Some folks have an odd fear of Friday the 13th. Don't count me in there because I love it. Two coaches who will likely look back in dread on the day are Clemson HC Dabo Swinney and Washington State head coach Mike Leach. Both had excellent seasons hit massive road-bumps last night.
Defending national champion and current #2 Clemson traveled to Syracuse, New York and lost a close one 27-24 to the same Orange who had lost earlier in the season to Middle Tennessee State. Really.
Cal entered the game against Washington State with three losses already on their resume. But those losses were to USC, Washington, and Oregon. Nothing to be ashamed about. But most folks figured their game Washington State would be another loss to a Top 10 team.
Somebody forgot to tell the Bears, and they shellacked the #8 Cougars by a score of 37-3. It was some welcome good news to the Bay Area where wildfires have killed more than 34 with hundreds missing and more than 5000 buildings have been lost. Some fans in the stands wore masks due to the visible smoke.
There were only two FBS games last night, and the Top 10 team in both lost. Clemson was favored by 24 points. Washington State was a 17 point favorite. Oh well, now we know why they play the games.
Since these games were played on a Friday, it means that FOUR Top 10 teams have lost in the last week. Oklahoma and Michigan lost last Saturday.
Thank goodness for Friday the 13th and the wonderful, crazy world of college football.
Showing posts with label Michigan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michigan. Show all posts
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
How Do the Power Five Conferences Perform Academically According to the World University Rankings?
How do the Power Five Conferences perform academically?
Football season has begun with a bang, and once again fans from around the country are in heated debate as to which schools and conferences are the best in the land.Of course, most of those debates are centered around football. Especially down in SEC country, where football is much more important than academics.
The World University Rankings were released today and this article will look at where Power Five Conference schools landed on the Top 100 of the charts.
This is a tough ranking because the Power Five schools are competing not only with each other but also other top universities from around the world.
In Grand Countdown Fashion, the list of Power Five Conferences from Worst to First.
#5 -- The Southeastern Conference (SEC) -- ZERO
The SEC landed a big fat ZERO for schools on the "Wonderful One Hundred" list of top universities in the world. The closest to making the Top 100 was Vanderbilt at #105.
#4 -- The Big 12 Conference -- ONE
The Big 12 beat the SEC by one by landing the University of Texas on the Top 100. The Longhorns came in at #49 worldwide.
#3 -- The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) -- FOUR
The ACC landed FOUR schools on the "Wonderful One Hundred" that was released today. Those schools were:
-- #17 - Duke University
-- #33 - Georgia Tech University
-- #56 - North Carolina University
-- #100 - University of Pittsburgh
#2 -- The Pac-12 Conference -- SIX
The Pac-12 landed SIX schools on the Worldwide Top 100, including four on the ultra prestigious Top 25. Those four were more than any other Power 5 conference.
-- #3 - Stanford
-- #15 - UCLA
-- #18 - California
-- #25 - Washington
-- #66 - USC
-- #100 - Colorado (tied with ACC's Pittsburgh)
#1 -- The Big Ten Conference -- TEN
The overall academic excellence award surely goes to the Big Ten, which placed 10 of their conference schools on the Worldwide Top 100. The Pac-12 may have had a few higher up in the rankings, but the Big Ten pounded the rankings like no other conference.
-- #20 - Northwestern
-- #21 - Michigan
-- #37 - Illinois
-- #43 - Wisconsin
-- #56 - Minnesota
-- #60 - Purdue
-- #69 - Maryland
-- #70 - Ohio State
-- #77 - Penn State
-- #83 - Michigan State
The verdict is in and three of the Power Five conferences put a total of 20 schools on the Top 100 worldwide. Those were the Big Ten with 10, the Pac-12 with six, and the ACC with four. The SEC, the self-proclaimed kings of college football had a total of zero.
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Colorado's Offensive Shortcomings Exposed in 41-10 Loss to Washington in Pac-12 Championship Game
Once again, a top-notch defensive coordinator exposed the weaknesses of Colorado's offensive play caller, Brian Lindgren. The Huskies also exposed that Colorado's head coach Mike MacIntyre and the QB coach (Lindgren) sort of melt down emotionally and intellectually when Sefo Liufau gets injured.
