CU vs. CSU Prediction

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CU Football; Playstation Preview

With college football firing up this weekend, I was trying to find a legitimate way to make a prediction on how my beloved CU Buffs would fare this year. We are coming off one of the worst seasons in college football history, and I can't bear the thought of suffering through something like that again. So I turned to someone who's been getting me through football seasons since I was in college. My Playstation, and NCAA Football '08 and I started up a CU dynasty. So according to my first completed season, here is my Playstation Preview for the upcoming CU football campaign: Final Record: 14-0 - Big XII Champions - National Champions According to my Playstation Preview, CU will beat Tennessee 31-15 to win the BCS National Championship and complete a perfect season. Not bad for a team that went 2-10 last season. The team will be lead by Hugh Charles who will rush for 2,154 yards with 28 TDs, and recieve for 220 yards and 3 TD's. He'll also end up a First Team All-American, First Team All Big XII, and win the Doak Walker Award, the Maxwell Award, and join Rashaan Salaam as the 2nd player in CU history to win the Heisman Trophy. Not a bad little season in store for Hugh. The real key to the team's successes though, will be Freshman All-American QB Cody Hawkins, who will end up throwing for 2,973 yards and 29 TD's with 15 interceptions. Most of his damage will be to leading receiver Dusty Sprague who will finish the season with 1,063 yards and 10 TD's on 55 catches. Sprague will finish up the season as a first team Big XII selection and second team All-American. The defense will be highlighted by the play of the D-line. Big George Hypolite will end up with 9 sacks and a first team All Big XII spot, Alonzo Barrett will finish up the season with 12 sacks and a second team all conference nod, and Maurice Lucas will lead the nation with 16 sacks and end up first team all conference and second team All-American. He'll also have a little hardware, taking home the Bednarik Award at the end of the season. Terrence Wheatley will have an outstanding senior season, leading the conference with 6 INT's, 4 forced fumbles and two defensive TD's. He'll end up a 1st team All-American and Big XII. The rest of the Buffs who will make All Big XII are: 1st Team- Edwin Harrison - OL Daniel Sanders - OL Lionel Harris - FS 2nd Team- Devin Head - OL Brandon Nicolas - DT Ryan Walters - SS Kevin Eberhart - K Oh yeah, we also ended up with the #1 ranked recruiting class in the nation. I have a feeling that any CU fan will take this season. 2 award winners, 5 All Americans, 13 All Conference players, a Big XII title and another National Championship? I suppose that'll do. I think we have earned it after suffering through last season's debacle. I can sense that some of you are questioning the validity of this prediction. "How can you possibly believe that a team that was so terrible last year will win the national championship this year?" you are saying to your computer screen. Well, any fan who doesn't think their team can run the table and win the title in the upcoming season isn't a true fan. It's the job of a real fan to believe in his team.... but.... you also need a bit of realism. So to fulfil this need for "realism" (it was probably hard to see, but I was doing air-quotes as I typed that word), I decided to simulate the Buffs season also. I decided to simulate straight through the year with no changes but one, starting Cody Hawkins at QB instead of Bernard Jackson (who the game had starting). I threw cation to the wind and decided that injuries, NCAA sanctions, and player suspensions be damned, I was just letting it ride. Here is how it turned out: Final record - 8-6 Big XII record - 6-2 Big XII North Champions. We beat Nebraska in the season finale 38-35 to clinch the Big XII North title. We then lose to eventual National Champions Texas 31-28 in the Big XII title game, and lose in the Cotton Bowl to Georgia 29-26. Hugh Charles and Cody Hawkins lead the way again, with Charles running for 1,982 yards and 15 TD's and Hawkins throwing for 2,654 and 28 TD's. Charles, Daniel Sanders, Edwin Harrison and Terrence Wheatley ended up All Big XII. You know what? I think any CU fan would take this prediction also. A Big XII North title and Cotton Bowl appearance sounds pretty good to me after what went down last season. Either way CU fans, football season is finally back in swing, and it all starts with the CSU Rammies on Saturday. This season will be huge for the future of our program. Hawkins has some blue chip recruits seriously considering wearing the Black and Gold. If we win a few of these early non-conference games it could be enough to persuade them to sign up. So let's support the boys in Boulder and enjoy some football. Oh yeah. If you're wondering what the computer thought of the CU v. CSU game coming up this weekend.... CU 27 - CSU 0. I said, it sucks... to be... a CSU Ram! Go Buffs!

