where the staff actually made some adjustments to make those games respectable) weighed heavily on fans. The excitement was gone early in the season and was only getting worse. The excitement that ended with a win at the conclusion of the 2011 season was thrown away to the ski slopes and parties students and fans would rather attend than another game in 2012. It didn't take long for the Buffs administration to see what fans saw; a lack of interest from off the field and lack of direction, overmatched coaching and a football program that was at it's lowest since 1981. Things continued to spiral down into a Mark Sanchez like Butt Stumble from the mess of a Jon Embree press conference to the botched hiring process of
With this whirlwind of the past eight months, things have finally calmed and it appears the Buffs have the parts in place to get back to respectability on the football field in 2013. They have an AD with plenty of knowledge on how to bring money into a business who also has a history in college football and will be that bridge that seems to have been missing between administration and football since Mike Bohn was hired. The biggest reason that Buffs fans can look forward to a better season and future on the gridiron is Mike MacIntyre, but there are other facets to this that include players from the previous coaching staffs and the staff Mike MacIntyre has brought with him to Boulder.
Mike MacIntyre's brings a history to Colorado that is needed; COACHING!!! MacIntyre has 23 years of coaching under his belt with a half dozen of those years working with one of the greatest football minds ever in Bill Parcells. MacIntyre also brings building a program up to national respectability from the gutter taking a San Jose State. He has lead a team before but also coached for years as an assistant at high levels of football to better understand the game; where as the past two coaches did not have that sort of background behind them. The best thing MacIntyre brings with him may be his staff. MacIntyre brought quite a few assistants from San Jose State, starting with Kent Baer as his Defensive Coordinator who has years been recognized as a great defensive mind and successful one at that. Brian Lindgren is a young offensive coordinator, but comes with a quarterback's history. The most successful offensive coordinators seem to have been former quarterbacks at one time. The pistol formation will be the main one used under his system and it's a system shown to put a lot of points on the board and generate yardage and eat clock. Lindgren seemed to work well with David Fales at SJSU and seems to have a good rapport with CUs projected starting QB in Connor Wood. Wood seems to have taken a leadership role and taken over the teams offense under Lindgren after looking uncomfortable with the staff last year.
Notes on the rest of MacIntyre's staff:
Gary Bernardi (Offensive Line)-32 years at FBS Level with 24 of those in the Pac 12.
Jim Jeffcoat (Defensive Line)-Spent over two decades in the NFL game as a player or coach. He has deep ties to Texas which has shown in landing some recruits for the 2014 class.
Troy Walters (Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator)-Walters played 8 years in the pros and has been coaching at FCS schools the past 3 years. He was such a hot commodity that Butch Jones (yes he of being CUs head coach overnight and gone the next day) tried to pry him from CU shortly after he accepted an offer from the Buffs. Walters seems to really fit well with this group of Receivers and a level that was a position of weakness may now be a position of strength. His recruiting has been successful so far with the last couple months gaining a lot of steam in the California area. He can relate to young players and is well known for taking to social media.
Charles Clark (Safeties) and Andy LaRussa (Corners)-Both are young coaches but they have two great defensive minds to lean on in MacIntyre and Baer and they come over to CU from San Jose State so there will be a comfort there.
Toby Neinas (Special Teams)-History with Special Teams and many other positions on defensive side of the ball.
Klayton Adams (RBs/TEs)-The biggest concern/question mark. He has no history with RBs and has a history as a lineman and with TEs the last couple years. It can be assumed Offensive Grad Assistant Mike Pitre, a former FB at UCLA, will assist Adams here. Additionally, Darian Hagan is Player Development Director and has a tie as RB coach.
The coaching appears to be a vast improvement on years in the FBS Level and especially years at the main positions of Head Coach and Offensive and Defensive Coordinator compared to what the staffs of the previous 7 years had. These guys know how to coach lesser talent or talent that hasn't been coached adequately and turn them into winners. That is exciting to see for Buffs fans and a reason for optimism. Additionally, the Director of Sports Performance of Dave Forman seems to emphasize improving the teams health and strength combined. The team looked slow and winded at times last year. Forman has a history at Stanford before SJSU where in the last 4 years you can see both programs have increased speed dramatically. From the workouts Forman had this team doing, it sounds like Colorado Football will be emphasizing this as well which is needed to compete at the Pac 12 level.
The turnaround starting in 2013 begins with the players though. While Colorado appears to be thin in many areas, there is talent that was not there last season. It all starts at Quarterback. Connor Wood is the most highly recruited Quarterback the University of Colorado has had on campus since Craig Uh-Ochs. The problem is he hasn't shown anything from it in a game situation. Spring Football under the new staff seemed to strike something in Wood. Almost from the first day of Spring Camp Wood seemed to take the reins of the team and drive them in the right direction. His decisions looked sharp in camp and he seemed to have built a good rapport with his receivers, which have gone from a weakness in having two possession receivers in Nelson Spruce and Tyler McCulloch last year being the main guys to having a healed Paul Richardson back along with DD Goodson in the slot and Jeff Thomas to bring additional speed and playmaking ability to the group. The re-addition of Richardson can not be overlooked. Richardson was one of the highlights from the middle of 2010 to mid 2011. In that 11 game span he had 924 yards and 11 touchdowns. Colorado needs that production from Richardson and after finally getting healthy after a year and a half of dealing with injuries and other issues, he appears confident and ready to shine in 2013. If healthy, Richardson has the potential to have the greatest season as a Receiver in CU's history with the offense being brought in and the high scoring games seen in the Pac 12 and college football today. CU has only had 6-1000 yards receiving season in their history and 2013 should see the seventh time and 5th player to do so.