The Colorado Buffaloes are a good football team. That is a good thing for long-suffering CU fans and students. The foundation and culture has been built for the Buffs to remain a Top 25 team for years to come.
The key to this foundation of Top 10 play is that the Buffs have one of the best defensive coordinators in all of college football in Jim Leavitt. They also have an excellent defensive staff in Joe Tumpkin, Charles Clark, and Jim Jeffcoat. Make no mistake about it, the outstanding D is the reason the Buffs won 10 games this year.
The great parts of being a Top 25 program are numerous. Lots of positive press and interest from top tier recruits combine with school and civic pride to make football fun and exciting for fans and players alike. Watch some of the videos from this year of jubilant students celebrating with their football playing classmates. The times have changed in Boulder.
The hard part of being a Top 25 team is that expectations are raised exponentially. Nobody is interested in the Buffs "playing a good game" and still coming up short. The Buffs had a decade of losing which led to fans grasping for any positive signs. After 10 wins this year, that's over.
Fans know that the Buffs will be playing excellent teams and that they probably will not win them all. They play in the Conference of Champions, and year in and year out they can expect that around half the teams in the Pac-12 will be Top 25 teams. And if they make it to the conference championship, they will likely be playing a Top 5 team.
It's tough sledding, but that's how competitive it is in the Power 5 conferences. Colorado needs to get used to that.
Every decent head coach and coordinator in football from high school on knows that you have to have a plan for each game. Every good coach knows that it should be a good plan. What makes a truly great coach is not only excellent planning, but also the ability to adapt to unexpected circumstances during the game.
The head coach needs to be on top it, for sure, but the coordinators are the ones who have to make the plans and then adjust during the game. It's their job.
Leavitt is excellent in all facets. He knew that Heisman candidate Jake Browning (he of the 65% completion percentage, 42 TD passes and only 7 interceptions) could dominate the game like he had against most of their opponents this year. Leavitt gambled that if the Buffs shut down Browning, the would be able to stay in the game. In fact, if someone was unable to watch the game and only read that the Buffs had held Browning to only 9 completions in 24 attempts, they would have likely assumed that the Buffs dominated the game.
Unfortunately for Leavitt and the Buffs, the offense did not seem to have a backup plan after it became clear that what they hoped for was not going to pan out. It's been a pattern against the better defenses all year. Another pattern is that the offensive play-caller tends to freeze up if Sefo Liufau goes down to injury.
What makes that strange is that when Steven Montez was expected to start a game this season, Lindgren seemed comfortable designing a call scheme for him. It worked against Oregon and Oregon State just fine.
But in the games against Michigan and Washington, it seemed as if Liufau's injured ankle has some sort of psychic connection to Lindgren's brain. Sprained ankle for one led to sprained brain for his coach.
Sefo Liufau injured his ankle in the first quarter in the game against Washington. It was a tough defensive battle with Washington holding a tenuous 14-7 lead at halftime. Montez had made some good throws and his team was ready to face adversity and follow him the rest of the game.
After watching Liufau struggle to walk on the sidelines and being led off to the locker room, every Buff fan felt bad for the young man. But they also hoped their team would overcome adversity and play strong in the second half.
Some of us watching the game on TV knew it was a bad omen when the sideline reporter quoted MacIntyre as saying "We need to get Sefo Liufau back in this game" instead of stating that Buffs needed to adjust and rally behind Montez. He was stating that ONLY Liufau could lead the Buffs to victory. He was wrong.
Despite the lopsided loss, apparently Mac and Lindgren got what they needed because they put an injured Sefo Liufau back in and that decision and typically bad play-calling led to three interceptions.
The first interception was a pick-six and the Buffs were down 21-7 with 14 seconds gone in the 3rd quarter. A close defensive game quickly became a rout as Liufau was unable to follow through on his throws which caused them to sail high, often into the arms of Washington defenders..
Although Liufau finished the game with only 3 completions in 13 attempts (and 3 interceptions), neither MacIntyre nor Lindgren could fathom the idea of taking Liufau out of the game to rest his sprained ankle. No, apparently the idea of taking him out would be admitting they screwed up.
What Mac and Lindgren need to realize is that whether they admit it or not, they screwed up and screwed their team.
