Buffs Ready Folsom for the Aged Bowden

Hello Friends - I am back after a week off to write up a Buffs contest. Yes, I took a week off due to my anniversary, but I really didn't have a feeling one way or another last weekend anyhow. Frankly, after watching my Tivo'd version of the ASU/CU debacle, I can see why I had no feeling. What a game to let get away... Onward, to Mr. Bowden and the Seminoles. Good stuff from Stewart Mandell of SI-fame today on the local KKFN 950 The Fan. Stewart basically couldn't understand why FSU was even ranked coming into this season and said South Florida is the better program right now. Nice. Jim Armstrong thinks that Florida State won't be able to compete with the other schools in Florida until Bowden retires or is fired. Again, nice. The reason I hate this kind of crap is that there are a lot of people in Seminole Nation worried to death about this game. It has upset written all over it. The late start time, the altitude, the somewhat improved Buff Football Program. But even if the upset occurs, everyone is preparing themselves locally to say "Yeah, but...they're not the old Seminoles!" Again, what are you going to do? I will be very happy to play a competitive game that isn't as dreadful as last weekend any day. A win will be gravy. Let's just see some nice improvement on the offense and get ready to get the full roster back for Miami of Ohio. Right? This is a super winnable game, team. FSU is down, Drew Weatherford isn't very good (read: sucks), Bowden is old, and they are apparently not even on par with the mighty Bulls of South Florida. The game is past Bobby Bowden's bedtime. Swear to god, read Kyle Ringo's blog from The Daily Camera and check it out: http://www.buffzone.com/blogs/buffzone-sports/2007/sep/12/bowden/ Better yet, why are the Buffs in a position to win this game that doesn't require picking apart an average Florida State team? For starters, two 4.4 guys are back in the lineup with Hugh Charles and Josh Smith ready to go. Hawkins reported that J-Fly has been "all world" in practice this week coming off a kidney laceration. Smith catches the two touchdowns dropped by Williams and Celestine, by the way, in that ASU game. Also, Cody Hawkins is a film-room whore. He's been watching film of that putrid performance all week. There is one thing that I am absolutely sure of about Cody Hawkins; he is the type of player who gets better every week and is always prepared. I also think you'll see Big Red this week for the first time, Mr. Ryan Miller. My fellow Columbine alum should be plowing through some undersized DTs (although very talented, I might add) and opening up some holes. I think he'll play RG, but would love to see him at RT soon with Edwin Harrison moving to guard. Really, I have a GREAT feeling about this game. That usually doesn't mean much, but it sure is going to be fun to check the old barometer against a mighty (mediocre but still BCS?) foe this Saturday in Boulder. My prediction, dear readers? CU 34 - FSU 31. A nail biter. Down to the wire. FSU has a chance to win the game on the last drive and misses the field goal, wide right. I think that may have happend somewhere before, right? Hawkins rebounds nicely with a 23-39 performance for 315 yards and three scores including a long one to the righteous #9, J-Fly. Ground game struggles, but is better than the ASU game and Sumler gains 50 tough yards and a TD and Charles picks up 75 or so on 15 carries. Dizon makes 20 more tackles. Burney gets a huge, and unexpected, pick, along with Walters. Wheatley never is challenged by the inept Weatherford. Ryan Miller will still have red hair and be massive. Glory, Glory, Colorado! May the Buffs be with you...and sleep well, Master Bowden. It's time to pass the torch...your too old to rock, no more rocking for you!!!! Peace. Brainz

Dear Friends of the Black & Gold...

Dear Friends of the Black & Gold - In less than a day, it will be the greatest day in the history of 2007. September 1st is about redemption. It is about vengeance. It is a turning point of a great comeback story. Say what you will about the Mighty Buffaloes of Colorado or the Big 12 North, but things haven’t been this good in a long while in Boulder. Here are the things we know: *The budget for the Athletic Department will top $40 million for the first time in history this fiscal year. Kudos to Mike Bohn and staff for running things like a real business up there, finally. *Construction is complete on fantastic renovations of Dal Ward and the locker rooms, and construction has commenced on a $3 million indoor practice bubble identical to the ones those rascals have down in Austin. *Dan Hawkins would like to someday enclose the North endzone of Folsom and expand seating to 70,000. *The media makes a big deal about all of the red shirt freshman and true freshman on the depth chart at CU. No kidding? That’s because the last two recruiting classes have markedly more talent than the final four of Gary Barnett’s era combined. The Buffs are inexperienced, but those kids are clearly better than the veterans. That is a good thing. *Speaking of recruiting classes…Last year’s was ranked 30TH in the nation. I personally think you need to rank classes four different times, however. 1) On signing day (the 30TH in the nation part), 2) after the NCAA clearinghouse finishes with the kids (Auburn lost 9 recruits to academics), 3) after their first year on campus, and then 4) again after they graduate. All those things considered, CU only missed on getting two kids in this fall. One will “grey shirt” and enroll this winter and the other is a super stud JUCO RB that will also enroll in January with two years left to play. I think it’s safe to say that CU’s recruiting class moved up at least five notches after the clearinghouse finished. *We have a much better QB than last year. *We have much better WRs than last year. *We are very thin at LB, which seems weird. *The top player in the country for 2008 is “leaning” toward Colorado. Darrell Scott would be the biggest name recruit to come to Boulder in the history of our football program. *Colorado A&M, as per usual with the Denver media, is vastly overrated and Sonny Lubick is two years away from being committed to a nursing home. He has been telling his boosters and fans all summer about how the Lambs will not only beat CU this year, but will destroy them and “blow them out”. Good stuff for Hawkins. Colorado A&M lost their last seven games in a row and barely beat the worst CU team in 20 years last year. Things we don’t know: *How Cody Hawkins will handle himself and this offense. Improved, yes. Enough to win games? We don’t know. *Will the defense be as stout against the run this year and improve against the pass? Remember, very thin at LB and a new CB starting opposite of T. Wheatley. *Will Kyle Bell be the old Kyle Bell or the broken Kyle Bell? If he is the old Kyle Bell, is that really anything to worry about? *Has Patrick Williams really learned how to catch a football? *Has new OL coach Jeff Grimes prepared his bunch to bust people in the mouth? Incidentally, Jeff Grimes was 3-0 at BYU against Colorado A&M as OL coach there. *Are the Buffs truly the “strongest team I have ever coached” per Dan Hawkins? Remember, this team went from having less than 10 guys power clean over 300 lbs. to having 60+ players pull it off this summer. IF they are that strong, then Jeff Pittman – S&C Coach – is the MVP of 2007. My prediction, my friends: CU 31, Colorado A&M 17. Cody Hawkins is efficient as hell and goes 18-25 for 215 yards and two TDs, one of them in the 1st quarter for over 40 yards. Hugh Charles and Demetrius Sumler destroy the Colorado A&M front seven with the help of our big uglies and the Buffs run for 300 yards. 500 yards of total offense and the game isn’t as close as the score would indicate. After the game, the local media discusses how CSU is probably overrated and Buff fans shouldn’t get too excited. It’s much easier to do that than to give Hawkins any credit. Are we ready for some football? Vital Stat: In the history of the series between CU and Colorado A&M, the Buffs lead 57-20-1. Bring on the Lamb Roast!!!! GO BUFFS!!! Sincerely, Brainz – University of Colorado Class of 1999

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.

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.