Colorado Buffaloes End Year On Bottom End in Tale of Two Seasons

The Colorado Buffaloes finally made it to a bowl game after 3287 days, and the rust of nine years certainly showed. The Buffs were manhandled in every facet of the game by Oklahoma State and left the Alamo Bowl field with a 38-8 thrashing by the Cowboys.

Looking back on the game, the result was not really surprising. The  Buffs have certainly moved up in the world of college football, but they are not really a Top 10 caliber team just yet. That time is coming, but today is not that day.

They are most certainly a team in the lower part of the Top 25, and that is heads and shoulders higher than they have been in more than a decade. Over the past 10 or so years (before this season), even marginal teams have put a hurting on the Buffaloes. This year Colorado put a hurting on the poor and marginal teams.

Against teams that did not end up in pre-bowl Top 25, Colorado went 9-0 this year. The Buffs outscored those teams 362-154. That's an average of around 40-17.

Against teams that did end up in the pre-bowl Top 25, the Buffaloes won only one of five games. They were outscored by those teams 150-73. That's an average of 30-14.

It was a tale of two seasons for the Colorado Buffaloes. Against the unranked teams, it was the best of times. Against the ranked teams, however, it continues to be tough sledding.

Some will argue who to fault for the numerical discrepancies, but it's a team game. The offense scored almost 4 touchdowns less against the good teams. The defense gave up an extra 13 points each game.

This writer would point out that turnovers by the offense and special teams led to extra points given up by the Buffs. And some would add that poor execution by the offense often kept the D on the field for extended periods, leading to fatigue. Others might point out that the higher scores given up by the Buffs were after the D gave in to the futility of their task when the offense or special teams quickly destroyed good defensive work.

Football is a game of momentum and passion. Once a unit feels that their work is futile, adrenaline falls and they become a step slower. Sometimes that is all that is needed to give up a big play. And with each big play, the sense of futility gets stronger.

The goal of these Buffaloes going into spring ball should be to maintain their dominance of the lesser teams, and learn how to play well against the Top 25. This is not just on the players, but more pointedly to the coaches.

Colorado's turnaround this year was wholly unexpected by the rest of the country and Pac-12. The Buffs had been so bad for so long that nobody expected their play to be so good. As Pac-12 South champions this year, they better realize that every team in the conference will be gunning for them next season. They better be ready.

The Buffs know now that they can go bowling every year by beating the bad and marginal teams on their schedule. If they want to win championships and bowl games, however, they need to take the next step.

The offensive coordinators and play callers need to realize that good defensive teams and coordinators will shut them down if they are too predictable in their play calling. And they need to be able to adjust their play calling when the opposing defense is doing something specific (like stacking the box) to slow them down. The play-calling cannot rely only on what they WANT to do. The Buffs are not that good yet. They need to attack what the defense is doing, and you don't attack a stacked box by running up the middle.

Another year of working with strength guru Drew Wilson will help immensely. The Buffs did the pushing around this year in the majority of their games, and next year should be even better.

MacIntyre should continue to hone his staff so that all those coach of the year awards he earned will lead to even better days ahead for the Buffaloes.

2016 was an excellent step for Colorado. Beating the teams you should beat is the mark of a good football team. Bowls will be the result as long as they continue to do just that.

Fans are hoping the year has really stoked the hunger to excel for the team. They ended the season with two lopsided losses. They should not want it to happen again and be willing to work hard enough to ensure that it doesn't.

The guess here is that the culture has effectively changed, and that The Rise will continue next year. Go Buffs!

 

Pac-12 Coach of the Year Mike MacIntyre and DC Jim Leavitt in Line for Big Raises

To absolutely no one's surprise, Colorado's Mike MacIntyre was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year today. Since Mac is listed as the odds-on favorite for National Coach of the Year, many saw the Pac-12 nod as a formality. Such are the expectations when your team improves from 4-8 (1-8 in conference) the previous season to 10-2 (8-1 in Pac-12 play), and a #9 ranking nationally.

The other coaches in the Top 10 earned a combined total of $39,682,747 between them. That's an average of $4,409,194 apiece.

