Quietly, Rick Nueheisel and the UCLA Bruins are doing a good job on the recruiting scene, including nabbing a few players that were potentially high on the Buffs. Add to that list OT/DL Nik Abele who we interviewed a while back and clearly CU was his number one choice...that is until UCLA offered. Abele picked UCLA yesterday, according to ESPN.com. Add Abele to the list with S Brandon Sermons, DE Keenan Graham and probably S Stan McKay. As the West Coast coaching continues to get stronger with Sarkisian at Washington now, recruiting will continue to be a difficult battle. The guys over at Bruins Nation are excited about the future. Warning guys, Rick tends to fizzle out. And UCLA was 4 - 8 last year.

Colorado QB commit, Clark Evans, is a force on the basketball court as well. Sounds like a bruiser at 6'5" 225lbs.

Neil Woelk of the Boulder Daily Camera takes note of the skyrocketing salaries assistant coaches are getting across the nation at some of the BCS schools...certainly not at CU. The Buffs are restricted by state laws in how long and how much they can pay their coaches.

The Buffs have A visitor this weekend according to rivals. That lone person is Nathan Fellner, a safety who had to reschedule his trip to this weekend. He is a soft commit to Washington. I think that is where he will end up as the new coaching staff has done a good job up making inroads with him. Just for some perspective, Stanford is welcoming in 25 recruits this weekend. Yes, many of them are commits and are on their second official but there are plenty of non commits there as well. Like I said above, the West Coast is becoming hotly contested with better coaching all around. Stanford and UCLA, two schools like Colorado with high academic standards, are directly impacting the Buffs.

College Football News put out their final rankings which had CU at 76nd. Here is what they said:

The Dan Hawkins era isn't exactly working. 5-7? 2-6 in Big 12 play? There was an offensive party in the Big 12 this year and Colorado wasn't invited. There was a win over West Virginia, but that was the only thing to chirp about. Four of the final wins, including a close call to Eastern Washington, were by seven points or fewer.

At the beginning of the year, the Buffs were 34th in the rivals.com rankings release. I wonder where they will be tabbed at next year. The 34th ranking was based on the optimism of recruiting and coming off a bowl game in 2007. This year, I expect people to really have cooled on the Buffs and a ranking in the 50's will probably be extended. CFN has them at 72 for next year.

The Columbia Tribune has put together some nice Big 12 basketball capsules to get you ready for conference play. Here is what they said about the Buffs:

With Colorado coming off two seasons in the Big 12 cellar, Buffaloes Coach Jeff Bzdelik is just looking for signs of progress from his young team. There have been a few during an 8-6 start. Sophomore Cory Higgins has been perhaps the best player in the Big 12 nobody's heard of, averaging 17.9 points and shooting 53.2 percent from the field. Freshman Nate Tomlinson has grabbed the point guard job, averaging 9.3 points and 3.6 assists. "We like a lot of things we did learn about our team," associate coach Steve McClain said. "I think offensively we've come a long ways in the preseason, and defensively, we're doing a nice job. We've just got to be able to finish our defensive possessions with rebounds."