Colorado Buffaloes: One Last Home Stand For Colorado's Seniors

After last week's 4th quarter implosion and loss to Arizona State, the Colorado Buffaloes made the walk of shame back to Boulder knowing their season of high promise had denigrated to a season based on delusions of grandeur. 

Chatter on the fan boards ground to a halt this week, as fans (including this writer) sought out new ways to spend their Saturdays. Ways that involve more enjoyment and less disappointment than way too many of the Saturdays of the 2017 season in Boulder.

Tomorrow's game against USC represents the last home game of the year for the Buffaloes, and the last home game ever for the seniors on the roster. Final thoughts on some of these young men:

Michael Adkins - RB
The heart goes out for Adkins. From early on in his career, he has showed flashes of brilliance. Unfortunately, the injury bug was a persistent hindrance that kept the young man from ever really reaching his potential on the gridiron.

Bryce Bobo - WR
Bobo's nickname should be "Amazing!" No Buff fan will ever forget his unforgettable one handed catch against Oregon in the 2016 season. The young man's big hands made spectacular catches seem easy during his time in Boulder. Sadly, Colorado's woes during his stay have kept Bryce largely out of the national spotlight. Fortunately for Bobo, his skill set should play well at the next level.

Shay Fields - WR
Shay earned the nickname "Big Play Shay" due to his speed and ability to get in the open from early in his Colorado career. Even when the Buffaloes were struggling during his tenure, Fields could be counted on for a number of big yardage plays every season. He also struggled at times, making fans wonder if there were some unreported physical issues hindering his play.

George Frazier - TE/DT
Frazier is one of those guys who make us older fans yearn for the olden days. He's a guy who gives his all every play he's on the field, and also a guy who plays both offense and defense. If that seems strange, it's because only a handful of FBS players play both sides of the ball in the specialized world of college football.

Jeromy Irwin - OL
Irwin has been in Boulder for longer than the typical college football player. Sadly, that extended stay was due to several severe injuries that kept him off the field despite his tenacity and talent.

The final three players listed have a special place in the writer's heart.

Derek McCartney - OLB
Anyone with any sense of history knows that Derek is the grandson of the greatest coach in Colorado history, Bill McCartney. He grew up with football in his blood. His NFL father Shannon Clavelle was an all-time great at CU. But as good as his football bloodlines are, Derek is a world class student as well. He finished his pre-med degree in three years and will earn his masters degree next month. Barring a stint in the NFL, Derek will soon take his prodigious intellectual talents to medical school.

Ryan Moeller - DB
Most people have never heard of Rifle, Colorado. That is the small town where Ryan Moeller grew up and became a Colorado high school football legend. Ryan's senior year in high school was what most players would call a career. He rushed for more than 3,000 yards and scored 50 touchdowns in one year. Really.

Despite those gaudy stats, Moeller had to walk on at Colorado instead of being given a scholarship. Back in the days when we could still watch practice, Moeller stood out to the serious football followers. Soon enough, the young man from Rifle had earned a place on the field and also earned a scholarship. Watching the young man go down to injury against Arizona State was one of the lowest points of a disappointing season. Like the last player on this list, Ryan Moeller gave his all every play during his time at Colorado. His influence will be missed.

Phillip Lindsay - RB
Lindsay was such a force of nature during practice for Colorado that he quickly earned the nickname "The Tasmanian Devil" for his intensity. Not everyone remember the roots. Phillip grew up and Colorado Buffaloes fan and surprised many when he committed to Colorado following the disastrous 1-11 season in 2012. He proclaimed that he intended to help Colorado return to winning ways.

Even during his redshirt year, Lindsay stood out and was selected scout player of the year by the Colorado coaches. Over the next four years he became one of the best to ever line up at tailback in Colorado. He is the first running back to ever run for back to back 1,000 yard seasons at CU. Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam didn't do it. And all-time leading rusher Eric Bieniemy didn't do it either. Only Lindsay can make that claim.

Sadly, Lindsay will likely fall short of the all-time rushing record. He's close, but it's a tougher row to hoe than some of his predecessors. Both Salaam and Bieniemy had a stable of future NFL offensive linemen leading their way. Lindsay never had that luxury. His yards were earned the hard way.

