Reviews Are Flowing "Buff Bites"

Great article from Patrick Ridgell (Longmont Times) about Rodney Stewart and the plethora of running backs currently fighting for carries. Like I said yesterday, Speedy looked explosive, strong and well on his way to being the dominant back he was last year. It sounds like Stewart was anything but patient in the healing process of his broken leg, removing the cast before it was time by himself, playing basketball, etc.

But players and coaches, say that is Speedy. He never wants to be out of the action, never wants to be down...

Nothing better than listening to coach Hagan to get you pumped up about the running backs.

CU players split up during winter conditioning into what Hawkins called "accountability" groups, where a misstep by one member of a group resulted in punishment for all. Hawkins said Stewart's group received punishment when Stewart was spotted in early January on campus without wearing his walking boot. Early January was, of course, about a month and a half before Stewart was supposed to be without his walking cast.

"That's just who he is," Hagan said. "He didn't want to be down, and he wanted to speed up the process as fast he could. He's just one of those guys who says, ‘Hey, I'm going to do what I have to do to get back out there right now.'"

Said Hagan: "He's always been confident. He's a guy that walks around with a swagger, plays with a swagger; he has that confident air about him. He's back. He's Speedy."

see a lot more information after the jump...

Quotes we like to see from players. When Ryan Miller was asked about the teams thought process after a 5 - 7 season:

"I don’t think there’s an anger, but it’s motivation, definite motivation," he said. "We’ve watched a lot more film. The meetings have been very precise. There’s not as much lolly-gagging or dilly-dallying."

It was originally thought that DT Curtis Cunningham would be able to participate in some drills, but now is listed as out. I didn't see too much of Jon Major yesterday as well as he seems to still be recovering from a torn ACL. Anthony Wright partially tore his ACL and did damage to his MCL. According to Kyle Ringo, he will be ready to go in fall but the injury was sustained "goofing around."

Too much is being made about this helmet camera. I swear I didn't see much use at all yesterday. Maybe one or two four-minute periods but what was more prevalent with the quarterbacks was towels under the arms which I have seen used in golf but not on a quarterback. In golf, and I am sure the CU coaches are thinking the same thing, the drill typically works on connection and a tight, concise frame (arms and hips turning together) and the most common version is to hold the towel under the forward arm pit but I saw both Ballenger and Hansen using towels under each arm. It limits wasted motion as a quarterback which is huge in becoming more accurate and finding a consistent motion. It also cures such things as the patented "John Elway Ball Tap" something quarterback coaches hate, shaking the ball like a salt and pepper shaker basically limiting any false movement with the arms or of the ball.

Kyle Ringo of the Boulder Daily Camera talks about the defensive line and the question marks that surround the unit. Coach Romeo Bandison's mantra this spring has been "We're not going to be the weak link."

Great article by B.G. Brooks on WR Markques Simas with a ton of quotes from new assistant head coach and wide receiver coach Eric Kiesau. Kiesau says that he was very hard on Simas last year for letting his team down by being ineligible. Now, with Simas prioritizing and able to provide legitimate competition for Josh Smith at wideout, the whole receiving core will get better.

Or so Kiesau hopes. Simply put, he wants Simas to get the best out of himself and whoever happens to be ahead of him on the depth chart.

"I love Cody Crawford (2008 senior walk-on) with all my heart,'' said Kiesau, who recently was promoted to assistant head coach by coach Dan Hawkins. "But if I'm Josh Smith, and I have a walk-on behind me who didn't earn any scholarships out of high school, there's no threat there.

"But if I've got Markques Simas, who was recruited by everybody in the country and everybody knows who he is, I've got to work my tail off."

Kiesau also said that his #1 priority this offseason is to develop redshirt freshman Chance Blackmon, to "see how far he can push him."

According to cubuffs.com, a few players were granted some special privileges this season:

First, a select group of student-athletes who meet a certain set of high standards will have a handful of special privileges this season; one of which is the option to wear a helmet visor.  Some of the guys who are taking advantage of this new opportunity are Cody Hawkins, Scotty McKnight, Demetrius Sumler and Rodney "Speedy" Stewart.

Speedy looks killer in a mask.