Counting down to National Letter of Intent Day (February 3rd) and the upcoming Spring football practices, college football fans from Boulder and around the country are starting to get excited. Every team is undefeated, and hope springs eternal.
For the top 25 level teams from last season, there is hope that 2016 will be the season that their team will be one of the final four playing for a National Championship. For those playing in a lower tier bowl, there is hope for a better bowl this year. For those sitting on the outside looking in when the bowl season rolled around, there is hope that their team might make one of the 41 bowl games which now follow the regular season. In fact, there are so many bowl games these days that some teams that were not even officially "bowl eligible" (6 wins) were able to go to bowl games last season despite only winning five games.
Of all the teams in the Power Five Conferences (Pac-12, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, and the ACC), no team has gone longer without going to a bowl than Colorado. The Buffs last went to a bowl way back in 2007. Only Kansas and Kentucky join Colorado as Big Five teams that have not been to a bowl game in more than five years.
Buff fans who have suffered through nearly a decade of futility are aching to get off the list of teams going through a bowl drought. The same goes for Buff players and coaches. Bowl games are a reward for the hard work of the season. It also allows a team to have a more practice time on the field.
Contrary to what many fans think, bowl practices are NOT limited to 15 days, like Spring practices are. That means having a trip to a bowl game allows a team to have TWO springs for coaches to work directly with the players. That's a reward for teams getting bowl berths, for sure, but it also widens the gap between teams that are bowl eligible and those who are not.
Coaching in Division 1 is always a tough business, and every coach not named Saban knows that a bad year or two could lead to a loss of their job. In some places, even coaches who have won national championships have hot seats (see Les Miles) because their fans and schools expect top 10 finishes every year.
Coaches like Colorado's Mike MacIntyre who have never been to a bowl game as a head coach face harsh and sometimes creepy criticism as fans demand that heads roll. Many fans seem to forget that Colorado was by far the worst Power 5 team in the country when MacIntyre was hired. In fact, some say the Buffs were the very worst team in Division 1.
The cupboard was bare when Mac got to Boulder and the Colorado was still paying off a sizable number of ex coaches who were fired. That put them in no mood to spend money on quality coaches. Jon Embree was the lowest paid coach in the Big 12, and then the Pac-12, before he was let go. Good coaches are a rare commodity, and they earned, on average, more than $2 Million a year. Embree was paid significantly less than half of what his fellow conference coaches earned. It showed. Colorado also has state laws which severely limit the number of staffers which can have multi-year contracts. It makes it hard to attract top coaching talent when you can only offer a one year contract.
Despite the obstacles, Colorado went out and got a home-run hire for Athletic Director in Rick George. He has been a fundraising machine and finally got the money together so Colorado could build facilities that are among the very best in the entire country, college or pro. MacIntyre has taken a team that used to give up 60+ points a game (and was usually playing against the 3rd string by the 3rd quarter) to a team that has put overtime scares into some very good opponents.
The players have gotten bigger, faster and stronger, but they were so far behind that they are only now getting to the point that they are not pushed around every time they step on the field. They are competing, but they have not yet started to win consistently. Fans hope that 2016 is the year that the bowl drought ends and the joy of playing in the postseason brings smiles to the faces of fans and players alike.
It's January now, though, and hope springs eternal. New players will be signing on to play for the Buffs, and spring practice is just around the corner. And right now, the Buffs and every other team are undefeated.
Showing posts with label Bowl Game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bowl Game. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Monday, August 18, 2014
Colorado Football 2014: A look back and a look forward
Every year at this time, Buff fans ready themselves for another season of college football at the University of Colorado. They count the days and the hours until that opening kickoff. Hope springs eternal like a guiding light, and fans hope that light shines on a better tomorrow. Here before the first game, all teams are undefeated and looking forward to a winning season that is rewarded by a trip to a bowl game.
The last time the CU Buffs went bowling was way back to the 2007 season, in the one year in five that Dan Hawkins coached the team to six wins. His predecessor, Gary Barnett, had handed over a team that had won its division of the Big 12 four times in the previous five years. Barnett was the last coach to lead the Buffs to a bowl game victory following the 2004 season.
Historically, the Buffs have only performed marginally during bowl games, with a record of 12 wins and 16 defeats. That may seem like a poor record but the competition at the bowl level is certainly higher than the regular season.