More important even than the numbers, however, was the leadership that Lindsay gave the team. He gave his heart and soul every play and every practice, and also on the sideline. A great coach in Colorado's past once talked about they type of player that Lindsay represents. He said those types of players were the key. Give him 20 of those guys and he could beat anyone.

I will be on hand to give these guys my final salute tomorrow. I hope that both the serious and casual fan of Colorado football will appreciate the sacrifice and dedication these young men gave to dear old CU.

Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre Must Take Control of the Offense

Heading into what was supposed to be "gimme" win against UMass at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough (the home of the Patriots), the Colorado Buffaloes find themselves scrambling before the season gets any more lost. The Buffs and their fans came into the season assuming that the CU team would easily dispatch their three non-conference opponents and scoured the schedule to find 3 Pac-12 foes to defeat and earn the right to their first bowl game since 2007.

After the shellacking they took at the hands of Colorado State in the Rocky Mountain Showdown, Buff fans are now scouring the schedule to find any teams that the Buffs can beat at all. The Buffs, as a Pac-12 team, are supposed to have more talent than the likes of CSU, UMass, and Hawaii.

It's not even supposed to be a level playing field.

The Buffs have better facilities to practice and train in. They are able to better feed their athletes. They spend a lot more money on their program. With all that in place, the blame for the failures of the team falls squarely on the coaching staff.

CU fans found themselves longing for the play-calling of Eric Bieniemy.

That's pretty bad. Bieniemy once called a quarterback sneak on first down because he had not noticed that his team had made a first down on the prior play.

How bad was the play-calling of offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren? It was terrible. In his 2nd year at CU (and throughout his first), Lindgren has shown absolutely no ability to get his team into an offensive rhythm for an entire game (or even a half). He has a serious propensity for following a series or two of great success with the next 2 or 3 series of insisting on not doing what has been working. Or, by driving down the field and then changing the play-calling inside the red zone.

Buff fans are also asking, "Is this a team that wants to play at a fast pace (to supposedly take advantage of how 'in-shape' they are supposed to be in) or a team that methodically takes time off the clock? With Lindgren running the offense, the identity of this team when it has the ball is schizophrenic at best, and self destructive almost always.

MacIntyre jumped in to help coach the defensive backs, and it showed.

The weakest part of a horrible defense last year was the defensive backfield. Mac jumped in this spring and fall camp and worked with the DB's. It worked, because they pretty much shut down the record setting passer from CSU. Grayson averaged around 300 yards a game last year, and the Buffs held him to 134 yards in the Rocky Mountain showdown.

In fact, 84 of those 134 yards passing by CSU came in the last 17 1/2 minutes of the game. By that time, the CSU running game was so dominating the Buffs' defensive line that the DB's had to start moving forward to help stop the run. Only then did CSU start completing passes on a consistent level.

Let Lindgren focus on the QB's, and let Mac call the plays.

Sefo Liufau has obviously made himself a little quicker this year, but nobody is ever going to confuse him with Kordell Stewart or Darian Hagan. He is not an offensive threat when running, but he can use his feet to keep the opposing defense from disregarding him.

Sefo and Lindgren need to work on his pocket work. They are doing much like they did last year in regard to spreading out the passes, which mostly means they are not spreading them around at all. Last year, Paul Richardon and Nelson Spruce got the vast majority of passes thrown their way. This year, it appears that Lindgren wants to do the same thing with Spruce and the true freshman Shay Fields. The two of them combined for 15 of the 24 completions.

Another problem with the passing game is that Sefo does not seem to know how to "look off" his receiver to confuse the defense. What that means is that he tends to look directly at his intended receiver for their entire route. Defensive backs see where Liufau is looking from the time he gets in the pocket and they KNOW where the ball will be thrown. It also makes it much easier when they know that most of the passes will be thrown to the same two guys.

Last year, 59% of the completed passes went to Richardson and Spruce. In the game against CSU, 62.5% of the completions went to Spruce and Fields. That's okay if your receivers are dominating and scoring at will. It's not okay when your team has won only 4 out of 13 games under Lindgren.