Mike MacIntyre's salary of  $2,011,450 was less than HALF of the average of the top 10, with only Wisconsin's Paul Christ ($2,706,200) joining Mac under the $3 million threshold.

Seven schools pay their head coaches salaries of $5 MILLION or more. Jim Harbaugh at Michigan leads the pack with more than $9 Million. Nick Saban at Alabama earns close to $7 million. And Urban Meyer at Ohio State earns more than $6 million. Others in the $5 million range include Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, Jimbo Fisher at Florida State, Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M, and Charlie Strong (now fired) at Texas.

In the Pac-12, MacIntyre was the lowest paid coach in the conference this year. David Shaw at Stanford pulled in the highest salary at more than $4 million. Six more coaches in the conference make more than $3 million per year. And four earn between $2.5 and $3 million. And then, way down at the bottom, more than a half million less than his lowest paid conference peer is Mike MacIntyre.

If you compare cost per victory in the Pac-12 this season, the numbers are even more startling.  MacIntyre earned just over $201,000 per victory this year. The next lowest (or most efficient) went to Mike Leach at Washington State. He was paid $368,750 per victory. His pay per victory was almost double MacIntyre's.

The least efficient salaries as far as the schools were concerned went to Rich Rodriguez at Arizona ($953K per victory), Jim Mora at UCLA ($863K per victory) and Mark Helfrich at Oregon ($828K per victory).

The average cost per victory in the Pac-12 (not including Colorado) was around $592,000 That means the average cost per victory not earned by Colorado was almost THREE times higher than what Mike MacIntyre earned.

Mac has done his job, and now it's time for AD Rick George and the University of Colorado to pay the piper and compensate their head football coach and the assistant coaches as well. 

Top of the line Defensive Coordinators are now making $1-1.5 MILLION per year. No one can doubt that Jim Leavitt is one of the top DC's in all of college football. In fact, Leavitt is a finalist for the Broyles Award, which goes to the top assistant in college football.

Three of the finalists for the Broyles Award are defensive coordinators at Michigan, Alabama and Clemson. The head coaches of those schools collectively earn in excess of $21 Million. Needless to say, their DC's earn significantly more than Leavitt's $500K.

Unless the Buffs want to find themselves facing a defense that Leavitt is coaching, they need to do whatever is necessary to keep him in Boulder. Pay him commensurate with his top notch peers and there will be a much better chance that he doesn't bolt for a better paying job. 

Leavitt loves Boulder. His wife Jody loves Boulder. His kids love Boulder. Buffs fans in Boulder love Leavitt.  The University of Colorado needs to commit the dollars to keep this love affair going.

Buffs Drop 100 on Oregon Ducks, Jump to 15th in AP Top 25

The Oregon Ducks came to Boulder with a perfect 13-0 record and close to the lead for the highest scoring team in Division 1 at 89.4 points per game. After giving up 100 points to the Tad Boyle's Buffaloes (2nd time this year OU has given up 100), the Ducks left Boulder with their first loss of the season.

The AP Top 25 for Men's Basketball came out this morning and Buffs leaped all the way to #15 from their prior ranking of #20. Strangely, San Diego State was ranked #21 last week and leapfrogged the Buffs all the way to #13 after defeating #16 Kansas while the Buffs were taking down the #10 team in Oregon.

What makes it stranger still is that the Buffs defeated Kansas when they were a top 10 team, and that win barely moved them up the polls in comparison. For now, though, the Buffs can bask in the glow of being the second highest rated team in the Pac-12 behind overall #1 Arizona. Oregon dropped to 17th in the latest poll.

It's been a down year for many of the traditional basketball powers. Indiana, North Carolina, Connecticut, and UCLA are out of the Top 25. Duke and Kansas are behind the Buffs in the rankings, and preseason #1 Kentucky is only a single place above Colorado in the latest poll. It's the first time that Boyle's Buffs have been ranked higher than his alma mater Kansas.

The Buffs play the Cougars of Washington State on Wednesday before taking on the Huskies of Washington on Saturday.