Monday Buff Bites

As noted in Kyle Ringo's article on Saturday night, we are waiting for the University's announcement on the following topics:

The updates will include the status of Hawkins' efforts to fill his coaching staff in the wake of Mark Helfrich's departure to Oregon and player personnel changes, including Smith and Wallace.

Why they are doing this, I don't know but let's just hope it doesn't lead to anymore surprises like we had this weekend. I am still shocked by Josh Smith's decision to leave the team or his intent to leave the team. Like I said in my post, he has all the potential you could ask for and was truly a big playmaker for the Buffs. He will be missed along with TE Ryan Wallace.

We will have all the coverage here after the announcements are made.

The Kansas City Star has released the date and time of some Big 12 games and there is a surprise for the Buffs, starting right off the bat with Colorado State and something that most Buff fans should not be happy with.The Buffs will again play the Rams on a SUNDAY, 5:00 pm on FSN at Folsom Field. Then, we get to travel to Toledo to play them on the next FRIDAY night, ESPN 7:00 pm. Toledo has a new coach, a very experienced offensive line and a huge stage with a Big 12 team coming into town. I am not overlooking the Toledo game and think it will be tougher than the one against Miami (OH) would have been. Either way to play any opponent on technically four short days rest with travel is not smart in this very pivotal season.

Boy, that is bad scheduling. Originally the Buffs were slotted to play on Saturday, Sept 5th against CSU. TV mones rules. The Buffs will play five games on national television.

Speaking of scheduling, the Columbia Daily Tribune talks about the lack of September showdowns in the Big 12.

Here is an article from Tim Griffin about the Josh Smith announcement. He states a reason Smith left was due to a drop in the depth chart, from first team to third team behind Markques Simas and Dustin Ebner. Well, this depth chart must be wrong then on CU's own site. I don't believe he fell in the depth chart and if he did, he would know Hawkins uses that for motivational purposes, not what is fact.

Yahoo Sports blogger, Dr. Saturday, also weighs in on the Josh Smith announcement. Here is a snippet:

Go join musical theater, brother. Josh Smith is a fairly obscure name nationally, but his sudden departure from Colorado over the weekend is one of the biggest non-draft personnel hits suffered by any team this offseason -- probably second only to Herzlich;s unfortunate exit from B.C. Officially, Smith, the Buffs' runaway leader in all-purpose yards last year as a sophomore, is transferring to pursue a music degree not offered by CU.

More Toney Clemons insight. Talk about a kid that is making an impression. This article talks about him working out with NFL players in Arizona. Clemons is cousins with Steve Breaston of the Arizona Cardinals so that is his in on the workouts:

Clemons has been busy working out with his cousin, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Steve Breaston, at the Fischer Sports facility in Phoenix.

He said several NFL players have been in and out of the complex. He's even caught passes from Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

"I am learning so much from these guys," Clemons said. "They are teaching me about the game, and the business side of it, too."

He's also worked out around Baltimore Ravens tight end Todd Heap and Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner.

"I ran into (Steelers punter) Mitch Berger," Clemons said. "He's a Colorado guy. He told me I am going to love it there."

We could use you in 2009 TClem.

In case you didn't know, the Ralphie Report was the first SBNation blog to reach 5,000 followers. Thanks to all of you who made that happen as we continue to grow. Since we won, we will be given some great swag to give away on the site so stay tuned for that as we get more details. Our twittering ability has lead to disbelief among other blogs on how we dominated the competition. Thanks again and be ready for some sweet giveaways.