Maybe Lindgren was spoiled working with David Fales.

Watching highlights of Fales, he seems to have the tendency of watching his receiver run the route too. The difference between Liufau and Fales, however is that Fales scanned the field of play with the eyes of a hawk to determine which of his receivers was likely to be open BEFORE the play started. It was only then that the ball was snapped and Fales hit his target so often that he was considered one of the best QB's in the country.

The other difference is that when the guy Fales thought would be open wasn't, he was able to adjust down the line. In 2012, Fales had eight receivers with 10 or more catches, six with 26 or more, four with 47 or more, and two with 62 or more. Fales was able to spread the wealth to lots of different receivers and San Jose State was a much harder team to defend because of it.

Lindgren got much of the credit for that San Jose Spartan team in 2012 that won 11 games and ended up in the top 20 at the end of the season. Perhaps that credit would be better directed at David Fales. The success of Lindgren's offensive schemes has been very limited without Fales in the line-up.

In a two year span, Lindgren went from Offensive Coordinator for the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks to the same position for a Pac-12 team.

Some coaches are able to make quantum leaps up the ladder in a very successful way.

San Francisco 49er Head Coach Jim Harbaugh is often used as an example. He went from coaching a FCS program at the University of San Diego for three years to head coach at Stanford. He made the Cardinal, a perennial also ran in football, one of the most dominant teams in college football. After 4 years at Stanford, he became head coach for the NFL 49ers. He quickly turned a down team into a contender. He won NFL coach of the year in 2011 and guided the team to the Super Bowl in 2012.

Lindgren cannot be compared to Harbaugh. For one, Harbaugh spent 14 years at quarterback in the NFL. Lindgren was 7 years old when Harbaugh was playing NFL football.

This is not to say that Brian Lindgren does not have a bright future as a coach.

What is being said is that Lindgren needs more seasoning before taking over an offense that has to compete in the Pac-12. He needs to spend more time with his quarterbacks and less time trying to create an offense and calling plays.

If Lindgren ever expects Liufau to be nearly as good as David Fales, he needs much more attention than a trip to the Manning Passing Academy. Liufau needs a coach who devotes all his time to the quarterbacks at the University of Colorado. And Lindgren needs to focus on one thing (coaching the QB) before being thrust into the lion's den of Pac-12 football.

It's Time for Colorado Buff Fans to Get Over Paul Richardson

With less than four days before the start of the 2014 Colorado Football season, some Buff fans are doing some serious hand-wringing and fretting over the fact that Paul Richardson has moved on to the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. They need to stop worrying.

The 2014 CU Buffs will be a better TEAM without Richardson.

While reading the stories and blogs (and their comments) about CU football, a common theme is that the Buffs will be unable to overcome the loss of Paul Richardson. Many of the comments by younger folks than myself give the impression that they think that Paul Richardson was the best player ever to don the Black and Gold. These people need to listen to their elders when we tell them that is not the case. In reality...

Richardson was the best player on some of the worst Colorado teams ever.

Colorado's record while he was in Boulder was 13 wins and 36 losses, and many of those were some of the worst losses in CU history. Although Paul stood out as a shining light in some very dark times for Colorado football, the fact remains that he was not enough of an impact player to make CU a winning team.

His stats from 2013 were impressive:

• 83 catches for 1,343 yards.
• 1 rush for 7 yards.
• 10 touchdowns.
• Total all purpose yards -- 1,350 on 84 touches.
• An average just over 16 yards every time he touched the ball.

Just a reminder, his team finished with 4 wins and 8 losses. In addition, Richardson was the "Go-To" guy on the team.

Compare Richardson's season with that of Mike Pritchard in 1990.

His stats from CU's National Championship team were amazing:

• 28 catches for 733 yards.
• 29 rushes for 450 yards.
• 16 kickoff returns for 331 yards.
• 11 touchdowns.
• Total all purpose yards -- 1,514 yards on 73 touches.
• More than 20.7 yards every time he touched the ball.