Some simple stats --
While Montez was in the game, the Buffs and Huskies each scored 7 points.
With Sefo Luifau in the lineup at quarterback, the Huskies outscored the Buffs 34-3.
Draw you own conclusions.
When MacIntyre and Lindgren opted to put an injured QB back in to start the 3rd quarter, they risked an entire season's worth of hard work by 100 guys to protect the legacy of one guy.
It's an old adage that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one. Unfortunately for the many on the Colorado sidelines (and in the stands and watching on TV) last night, the few who could have made the right choice instead opted for the good of the few (or the one).
--------------------------------
But hey, it was a successful season. Nobody expected 10 wins. Nobody expected the Rose Bowl either, and the Colorado coaches shouldn't expect it now either. If they lost a close defensive game to the #4 team in the country, they could have argued that Colorado deserved the Rose Bowl if Washington was in the Playoffs. But a 41-10 destruction is another matter. Most folks on the east coast didn't even see the game, they just saw the score this morning and figured the Colorado got beaten across the board
But the truth is that only one of the big three of the Buffs (Leavitt) did the job well. Mac and Lindgren faced adversity and found themselves wanting. Again.
I hear it's lovely in San Antonio.
The Colorado Buffaloes are a good football team. That is a good thing for long-suffering CU fans and students. The foundation and culture has been built for the Buffs to remain a Top 25 team for years to come.
The key to this foundation of Top 10 play is that the Buffs have one of the best defensive coordinators in all of college football in Jim Leavitt. They also have an excellent defensive staff in Joe Tumpkin, Charles Clark, and Jim Jeffcoat. Make no mistake about it, the outstanding D is the reason the Buffs won 10 games this year.
The great parts of being a Top 25 program are numerous. Lots of positive press and interest from top tier recruits combine with school and civic pride to make football fun and exciting for fans and players alike. Watch some of the videos from this year of jubilant students celebrating with their football playing classmates. The times have changed in Boulder.
The hard part of being a Top 25 team is that expectations are raised exponentially. Nobody is interested in the Buffs "playing a good game" and still coming up short. The Buffs had a decade of losing which led to fans grasping for any positive signs. After 10 wins this year, that's over.
Fans know that the Buffs will be playing excellent teams and that they probably will not win them all. They play in the Conference of Champions, and year in and year out they can expect that around half the teams in the Pac-12 will be Top 25 teams. And if they make it to the conference championship, they will likely be playing a Top 5 team.
It's tough sledding, but that's how competitive it is in the Power 5 conferences. Colorado needs to get used to that.
Every decent head coach and coordinator in football from high school on knows that you have to have a plan for each game. Every good coach knows that it should be a good plan. What makes a truly great coach is not only excellent planning, but also the ability to adapt to unexpected circumstances during the game.
The head coach needs to be on top it, for sure, but the coordinators are the ones who have to make the plans and then adjust during the game. It's their job.
Leavitt is excellent in all facets. He knew that Heisman candidate Jake Browning (he of the 65% completion percentage, 42 TD passes and only 7 interceptions) could dominate the game like he had against most of their opponents this year. Leavitt gambled that if the Buffs shut down Browning, the would be able to stay in the game. In fact, if someone was unable to watch the game and only read that the Buffs had held Browning to only 9 completions in 24 attempts, they would have likely assumed that the Buffs dominated the game.
Unfortunately for Leavitt and the Buffs, the offense did not seem to have a backup plan after it became clear that what they hoped for was not going to pan out. It's been a pattern against the better defenses all year. Another pattern is that the offensive play-caller tends to freeze up if Sefo Liufau goes down to injury.
What makes that strange is that when Steven Montez was expected to start a game this season, Lindgren seemed comfortable designing a call scheme for him. It worked against Oregon and Oregon State just fine.
But in the games against Michigan and Washington, it seemed as if Liufau's injured ankle has some sort of psychic connection to Lindgren's brain. Sprained ankle for one led to sprained brain for his coach.
Sefo Liufau injured his ankle in the first quarter in the game against Washington. It was a tough defensive battle with Washington holding a tenuous 14-7 lead at halftime. Montez had made some good throws and his team was ready to face adversity and follow him the rest of the game.
