Nebraska QB Joe Ganz wants to do what the Buffs did to him last year:

"It's an absolute redemption game for me, for the seniors, for everyone who was a part of it last year," Ganz told the Lincoln Journal-Star. "That's one thing on our mind ... to see how they'll like it, sitting at home, watching everyone else play, like we did last year. That's one thing on our mind. ... We have to come out and play our best football because we want to do everything we can to keep them out of a bowl like we did last year."

Bo Pelini wants Joe Ganz to shut up:

"I wish Joe would just worry about Joe," he said.

I think coach Pelini should have used this line on Nebraska OL Matt Slauson who went off yesterday and gives the Buffs plenty of bulletin board material.

As a somewhat native of Colorado, I have an extreme distaste for them," Slauson said Tuesday. "I wouldn't mind keeping them out of a bowl just like they did to us last year and just like they did to us in '04."

 "I have an extreme distaste for them. They recruit guys there for one reason, and that's to beat Nebraska. If you take that away from them, they have nothing."

"They're in the Big 12 and when you think Big 12 schools you think Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska," Slauson said. "(The Buffs) seem irrelevant. Boy, that's bulletin-board material."

Thanks bud. Yep, those Nebraska Cornhuskers are full of class.

It looks like Buffs starting senior safety Ryan Walters will not play (very doubtful) Friday after suffering a knee and ankle injury on the first play of the Oklahoma State game. That means two freshmen will be patrolling the safety positions: Anthony Perkins and Patrick Mahnke. The good thing for the Buffs is that Perkins has seen a lot of playing time and Mahnke played the whole game last week for Walters.

Neil Woelk of the Daily Camera says don't worry CU fans, the Buffs know the Nebraska game is important. But he also says this game is not as important as it once was as the Buffs used the game as a measuring stick and frankly, the Huskers aren't that good:

But in all honesty, beating Nebraska these days doesn't carry the same status that it did even six or seven years ago. It is in no way, shape or form a measuring stick of playing against the best.

Rather, the last few years it's become a way for Colorado to salvage a season -- and that's not what CU should be pursuing as an "end all."

The Huskers may indeed be an upper-tier team again someday. This year, though, they have just one victory -- against Kansas -- that would be considered a "quality" win. Otherwise, they're a team also trying to catch the big boys in the Big 12.

Nebraska wide receiver coach Ted Gilmore met with University of Wyoming officials yesterday to interview for their head coaching vacancy.

Tim Griffin of ESPN highlights all of the rivalry games this week in the Big 12.

The Buffs men's basketball team beat the Lafayette Leopards last night in Boulder 73 - 59 after, once again, running away with it in the second half. The Buffs are sure lucky to have sophomore G Cory Higgins on the team right now. Higgins had 24 points last night as he led all scorers. Three other CU players were in double digits last night: freshman Nate Tomlinson (10), freshman Austin Dufault (11) and junior Dwight Thorne (14). The Buffs shot another strong percentage last night (52.1%) while their opponent only connected on 35.1%. The Buffs did a good job of guarding the Lafayette three-point shooters as the Leopards only made 5 of 21 attempts. Still, Colorado was out-rebounded by a 35 - 30 margin which continues to be the Buffs Achilles heel. The Buffs also turned the ball over 19 times which is something Bzdelik wants his team to improve on.

The next game for the Buffs is on the road against Stanford.

The 2008 Big 12 All-Academic Teams were announced yesterday. Five Buffs made the first team and one made the second team:

First Team (3.20+ GPA)

Name, School Class Major Hometown
Jake Behrens, Colorado So. Accounting Omaha, Neb.
George Hypolite, Colorado Sr. Ethnic Studies & Women's Studies Los Angeles, Calif.
Travis Sandersfeld, Colorado Fr. Business Limon, Colo.
Devin Shanahan, Colorado Jr. Economics Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Nate Solder, Colorado So. Biology Buena Vista, Colo.

Second Team (3.00 to 3.19 GPA)

Name, School Class Major Hometown
Patrick Devenny, Colorado Jr. Marketing Roseville, Calif.

Graham Harrell has a 4.0 GPA. I didn't know that. Other notables who made the first team include Sam Bradford, DeMarco Murray, Todd Reesing, Chase Daniel, Joe Ganz and Colt McCoy.

Those of you looking for something to do Friday night after the Buffs game should head up to Keystone for a free show by awesome local band Devotchka.  Should be a good time.   Next week is Girl Talk and if you haven't seen him before you need not miss it. - Woodrow

Devotchka - The Last Beat of My Heart

It's a bye week for the Colorado Buffaloes which is a perfect time for reflection and searching as to why the Buffs are one game away from so call "regressing" on last year. Last night on 850KOA radio, coach Dan Hawkins continued to profess that next year things will get better because a) the Buffs will be healthier and b) the Buffs will be more experienced. Since that was the 1,023rd time that Hawkins has said that this year, I decided to put some empirical data together to test out what the effect of experience has on a Big 12 team. Sort of like a science project and proving or disproving his claim. (Make Sure You View In Wide Page View -

The Question at Hand:

Statistically, are the Buffs the youngest offensive team in the Big 12? By that I mean is CU heavily reliant on underclassmen to get the job done compared to other teams in the Big 12 and what is the win trade off between underclassmen and upperclassmen? Sounds good, right? It is good. This post is a little long but I believe it is well worth your time.