Colorado also returns a RB corp that is completely intact from last season. The strength in this group is Christian Powell. Powell had three monster games where he amassed 7 TDs and 405 yards. He needs to stay healthy (concussion and other injury bugs haunted him in between those big games) but he has the body to be a workhorse. Additionally, they have speedsters in Tony Jones and Donte Abron that have shown the ability to hit the big play for long touchdowns.
The strengths on offense seem to lay in those areas alone. The offensive line has 3 guys that started the majority of last year and another that got significant playing time but they lost two players from last year with one of them perhaps lining up at LT for the Green Bay Packers in 2013 in David Bakhtiari and the other transferring to Nebraska in Alex Lewis. Jack Harris moves from RG to LT, Stephane Nembot is a mountain at RT but has a slow first step and the G-C combo of Handler and Munyer is solid but not spectacular. While I don't think this unit is as bad off as some do, they do lose the strength of their line and will have to have guys take the next step and perhaps some young guys step up to cover for injuries to improve from the terrible season the team had last year. As they say, it starts up front. The other area up front is the Tight End position. They lost Nick Kasa whom converted into a solid player after switching late his junior year from DL to TE. They currently have a lot of untested players there and Tight End is a nice safety valve for the college quarterback. A couple players performed well, especially Alex Wood, but this is an area that has been lacking much talent brought in. Hopefully a young guy gets into the fold and contributes immediately.
This all circles back to quarterback. Connor Wood HAS to have a solid year and take this offense over. He can not make the fans want to play a true freshman in Sefo Liufau who is fairly well recruited but appears a little lean and the history of success for true frosh QBs is not high for teams coming off such tough seasons. A wild card is Jordan Gehrke, a late JUCO transfer. He may be given every chance to play if Wood looks bad. If Colorado is to have any hope, they can't play the quarterback shuffle again this year.
Defensively, there is excitement... because of the coaching experience. Otherwise, there are question marks aplenty. The good news is they have a player in Chidera Uzo-Diribe who looks like he should have a big year ahead of him with the potential of having double digit sacks. Currently, there are guys who have seen snaps but haven't made much of an impact. Hopefully a more experienced coach at this position and a year under their belt makes them take that next step. They have a lot of players with experience on defense but for a defense that got taken to the wood shed constantly, how good of news is this? It appears they have more speed at the LB position losing the step slow Jon Major and the constantly injured Doug Rippy, but other than Derrick Webb they don't have anyone that has started but a few games. Brady Daigh showed flashes when filling in but coming off injury he is currently the second team MLB. Early in fall camp when the pads come on, the staff will be able to decide who fits best. Secondary was an absolute hole in 2011 due to not having enough players and 2012 due to the youth. In 2013, the corners may be the best strength on defense. Greg Henderson has been the highlight of the past two years, hardly getting beat and playing solid defense no matter who he faces. His game is a lot like Chris Harris of the Broncos, formerly Kansas. Strong, shorter, not highly touted but you can put him on anyone and make that receiver quiet. The other corner is Kenneth Crawley who struggled most of the year but really started to come on for the Buffs as the season developed. They have solid depth in Yuri Wright and Josh Moten as well as some solid RS-Frosh and true frosh to push for nickel and dime positions. At Safety, they have one of the longest tenured Buffs that if healthy is a solid Safety in Parker Orms. Orms played out of position at corner for a couple seasons due to the attrition at that position. He is a little slow for the Pac 12 but it doesn't show as much when he's at Safety. If he can stay healthy, he is a great anchor to have in the back. Terrell Smith, Jered Bell and Marques Mosley all have ability. Bell was a solid pass defender before a knee injury the past season kept him from playing. Mosley never seemed to improve at Safety but showed flashes. He has talent but being forced to stay on the field due to a lack of a back-up was hard on him and it showed. With this group and a year under their belt and the experienced staff, this defense should at least see improvements to be in the double digits of the 70s-90s in pass defense rather than the bottom 20+ teams like last year.
Their Kicking and Punting should be strengths with Darragh O'Neil rated amongst the nations best punters in the pre-season. Will Oliver didn't get many opportunities to kick, due to being so far behind in games and the previous staff's coaching decisions, but has shown ability.
Colorado is once again young but they have a ton of players returning with great experience. Their departing senior class was nothing that made you yearn for another year from them but the desire to see if hopefully there was something better. Colorado has the pieces to return to respectability in 2013 from a staff that is going in saying the right things and pumping some light and positivity back in this program. The spring game and practices were the most organized and well done that fans have seen for many years. The negative aspect of chewing out players and the feeling that there is no chance to improve is being wiped away with Mike MacIntyre's ability to really excite this group. While Colorado may have a difficult time winning more than 2-3 games, the direction appears different. It appears they are moving up and forward. The thought is CU will have a toss-up game against CSU, should win against FCS Central Arkansas and other than that, there is little to no chance. Others see it that they have 3 winnable first games (thought they should be reminded CU was no match for Fresno State last year) and then there are 3 more winnable games that could come out of Arizona State, Arizona, Cal, Oregon State, Washington & Utah. The eternal pessimist says 1 win, the eternal optimist says 6-7 and a bowl game. The realist will say "I see this team improving daily already. I don't care how many wins they have, I just want them to get better, show signs that years to come will be better and most of all that this 2013 team brings back respectability to CU!"
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