This team won the National Championship and Pritchard shared the spotlight with Eric Biemiemy, who finished 3rd in the Heisman Trophy race, and Darian Hagan, who finished 5th in the Heisman the year before.

The moral of the story is that Pritchard was a great player on a great team.

A winning team is not made by lots of passes to just one guy.

In addition to the National Champion team in 1990, every Buff fans should know about the 1989 and 1994 teams.

 The '89 team went undefeated in the regular season and lost in the Orange Bowl as the #1 team. That 1989 team threw a grand total of only 102 passes the entire year. But they had 4 receivers who averaged more than 24 yards per catch. They also rushed for 4,090 yards as a team.

The 1994 team may have been the most talented in Colorado history. 

Quarterback Kordell Stewart threw for 2071 yards and rushed for 639. His top 5 receivers that year were:

• Michael Westbrook -- 36 catches for 689 yards.
• Christian Fauria -- 35 catches for 356 yards.
• Rashaan Salaam -- 24 catches for 294 yards.
• Phil Savoy -- 17 catches for 283 yards.
• Rae Carruth -- 14 catches for 255 yards.

In addition to throwing the ball, the Buffs also featured a running game powered by Rashaan Salaam's 2055 yards and 24 touchdowns on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy.

(Those numbers do not reflect the bowl game -- Salaam rushed for 3 touchdowns, while Stewart took the Offensive MVP with 205 yards passing and 143 rushing.)

The team blew one game to arch-rival Nebraska to be denied the National Championship game. I watched from the stands as they destroyed Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl 41-24 to finish the season ranked #3.

The 2013 Buffs threw lots of passes. They had to. The were one of the worst teams in the country at rushing the ball.

Last year, the Buffs threw four times as many passes as the 1989 team that played for the National Championship.

They threw twice as many as the team that won the National title in 1990.

They threw 155 more passes than the 1994 team.

The 2014 Buffs must be able to run the ball and control the field.

Last year, the Buffs were the worst in the Pac-12 at getting into the red-zone and also into the end zone for touchdowns on their way to a four win season.

This year, if they want to be competitive in the best conference in the country, they need to change that. They need to compete in the trenches. If they continue to get manhandled on the lines, a great talent like Paul Richardson cannot make them a winning team.

Football is a TEAM sport, and great numbers for one guy don't mean squat.

Could Jordan Webb be the Key to Third Downs for the Colorado Buffaloes?

Colorado Buff Connor Wood's passing is an absolute beast to contend with... as long as it's first down. Not quite so much on second down. But the real problem surfaces on third downs, where the problem is that it's either move the chains or get rid of the ball (punt, FG attempt, or go for it on 4th down).

During the first two games of the season, the CU Buffs were clicking along by converting 40% of their 3rd downs into first down. The result? Two wins. The last two games have been quite different. The Buffs have converted only two out of thirty (6-7%) of their third downs, and the Buffs have been blown out twice.

Those still clinging to the idea that the Buffs might make it to a bowl game at the end of THIS year should consider that Jordan Webb is now healthy again and is now likely the backup to Connor Wood (mostly to save the redshirt for Sefo Liufau), according to head coach Mike MacIntyre.

What does Jordan Webb offer? Mostly this: He has started or played major minutes in 31 college games at the FBS level. He has seen a lot of third downs, a lot of different defenses, and he's a gamer. He gives it his all every snap from the beginning to the end of each game. And he's seen just about everything that defenses from the Big 12 and Pac-12 have to offer.

Many Buff fans are horrified by the idea of Webb taking any more snaps at Colorado. Why? Because he was unfortunate enough to be the starting quarterback under the worst coaching staff in the country the last two years. It was not Webb's fault that the Buff D under Brown and Embree was the worst in the country. And it was not Webb's fault that OC Eric Bieniemy was a horrible play caller who had trouble even getting plays into his team with more than 6-7 seconds left on the clock.

But many so-called Buff fans continue to blame Jordan Webb for the lack of prowess by his coaches. Give him a break. Under the right play calling and a hurry up offense, Webb gives CU a much tougher scheme to defend, especially on third down. He is quicker than Wood if running becomes necessary, but more importantly, he has a softer touch on his short to medium passes. And this will allow the Buffs to move the chains.

