The Official "Matt Ballenger Watch" Buff Bites

A lot of topics today from backup quarterbacks and Darrell Scott's injury status to Hawkins contract extension.

The Longmont Times reports that backup QB Matt Ballenger is preparing to play this weekend for Kansas:

Will backup quarterback Matt Ballenger play in the first half Saturday when CU visits No. 16 Kansas (10:30 a.m., ESPN2)?

"We’ll see," coach Dan Hawkins said Tuesday.

Offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich said Ballenger is playing better since his progress "ebbed" after camp. Helfrich also wouldn’t say definitively if Ballenger will relieve starter Cody Hawkins for an early series, but he also said it’s something being considered.

Even if it's for a series or two, I am in favor of the move. This offense needs to see what Ballenger has in a game setting. To say the Buffs have been sputtering on that side of the ball would be an understatement. My prediction is Cody has three series this weekend to move the ball. If he doesn't get it going, Ballenger will be in there before the end of the first quarter.

Good news on the injury front for the Buffs. Now we will see if Hawkins finally plays Scott. He better or I for one am going to be in an uproar come Sunday morning, combining the words Darrell Scott and transfer.

Head trainer Miguel Rueda expects running back Darrell Scott (ankle) to be fine for Saturday, Dan Hawkins said. The coach also said safety Ryan Walters (knee) is expected to be fine.

But Hawkins is more of a wait and see on Scott:

"We’ll see. [Our trainer] thinks he’s going to be fine, so we’ll see."

The Ralphie Report interview with QB commit Jordan Wynn from Oceanside, California will be up tonight so make sure you check back for that one. He gives some great insight into his game.

The wonderful program named the Nebraska Cornhuskers finds its way on ESPN's Bottom 10 with the comment, "The Huskers suffered their most lopsided home loss in 53 years on Saturday. Turning them right-side up will take some time." Now that LSUFreek has uncovered the video of the spitting incident, Nebraska will be in the Bottom 2 next week. Blow'em up Texas Tech! If I know the pirate coach Leach, he will have this game to 35 points by half time!

Here is the transcript from Coach Hawkins press conference/luncheon after he received his new contract extension. I noticed the word "okay" 7 times in the transcript which describes the Buffs play so far this year. Congrats to Coach Hawk, though. We think the program is going in the right direction and this should only help on the recruiting trail. Neil Woelk of the Boulder Daily Camera agrees that extending Hawk will pay dividends in the future.

How do you know that you are really banged up on the offensive line? When you try to convert a defensive lineman to an offensive lineman in the middle of the year. That is what has happened to the Colorado Buffaloes. DT Eugene Goree has changed his number to #76 from #98 and is participating in drills with the OLine. Yikes!

In honor of those good ole days when we actually had a healthy offensive line, I present today's TRR jam.

Say Hi - Back Before We Were Brittle