After watching Liufau struggle to walk on the sidelines and being led off to the locker room, every Buff fan felt bad for the young man. But they also hoped their team would overcome adversity and play strong in the second half.
Some of us watching the game on TV knew it was a bad omen when the sideline reporter quoted MacIntyre as saying "We need to get Sefo Liufau back in this game" instead of stating that Buffs needed to adjust and rally behind Montez. He was stating that ONLY Liufau could lead the Buffs to victory. He was wrong.
Despite the lopsided loss, apparently Mac and Lindgren got what they needed because they put an injured Sefo Liufau back in and that decision and typically bad play-calling led to three interceptions.
The first interception was a pick-six and the Buffs were down 21-7 with 14 seconds gone in the 3rd quarter. A close defensive game quickly became a rout as Liufau was unable to follow through on his throws which caused them to sail high, often into the arms of Washington defenders..
Although Liufau finished the game with only 3 completions in 13 attempts (and 3 interceptions), neither MacIntyre nor Lindgren could fathom the idea of taking Liufau out of the game to rest his sprained ankle. No, apparently the idea of taking him out would be admitting they screwed up.
What Mac and Lindgren need to realize is that whether they admit it or not, they screwed up and screwed their team.
Some simple stats --
While Montez was in the game, the Buffs and Huskies each scored 7 points.
With Sefo Luifau in the lineup at quarterback, the Huskies outscored the Buffs 34-3.
Draw you own conclusions.
When MacIntyre and Lindgren opted to put an injured QB back in to start the 3rd quarter, they risked an entire season's worth of hard work by 100 guys to protect the legacy of one guy.
It's an old adage that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one. Unfortunately for the many on the Colorado sidelines (and in the stands and watching on TV) last night, the few who could have made the right choice instead opted for the good of the few (or the one).
--------------------------------
But hey, it was a successful season. Nobody expected 10 wins. Nobody expected the Rose Bowl either, and the Colorado coaches shouldn't expect it now either. If they lost a close defensive game to the #4 team in the country, they could have argued that Colorado deserved the Rose Bowl if Washington was in the Playoffs. But a 41-10 destruction is another matter. Most folks on the east coast didn't even see the game, they just saw the score this morning and figured the Colorado got beaten across the board
But the truth is that only one of the big three of the Buffs (Leavitt) did the job well. Mac and Lindgren faced adversity and found themselves wanting. Again.
I hear it's lovely in San Antonio.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Nine Games Into 2016, Mike MacIntyre Off the Hot Seat and Up for Coach of the Year
Mike MacIntyre entered the 2016 season on everybody's list of hot-seat coaches. The Buffs had won a total of TWO conference games over Mac's first three years as head coach at Colorado. My oh my, how things have changed.
Through 9 games this season, the Colorado Buffaloes are 7-2 and alone in first place in the Pac-12 South. Their FIVE conference wins so far have already doubled their total wins against Pac-12 foes since joining the conference in 2011.
And, Mac has gone from being on everybody's hot seat to one of the favorites for National Coach of the Year awards. If the Buffs win out the season and Mac takes CoY honors, he will join his father in winning such an award. George MacIntyre won several national coach of the year awards in 1982 while coaching at Vanderbilt.
Unfortunately for Mac, the coach listed as the odds-on-favorite for the coaching honors is Chris Petersen of the undefeated and #4 ranked Washington Huskies. If UW and Colorado both win their remaining regular season games, they will meet in the Pac-12 championship game. The winning coach may very well win coach of the year.
Big turnarounds for Buffs programs leading to coaching awards is not new at Colorado. Bill McCartney's 4th season saw the Buffs go from one win the prior year to seven in 1985. The original Mac won Big 8 coach of the year that season, beating out Barry Switzer of Oklahoma. What made it all the more impressive for Bill Mac is that OU won the national championship that year.
Through nine games this year, MacIntyre has earned a solid A grade. There is even speculation that Mac is now being sought after by programs in search of a head coach. Baylor has been mentioned as the leading candidate.
What will Mac do if the Buffs win out, play in the Pac-12 title game, and defeat whoever represents the North? He'll be fielding calls and offers if it happens, and he just might walk away with coach of the year awards as well.