No one is suggesting that Connor Wood be replaced as the starter, but it seems that using Webb on occasion for third and short (5 yards or less) would give opposing defenses fits because he is such a different type of player than Wood. If Connor and the rest of team are committed to winning above all (and I think they are) then strategic use of Jordan Webb would give Colorado their best chance at winning six games and making themselves bowl eligible this year.

Maybe I'm alone, but it seems the Buffs should use whatever assets are at their disposal in order to win. Using Jordan Webb on third downs once in a while (or more often if it works well) gives the Buffs a better chance to win than simply sticking with a young QB with only 4 real games under his belt.

Connor's arm makes him a threat to hit the long ball, for sure, but his greatest success by far has been on first down. Allow him to grow and learn from someone with lots and lots of experience. And allow him to learn in a winning environment. It's a lot easier to learn and remember your lessons after you get to sing your fight song in victory after the game.

Go Buffs!

The Ominous Tale of Jordan Webb: It's Time for Colorado Football Fans to Show Some Class

As a University of Colorado graduate and die-hard football fan since attending CU in the 1980s, there have been very few times that I was more embarrassed by Buff football than last year's season-long disgraceful display. That changed drastically on Tuesday following the reports that CU quarterback Jordan Webb had torn his ACL and would be lost for the year. It was sad to hear that a young man like Webb would need to devote many months of his time to rehab after surgery. It was sadder still to read some of the comments of so-called Buff fans rejoicing at the injury. To be blunt, it made me sick that fellow supporters of the Buffs could be so classless.

As everyone knows, the Buffs last year were arguably the worst D-1 team in the country, and certainly the worst in Colorado's long and storied football history. The fault for that lies squarely on the noggins of the former paid heads of the program - Head Coach Jon Embree, Offensive Coordinator Eric Bieniemy, and Defensive Coordinator Greg Brown, and also previous head coach Dan Hawkins, who left the program in shambles.

Even though these men all made many hundreds of thousands of Colorado taxpayer dollars, there seems to be small but vocal group of professed fans who would like to blame Jordan Webb for the woes of the football team last year. The idea is asinine. The CU football team is made up around 100 young men who are full time students who are also required to devote hundreds of hours a year devoted to football. None of them, including Jordan Webb, are personally responsible for the woes of the Buffs last year. For that matter, Webb deserves credit for leading the team to their only win last year by scrambling into the end zone for the game winning touchdown as time expired against Washington State.

Buff fans should rejoice that they finally have a head coach in Mike MacIntyre who has proven that he can develop talent and lead a moribund program into national prominence. He has done it before and he will do it again. He and his fellow coaches that he brought with him to Colorado deserve the chance to do their jobs.

By the same token, Jordan Webb and every one of his teammates should be honored for their commitment to the University of Colorado. Only a handful of these young men will go on to play in the NFL. They know this. Most of them do the jobs they do to earn an education and because they love to play football. Their dedication to CU and the very real risk of injury should be applauded and respected. None of them should ever again have to read stupid comments about how the school is better off with a player being injured.

It is interesting to note that some of the same "fans" who delight in the injury to a young man also seem infatuated with the idea that high school kids who are highly rated by recruiting services are the only way for Colorado to become relevant once again on the gridiron. The fact is that none of the recruiting services has the manpower to effectively cover all high schools throughout the country. One of the reason that D1 football coaches are paid so much is their ability to evaluate talent. Another skill is being able to develop high school players into good college football players. We need to let our new coaches do this. Having vocal fans speaking positively about injuries to our own players gives rival coaches yet another chip to add to the pot in the poker game that is college football. We do not want to lose out on the opportunity to get good players to come to CU because rival coaches can point to published reports of Buff fans who talk about how great it is when players they do not like get hurt.

I do not know Jordan Webb personally, but I would like to apologize to him for the lack of class showed by some Colorado football fans. Good luck with your surgery and rehab. And please know that the vast majority of CU fans would never ever cheer an injury by any CU player, or any player we play against either. We support you and the team, but realize that it is just a game after all.