It's now the day after all the news came out. The worse case scenario didn't happen and that was Darrell Scott following his uncle out of town but seven Buffs, two starters at one time and four scholarship players, have left the program. Time now to move on, pick up the pieces and hope Dan Hawkins has a plan for the wide receivers in 2009 and tight end & fullback recruiting for 2010. That is what really came out of the personnel moves yesterday. As for the schedule that was revealed yesterday, I am still weary of just four days rest with travel between the Colorado State and Toledo game. But let's face it, excuses are not an option this year and they still aren't with yesterday's news. If this is a good football team they will win both of these games by double digits, have an extra day to prepare for Wyoming and move on. It's not like the Buffs are playing Oklahoma State and then Texas on four days rest. A 8, 9, 10 win team dominates the games against Colorado State and Toledo.
Now with that said, Buff fans, besides the competitive disadvantage, should be pumped in the early going with five national TV games, the most of any Big 12 school. You have to guess that the Kansas, Missouri and Texas games are shoe-ins to get picked up as well, bringing the total up to 8 televised games. Kansas State, Iowa State, Texas A&M are up in the air as to whether they will be on the tube or not. Tough part here is Kansas State and Iowa State are on the road so going to the games is going to be difficult for most:
Colorado emerged as the early leader for guaranteed air time, with five telecasts. Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Missouri were selected three times. Texas Tech and Nebraska have two guaranteed telecasts. Texas A&M, Kansas and Iowa State have one appearance each.
Patrick Ridgell of the Longmont Times has a snippet on new consultant and outside linebackers coach, Bob Foster:
Hawkins considers Foster a mentor. He had Foster address the Buffs following a spring practice in April. As Hawkins has sought ways to instill toughness during his CU tenure, he has heeded lessons he learned from Foster, who used to hook up electrodes to players to measure their pain tolerance.
These electrodes will fit in nicely with the helmet cams. Next will be GPS systems to ensure the Buffs are actually going to class. The Buffs will be the most wired team in college football.
Phil Steele, college football guru, has picked the Buffs to finish second in the Big 12 North behind Nebraska. He has Kansas State, a shocker, tied for second with the Buffs and Kansas fourth. I will not question Steele has he is the most accurate preseason prognosticator but I am a little shocked at the Kansas State just because I don't really know what they have returning, especially at quarterback. I get the Kansas pick and he can rationalize it: three extremely hard Big 12 South opponents and a young offensive line.
Steele also picked CB Cha'pelle Brown to be a first team All Big 12 player.
Kyle Ringo of the BDC has a nice piece on incoming WR Terdema Ussery. The 6'4" 212 pound receiver knows that he is in a perfect position to make an impact as a freshman. Terdema is one of those kids you want on the team; very smart, very well spoken and seems to be goal driven. It seems like he doesn't mind not having a full time wide receiver coach on staff right now, I guess he doesn't have much of a choice.
Rivals.com goes over the Big 12's post-spring issues:
Colorado: Will a quarterback emerge? At the end of spring drills, coach Dan Hawkins had son Cody and sophomore Tyler Hansen in a dead heat for the job. If CU had to name a starter now, it likely would be Hawkins, a junior. He was a tad more consistent than Hansen, throwing for 669 yards and 10 touchdowns with no picks during scrimmages. A possible negative dynamic is the recent departure of offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mark Helfrich to Oregon. Hawkins promoted receivers coach Eric Kiesau to take over, so the quarterbacks have some familiarity with him.
My top post spring questions in this order: 1) defensive line 2) wide receiver 3) quarterback 4) team moral