Catching up on CU recruiting

Well it's been a while. But that's what happens when former teammates come to visit. And when it's someone of Charlie Melvin's stature and notoriety, all you can do is take a few days off work, let your family know that you love them, tell your liver to suck it up, and let loose. We probably could have greatly helped out the Commish over at Slushy Gutter with his summer drinking quest. But we don't know him, and stayed on the south side of Denver the whole time. Sorry Commish. So I was out of contact with the sports world for several days and here's what I missed: - The final Finals game was boring. A french dude won MVP. What has happened to the NBA when a foreigner wins MVP of the regular season, and a different foreigner wins Finals MVP? What is going on with American hoops? (I'm looking at you HS basketball coaches.) Is it too much to ask to teach the kids how to shoot a jump shot, correctly feed the post with a hook pass, or to get into triple threat position? Oh well. At least our guys can dunk better than theirs. - The Rockies had another 4 game winning streak and even took the series on the road against the Red Sox. I'm telling you, we are going to be good enough to barely almost get in the playoffs this year! (I'm going to be the last one back on the Rockies bandwagon this season. I've just been let down too many times to completely believe. I love them, but sometimes I hate that I love them.) - A dude from Argentina won the US Open. This seems physically impossible to me as I had always believed the contact between club and ball would automatically cause all Argentinians to flop. Okay, so here's the main reason for my post. After perusing through the last few days of the CU recruiting message boards, it seems that recruit interest in CU is nearing an all-time low. In fact, one of our WR verbal commits (Chance Blackmon) de-committed last week, only to be begged back into a soft verbal. The problem was that after committing to us some bigger schools like Tennessee and Texas A&M developed interest and were able to talk him out of CU. How could they do that you ask? It's simple. They tell him that CU sucks. This is the problem we are going to have with recruits until next season starts. The damage done by last year's 2-10 debacle of a season goes beyond our embarrassment as fans. Coach Hawk can do an amazing job of selling recruits on the fact that we are building towards something special, that these kids can be a part of bringing CU back to national prominence, that they will play early and often and be a big factor in the process. It's all true. But then the next team can simply say "Why would you go to CU? They're terrible. Did you know that they were 2-10 last year and lost to a 1AA school?" And it works. How do you counter this? Hawk needs to land one huge recruit this off-season and that tactic will topple. Landing someone like Jon Major (who has CU in his top 10 list now, he is in the process of narrowing down his top 20) would help. Or even better would be Darrell Scott (#2 overall player in the nation according to Rivals, #1 RB) or Julio Jones (#3 overall player and #1 WR). Both are considering CU along with the top programs in the nation. By landing one of these three, other top players will look at CU with a more open mind. They would start thinking "If someone like Darrell Scott chose CU over Florida, USC and Texas than maybe I should consider them." It will only take one. If Hawk can't pull that off in the off-season, than the start of next season will be absolutely crucial. We can't afford another down season. We HAVE to beat CSU. Beating ASU on the road would be huge. Pulling off the home win against Florida State on national TV would be absolutely enormous. Win 2 out of those 3, and being competitive in all of them, will be a lot of ammo to use against opposing recruiters who will tell kids to look at last year's record. Personally, I'm a believer. We have interest from 10 players on Rivals top 100. We have a good '07 recruiting class and a year in Hawk's system. (By the way, have you heard how big Ryan Miller is now? He's up to 320 lbs and is about to grow out of his size 18 shoes! That man is going to be an animal for us for the next few years, so enjoy him!) Hawk is determined to rebuild our program. And as hard as it is for me to say this following last year's 2-10 disaster season, I'm extremely excited for football season to start. September 1st against CSU is going to tell us a lot about where our program is going. Now if I could just find something to do for the next 6 weeks to keep me entertained. **Update - Chance Blackmon has officially de-committed from the Buffs, citing distance from home as his reason. Whatever. Good riddance kid.

