CU Buffs Depth Chart: The Only Positions that Matter!

The Colorado Buffs have released their first "pencil" depth chart of the team since beginning spring practices. Unfortunately, the general consensus among fan sites devoted to the Buffs and also comments on news stories has been a worried and collective wringing of hands. Seriously? Only halfway though the 2013 Spring Practices, and there seems to be an irrational worry about who is where and why.

RELAX PEOPLE.

There are only ten positions on the Colorado Buffs football team that really matter right now. Fortunately, after the worst season in CU football history, all ten of those positions have changed since last year. Fans should be looking only at these 10 guy right now, because these are the men who will determine how the entire team does this coming season and for the foreseeable future.

Mike MacIntyre -- Head Coach

Kent Baer -- Defensive Coordinator / Linebackers

Brian Lindgren -- Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks

Klayton Adams -- Running Backs / Tight Ends

Gary Bernardi -- Offensive Line

Charles Clark -- Safeties

Jim Jeffcoat -- Defensive Line

Andy LaRussa -- Cornerbacks

Toby Neinas -- Special Teams

Troy Walters -- Wide Receivers / Recruiting Coordinator

CU fans need to let these men do their jobs and quit fretting about who will be at QB (or LB, DT, etc.) These men are professionals whose jobs are to evaluate the talent of the players they have available. Unlike the casual fans, these guys are paid to coach, train, and evaluate all the players and utilize them to put the best team on the field when the season begins.

The enthusiasm of the fans writing blogs and commenting on news stories is commendable, but some of them need to calm down. If one looks at the upcoming season as a war with 12 battles, fans need to realize that D-Day is not until August 31st. We are barely into basic training at this point. In time, the captains and leaders and starters will rise to the top. It is up to these 10 commanders to make sure the best players do so and to encourage all the others to improve as well.

Fans should resist the temptation to look at what individual players did prior to this coaching staff arriving in Boulder. The sad fact is that the main reason that CU has had seven straight losing seasons has been the coaching, or more accurately, the lack of coaching.

Winning the battles each week for a football team is made possible by the work of the coaches both before and during the games. That being the case, it was really dumb luck that CU won a single game last year. The blame goes not to the foot soldiers, but should be put on the heads of the officers (coaches). Jon Embree and Eric Bieniemy were great players for CU. Scooter (EB) is one of my favorite Buffs ever. But the sad truth is that neither man had any idea how to do the jobs they were hired to do. So we move on.

Athletic Director Mike Bohn has taken a lot of heat for the last two hires before Mac to lead the Buffs football program. Some of the criticism is undoubtedly deserved, but football fans need to recognize that Bohn is the AD for the entire school. CU won another national championship in skiing this year. The men's basketball program and fan support are at an all-time high. The women's basketball program is starting to look a lot like the dominant days under Ceal Barry. And Bohn was instrumental in getting CU into the much more lucrative Pac-12. So, while deserved criticism needs to be acknowledged, deserved praise needs to be as well.

All said, for the first time in way too long, the football team appears to be in the hands of people who know what they are doing. Good battle plans will allow the Buffs to be competitive, and the winning will follow as the culture is changed. These men have done it before, and they can do it again.

Go Buffs!