The legendary Bill McCartney led the Buffs to the most bowl games, with nine appearances. After a rough first three years as head coach at CU, those nine bowl games came in the last ten years of his tenure. Only three of Mac's seasons ended with a bowl victory, but one of them was for the National Championship. It was the 2nd straight year that the Buffs had gone bowling as the #1 team in the country.
Gary Barnett and Eddie Crowder each led the Buffs to five bowl games. Crowder's Buffs won three times, and Barnett led them to two victories. The best record in bowl games for the Buffs goes to Rick Neuheisel, whose teams won all three of their bowl games in his four years in Boulder. All three of his bowl teams finished in the AP Top 10.
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Getting ready for the 2014 season, Buff fans are very hopeful that the team might win six games. The Buffs won four games last year under new head coach Mike MacIntyre, which was four times as many as they won the year before under Jon Embree, when they finished 1-11. And those familiar with the struggles of the Buffs over the last seven years know that the one win in 2012 was an absolute fluke, when Washington State imploded and lost a 20 point lead in the last 8 minutes of the game.
When MacIntyre was hired, Colorado was arguably the worst team in the FBS. Players brought in by prior coaching staffs were washing out of school at an alarming rate, and those who stuck it out played for coaches who did little to develop them as either football players or students.
That's all changed under MacIntyre. Due to proper training techniques, games lost to injury dropped drastically in 2013. Players are held accountable as students first, and only then can they play on the gridiron. Those who stray outside the lines when it comes to legal matters are dealt with severely and correctly. (This is NOT Nebraska, which seems to welcome felons with open arms as long as they can help the team.)
Due to attrition, Mac and staff last year had one of the youngest teams in the country. This year they are THE youngest. It will be an uphill struggle to compete on a week to week basis in the Pac-12.
Most top teams in the country have a system in which new recruits come in and redshirt for a year, and then serve as backups for a couple years before becoming starters as upperclassmen. Those 3 years of learning the system, training and developing their bodies allows them to be as strong as they can be before taking the field of battle.
Because of their youth and lack of depth, the Buffs have had to play many true freshman and sophomores over the last several years. It showed as they were manhandled by stronger men, especially in the trenches.
For the first time in way too long, the Buffs finally have some depth on the offensive line. In the past several years, it has been hard for the Buffs to even split the team into two squads for scrimmages because there were not enough offensive linemen to man two squads. Now their numbers are way up and there are enough men to create competition at every position.
There is an old saying, "May the best man win!" When someone has no competition, they win their position just by the virtue of being there. Finally, this year, there are talented and numerous men fighting for the jobs manning the trenches. This alone could be the difference between a winning season and another losing one.
Unfortunately, even if the Buffs make a great improvement, it may not be reflected on the win totals. As fans, we may need to look at the scores and the stats to see the improvement. A loss by 7 points may be heartbreaking, but it is a massive improvement over the days when Colorado lost by 30, 40, or even 50 points.
The biggest "wins" this year may very well be losses in which we are still in the game in the 4th quarter. A big win this year is if we are not giving up touchdowns on defense at the same rate we are making first downs on offense. The Buffs have a tough road ahead, and must work the process put together by the coaches.
They may not go bowling this year... but they should be light years ahead of 2012 and significantly stronger and better than 2013.
The last time the CU Buffs went bowling was way back to the 2007 season, in the one year in five that Dan Hawkins coached the team to six wins. His predecessor, Gary Barnett, had handed over a team that had won its division of the Big 12 four times in the previous five years. Barnett was the last coach to lead the Buffs to a bowl game victory following the 2004 season.
Historically, the Buffs have only performed marginally during bowl games, with a record of 12 wins and 16 defeats. That may seem like a poor record but the competition at the bowl level is certainly higher than the regular season.
The legendary Bill McCartney led the Buffs to the most bowl games, with nine appearances. After a rough first three years as head coach at CU, those nine bowl games came in the last ten years of his tenure. Only three of Mac's seasons ended with a bowl victory, but one of them was for the National Championship. It was the 2nd straight year that the Buffs had gone bowling as the #1 team in the country.
Gary Barnett and Eddie Crowder each led the Buffs to five bowl games. Crowder's Buffs won three times, and Barnett led them to two victories. The best record in bowl games for the Buffs goes to Rick Neuheisel, whose teams won all three of their bowl games in his four years in Boulder. All three of his bowl teams finished in the AP Top 10.
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Getting ready for the 2014 season, Buff fans are very hopeful that the team might win six games. The Buffs won four games last year under new head coach Mike MacIntyre, which was four times as many as they won the year before under Jon Embree, when they finished 1-11. And those familiar with the struggles of the Buffs over the last seven years know that the one win in 2012 was an absolute fluke, when Washington State imploded and lost a 20 point lead in the last 8 minutes of the game.