The worst case scenario, however, is that the Buffaloes continue to struggle on offense and lose one or more of their remaining games. That would likely end the possibility of playing for the Pac-12 title, and with it would go the elusive coach of the year award. He might still be sought after by other programs, but certainly not with the same fervor that would be present if the Buffs win 10 games.
If the Buffs do win 10, Mac's grade will rise to an A+. If the Buffs fall flat in the last few games, the grade could fall all the way down to a B.
The Buffs surprised everyone around the country early in the season with their explosive offense. Now that there is film to look at the Buffs have been slowed down considerably by opposing defensive coordinators. USC, Stanford and UCLA all put shackles on the big plays the Buffs made often early in the season.
USC exploited the Buffs' seeming inability to adjust on the fly and took the victory. Stanford and UCLA also shut down the Buffs, but the games were won by Colorado due to outstanding defensive play which held the Cardinal and Bruins to a combined 15 points between them.
It's up to Mac and his offensive staff to get the Buffaloes back on track to explosiveness and playing as well as the defense. If they do, the Buffs can play against anyone in the country. Just ask Michigan. Colorado scored more points against the Wolverines in Ann Arbor than anyone the Wolverines have played.
If not, the Buffs will still have had an outstanding turnaround season. But they also will have to deal with the fact that expectations for the program have risen substantially. Fans want them challenging for championships, not being content to just get to a bowl game.
My oh my, how things have changed. Stay tuned for how it ends up.
Through 9 games this season, the Colorado Buffaloes are 7-2 and alone in first place in the Pac-12 South. Their FIVE conference wins so far have already doubled their total wins against Pac-12 foes since joining the conference in 2011.
And, Mac has gone from being on everybody's hot seat to one of the favorites for National Coach of the Year awards. If the Buffs win out the season and Mac takes CoY honors, he will join his father in winning such an award. George MacIntyre won several national coach of the year awards in 1982 while coaching at Vanderbilt.
Unfortunately for Mac, the coach listed as the odds-on-favorite for the coaching honors is Chris Petersen of the undefeated and #4 ranked Washington Huskies. If UW and Colorado both win their remaining regular season games, they will meet in the Pac-12 championship game. The winning coach may very well win coach of the year.
Big turnarounds for Buffs programs leading to coaching awards is not new at Colorado. Bill McCartney's 4th season saw the Buffs go from one win the prior year to seven in 1985. The original Mac won Big 8 coach of the year that season, beating out Barry Switzer of Oklahoma. What made it all the more impressive for Bill Mac is that OU won the national championship that year.
Through nine games this year, MacIntyre has earned a solid A grade. There is even speculation that Mac is now being sought after by programs in search of a head coach. Baylor has been mentioned as the leading candidate.
What will Mac do if the Buffs win out, play in the Pac-12 title game, and defeat whoever represents the North? He'll be fielding calls and offers if it happens, and he just might walk away with coach of the year awards as well.
The worst case scenario, however, is that the Buffaloes continue to struggle on offense and lose one or more of their remaining games. That would likely end the possibility of playing for the Pac-12 title, and with it would go the elusive coach of the year award. He might still be sought after by other programs, but certainly not with the same fervor that would be present if the Buffs win 10 games.
If the Buffs do win 10, Mac's grade will rise to an A+. If the Buffs fall flat in the last few games, the grade could fall all the way down to a B.
The Buffs surprised everyone around the country early in the season with their explosive offense. Now that there is film to look at the Buffs have been slowed down considerably by opposing defensive coordinators. USC, Stanford and UCLA all put shackles on the big plays the Buffs made often early in the season.
USC exploited the Buffs' seeming inability to adjust on the fly and took the victory. Stanford and UCLA also shut down the Buffs, but the games were won by Colorado due to outstanding defensive play which held the Cardinal and Bruins to a combined 15 points between them.
It's up to Mac and his offensive staff to get the Buffaloes back on track to explosiveness and playing as well as the defense. If they do, the Buffs can play against anyone in the country. Just ask Michigan. Colorado scored more points against the Wolverines in Ann Arbor than anyone the Wolverines have played.
If not, the Buffs will still have had an outstanding turnaround season. But they also will have to deal with the fact that expectations for the program have risen substantially. Fans want them challenging for championships, not being content to just get to a bowl game.
My oh my, how things have changed. Stay tuned for how it ends up.
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