The Results:

Just how important is experience? Let me rephrase that: Just how important is getting production from upperclassmen? Important. How important? About two wins. How important is having an upperclassmen quarterback in the Big 12? How about four wins important. First of all, lets look at the passing statistics by team in the Big 12:

see after the jump for analysis on the rushing, receiving and total yardage of the Big 12....(Make sure you view in wide page view - Click in the top left corner so you can see the tables)

Continue reading this post »

Last weekend was tough. Start to finish nothing went Colorado's way from missed field goals to an offense that could qualify for FEMA funds. It felt and looked as if CU had been dealt the knock-out punch that could send a young team spiraling straight into a 5 win season. At the beginning of this week, I was close to closing up shop on the 2008 Buffs and start previewing the 2009 season. But as the week went on and the more I analyzed this game, I am excited to report that the Buffs are going to win Saturday. I am back on the positivity train and it is heading into Lawrence, Kansas with a little mojo on its side. And this isn't some crazy claim without any empirical evidence. This claim is backed up by rock solid facts and if the Buffs have history on their side and follow my "Keys to the Game," CU will be 4 - 2 against Kansas State next week. Of course, if history hates CU like it did last week and the Buffs don't make good on my "Keys to the Game," well, 3 - 3 is looking the Buffs squarely in the face. You are probably wondering what "history" I am referring to. Well Buffs fans, join me on my magical time machine to 2007.

Specifically, October 27th, 2007...Where were you? I remember where I was. I had just gotten home from Wal-Mart. Yes, weird, I know but I remember. You know why? The Buffs were shellacking the 6 - 2 and heavily favored home team in Texas Tech by 14 points in first quarter. The Buffs went on to win by 5 in Lubbock that day. Why is the Texas Tech game significant? Because their are a plethora of parallels between the game coming up this Saturday and the one last October in Lubbock.

1. The Buffs will be on the road in Lawrence, like they were in Lubbock 349 days ago. Keep reading, I promise the comparisons get better. I won't use the "both games where on a Saturday" or "both games were played in the month of October" link.
   
   
2. The Buffs will be coming off a two game losing streak just like they were last year. Coach Dan Hawkins has not had a three game losing streak since November 6th, 2006 with Gary Barnett's players. Last year, the Buffs had three 2 game losing streaks. Each time Colorado was able to come back and win that third contest to avoid a three game slide.
   

See the rest after the jump...

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If you look on our old site, you will see that Buffs fans chose quarterback Cody Hawkins as the player who will most dictate the success of the Colorado Buffaloes this year. Cody has been receiving high remarks from training camp this year, coming in stronger and having a year of experience under his belt. In the first scrimmage this year, Cody put up great numbers going 17-26 for 268 yards and 5 total touchdowns (3 passing, 2 rushing) and in the second scrimmage, he was strong again completing 17 passes out of 25 for 225 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 interception. Entering his second year, there will be an expected improvement for Hawkins that will be needed to take the Buffs from a 6 win team in 2007 to a 7 - 8 win team with a very difficult schedule in 2008. What kind of improvement you ask, well luckily for us, the Big 12 has been deemed the best quarterback conference in college football this year so we can take a look at some of the best the Big 12 has to offer and see where Cody needs to improve. There are 7 quarterbacks in the Big 12 who we looked at that had played at least two years - Chase Daniels, Josh Freeman, Colt McCoy, Todd Reesing, Graham Harrell, Stephen McGee and Zach Robinson. Although some of these quarterbacks had limited action in their freshman/1^st year, they all had extensive playing time in their 2^nd year. Other than McGee, these quarterbacks are seen as some of the top players in the Big 12, if not the country. You can view the stats of all the quarterbacks mentioned above here. Below are the average statistics of these quarterbacks and where Cody needs to go in his sophomore year compared to the other QB's in the Big 12. Like I said before, this is a strong comparison sample.

By all accounts, Cody had a great year when you compare his freshman year with the other quarterbacks' freshman year in the Big 12. Most of the top quarterbacks listed didn't get extensive work, though, in their first year of eligibility so Cody has a leg up there. But looking at the chart and comparing Cody's freshman year to the 7 Big 12 quarterbacks 2nd year, the word consistency jumps off the page at me. Cody will have to become a more mature and consistent passer. The interception:touchdown ratio needs to get down to the 1:2.5 to 1:3 range. The Buffs had too many turnovers last year coming up -4 in the all important plus/minus stat. His completion percentage is also well below the average by about 7%. It's definitely not all negative for Cody either. His touchdown passes are very comparable as well as his passing yardage.

As the Buffs begin to open up the offense, I believe you will see Cody's numbers begin to flourish. Teams were able to game plan against a rather vanilla offense last year where the Buffs couldn't match the talent levels of most of the teams they played. The Buffs now have a wrinkle in their offense as Coach Hawkins begins to implement his Boise State style of play, throwing in a no-huddle and almost exclusively going out of the shotgun which is more of the offense Cody played in high school. Second and probably the most important reason that Cody will improve his statistics to join the upper echelon quarterbacks in the league is the talent he is now surrounded with. The Buffs have great WR's in Josh Smith and Scotty McKnight whom both provide something different in the Buffs' attack. If Patrick Williams turns to corner this year, you have three solid WR's with experience plus an experienced tight end in Riar Geer.

Cody also has a more versatile backfield. Last year, Hugh Charles could dazzle but he never was the dependable workhorse that the Buffs needed, often drawing criticism from the coaches. Demetrius Sumler and Darrell Scott will be instant improvements over last year while Rodney Stewart will be the surprise of the bunch. I can't wait for those outside of Boulder to see this kid run. For you Kansas State fans, he is about 5'7" and wears #43 if that rings a bell and he is exactly that type of player. Right now they are saying Stewart is ahead of both Polk and Scott.

The talent the Buffs have right now is definitely exciting. If Cody Hawkins can improve his numbers to be in line with the quarterbacks that came before him, we could be looking at a special year in Boulder.