When MacIntyre was hired, Colorado was arguably the worst team in the FBS. Players brought in by prior coaching staffs were washing out of school at an alarming rate, and those who stuck it out played for coaches who did little to develop them as either football players or students.
That's all changed under MacIntyre. Due to proper training techniques, games lost to injury dropped drastically in 2013. Players are held accountable as students first, and only then can they play on the gridiron. Those who stray outside the lines when it comes to legal matters are dealt with severely and correctly. (This is NOT Nebraska, which seems to welcome felons with open arms as long as they can help the team.)
Due to attrition, Mac and staff last year had one of the youngest teams in the country. This year they are THE youngest. It will be an uphill struggle to compete on a week to week basis in the Pac-12.
Most top teams in the country have a system in which new recruits come in and redshirt for a year, and then serve as backups for a couple years before becoming starters as upperclassmen. Those 3 years of learning the system, training and developing their bodies allows them to be as strong as they can be before taking the field of battle.
Because of their youth and lack of depth, the Buffs have had to play many true freshman and sophomores over the last several years. It showed as they were manhandled by stronger men, especially in the trenches.
For the first time in way too long, the Buffs finally have some depth on the offensive line. In the past several years, it has been hard for the Buffs to even split the team into two squads for scrimmages because there were not enough offensive linemen to man two squads. Now their numbers are way up and there are enough men to create competition at every position.
There is an old saying, "May the best man win!" When someone has no competition, they win their position just by the virtue of being there. Finally, this year, there are talented and numerous men fighting for the jobs manning the trenches. This alone could be the difference between a winning season and another losing one.
Unfortunately, even if the Buffs make a great improvement, it may not be reflected on the win totals. As fans, we may need to look at the scores and the stats to see the improvement. A loss by 7 points may be heartbreaking, but it is a massive improvement over the days when Colorado lost by 30, 40, or even 50 points.
The biggest "wins" this year may very well be losses in which we are still in the game in the 4th quarter. A big win this year is if we are not giving up touchdowns on defense at the same rate we are making first downs on offense. The Buffs have a tough road ahead, and must work the process put together by the coaches.
They may not go bowling this year... but they should be light years ahead of 2012 and significantly stronger and better than 2013.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Colorado Should Look to the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors to Make Up Lost Fresno State Game
Colorado athletic director Rick George has his hands full trying to get someone, ANYONE, to come to Boulder on October 19th to fill in for the Fresno State game, which was lost to unprecedented flooding in Boulder and much of Eastern Colorado. Perhaps he should do what mankind has done for millennia by looking for the Rainbows following the rain. The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports that CU and Hawaii are still in negotiations for this possibility.
The Hawaii Rainbows are one of 29 teams which are available to play on the Buffs' last remaining bye week in October. What makes UH such an intriguing option is that CU is already scheduled to play the Rainbows next year here in Boulder. CU should offer to switch the locations for the games. Let the Rainbow Warriors come to Boulder this year, and switch the game next year to Aloha Stadium.
The Hawaii Rainbows are one of 29 teams which are available to play on the Buffs' last remaining bye week in October. What makes UH such an intriguing option is that CU is already scheduled to play the Rainbows next year here in Boulder. CU should offer to switch the locations for the games. Let the Rainbow Warriors come to Boulder this year, and switch the game next year to Aloha Stadium.
Making this move does several wonderful things.
- It allows the Buffaloes a chance to play a 6th home game this year.
- It brings needed revenue to the program and the city of Boulder following the 100-year flood.
- It will serve as a reward for most of the team and Mike MacIntyre's staff for their hard work in getting through the disaster and starting the rebuilding process for a team that went 1-11 the year before. To put that in perspective, no matter what the Buffs do the rest of the year, it will be an improvement on last year. Better yet, these Buffs are aiming high and looking to make a bowl game THIS year. A trip to Hawaii next season would be a great reward.
- Adding a road game to Hawaii next season would allow the Buffs to add another home game, since the NCAA generally allows teams that play at Hawaii to schedule a 13th game.
- Adding a 13th game next year gives the Buffs yet another chance to have enough wins to play in a bowl game.
- Adding a 13th game will also allow Fresno State the chance to come back next year and finish their series with CU instead of stretching the process out several more years.
Git-R-Done!
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