What's up in Boulder

During this extremely dull time to be a sportsfan in Colorado, we have some news from Boulder this week. The biggest news was the unveiling of the new football duds. Now don't get me wrong, I loved the CU uniforms, but I have always been a big fan of the uniform change. It has proven to be a successful way to harbor some good luck to your favorite team, especially here in Colorado. It is a little something I have dubbed "The New Uniform Corollary". Here's your evidence: -In 1997 the Broncos change their uniforms and what happens? Two straight Super Bowls. - The Nuggets do a complete overhaul to their uniforms in 2003/ 2004 and what happens? Four straight playoff seasons. Sure we lost in the first round every year, but we weren't making the playoffs at all for years before that. Need further proof? The Colorado Rapids change their uniforms this season and what happens? ..................um. I'm not really sure actually. A quick Google search shows that they are in second place in the Western Conference of the MLS. The Corollary holds true again. So now the Buffs are coming out with new jerseys to follow up a 2-10 juggernaut season. I predict they will improve. I know it sounds crazy, but trust me, "The New Uniform Corollary" is time tested and true. Here are my thoughts on the new look. I think we need to ditch the gold pants with the black uni's, and only wear the gold pants with the white uni's. White / gold and all black. The other combos look like ass. I am particularly unimpressed with the black uni / gold pant combo. I don't know why we ever wear those two together. I'm a little bias though as the all blacks will occasionally make me visually aroused... It's awkward when it happens, but they look that cool. In hoops news, Coach Bzdelik has driven off another player. Oops, I meant he has "granted another player a release from his scholarship". The only problem is that this time it looks like the player he is graciously granting a release to isn't happy about it. In fact, he had no idea it was happening. Here is what sophomore point guard Kal Bay had to say about being released in the Daily Camera: "It's not because I want to leave CU or leave my teammates," Bay said. "I don't know exactly what it is. "I got a call from coach Friday and he said, 'I've been thinking long and hard about this Kal, and I'm not going to renew your scholarship for next season.' He said I missed a meeting with an academic advisor and he wasn't going to tolerate that. "That's really all that I know. I haven't gotten any more explanation than that. This is all mind-boggling to me right now." As I've said before, I hope that Bzdelik takes our program to the next level at CU. But it is insane that Coach Patton was looked at so negatively for doing the EXACT SAME THING (losing scholarship players) and Bzdelik has been given a free pass. I'm not saying that Patton is in Bzdelik's class as far as X's and O's coaching chops, but they seem to have the same attitude. And it was Patton's attitude that resulted in him being less than loved by the media and fans. It just seems a bit hypocritical to me that Buzz doesn't get the same treatment. As bad as last season was, Bay was a bright spot from our freshman class and seemed like a guy who could be a pretty big contributor throughout his stay at CU. I'm pretty surprised by this move for a few reasons 1.) He was the starting PG last year, 2.) We are starting to run out of players and 3.) Transfers bring down the overall graduation rate, which could result in a loss of scholarships down the road. With this being the 4th transfer already since Buzz arrived, we've got to be teetering on the edge of disciplinary action. With that said, here are a couple of reasons not to worry too much about the loss of Bay. 1.) Marcus Hall will be back next year. As long as he can stay eligible he is a much better PG and player than Bay. He is a good leader, a good distributor, can score when it's needed, is a decent outside threat, and the level of speed and quickness between the two isn't even comparable. If Hall is a Ferrari than Bay was a Kia Sportage. Hall is an improvement in every way over Bay. 2a.) Word on the streets (and by streets I mean message boards) is that we are pursuing Juco All-American PG Omar Leary. Leary had signed with CSU but was released from his letter after a CSU coaching change and was now considering Colorado. He would be the first CU hoopster from Portland since Tyrone Manlove (I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, I just love to say / type Ty's name). Here's where this street information takes on the look of an inside tip from a crackhead.... Leary has already signed with Oklahoma. Now maybe this insider has some info that the rest of us aren't privy to, but it looks to me like he is out of the picture. But I guess you never know. 2b.) We are loaded at the 2 guard with Roby and Silas returning, and the addition of Colorado Mr. Basketball Levi Knudson and Corey Higgins. All of these players can handle the ball if needed and are legitimate scoring threats. So I guess what I'm saying is not to worry too much about losing Bay. He would have been nice to have, but we will get along fine without him. Moving on, it looks like we've solved the lack of height problem that developed with the transfers of Van Burck and Kowal. CU announced that 6'10" Casey Crawford is transferring to CU from Wake Forest. Crawford was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Kansas as a HS Senior and will have to sit out next season as a transfer. He will have four years to play three at CU. Addressing the height problem next season will be incoming 7 footer Caleb Patterson from Ringwood HS in Oklahoma. Patterson is a 3 star player recruited by Coach Patton who decided to honor his commitment to the Buffs after Coach P resigned. I'm not sure of the immediate impact he will have with the team, but he will most likely be forced into playing early as he will be the only scholarship player on next seasons active roster over 6'9" tall. Much like the football team, CU hoops has only one direction to go after last season's 7-20 finish. As a homer, I've got to believe that Bzdelik is making the right moves to help bring us back to the national picture. It's a long way away from opening tipoff, and all we can do is sit, wait, and argue about the state of the program. God it's a long way away.... I'm so bored. When does football season start?

