The University of Colorado has just announced that the 2012 Rocky Mountain Showdown has been moved to Sunday, September 2. The game will once again take at Sports Authority Field. Jon Embree will be looking for his second win in the series after beating the Rams 28-14 in 2011. The Buffaloes have won two straight in the series after falling to CSU 23-17 in 2009.

The Cinch Jeans Rocky Mountain Showdown at Sports Authority Field has been moved to Sunday, September 2. Kickoff time TBA. #gobuffs

— Colorado Buffaloes (@cubuffs) February 1, 2012

I, personally, like the move. It means a likely national television audience without a lot of competition from other college games or the NFL. Heck, it even means one more day of practice for the Buffs new starting quarterback. What does everyone else think?

The rest of the offensive line! We are looking for two brand new starters at offensive guard going into spring ball. We lost two guys that held down those two spots for a while for us, so it's time to see what the kids can do. And I combine this with center, because they tend to run guys at both spots to make sure there is quality depth on the interior of the line.

Offensive Guard/Center

• Gus Handler, Jr - He improved as the season went on and played his best football in the last few weeks of 2011. If he can carry that momentum going forward, he's got a solid chance to be the starting center for the Buffs going into 2012. He moves well and has gotten much stronger since he arrived on campus. He has to continue refining his technique and his ability to make the calls at the line of scrimmage, which we will hopefully see if he gets more first team snaps this offseason.

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The Colorado Sports Information department released the names of the players who would be missing spring ball this season and alongside some of the expected guys are a few surprises that could have a big impact on this team going forward.

The biggest news, by a long shot, is the update that Nick Hirschman could miss all of spring practice due to surgery that he will undergo to fix an injury in his foot. He had been largely expected to be battling Connor Wood for the starting spot heading into fall practice and the 2012 season, but Wood and John Schrock will most likely see the majority of playing time with the ones and twos in March and April. Observers have been impressed by Wood's work in practice last year, and this opportunity could give him a leg up over Hirschman and incoming recruit Shane Dillon.

Pre-Signing Day Roster Breakdown: Quarterbacks

Also ruled out because they are still rehabilitating from previous injuries are senior linebacker Doug Rippy, sophomore running back Malcolm Creer, junior DT Nate Bonsu, and senior safety Vince Ewing.

Sophomore and redshirt freshman corners Jered Bell and Sherrard Harrington, offensive tackle Jack Harris, and sophomore linebacker Brady Daigh (had postseason surgery on his wrist) are all expected to be healthy enough to participate.

Pre-Signing Day Roster Breakdowns: Cornerback

Losing a senior like Rippy isn't a huge deal, as he should have plenty of time to recover and get back into shape over the summer and fall, but guys like Malcolm Creer and Nate Bonsu could really use the practice time. Creer would be right in the middle of a battle with Tony Jones and Josh Ford to replace Speedy Stewart and Nate Bonsu being out leaves the Buffs with just three defensive tackles until the fall. Having Bell and Harrington back should be a huge boon to a secondary that could improve by leaps and bounds in 2012.

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Today we look at offensive tackle. We went into the 2011 season with a returning starter (though he was switching from the right side to the left), and one guy who showed a lot of promise that they had slotted to start at right tackle. Well, things didn't end up that way, as both of them were injured during the season. Lets look at who we have there now:

Offensive Tackle:

• Ryan Dannewitz, Sr - All of a sudden, Dannewitz is the greybeard of the offensive line. He's played a number of positions for the Buffs throughout his career, but his true value is as a reserve swing-tackle. He was pressed into action almost immediately in 2011, and ended up 3rd in number of snaps played along the o-line. Dannewitz is a tough guy who has some versatility and good size, but is limited athletically and can't give these coaches exactly what they want every down at the tackle position. He's a guy who can come in and give some solid backup-level play off the bench on either side of the line.

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There are rumblings that we're going to be "switching" to the 4-3 for our defensive alignment in 2012. I put switching in quotes, because that's basically what lined up in for the majority of snaps in 2011. But it means that we'll need to use some true freshmen this season in our tackle rotation. We're ridiculously thin inside. Lets see how thin we are:

Defensive Tackles

• Eric Richter, Sr - I'm hoping I have this wrong and that he's actually only a junior, but I think he already spent his redshirt year. He's the biggest guy on the team (315 lbs) and also the strongest. If he can get even some of the technique down, he can contribute this year. And we need him. We don't have much else. Especially in short yardage situations, he could be a real force for us, and we need all the help we can get in defending the run. How many times did teams blow our defensive line off the ball in 2011? He would inject some real size in there, and if nothing else, he can be harder to move than the rest of the kids we have inside. I'm hoping that he can play and give us some meaningful time.

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This is a position where depth is a serious problem. And it's one that we depend on quite a bit for our offense to work. There's a reason that Nick Kasa saw playing time in 2011 soon after making the switch from defensive end.

Tight End:

• Nick Kasa, Sr - It's funny that the reason we were able to steal him away from Florida is because they wanted him at tight end and he wanted to play defense, which we were willing to let him do. He never made an impact on defense, so now he's back to tight end, and he was able to see immediate playing time. He will see more of it in 2012, especially because I believe Alex Lewis will be staring at LT. He proved to be a good blocker, even with minimum practice time, so I believe he will improve by leaps and bounds this offseason. He's got great size, and he has better hands than Lewis does, so he may be able to fill that role even better than Lewis did. Lewis played more than 100 snaps at TE in 2011, and I believe that Kasa could end up playing closer to 200. He is already the best blocker we have there, and he showed solid hands with his reception against Utah. We would love to be playing multiple TE sets, and he should become a staple of them in his final season in Boulder.

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The Pac-12 conference has finally released their schedule for the 2012 football season, the second for the conference now that it includes 12 teams. For the Colorado Buffaloes, the reality of a much easier slate is now official, but that doesn't mean the Buffs are getting off lightly.

Colorado vs. Colorado State - Saturday, September 1st
Sacramento State at Colorado - Saturday, September 8th
Colorado at Fresno State - Saturday, September 15th
Colorado at Washington State - Saturday, September 22nd
UCLA at Colorado - Saturday, September 29th
Arizona State at Colorado - Thursday, October 11th
Colorado at USC - Saturday, October 20th
Colorado at Oregon - Saturday, October 27th
Stanford at Colorado - Saturday, November 3rd
Colorado at Arizona - Saturday, November 10th
Washington at Colorado - Saturday, November 17th
Utah at Colorado - Friday, November 23rd

Check out the full conference schedule here and some quick notes after the jump...

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Wide receiver is one of a few positions where we lose a lot of quality experience. Toney Clemons really stepped it up in the last five games, and Kyle Cefalo and Logan Gray logged a number of snaps between them. Our experience levels going into 2012 are low, besides Paul Richardson. But he can't do it by himself, and even he only had a few good games in 2011. Who will be manning this position come spring practices:

Wide Receiver:

• Dustin Ebner, Sr - Walk-on who has seen some time at receiver, though not in a couple of seasons. He played on special teams some last year, but not after the coaches went to playing starters on those units.

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