Quick Hits

Good afternoon! Just wanted to throw some links at you after a busy fun filled sports weekend. Check 'em out if you already haven't. Anybody go to the CSU spring game? Didn't look like much of a crowd from this video. Checkout this poor 4 year old boy who thought after seeing CSU last season that the safest place at a game would be behind the endzone. Only he and his Pops under-estimated the sievelike Ram defense. He has stitches but he can take a hit. Colorado Homer JT looked to be right on w/ his preview of the Denver vs. San Antonio series. Bruce Bowen, couldn't hold Melo or A.I. And it sounds like Nene had a stellar game that may have left the Spurs looking for answers to Maybyner Rodney Hilario. Ah, now I have to try a new Pyramid Beer because of this site. A cool site BTW, just skimmed it, but I'll be back there for the reviews and baseball articles. Please let me know in the comments of this post if you find a sixer of this Curve Ball Ale in the Denver Area before me. I like beer. It has been awhile since this came out, but I still listen to it every day on my ipod. Now that's what I'm talking about! If Coach Hawkins can't fire you up for college football season, I don't know who can! Thanks JT for passing this one along. When it isn't a story about the freakin' Yankees, Paul Katcher usually has a good article or photos to view. They put him on ESPN Page 2 occasionally. As softball season just started up last week, be sure to read his story about types of softball players and leagues. It's good, and I wouldn't lead you astray. Checkout today's stuff about the new and quite affordable Starbury shoes. If you like cartoons, Drew Litton at the Rocky Mountain news always has a good one. Though I'm not in agreement w/ this one - Drew Litton Nugs Finally, take a peek at some stats that player agents frequently look at, when trying to evaluate how much they might be able get for NBA players. Of course we're looking at playoff mode, for the Nuggets, but plus/minus stats are being used more and more. Thank you 82games.com I'm not sure what basketball dorks would do without you. Probably end up trying to calculate this stuff in some master fantasy spreadsheet or something. That's all I've got for this Monday afternoon, so I hope you enjoyed it.